Morocco
Day 30 02/02
Midelt
3233 miles
We've been in Morocco six days now and what an experience it's been. The journey started off relatively smoothly. We caught the ferry to Ceuta and then headed for Morocco. The border crossing was fairly easy and stress free and customs control was no more than a 'Do you have anything to declare' question. We headed to Chefchaouen where we stayed in a pleasant campsite on a hill high above the town. Chefchaouen is a gentle introduction to Morocco and the medina is small enough to wander around without getting too lost. We then set out for Fez over the mountain road. I'm sure it would have been a beautiful drive had we been able to see anything but the mountains were shrouded in mist and fog - visibility was down to 20 m at times. Between the fog and having to dodge the hash bandits, potholes, pedestrians and various animal species it took us 5 hrs to do about 200kms and then our problems started. Having just got through a town and, luckily, out of bandit country our clutch decided to give in. Another problem we thought we'd avoided having had a new cluth plate fitted about 6 months ago. After a couple of hours of pulling various bits of the clutch apart we came to the conclusion that we couldn't fix the problem on the side of the road. The locals were extremely helpful - a local mechanic came along in his overalls to help out and eventually sorted out a tow truck to take us to Fez - all without the mention of money. The tow truck guys were also very accommodating and took us to the campsite in Fez. That's when things started going wrong. Some guy at the campsite (sometimes he was the owner and sometimes not) organised a mechanic to come and help us out. Incredibly, 2 guys and a scissor jack managed to drop the gearbox which is when we discovered that a piece had broken and needed replacing. The mechanic also claimed that our clutch plate needed replacing. Off he went to get the new parts. The campsite 'owner' then came back to get some money to buy the parts which is when the scamming started. Luckily by this time 2 sets of overlanders had arrived at the campsite to give us moral support and help spot the tricks. First the 'owner' took away our Euros to change them at the bank and then go and buy the parts claiming to bring us back reciepts and change. Then the mechanic reappeared with a new clutch plate but not with a replacement for the piece that was broken. He said he could not get a new one so disappeared off again to get the broken bit welded. The 'owner' reappeared without reciepts saying the bank was closed and he'd sort it out in the morning. By this time it was dark so they all disappeared. The next day nobody put in an appearance until about 3 pm. Still no reciepts and as the afternoon wore on our old clutch plate - still in good condition disappeared. Luckily Leon (one of the aforementioned overlanders) was an absolute star and spent the entire afternoon under the car making sure the guys did a reasonable job. We discovered they were trying to nick our clutch plate but managed to retrive it from them - without their knowledge. When the mechanic discovered the clutch plate (and his bonus) had disappeared he got really angry and actually crawled back under the car and tampered with the fuel injection pump to try and get another part off us. By this time it was dark and we knew what he'd done so we told them all to get lost and come back in the morning. By the third morning still no reciepts had appeared and the valve covers had disappeared off all our wheels. As we'd fixed the doctoring of the night before we told the camsite 'owner' that we didn't want the mechanic anywhere near our car and that if the reciepts didn't appear within half an hour the police would be called. Those were the magic words - his face dropped like a stone and he was back in an instant. Suddenly the price of the parts had dropped from 6000 Dirham to 1900 Dirham and all our Euro's reappeared. The mechanic was now being blamed for scamming everybody but our owner friend was in on it.
Lessons learned from the experience - never let anyone work on your car in the dark, keep an eye on what they are doing at all times, keep an eye on your tools, keep any parts they replace and if you suspect any dodgy dealings in Morocco mention the POLICE, they are tourist friendly here.
All this happened at Camping International, Fez. This campsite has been very well appointed in the past but seems to be falling into disrepair under the management of a bunch of scallywags. It must be the most expensive campsite in Morocco and there wasn't even any hot water. We have never been so glad to leave a place as we were this morning.
On a positive note we met some great people in the campsite who helped us out tremendously and had a very interesting trip into Fez. The medina in Fez is well worth the visit and the guide we had for the day was very knowledgable. We visited several craftsmen and watched them work. The master craftsmen all still work in the traditional ways and it is incredible to see the skill of these people. The medina is a rabbit warren of narrow streets where you can get anything and everything. Every doorway has somebody making something or selling something - from antique doorknobs to the latest mobile phones, mattresses to silk and cashmere dresses. All goods are transported in and out of the medina by mules shod in old car tyres. A real experience to walk around.
We are now in the town of Midelt in the Middle Atlas where we've found a really cheap municipal campsite which has free really, really hot showers. We both had a really long hot shower today which was great and we're thinking of having another one in the morning just because we can!
Day 37 09/02
Todra Gorge
3809 miles
Well away from Fez and our faith in Morocco has been restored. We headed for Merzouga which is the closest you get to the Sahara in Morocco. We camped right on the edge of some sand dunes with camel herders and very noisy camels for company. A beautiful sight to wake up to the sunrise over the dunes and catching the palm trees. We then headed off into the wilds with our first real off-roading. We drove a long piste following the Algerian border for 240 km towards the south. A beautiful drive with continually changing scenery from rocky mountains to sand dunes, rocky river beds and huge wide open plains. As is usual in Africa, even in the middle of nowhere, there were odd people wondering about and the occasional village, but otherwise it was desserted. We camped out at the foot of a small dune which was great - a perfect place for star gazing and listening to the silence of wide open wilderness. The next day we had our first excursion into sand and didn't get stuck once, great fun to drive.
We found a Landrover garage in Zagora so decided to replace the part that had been welded in Fez. The mechanics were a great bunch and really knew what they were doing. They even sorted out a few minor niggles for us. We have spent the last couple of days in a campsite at the bottom of the Todra Gorge doing some housekeeping. Tomorrow we will head up the gorge and then move on to who knows where.
Day 46 18/02
Marrakesh
4216 miles
What adventures we've had in the last week. We left the campsite at Todra Gorge and went for a drive into the mountains to Agoudal. A beautiful drive, we stopped for lunch at Ibrihim's restruant in Agoudal - another really nice chap. He sat and chatted to us for a while, made a delicious Berber omelette for us and showed us around his auberge. A great set up high in the mountains. On our way up we found Kieth and Julie (from Fez) in the gorge so we returned to join them in their bush camp for the night. The next day we decided to tackle the piste between Todra and Dades Gorges even though we'd been warned that the road had washed away and was impassable. We'd bumped into a couple of Belgians who'd tried it and turned back. They'd been filling in ditches all day and got tired of it. However, we decided that since there would be four of us it would be much easier so we'd go for it - little did we know what was in store!
We drove up Todra Gorge to Tamtatouche which was 20km of tarmac and then turned onto the piste. It started off OK, a little rough in places with diversions into the river where sections had been washed away but easy enough to drive. We crossed the gullies the Belgians had filled - they put in a lot of hard work - until we got to the point where they turned back. We were faced with a huge gully across the road, too wide to cross with waffle boards and very crumbly at the edges. After a bit of a scout about we found an alternate route over a spur but as it was getting late we decided to camp and tackle the obstacle in the morning. We'd covered about 20km of a 50km piste. We camped in the middle of the road and had a vegetable potjie and smoky campfire.
Next morning we found our way up over the ridge. The Pinzgauer made it with no problem but we got bogged down in the very soft mud. After some pushing, digging, and using the waffle boards we got a bit futher up the hill until we could reach the Landy with all our tow ropes and strops joined together and the Pinzgauer pulled us up the last stretch - at least it wasn't a Toyota! Then it was down the other side, over another rock filled gully and plain sailing to the top of the pass - or so we thought. By now we'd reached the snow-line and as we were on a north facing slope snow was still covering part of the road. Kieth was in front and ended up very close to the road edge, suddenly his back wheels started to slip sideways and we thought he was going over the edge! Luckily some rocks stopped the slide to allow Kieth and Julie to evacuate the truck. After some deliberation we decided to dig out the road under the wheel to right the vehicle. We did a lot of digging, then dug out the winch to try and winch the truck back onto the road. The Moroccan mountains being soft, shaley and very unstable there was no anchor point strong enough to be able to winch the vehicle up. So after doing as much as we could to stabilise the situation Kieth jumped in the truck and drove it back onto the road. A heart stopping moment but the Pinzgauer pulled out with no problem. We then had to repair the road and get the Landy across the tickly bit. We took every precaution possible and got across no problem. By this time it was getting late and we were still faced with a 100m section of road covered in snow so instead of taking any chances we camped for the night, in the middle of the road again. 20½ km of 50 km.
After an early night and pancackes for breakfast we started shovelling snow. It took 2 hours to clear the road and make it safe and then on up to the summit a beautiful view and well worth the toil. Just the downward journey to do and about 15km to Mesmir. We started on the downward journey and although it was slow going it was not too difficult and there were even some good bits of road. A bit further down and the road disappeared altogether and we had to use the river. Unlike before, nobody had been this way since the floods so we had to plot our own route through the river and move boulders out the way. Night 3 and our campsite was in the middle of the river this time and we'd managed to cover about 10km. Next morning and a short stretch of river to negotiate before finding the beginings of a new road. The bulldozers had been up and started building the new road. Although rough it was a track, it was a lot better than we'd been used to and the rest of the trip was plain sailing.
Although filled with trials and a lot of hard work it was a great experience but one not to be undertaken on your own.
We're now in Marrakech and visited the town yesterday. We had a wander around some of the souks in the medina and then went to the night food market. We ate ourselves silly on kebabs, calamari, fried vegetables, pigeon pie, soup and sweets. Moroccan food is really tasty and everything is so fresh. We also found a supermarket so we can stock up on lots of luxuries before our trip south without being ripped off and being charged inflated tourist prices.
Day 57 01/03
Dakhla
5604 miles
Morocco is certainly determined to throw everything at us. We left Marrakesh to go to Imlil with the intention of climbing Jebel Toubkal, the highest mountain in Morocco, over the next few days. We found a nice auberge above the town where we could safely leave the car while we were hiking and set up camp for the night. We were told that ice axes and crampons were needed to get to the top of Toubkal so we scapped the idea of climbing that and were going to do a couple of day walks instead. During the night it started raining so we wern't looking forward to getting up and packing in the rain - but then it stopped. I got up and looked out the window to find that the rain had turned to snow and there was a good 15 cm of snow on the ground. So we scrapped the idea of any walking and headed out of the mountains rather than risk getting snowed in. The car then had to put us through further trials by playing up. We'd just got out of Imlil when the transfer box jumped out of gear and we couldn't get it back in to either high or low range. Luckily there was just enough space for us to pull off the road where we could figure out what had happened. After pulling half the car apart while being snowed on and soaked by passing traffic we found that a bolt had fallen out. We found a replacement amongst out assortment of spares, put everything back together and headed out the mountains.
Because of the snow we couldn't head over the mountain pass we wanted to take so we had to return to Marrakesh and then over to Agadir and the coast.
We had arranged to meet up with Leon and Claire and Kieth and Julie to do another piste so the next few days we just drove to the start of the piste taking in part of the beautiful Atlantic coast route on the way.
The piste from Assa to Semara was actually part of an old Paris-Dakar route and crossed from Morocco into Western Sahara. It was really remote with only one village, one military post and a few nomad tents as signs of life in 300km. Although at one of our lunch stops a camel herder managed to find us and came over to ask for water then wandered of with his 10l jerry full. Again, beautiful scenery changing from mountains to rocky plains to dunes with the most beautiful colours in the landscape.
We are now well and truly in Western Sahara - I think this is the emptiest place in Africa. It is a long, boring drive close to the coast all the way ro Mauritania with nothing but dry desert plains in between.
Moroccan Summary
Morocco is a great country to travel in. Away from the big cities the people are friendly and helpful, although be aware they are also usually trying to make a sale. Free camping is possible almost anywhere but you are better off staying away from habitation if you don't want an audience for everything you do. We had a couple of kids watching us for an hour one morning as we packed up. We generally stayed away from the cities as we'd visited Morocco before and find cities to be very similar. The medina in Fez is certainly the best to visit. It is huge so well worth hiring a guide to show you around. Marrakesh has the night food market which is also worth a visit.
Morocco is generally a safe place to travel with the only danger to tourists is being scammed and overcharged for everthing. Don't pay the first price you are quoted - we usually ended up paying half of the initial price. The seller will never sell himself short so don't worry about going too low. If you do have any problems go straight to the police - they are tourist friendly in Morocco.