TOURING

We arrived at Ceuta (Spanish enclave in Morocco) in the morning and took advantage of the tax free diesel and filled up our 3 tanks. The border crossing into Morocco took about 45 minutes after the official wanted to check what we had in all our boxes on one side of the car, which is pretty quick for an African border crossing Milan reckons. Possibly the cold and the rain had something to do with the speediness... First stop was Chefchouan where most overlanders stop in search of other travellers. We were lucky and met a lovely Dutch couple, Ellen and Erik, which are also doing the same Africa route as us and decided to travel through Morocco to Senegal together. Our next escapade was driving to Fes and seeing the famous medina. We decided to try and walk the ‘tourist route’ ourselves in the medina with Erik leading the way following the marked coloured routes, soon that idea was scrapped when an unofficial guide was by our side and decided to walk us around for 4 hours. A lovely medina with no hassle from the locals at all. We saw the tanneries which we had read in books you could smell before you saw it. Luckily for us it didn’t smell that bad and it was very interesting to see how the leather is prepared. Walking through the meat market was also a test for the girls, but Ellen (being a vegetarian) was the first one with her camera snapping away at the bloody goat heads (see photos). Once our tour was finished, Mustapha claimed a 150 Dirham fee (approximately EUR 15 for all of us) and we argued with him for about 20 minutes that this was a ridiculous price. Suddenly 2 of his ‘larger’ friends showed up and decided it was best to pay the price he demanded. This was our first lesson in Africa: always decide and bargain the price before you get a guide. We then headed to Rabat to get our visas for Mali (N33°58.778, W006°49.965) and Mauritania (N33°58.821, W006°49.870)and stayed in Salè which is a small cute village next to Rabat. Rabat itself is full of embassies and a very international city. Once we had picked up our visas the next morning we drove a very hot drive to Marrakech. In the evening after it had cooled down a little we headed to the famous square, Djenna el Fna for dinner. We enjoyed lovely brochettes (grilled meat and vegetables on a skewer) after picking one of the hundreds of stalls there are. After hearing so many magical things about Marrakech we were a little disappointed as it seems to only cater to tourists nowadays, which makes you miss out the original, traditional flair of the city. Nonetheless it was a nice experience although we preferred Fes medina over Marrakech. We felt we had seen what we wanted to see and headed off to the south east early in the morning towards Ait-Bennhaddou, following a piste (gravel, off road) which turned out to be the most beautiful area we have seen in Morocco, but also the most horrible route for the driver as it was so rough. While Milan fixed all his concentration on the road, Louise was quite content looking out the window at the beautiful bare rocky hills surrounding us with an explosion of greenery in the deep valley where the small river runs through. Louise did a bit of filming here too although it’s much like a rollercoaster ride so we might skip putting that link on our website... The next day we headed for breakfast in Ait Bennhaddou, where Moroccos largest and most beautiful Kasbah sits. This is also where films like Lawrence of Arabia and Gladiator were filmed. Another beautiful location which just stuns you and the only reason you want to leave is that it’s too hot even at 9am.

Together with Ellen and Erik we decided we all wanted to drive the desert piste route from Tagounite to Merzouga (239km) but since we hadn’t tested our cars (and ourselves) on tough road and desert yet we decided doing this early in Morocco would be a good idea. This proved to be a wise decision in order to help each other out when the car got stuck in sand. We left M’Hamid headed north to Tagounite where our piste began. Louise was in charge of navigating all of us by use of Chris Scott’s ‘Sahara Overland – a Route and Planning Guide’, where you have to look for landmarks like wells and cone shaped mountains to find the correct route. Luckily we also have a GPS so Louise did cheat a little just by making sure we were on the right track, since the piste is also marked on the Tracks4Africa GPS map. The piste turned out to be very beautiful with only a few very small villages scattered here and there, and children running towards your car window shouting ‘cadeau cadeau’ or a new word they seemed to have learned ‘bisquit svp, madame’ appearing from nowhere! Once we began to see the dunes coming closer we decided to make our first bush camp hidden behind some dunes. Since both of our fridges had temporarily broken by this time (from the first piste a few days earlier) we had to drink all the beer Erik had stocked up. Louise and Erik decided they were in charge of cutting the firewood we had collected on the way and the axe and the saw were brought out. We made a lovely dinner on the barbeque and whilst the other 3 where ok with the darkness and silence, Louise was a little frightened and kept on shining the bright flashlight out towards the nothingness looking for ‘locals’. We went to bed looking at the stars and thinking nothing could be as peaceful as this. Up early the next morning before it got too hot, we continued our route to Merzouga. Erik was the first one to get stuck in sand just a few metres away from camp, but was easy to get out with the help of the girls pushing the car and putting some rocks under the back wheels. Then we got stuck in the sand as well, but a bit further along the route next to some very lovely and huggable dromedares. Out comes the shovel and Milan digs the wheels out, the other 3 push the car and off we go again. Once we got to Merzouga we found a beautiful Auberge, Chez TonTon where we eagerly showered off all the sand and dirt. Next day we drove a few km’s next to the sand dunes of Erg Chebbi, although the hazy weather didn’t display them in their fullest beauty, towards Todra Gorge. Todra Gorge is now sealed road all the way and has much more tourism than its neighbour Dades Gorge. After seeing both we actually prefer the Dades Gorge with its magnificent rock formations and lush greenery. After a day of gorge sightings we headed towards Agadir, and on route stayed in Auberge Toubkal near Taliouine.

Currently we are in Agadir which seems to be a hotspot for beach sports with many fancy hotels. We have stayed here 3 nights which has given the boys time to fix the cars and the girls time to clean and Louise time to write this summary and paint Steph’s elephant on the car door – which if I may say so myself turned out pretty good :o)

Tomorrow morning (5 May) we will drive through Western Sahara and then continue to Mauritania and you will hear more from us after that!

Chefchouan: Camp Azilan, N35.10.644, W005.16.222. Basic camping walking distance from the very cute village of Chefchouan.

Fes: Diamant Vert, www.diamantvert.ma, Dir 165/night, N33.59.233, W005.01.096. Nice camping outside Fes. Has good showers and toilets and very friendly ducks and geese waiting for you to drop your food.

Salé (Rabat): Camping de la Plage, N34°02.135, W006°49.754. Nice location a little outside Rabat, just by the beach and a few minutes’ walk to the nice small village and medina of Salè. Cemetery is next door to the camp site but this is quickly forgotten. Ok toilets and showers.

Marrakech: Fardous Camp, N31.43.107, W007.58.986. Large camp site which looks more like a parking lot. Good showers and toilets. Provides shuttle service into the square for Dir 80 both ways per car.

Ait Benhaddou: www.defatkasbah.com, Dir 60/night for Landrover and 2 people. Beautiful location in the hills, also has rooms and a very cold pool. Good showers and toilets.

M’Hamid: Paradise Garden. A few km’s before the village, there are signs on the road for this camp site. Dutch owned, swimming pool, nice showers and toilets. Beautiful location right next to small sand dunes.

Bush camp about half way between Tagounite and Taouz on the piste route: N30°40.358’, W004°36.991’. Lovely spot hidden away behind the dunes which is also recommended by Chris Scott (Sahara overland specialist).

Merzouga: www.cheztonton.merzouga.com, Dir 200 pp incl. Dinner and breakfast. Lovely little Kasbah style Auberge with a very friendly owner. Highly recommended. The food is also very good.

Todra Gorge: Le Festival Camping. Nice camping and restaurant, a little alpine styled house but very friendly. (Locked the door at night which left us campers without a toilet during the night...)

Taliouine: Auberge Toubkal, first Auberge before the village. Room Dir 200 pp with dinner and breakfast.

Agadir: Camp International. The worst toilets and showers we have seen in Morocco, but bearable. Try to go for a drink down the road instead and use their toilets if queasy. Camp has just been taken over by the government so it’s left in a bit of a mess. (Full of French and Spanish campervans that seems to drive to Morocco and just hang out in the camp grounds to work on their already very brown tans – very odd).

Roads: Great sealed roads although watch out for the local cyclists as they are all over the show.

Food: Very tasty food although Louise has found it impossible to find couscous anywhere, it seems that they have run out of it... Tagine is the most common dish you find on the menus and they come in all variations and are very good – the Berber Breakfast Tagine is a real treat!

Police: Numerous police checks along the way but most of them just want a chat and seem to take care of tourists in their best interest. Milan did run a red light in Rabat accidentally and got stopped by two very friendly police who said we could either get an official fine of Dirham 400 or give them a little under the table for Dirham 100, apparently called coffee money. Naturally we took the cheapest option.

People: It seems the bad reputation of hasslers and touts has disappeared as people were very friendly and went out of their way to help us many times.

Photos from Morocco are here.