morocco
Morocco
Saturday 10th November 2007:
On the ferry we filled out our all important 'white immigration form' advised by Chris Scott in his Sahara Overland book, and we refreshed on the border procedure and planned our route through Northern Morocco. 35 minutes later we docked in Ceuta. We set off to find a post office and posted off our parcels. Following the signs to Maraceous we quickly approached the Moroccan border, real Africa. Looking out for 'the windows on the left' mentioned by Chris and trying to avoid being hustled by dodgy 'helpers', we innocently drove almost through the border until being stopped by a policeman demanding to see our stamp (in our passport). Lucky for us, Abdul, an English speaking man dressed in the traditional jellabas, a warm looking winter dress, explained that we were at the frontier. Ross would need to go back with him, while Heidi stayed in the car, next to the policemen. This proved an entertaining place to observe the organised chaos of streams of people and highly loaded cars crossing into and out of Morocco. Ross and Abdul went back to the passport window and got both passports, British and German, stamped with our Moroccan ID numbers and Moroccan entry visas. Next he needed to register the car and get a temporary green Moroccan registration document. On to a different window to get the very important insurance certificate, valid for 1 month, costing €88.00. If we'd had UK car insurance with a Green Card extending to Africa / Morocco (very difficult to find), we wouldn't have needed this blue paper. Ross needed to take the green paper back the policeman, where Heidi and Duzi2 were, to get it stamped and then we were ready to go. We paid Abdul, our helper €10, something worth keeping smaller money aside for. The whole process took less than half an hour and then we were off at a diligent racing pace of 80/60/40km/hr very aware we were a prime target for a speeding fine.
There was a marked difference between clean almost Cape feeling Ceuta and a less cared for Morocco. We set off trying to figure out the Arabic written signs to Tetuan and then on to Chefchaouen, passing many smart, uniformed police stops, who mostly smiled and waved us through. We got our first sighting of camels along the coastal road shortly after crossing the border. We passed through very dry and arid
country side with loaded donkey carts and smiley, waving people dressed in their jellabas.
We arrived at Camping Azilan (N35 10'33" W05 16'01.3") a clean bluey purple campsite set on the hill above Chefchaouen, in the mid afternoon. After setting up the tent we met a very friendly family- Chris, Jahne, Oscar and Orlando. They are from Freemantle Australia and are traveling around Morocco in a campervan ending in Germany for Christmas. It got very chilly very quickly and we were envious of everyone huddled in their warm campervans while we sat under cold clear star light skies.
Sunday 11th November 2007: Camping Azilan, Morocco GPS Info: N35°10'33" W05°16'01.3"
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Happy Birthday to Ross! 42 today and celebarating it in Africa after many years in England. Thank you to everyone who sent birthday messages, emails and gifts. After showering, Ross came back to balloons and a small pile of gifts to open, sent from South African and Australian family. He had his favourite eggs and bacon for breakfast and then set to work building a fire to cook his chocolate birthday cake, with his two fire helpers, Oscar and Orlando. Due to us both being eager to eat the cake and novices at knowing how to use our bread/cake oven, the first cake was black and scorched. The second attempt was iced and decorated with everyone enjoying a tasty slice.
We spent the day relaxing and trying to rearrange our landy home to make it more workable. In the early afternoon an experienced African couple drove into the campsite in an equiped Toyota Landcruiser, with a big sticker of Africa and www.exploringtheworld.nl on their doors. Ross recognised their sticker and website from the Africa Overland website. Both of us embarassed by all our stuff all over in Duzi2, we closed the doors and went over to say hello.
This was the wonderfully friendly and helpful Dutch couple called Gerard and Betty. They have travelled all around Africa before and taken loads of people on shorter trips around North Africa too. They were an ideal birthday present for Ross as they jumped at the opportunity to help us improve our prep for what's to come.
They helped us prioritise what we needed to take with us considering weight as ultra important. Ross, with Gerard's enthusiastic advice/persuasion, managed to downsize his tools and extra bits & pieces from three bags and a toolbox to only one bag and a toolbox, which was difficult but has lightened Duzi2's load. They also suggested we swop around our packing system to make everyday life less of a bind. A brilliant suggestion which had totally escaped us.
As a birthday gift Gerard and Betty, our adopted overland parents, very kindly treated us to a delicious 3-course dinner in the roof terrace of La Lampe Magique, with a fantastic view of the central square of Chefchaouen's Medina. We had a very enjoyable evening in a fantastic atmosphere and shared many laughs. We both really loved the beauty of this pretty, narrow laned blue-white town. It's people are so friendly and proud to show you their goods, but don't add any pressure to buy. This was such a gentle introduction to Arabic Africa. We left the medina with a confused Tetouan taxi driver trying to find the campsite, having to take a smoking stress-break halfway through, driving us in his old turquoise mercedes.
We ended off the evening toasting with Amarula, to many African adventures waiting for us in our months ahead.
Monday 12th November 2007: Camping Azilan, Morocco GPS Info: N35°10'33" W05°16'01.3"
Miles Today: 0 Total Miles:
Today was a new day to tackle our packing re-arrangement. We now have a box of bits & pieces sitting on our roof, to give away or swop. We now have all our everyday cooking and eating stuff easily available in the sliding "tool" drawer, which is a much more sensible system.
We met two other Landys doing similar routes to our own. One of these is an Italian couple (Claudio & Laura - www.2africa4love.com), who have a similar space/weight issue to us and are also planning a year's trip, with this being their first few days on the road too.
We walked the short walk down the hill to explore Chefchaouen on our own this time. The streets were alive with young boys playing football in the narrow alleyways and learner cyclists wobbling along too. There were cats and kittens everywhere. Everyone was wearing their winter jellabas, their flowing winter garments. Women walk with women and most of their heads were covered, and men walk with men.
We were taught about the Berber (pronounced: BURR-BURR) people and their culture and traditions, including a magnificent display of the various carpets and kilims the men and women make. We also found out about vegetable silk which is produced from a cactus and is used to make their exquisite shiny silk carpets. The blankets are made in a loom by the men with either live, fluffy wool or dead rolled wool, while the women hand thread more elaborate patterned carpets/kilims. The women live a very restricted life only leaving the house one day a week to bathe and visit. The rest of the time they look after the family, cook and continue with their carpets which take them their lifetime. We also learned that the leather pointy shoes found in Morocco are nicknamed "Adidas Berber". Almost 100% of Moroccans are made up of Arab-Berber descent.
Learning from last night's experience with the taxi driver we walked the 12-15 minute walk back up the steep hill to our campsite and the comforts of our rooftop bed.
Tuesday 13th November 2007: Camping Azilan, Morocco GPS Info: N35°10'33" W05°16'01.3"
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Off to Fes today and we realised that driving takes a lot longer in Africa than what we have become used to in Europe, as the speed restrictions vary from 60km/h to 40, then up to 80 then down to 20, and is all strictly enforced. The days after also shorter with the sun setting around 5:30pm.
We were advised by Chris to stop off at the Volubilis Roman ruins, near the town of Moulay Idris, on our way to Fes. These were amazing and compared easily with Ephesis in Turkey. We hired a very knowledgable guide called Rashid who showed us around and taught us about this Roman town which was inhabited for about three centuries, until the decline of Rome when the Berbers took over. It was destroyed by the Lisbon earthquake around 1755 which also destroyed the walls around Rabat. Luckily money is now been invested in this World Heritage site and some of the structures have been partially renovated. The mosaics in some of the floors of the wealthier side of town are in a fantastically preserved state and are well worth seeing.
Rashid explained the various stories behind the mosaics and the many roman structures on this site. The mosaics were made from the natural stones of red & yellow terra-cotta, marble, tanzanite and malakite?.
We were really luck to be there at the end of the day as the setting sun was perfect for taking beautiful photos. As we had been busy parking Duzi2 when we first got there, we heard the familiar South African accent and met Mike Copeland, the author of Getaway's Cape to Cairo book, which we had with us. Mike autographed the book and left us his email address for future contact.
By watching the setting sun at Volubilis, we ended up breaking the basic African rule of not driving anywhere at night. After reaching Fes in the dark we got lost and ended up having to find our way through central Fes in all it's chaos and arabic roadsigns. Thank goodness for the many friendly policemen lining the roads (the president is in town), who helped us find the road to Sefrou and thereby Camping International [N34 00'00" W45 08'10.2"], meeting up with two of the cars from this morning.
Wednesday 14th November 2007: Camping International de Fes, Morocco
GPS Info: N33°59'54.3" W04°58'08.0"
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Neither of us were very impressed with this campsite or it's hustly managers, freezing cold showers even though we were promised hot ones, and the loos were rather disgusting too. We decided we would not put ourselves through another night here. We packed up, parked Duzi2 in their carpark to avoid another day's charge and walked into Fes. Managed to wave down a little red Uno Petit-taxi, who drove us to the old medina at Bab Bou Jeloud, the entrance gate to the old medina.
We had been advised to go through Fes with a guide so as to avoid getting lost in it's many winding little alleyways. We got found by Said (which apparently means "bringer of great happiness", but should rather read "great sadness") who is a self proclaimed official tourist Office guide. We managed to bargain him down from 100Dirams (100 Dh = approx. €10) to 80Dh. as we don't have a detailed Moroccan guide book to do it on our own. He did actually manage to show us around many interesting historical sights in the old medina, including the 14th century Theological College with it's ancient cedar woodwork, the Medina entrance gates decorated in green islamic mosaics, the tannery whic had a very distinct unpleasant smell dulled by a sprig of mint given to us as we entered, and the bustling crowded meat markets with various rather disturbing animal parts for sale. He also took us into various shops selling Fes handiwork and crafts, Berber carpets, jewellery, intricate carpentry, leather produce and detailed paintings. We were introduced to the Berber Mercedes (a donkey), which is the only transport small enough to fit down the narrow and busy medina streets.
Much to his disgust, we didn't succumb to buying any of the large items thrust in front of us at the various places, so he abandoned us in the last shop after telling us this was our last chance to make good with the people of Fes medina. Ross, after seeing red, somehow managed to restrain himself from punching his lights out and resorted to telling him loudly what a bad example he was for Morocco. Take this as a warning about guides. If he looks like a sleazeball, he probably is !!
Both relieved to leave the hecticness of Fes, we escaped in Duzi2 to a calmer Meknes. We struggled to find Camping Meknes using Tracks4Africa waypoints, and were very relieved when we drove through the ancient walls and saw the campsite ahead of us.
Congratulations Steph and Just on your new arrival. Been thinking of you all day and know your bub will be beautiful. Can't wait to hear what it is and see photo's.
Thursday 15th November 2007: Camping Meknes, Morocco
GPS Info: N33°52'47.1" W05°33'19.7"
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Woke up to the sound of trumpets and men singing in the distance. Later on we heard and saw about 5 jets screaming through the skies overhead, and heard there was a military base nearby. Ross had a very short "hot" shower as the gas ran out after about 30 seconds, which they subsequently changed allowing Heidi the luxury of a lovely long hot shower. Cold showers are ok when the weather is warmish, but it is freezing at the moment and takes ages to warm up afterwards.
Headed off on our long drive to the Middle and High Atlas mountain ranges, to the town of Midelt. The nights are sure to get colder as we go further up in altitude. Duzi2 reached a new high of 2200m. It was a long slow steadily climbing drive over the mountains with spectacular views.
Stalls along the sides of the road are selling various precious stones, volcanic rock and many fossils which they say are from the mountains. Apparently Morocco is famous for fossils as a lot of it used to be an inland sea.
We were lucky enough to have a proper wild sighting, when we came across a group of Barbary Macaques (monkeys) near the roadside in a beautiful forest of Cedar trees. These monkeys are very agile despite not having a tail.
Another interesting thing we found about today's drive was the number of big fluffy dogs just lying at the roadside watching the cars go by.
Arrived at Camping Timnay and met up with an English family we had seen at the campsite above Chefchaouen. We booked in at the reception and quickly drove on into Midelt to check emails at a local cyber cafe, before returning to a dark campsite as a result of a power failure and a lovely Moroccan candlelit dinner of chicken and veg tagine and veg cous-cous.
As the High Atlas mountains around us are covered in snow, it was now freezing, and we retired to the welcome warmth once again of our lovely down sleeping bags.
While we were sleeping warm, Bren and Andre became proud parents of baby Aaron. Congrats to both of you and we hope to see photo's of your new precious baby boy very soon.
Our thoughts have been with AM and the Duval family today as we received their sad news of her dad passing away. May God's strength and peace rest over you and surround you.
Friday 16th November 2007: Timnay Camping, Morocco
GPS Info: N32°45'08.1" W04°55'09.3"
Miles Today: 186 Total Miles:
It was flipping freezing and our fingers and toes were burning.
The hot showers which worked very briefly turned cold very quickly. Unlike the lucky English family in the well-kitted campervan next to us we had no central heating to warm up in. Campervans certainly have their perks.
Noticed the effect of altitude as the water took ages to bring to the boil for our mornings hot chocolate.
On leaving the campsite we had a spectacular view of the clean white snow capped High Atlas mountains. Todays drive was very beautiful and rugged. We started off in the high mountains winding our way up and through a large canyon, even passing through a tunnel built by the French Legioneres. We passed a huge turqoise dam surrounded by red mountains of folded rock which looked like clay patterned with a fork.
As we descended in altitude we passed many large date-palm forests, which looked like oasis in the harsh barren environment around them. Passed many donkey carts full of palm fronds and yellow-brown dates drying on the flat rooves in the sun.
We stopped for a brief look at a place called Source Bleue De Meski, which is a fresh water spring on the way to Merzouga. It has a big spring fed fresh water pool full of fish used by the locals to cool off in during the summer months, but is far too cold now. On stopping the car we were immediately invited to a cup of tea (Berber whisky) by a smooth talking, very persistant, shop keeper nearby. We knew we were in trouble when he started wrapping us in indigo Tuareg desert turbans. Ross tried desperately hard to get out of the shop without buying anything, but after reducing the price to less than half the original asking price, thinking that would put the shopkeeper off, he is now the proud owner of a genuine Tuareg Turban and Heidi got her ammorite fossil pendant for free as part of the deal. We just have to remember how to fold it properly on our heads.
With the signs of a sandy desert getting ever closer, we both got excited at the first glimpse of real red sahara dunes in the near distance. The closer we got the more fancy 4x4's and four wheelers we saw, proving we were in the right neighbourhood.
There are many places to stay being advertised along the road to Merzouga and Erg Chebbi at the foot of the dunes. We stopped off briefly at Kasbah Tomboktou which was the place mentioned by Rob & Ally on their website, which sounded like a wonderful place to stay. Sadly this now had many large rally'ish 4x4's parked out in front and after enquiring we were shown to the only camping available. The lovely luxurious bedouin type tents out near the dunes at the price of 350Dh per person, were not quite what we were looking for, and they didn't seem keen on us using our own car and rooftop tent. We smiled, said thankyou and carried on looking elsewhere.
Finally we arrived at a very quiet and remote auberge/camping place called Auberge La Tradition (N31 04'50.9" W04 00'24.5"). It is fantastically close to the dunes, with no-one else around. We were warmly welcomed by Barra with a traditional fresh hot pot of sweet green tea (Berber wisky). He told us about various camel treks into Erg Chebbi (erg = sand; chebbi = black [volcanic] sahara) that he could arrange for us. As this would be such a unique experience for us, it seemed a waste not to take this opportunity to go deeper into the desert and experience a camel ride (camel = Berber Landrover). We have asked Barra to arrange a 1 day/1 night camel trip into the desert. We leave tomorrow morning at 10:00am. This should be interesting.
We were also spoilt by being treated to a free delicious traditional Moroccan meal of rice with egg and beef tagine, bread, olives and fresh fruit.
After a marathon catch up session to get up to date with our updates for the website, we retired to our first night in "club duvet a la rooftop tent" in the dunes.
Saturday 17th November 2007: Auberge La Tradition, Erg Chebbi, Morocco
GPS Info: N31°04'50.9" W04°00'24.5"
Miles Today: 0 Total Miles:
We woke up to a cool steady breeze and the most spectacular views looking right onto the sand dunes. Our campsite was right on the foot of the dunes and we felt quite small. It felt like we were all alone.
We packed up our sleeping bags, which are going into the desert on the camels with us tonight, and the tent, as it would full of sand with the breeze getting stronger. Barra gave us a lovely room in the Auberge (Hostal) to shower and change in. It had a flushing loo and supposed Hot showers. Not hot, not warm, but cold. Oh well, another refreshing morning experience. When we came out, he'd prepared breakfast for us of fresh flat bread, Berber wisky and fig jam, all free - we're waiting for the catch.
On we hopped onto our camels - AliBaba and Jimmy Hendrix and were led into the beautiful Sahara by Hammid, our guide. We didn't know that camels are so fluffy, they are almost like sheep. We set off like real Tommy tourists clicking away at everything. We stopped off in a Nomad Village after very quietly walking over the black volcanic rock of the Black Sahara. Hammid told us we could explore the old adandoned houses, which had walls made of mud, local rocks and stones and grassy straw. We collected many interesting rocks, one like a canon ball and one volcanic stone with triangles engraved in it.
We came back to a huge lunch of rice with tomato, onion and pilchard sauce, fresh delicious flat bread and tangerines, which we ate with Hammid. Ross even ate the fish, without any fuss! It was interesting to notice how all the landscape looked flat in the midday light. After lunch, back up on Alibaba and moaning Jimmy Hendrix and off to the oasis for the night. On the way we passed a Jeep track marked off in the dunes and as we approached the oasis with the Berber tents we were staying in for the night, about 20 new Jeeps were setting off on the tracks over the dunes, back to Mazouga. we hopped off our camel steeds and headed up a steep sand dune to watch the sunset. Dune climbing is hard work. Wow. The lighting was fantastic over the dunes, making them red and highlighting their shadows. We couldn't help ourselves and took loads of photos.
We came down so quickly in the dark and shared more Berber Wisky (green tea), Heidi opting out this time. With only half a moon, we were hoping for perfect star gazing but the clouds slowly drifted in. Fortunately here we were both lucky enough to see a shooting star together. We were brought a delicious beef and veg tagine with fresh flat bread, which we enjoyed by candlelight.
Off to an early nights sleep as we are getting up at 5am to watch the sunrise. The Berber tent has a wooden frame and has big, thick camel wool blankets drapped over it, all stitched together. It is really dark and warm inside. Then the drugged up hippies in a tent nearby started to droan and beat their bongo drums loudly for the rest of the night!!! Oh for the peace and quiet of the desert.
Sunday 18th November 2007: Berber Camp, Oasis in Erg Chebbi, Morocco
GPS Info: Somewhere in the middle of the dunes (possibly here: N31°06'9.5" W03°57'59.3")
Miles Today: 0 Total Miles:
We woke up very early and set off at 5.30am, up the steep dune in the dark by starlight. The clouds had all cleared and the stars were unbelievable. Heidz saw more shooting stars climbing up this morning. We got to the top and waited for about an hour and a half before the sun peeped up over Algeria on the horizon. It was interesting watching the other people creeping like ants climbing to various points to get their glimpse of sunrise too.
We set off on Alibaba and Jimmy Hendrix on our way back to Duzi2 and hopefully a hot shower...Again Barra very kindly let us use a room to shower and change in. We were relieved to see other tourists staying at the same place, who could share some of the attention. Ross had a lovely hot shower, a welcomed treat, while Heidz had to wait for the water to heat up again after all the visitors. We had a delicious Moroccan breakfast on the sunny roof of the Auberge. This consisted of fresh orange juice, green tea, coffee, fresh flat bread and crepes with cheese and fig jam. From the roof top we watched our camels, now unloaded, freely walking off into the desert dunes. This was the way we'd hoped to see camels.
We saw 13 motor bikes head off towards the dunes to have some fun. Ross looked on longingly. Barra told us that The Paris Dakar comes through this part of the Erg Chebbe on their way to Ouarzazate.
We were both keen for some time alone together, so we decided to drive and explore a bit with Duzi2. We ended up driving South for a bit to the now closed Algerian border and then into the tiny, mostly closed town of Merzouga. It is their Independance Day today so all was quiet and reasonable hassle free. Barra told us to say "Lah" which means "No thanks" in Arabic, we used this a few times.
Tomorrow we are going to be driving on a piste (an established track) to Zagora with Barra, who has done this many times before. We are going to be driving the piste backwards and don't have the way points to Zagora, so his local knowledge and experience in sand will be a great learning experience for us. We hope to leave early, 8am and get to Zagora by mid to late afternoon.
Monday 19th November 2007: Auberge La Tradition, Erg Chebbi, Morocco
GPS Info: N31°04'50.9" W04°00'24.5"
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Woke up really early to watch the sunrise from behind the dunes, as this is our last morning in Erg Chebbi. We also needed to check Duzi2 was ready for his/her desert drive on the piste to Zagora, as well as making space for Turban Dinglebat to fit in the car with us.
We managed to leave at 8:30am which was nice and early for us and headed to Taouz close to the Algerian border, before branching off onto the piste. We were both reassured by seeing the route we were on was represented by Tracks4Africa (T4A) on our GPS. The road was initially over black volcanic rock, and then turned very sandy with lots of thick soft sand. We soon found out the importance of our snorkel as we had a dust cloud spreading forward to the drivers window and all the way back to far behind us. It wouldn't be much fun being the back car driving in convoy through this! Ross drove like a real champion through all of it learning to use the clutch and accelerator to give Duzi2 'pisance' when needed.
Chris Scott says in his Sahara Overland book,"you'll get stuck in the first soft sand you encounter" and as Gerard said to us, "If you don't want to get stuck, don't drive in sand." Well we listened to our "guide", Barra, and turned into a very soft, sandy river bed which he'd apparently driven thorugh with two cars twenty days before. With Duzi2 being so heavy and the sand so soft, we got stuck! Luckily not too badly. Following Gerard and Betty's advice we deflated the tyres and took a photo, but didn't make tea. We walked along the riverbed to see how we could get out, but the sides were too steep, so decided to try and turn around and get back on to the road we'd branched off from. So real 'boer maak 'n plan' methods, of branches, sticks and hands digging; Ross managed to do exactly as we'd planned, even though at one stage I was so scared.
I think Barra got the hint we were unimpressed with his navigating skills and was now fully aware of our concern about our weight. After a few more quite steep and very sandy river crossings and many hours of driving through the black, volcanic rock formations and dunes, we reached half way, Tafraoud. We were expecting to have our own packed picnic lunch, but Barra had organised an egg based tagine to be ready when we arrived, to which he added a tin of olives and sardines. Yummy. The extra combination padlock we had on the rear had become sand filled and impossible to open, so we were unable to access anything from inside the back. Both keen to head on and get to Zagora before it got dark, we munched on our fresh flat bread and decided to stick to T4A, as far as possible. We passed many lakes on our drive, but not a drop of water. This was quite scary for us to see.
Luckily the next half of the piste was not in sand but just very rocky, with volcanic rock, and corrugated. Barra got the local knowledge and tips as we went on, which we followed but watched T4A route very closely. The environment we drove through was very beautiful, but incredibly harsh. We felt like we were driving on Mars. Driving on the piste was good experience for us, both learning a lot, and a very different side of the Saharan Desert to what we had imagined.
About 35km away from Zagora, Ross lost all power in Duzi2. We stopped, checked and I prayed like mad. Ross suspected it was dirty diesel, as we were now just starting to use the first African diesel. Ross fired up Duzi2 and we slowly spluttered and jerked into Zagora with lots of daylight time left. Duzi2 was covered in desert dust, otherwise known as Sahara Couscous.
After dropping off Barra, Dinglebat, we were SO glad to just be the two of us again. We headed straight to a Shell garage to refuel followed by a papparazzi of mopeds. Just before filling up, miraculously a very friendly and knowledgeable guy who knew a lot about landy's came over and listened to sad sounding Duzi2. Straight away he identified it to be dirty fuel, which Ross had supspected. So we didn't fill up, but rather followed him to his workshop. He showed us an article with pictures of him in a Landrover magazine refering to him as 'the doctor of Landrovers' and he had photo's of himself and his team displayed on the walls, working on Paris Dakar cars. First he changed the fuel filter, but that didn't help. He then removed the fuel pump, which had broken due to a blocked inlet pipe which he replaced. After explaining the pump had broken due to the fuel inlet pipe being blocked by debris/dirt, he wanted to drain and clean the fuel tank. It was getting late so we drove Duzi2 into Mohammed's amazing new workshop with a walk in pit under the car. He kindly offered for us to camp here for the night, which suited us.
While the car was above the pit Ross was able to do a thorough check and grease up. Mohammed and him looked at all sorts of things. He also said the oil leaks Ross has noticed are normal, but the clutch fluid leak on the drivers footwell needed to be checked. We have double shocks on the back and the old pair of shocks were leaking so we thought we'd replace these too, while all the parts were genuine and new. This would be done tomorrow.
We were very impressed with the care, attention and focus given by Mohammed and 3 other young guys who worked solely on our car until about midnight. Mohammed's garage was a hive of activity and had locals driving in constantly as well as cars who had also driven the piste.
We popped up the tent and went to sleep.
Tuesday 20th November 2007: Mohammed Gordito's Garage Workshop, Zagora, Morocco
GPS Info: N30°20'23.7" W05°50'13.3"
Miles Today: Total Miles:
We woke up to the sound of cats fighting in the alley way outside and then a donkey breying. We had decided that this would be the ideal spot to leave some of our excess weight at. So we took down the box of bits and pieces off the roof and went through what we no longer needed. Our braai and mini webber were included in this lot as our meat is no longer frozen and needs to be cooked up quickly. So much for our plan of meat lasting for the trip... Hopefully this will be a helpful tip and save some money for people who plan to stock up on meat as we did, who might be coming after us.
With the guys setting to work changing the clutch reservoir, replacing the shocks and the rear helper springs, we shared in the warm generous hospitality of the guys in the workshop, who were so sweet, with hot tea and delicious fresh bread for breakfast. We met a Canadian? and British motor biking couple, who are living in Belguim, and were on holiday and came to say 'Hi' to Mohammed. He had completely rebuilt their friends BMW with Mercedes parts in last years Paris Dakar rally. We also met a German couple who hobbled in asking for a fuse and found out their Toyota Landcruiser campervan, was skew as a mechanic in Marrakesh had put on incorrect and unequal leaf springs.
Zagora is a busy 4x4 town, but unfortunately it's the 4x4 tourists who come in on chauffeur driven trips and this has encouraged a lot of begging for bonbons(sweets) and stilo's(pens), and they want to know what you've brought them from England to swop. If they speak English, expect to be pestered. You are constantly harassed by people while you are in your vehicle, outside and the moped papparazzi who follow and bug you.
Duzi2 was all ready and built to take on anything, but it was quite late to drive on to Ouarzarzate so we updated emails in a V E R Y S L O W internet cafe and camped in a campsite nearby called Les Jardin de Zagora (N30 19'43.4" W05 49'58.4"). A palm frond woven mat was placed behind the car for us to unpack on and we were invited numerous times to join the family for tea in the beautifully decorated tent/restaurant, but we refused as we wanted time alone. We refused another tea invite after we'd eaten our dinner. Can you tell we've had enough of having 'false friends', as they are locally called? We both enjoyed our showers even though they varied between scorching hot and freezing cold and went to bed all clean.
Wednesday 21st November 2007: Les Jardin de Zagora, Zagora, Morocco
GPS Info: N30°19'43.4" W05°49'58.4"
Miles Today: 111 Total Miles: 4420
HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARON! We hope you have a very special day and are thoroughly spoilt by Mark and your boys. We'll be thinking of you all day.
We woke up to sunshine and decided to try and de-sand the tent. We took everything out and aired it and enjoyed a relaxed breakfast of fruit and yoghurt in the warm sunshine. We set off for Ouarzazate, which is a manageable distance rather than heading straight on to Marrakech, which we'll do tomorrow. We are both very keen to get our Mauritanian visa's and head down through Western Sahara. We still need to find out if we need to go to Casablanca or Rabat or whether we can get our visa issued at the border. We've heard that the issuing of Mauritanina visas has recently moved from Casablanca to Rabat, but need to check on this. Hopefully we don't need to head up north to Rabat, but can just go south, even if this means the visas cost slightly more.
We drove through the stunning Valley du Draa passing through many date palmeries and up the steep striated folding mountain pass towards the High Atlas. We enjoyed our last packet of Percy Pigs, which we'd bought with us to remember Granny May. They were very delicious. We passed many date sellers and saw small baskets woven out of palm fronds. The temperature dropped dramatically as we steadily climbed up. It was really beautiful and steep. Today was a very picturesque drive and something we would recommend others coming this way to do.
We approached Ouarzazate which was under a very black sky and had a double very bright rainbow above it. Ouarzazate is a bigger, more relaxed town. We started to see the tagines and bold ceramic plates on display again. We found signs to a campsite, which was nameless (N30 55'23.4" W06 53'13.5"). There were quite a few campervans and soon we had a waving Italian couple in a campervan from yesterday next to us. They told us that Les Jardin de Zagora has a reputation for tea invites and then charges those that succumb to exhorbitant prices.
We opened up the tent and boiled the kettle as it was freezing and very windy. Made a quick dinner and headed to bed.
Thursday 22nd November 2007: Ouarzazate Camping, Ouarzazate, Morocco
GPS Info: N30°55'23.4" W06°53'13.5"
Miles Today: 149 Total Miles: 4569
It rained fairly hard for a few hours last night so the ground was damp which meant no dust. We made toast for the first time with the grill part of our Campinggaz stove while the tent dried out. We packed up and set off for Marrakech.
We left Ouarzazate and headed towards the dramatic, snow covered High Atlas mountains. On our left were the dry, rocky volcanic mountains while from the front and all around to the right were the white, snowy High Atlas mountains. We drove through an even steeper valley today. The mountains were so high and it was snowing so we didn't manage to see Jebel Toubkal, the highest mountain in North Africa, and the one Lance climbed a few weeks ago. Duzi2 climbed to a new height of 2221m today, proabably the highest she/he will go. With all the rain from last night, we passed a few rock falls and land slides with people manually busy clearing the roads. The rivers were raging red and we were struck by the ingeniously built furrows that channeled water from the rivers into the fields being farmed.
At one stage the GPS looked like a snail had slide all over it as we wound our way up and down the spines of ridges, doing some very tight hairpin bends. We passed locals selling amazing rock crystals and stopped to buy a purple, green and gold one which pieces together, bargaining down from Dm500 to Dm50, which was probably still too much, but anyway. Some of the rivers we passed today looked like good fun to paddle in, but turning some of their sharp bends could be a bit difficult in their fast flow.
We got to Marrakech and headed for the Marjane, a supermarket. Marrakech has the biggest Marjane in Morroco, which Betty and Gerard had told us about to see what they had for a shop we'll do tomorrow.
The skies were dark black, like yesterday afternoon and there were puddles everywhere. On the way to the Camping Ferdaous (N31 43'13.3" W07 59'2.2"), a campsite on the Route de Casablanca, we crossed over a wide raging red river. It looked like it was in flood and this must have been due to all the rain over the past day.
We got to a very wet campsite and set up the tent. Luckily with a rooftop tent, it doesn't matter how flooded the ground is, you're always high and dry. We met two girls from a big Oasis overland truck who are also heading down to SA over the same time period as us. They warned us about the wet camp spots and about letting locals do your washing. They all gave washing in and some only got half of their clothes back and all of them got their soaking washing back in a wheel barrow.
We headed off in the campsite taxi to see Marrakech's main square to see the night activities, get some dinner and post an update on the website. We got into the taxi and suddenly, 5 minutes in, the price went up by Dm50 and he could only pick us up at 10.00pm, giving us very little time to do all we wanted to do. After arguing with him and him screaming down his mobile phone at the guy at the campsite, he eventually agreed to turn around and return us to the campsite. We went via the overland truck to see if we could clarify the Mauritanian visa issue place and sat around the campfire chatting for a bit. They were a very laid back bunch, not your average raucous overland truck type. Sadly, they confirmed we needed to go to Rabat.
We ate a supper of Rivita's and cheese with some very cardboardy Chilli chips, which we couldn't eat and are being donated to the bin, and a slightly better tasting salted bag. We studied the maps of distances to Rabat and think it would be possible to drive through to in a day, if we set off early. We're also hoping the Mauritanian embassy won't be closed until Monday as this will be an unnecessary delay.
Hopefully it won't rain tonight. Tomorrow morning, being a Friday, which is like our Sunday, we'll drive ourselves in to Marrakech. We'll park Duzi2 at the Marjane parking lot and catch a taxi to the main square and do what we'd planned to do tonight. Hopefully this will be possible, so we can confirm the visa issue.
Big congratulations to Alison and Colin who got married today. We wish you a lifetime of happiness together and hope you have a fantastic holiday in Australia. May today be the start of a wonderful chapter in your lives as husband and wife.
Friday 23rd November 2007: Camping Ferdaous, Marrakech, Morocco
GPS Info: N31°43'13.8" W07°59'02.2"
Miles Today: 12 Total Miles: 4587
It was freezing again this morning and had rained really hard all night. There was a damp mist settling in for the day. Everything is getting damp and we're getting fed up of these cold damp days, needless to say we've run out of clean clothes as we haven't been able to wash anywhere yet!
Last night the campsite filled up with a film crew in huge big trucks, so we hoped if we got up early we'd get a hot shower before them...Before 7am and not a drop of hot/warm/anything other than freezing cold water. So we skipped that and decided to warm up and head out of this rather unpleasant campsite. The few loos that were unlocked were totally blocked up this morning and overflowing and had a very unpleasant smell. We met 'The English', as we've affectionately named them, a family travelling in a campervan who we saw at Chefchaouen, Fes, Camping Timnay, Source Bleu de Meski and now Marrakech. They highly recommended a new campsite nearby which has amazingly clean facilities, HOT showers and is really nice, unlike our current flooded site.
We'd decided to drive and park Duzi2 at the Marjane and catch a petite taxi from there to the Djemma El Fnaa, Marrakech's main square to at least see what was there. The taxi driver told us there'd be nothing on as it was Friday (like our Sunday) and promptly dropped us far away at the big Complex Artisianal de Berber, a tourist market for Moroccan things. We found our way to the square, which was rather empty other than a few snake charmers chanting hysterically at their bored cobras and fast asleep puff adders, many fresh orange juice carts piled high with oranges, palm readers and ladies keen to Henna your hands. As soon as anyone took a photo of the snakes, men would approach them with a snake to get them to pay. One man tried to try this with us eventhough we were only looking! There were horses and carriages bringing in the toursits, but on the whole it was really nice and quiet. We were both disappointed with what was there after what we'd read about, maybe because we're both very keen to get further south and are tired of the market/city feel. It was surreal thinking we were in Marrakech. We decided to find an internet cafe to check on emails, post our latest update and try to load on the Facebook pictures up til Morocco, and then come back in a little later when the square would be busier.
Yay we have definite tenants for our flat as from the middle of December 2007 til Jan 2009. What a relief, at long last we can relax about London. We're just finalising our tenancy agreement. This is such an answer to prayer!
We spent hours in the internet cafe and enjoyed a Snickers for lunch, which we'd bought in the Marjane yesterday. It was so great to hear your comments Melis and Claire, that makes the time worthwhile. We also researched and found out that the Mauritanian embassy has moved from Casablanca to Rabat this September, so we would need to go back up to Rabat for them and the embassy is only open Monday to Thursday and the visa takes 24hrs...It is also possible to get a 3 day Mauritanian visa issued at the border which can be extended at Nouakchott police station. This seems to be our best option and is one a lot of overlanders are using at the moment. We have to get our Malian visas at Nouakchott anyway. This will probably mean we don't do the beach drive section of Mauritania, but we think we may still be too heavy for this anyway. We can't face having to go up to Rabat and linger around another city to get our visas.
The square was much busier when we went back later in the afternoon. There were many locals huddled around dancers and musicians, and storytellers and actors doing plays. There were many little souqs/stall/shops selling their wears and a whole row of shoe shiners in an area that looked like a nursery and had flower sellers. The snake charmers were still at but less obvious now.
We had a very delicious freshly squeezed mandarin juice for 3 Dirhams each. We were told the mandarins and oranges come from Agadir, so we should get some before we go to Western Sahara.
Caught a cream Uno petit taxi back to the Marjane. He drove like a maniac and used his hooter like a gear stick to change gears. Luckily Duzi2 was still surrounded by loads of cars and not clamped as we'd dreaded. We went into the Marjane to buy some more stocks - water, longlife milk, nuts, fresh fruit and veg etc. A rather expensive place when you convert to pounds. It has more selection of everything than a Tesco Extra Huge store! The one side of the shop is separated with 4 tills for alcohol purchases. This part was SO jammed packed...so much for Muslim's not drinking alcohol.
After our shop we headed off to the new campsite The English had recommended, Camping Le Relais de Marrakech(N31 42'27.1" W07 59'23.0"), which we'd got a flier on our windscreen about. The rain started then and didn't let up all night! It was pouring and very windy when we arrived at the campsite. Oh my word, this place was beautiful. It's a bit difficult to find, but SO worth it. The ablutions were exquisite, very clean, HOT water, flush loos and carefully planned. There was a beautiful communial swimming pool, even with a jaccuzzi section, and a landscaped garden with sun loungers positioned around the pool, pity it was so miserable. We were given a free cocktail each as a welcome, or maybe as a cheer up form the terribly miserable weather. We chose our spot, seeing The English were there too, went for our cocktail, ate our supper in warm, dry Duzi2 of fresh baguette with cheese and nutella (but not together) and then popped up the tent.
Saturday 24th November 2007: Camping Le Relais de Marrekech, Morocco
GPS Info: N31°42'27.1" W07°59'23.0"
Miles Today: 271 Total Miles: 4858
It poured and poured and poured even more and the wind howled popping the one fly sheet pole out I lost track of how many times. It was the longest night with the rain and wind never letting up. We were both awake for the 4am mullah call and were wishing the rain would stop and it would warm up. I was a bit worried that maybe more bridges had been washed away, like the main one to Essaouira did on Thursday, and that we'd be stranded here. Heidz managed to slip our of the tent this morning sliding her shin the whole way down the ladder before grabbing onto the tent roof to stop her landing face first in the mud pool all around the car, not a good start.
Our tent, mattress, bedding, including sleeping bags are cold and wet! Time to leave this rain and head to the sunshine and heat! The rain was here to stay. We packed up in the pouring rain and were thoroughly soaked and cold. Our fingers were burning and numb so our hands weren't working too well. Went for lovely hot shower and then needing some cheering up, so we went for a yummy breakfast at the campsite restaurant of pancakes, fresh bread, orange juice and hot choc/coffee. The campsite has been done so beautifully it's a pity we didn't get to see it in the dry sunshine. We said our good-byes to The English, who had also needed a cheer up, so had cooked up a full English breakfast for themselves in their warm, dry campervan. Those do make us really envious at the moment.
We set off to try and drive as far South as we could in the direction of Agadir and Tan Tan (Western Sahara). The rivers were blood red in colour and raging furiously and there were big pools of water everywhere, remnents of the deluge of the unusual rain over the past few days. We were both so glad we'd done the narrow twisty pass crossing from Ouarzazate to Marrakech when we did. It was a very picturesque drive driving through the High Atlas mountains, which were covered in snow and it was still snowing. We stopped at a huge waterfall which was storming down with red sandy water and crashing rocks. This must normally have just been rocks, but with all the rain it was thundering. We carried on driving through the continuously pouring rain hoping we weren't going to come across a washed away bridge which would make us have to go back. We stopped and had a look at the very angry, chocolate brown Atlantic Ocean from a beach just after Tiznit.
Eventually after many long hours of straight good condition tar roads, passing pools of water dammed along the roadside, we stopped at a campsite called Camping Legzira (N29 26'46.8" W10 06'55.5"), which we would've driven straight past had we not been looking out for it. A muddy track disappeared off the road down a steep hill and then we came across a gem of a place with the most incredible beach views. The rain let up a bit and we toyed with whether we should camp and risk more rain and damp, or take a ensuite double room(D200 / £13) and let our wet stuff try and dry a bit. The owner said it would be free for us to camp and no problem for us to cook in a sheltered place or his kitchen, and even moved his car for us to park there, but the thunder and lightning continued...
We cooked up a quick spaghetti bolognaise with some very envious, cute dogs eyeing us for any scraps and aired the tent to try and dry it a bit. Then the rain came bucketing down again, soaking the only warm, dry clothes we had. Thankfully we had a warm, dry night ahead of us in a double bed.
The lights went out and the auberge became lit with candles while a full moon lit up the huge waves in its pale blue light. A very beautiful place especially as we had a roof over our heads that we wouldn't have to pack up tomorrow.
Sunday 25th November 2007: Camping Legzira, Morocco
GPS Info: N29°26'46.8" W10°06'55.5"
Miles Today: 260 Total Miles: 4847
There was thunder, lightning and pouring rain all night. We made the right decision taking the room, but due to the very damp air, our stuff is still wet. We waited until there was a lull in the constant deluge to try re-erect the tent to pack the bedding and mattress back in, oh if only! Eventually we both decided to just do it! Where did all this rain come from? And more importantly, when will it end?
The sea was a dark chocolate brown and the waves were huge! The little stream we'd driven alongside to come down to the buildings was now a red raging river carrying rocks as it gushed between two homes on its way to the sea. Abdul, the owner, told us this is the first rain they've had here for 2 years. We were glad for the Moroccan people when we heard this because they've all had a good dose of rain, it's just very inconvinient for us.
We set off on another long days drive on dead straight tar roads heading towards Laayoune, Western Sahara, and hopefully far away from the rain that keeps following us. Well the whole trip it poured and poured and poured, with the wind howling straight off the sea. At one stage it looked as if it was snowing, but it was sea foam being blown up over the cliffs onto us from the sea far below.
Todays drive was amazing starting off with us crossing rivers bursting their banks, then driving parallel with the huge Atlantic Ocean, then passing salt pans and ending off in the sand and dunes of the desert. It was a hard days driving being battered by the elements and Ross and Duzi2 were brilliant.
We filled up with very cheap diesel (Dh4.26/litre about 28.5p/l) before pulling off the road from Tarfaya back to the main road to Laayoune to bush camp, hiding behind a mound of rocks, for the first time. Luckily the rain had stopped, but the wind was still howling - at least the tent should dry out! The wind was rocking the car so much we decided not to put up the tent but sleep inside instead...We watched a movie, River Queen on the laptop, kind thanks to NAO Odeon.
Monday 26th November 2007: Bush Camp, Morocco
GPS Info: N27°54'07.3" W12°53'41.9"
Miles Today: 449 Total Miles: 5296
So glad we never put up the tent last night because it poured again and the wind would've rocked us even more in the tent, all through the night. Can't say we slept much though. It was a full or very nearly full moon so everything was lit up and beautiful. We're so grateful for the thick curtains we have over all of the windows because no light is visible from outside.
We were up early and watched the sunrise. We set off on another long days straight drive. We crossed into Western Sahara at 8.05am. There's a dispute as to whether Western Sahara is Moroccan or not. It has been occupied by Morocco since 1975 and has been trying to gain independence since then, previous to 1975 it was a Spanish protectorate. It has phosphate reserves, beautiful waves and long beaches, but not much more that's visible.
We stopped for breakfast on a cliff overlooking a beautiful beach below and then set off again on the long straight road south, with the Sahara desert on our left and the turquoise Atlantic Ocean on our right.
Today we were stopped for the first time by the police who wanted to mostly know what our professions were. They all ask for the 'Fiche', which luckily we'd typed up yesterday afternoon and printed 20 Moroccan and 20 Mauritanian copies of. Basically it has all your travel details on it, your name, surname, passport number, parents details, car details and your profession. We were stopped many times thereafter for this, each time you enter and leave a town, etc. These checks seem pretty pointless and we think having the 'Fiche' makes them feel improtant. We decided to try and see what would happen if we didn't produce one at Dakhla, only showing our passport and saying our professions and telling our story about being on route to South Africa. We think he couldn't have been bothered to write all our details out, so this was sufficient for him.
We passed many big camel herds / caravans of camels raoming free. They seem to be lighter in colour as you go further South and many are white.
We stopped in Dakhla to fill Duzi2 up with fuel (Dh4.38/l or 29p/l). Dakhla seems to have all been newly refurbished and looks clean, tourist friendly and safe, with a big army base in the middle. There were kite surfers in the water enjoying the wind and waves. It looked like a lovely spot with rocky islands not far off it's coastline.
We drove on further south and bush camped on the cliffs over looking the sea with a big beach below. We watched the sunset over the sea and had a quick sausage, couscous and salad supper before heading to bed. We've found couscous one of the easiest starchy foods to make. Quick, easy and no mess - well worth bringing with you and something Heidz had never made before the trip.
Tuesday 27th November 2007: Bush Camp, Morocco
GPS Info: N23°28'31.6" W15°56'53.8"
Miles Today: 209 Total Miles: 5505
We slept so well! Looking out from the tent this morning we'd chosen such a beautiful spot. We looked out onto a sandbar or reef-like strip in the sea. It's sunny and the tent seems to be drier. Yay. We're a bit unsure whether we'll cross over the border into Mauritania today or whether to wait and cross over early tomorrow morning. The problem is that the Mauritanian visa starts on the day of issue and if we get ours at the border today, we only get 3 days to get to Nouakchott to extend it, quite far away. There's also a nature reserve famous for it's birdlife called Banc d'Arguin National Park which we'd love to stop off and spend some time in.
We were stopped at the Police Checks today and only gave them our passports which seemed to be enough. We passed our first 'Danger Beware of Mines' signs today, so are not that keen to bush camp around here.
We passed a Japanese cyclist and a German motorbike in a part where the landscape was very hard with a rocky landscape.
We arrived at the Moroccan (Western Saharan) border behind a group of about 30 Dutch rally cars doing the Amsterdam to Dakar rally, oh great! With very little fuss and quite a lot of confusion. We filled out our 2 white forms handed in our passports to the closed door and in about 5 minutes were called to collect them at the door next door. We met the biker, a really nice German guy called Raulf, who we'd passed earlier. He's between jobs and is fluent in English, German, French and Spanish, very helpful for us. We learnt what to do from each other and were treated with preference over the huge rally group and were all done in about 35minutes. So amazing. They took our green car insurance paper from us and gave us a white page instead which needed to produce with our stamped passports to leave.
With all the leaving of Morocco process behind us, we headed onto another stop about 30metres on and were asked if it was okay for us to wait 15 minutes while the chief finished his lunch. Good chance for us to grab a munchie to eat too. Out came the Hobnobs and some gouda cheese triangles and get to know Raulf a bit more. In about 15mins Ross showed the necessary paperwork and we were on our way into 'No Mans Land' watching Tracks For Africa's route very carefully as we passed burnt out car wrecks from the mines that are still here.
No problem over that section, but we were on a soft sandy route with Raulf following close behind. We joined the back of the next queue and went to the Mauritanian boom only to be shooed away until 3pm as it was now their lunchtime. Not too long to wait, only 35minutes. We put up the window screens to try and keep out the heat and enjoyed a lunch of nutella bread.