Here is a description of a 3 week trip in April 2014 where I traveled with a German organizer, adventure-offroad. We were in Atlas mountains, Anti-Atlas, Sahara and visited Marrakesh and Fez. The post describes what it is like to travel with an organizer, what we saw, and it shares some of my driving experiences. I drive a Land Cruiser 80. Other participants had Defenders, Land Cruiser 78 and 120, Pajero and Mercedes G-Wagon. A standard car of this type will be OK, but some under body protection and a steel front bumper will help in the dunes.
Check out the post North-Africa by Car for details on how to get to Morocco and arranged tours.
Places visited. (and Fez)
Video from the trip
Day 1 Tangier
We head out from Genoa by ferry and arrive in Tangier at 18:30 after a long and boring journey. Getting out of the ferry goes fine, but then the fun begins. Of course, you have to stand in line, but take care of your place. If you are a bit slow when the queue is moving, a car or two from the neighboring queue will easily pop in front of you.
After a good while, I arrived at the customs stall. There are 4-5 of them and lots of officers so it should go pretty quickly, I think. Officers run back and forth between the stalls, they obviously have a lot to discuss them between. Eventually, they take one of the papers that you have carefully filled out and disappear. The whole thing is pretty chaotic, but you have to see it all as part of the cultural experience. After a good while, our officer returns, without the necessary papers, but with a message; we have to go get the passport stall. The passport had been checked and entered into the required register already on the boat, so it should be quick fix. But not. For unknown reasons, the passport control is 100 meters back again the direction we came from, and when I finally find the little booth, I meet a bunch of depressed foreigners. Yes, this is where the only passport control is, manned by a single man, who left in a car half an hour ago. Maybe got hungry and went home to eat? It was now 11 in the evening, but no one was visibly irritable. You have to get used to it. After 1 hour, the officer gets back and the passport control goes away in a sweep. Then the customs officer makes a symbolic check of our luggage, and we are through, after 4 hours.
Day 2
Transport, 50 miles on good quality highway. 18:30 we arrive in a cedar forest where we will spend the night. The place is a green plain between limestone cliffs and old cedar trees. Some trees are really tall. Fantastic scenery. Bonfire and barbecue food.
Day 3 Circue du Jaffar
A little transport, then towards the Circue du Jaffar gorge near Midelt. We drive through a mountain pass to get to the gorge from the top. The road is almost carved into the mountainside, very narrow and some places slopes strongly out towards the valley deep below. Technical drive through the gorge with lots of big rock and narrow passageways. Accommodation at the end of the gorge. We are visited by 5-6 herders with wives and children who stand a few meters from where we sit and eat, observing our do abouts. There is clearly not much to do around here. They stay for an hour, until it darkens. They speak a little French and ask for bonbon and whiskey. The sheep are herded by using stone slings. If a sheep tries to go away, they resolutely send a pebble after the sheep, with impressive accuracy. Best to treat them nicely.
The Dangerous Roads refer to the Circue du Jaffar as one of the most dangerous roads in the world. It is a strong exaggeration. Quite easy to drive.
http://www.dangerousroads.org/africa/morocco/4301-cirque-de-jaffar.html
Day 4 Imichil
Driving to Imichil through the Atlas Mountains. Up in 2400 meters with snow on the roadside. Fantastic scenery, wild mountains, ravines and green fields, apple and cherry blossoms. Lots of people along the roads. The children in particular are intrusive. They wave and want something, bonbon is popular. We drive too fast and take to few breaks to my liking. Could happily spend a few days through this landscape and do some hiking. In Imichil we stay at the local campsite which is an enclosed stone courtyard. Getting pretty cramped with 6 cars and some motorcycles. But they have hot water in the shower!
Day 5 Ouarzazate
To Ouarzazate. Via Gorges du Dades. An amazing scenery with some of the most dramatic rock formations I’ve ever seen. Was nearly running out of diesel. Had less than 5 liters left when I refueled. The guide said it was refueling the day before, but it wasn’t. Remember enough reserve even if you expect it is not far to the next station.
Day 6 Marrakech
To Marrakesh, across the Atlas. The driving is tiring. Normally we do around 250 km per day. Either it is on very poor roads that require high concentration, or else it is on reasonably well paved roads, but these are sometimes very winding and can have high traffic.
We arrived in Marrakesh at 17:00. The traffic in the city was quite anarchic, and it is difficult when one is driving 6 cars in succession, trying not to loose the car in front out of sight. Pedestrians and mopeds scramble around the cars, and it seems to be established practice that a car can come from any side and squeeze in front of you. The taxis were particularly bad in this way. The trick was to stop at the shortest possible distance to the car in front. But what good does it do when you have to wait a bit for a pedestrian who suddenly cross in front of you. We finally arrived at the hotel, after a few stops along the way to collect the flock.
Day 7 Atlas
Back across the Atlas again, more southern. We are heading towards the desert and the dunes following a winding road. When we crossed the highest point we drove into thick fog. It was a café at the top and we met an English couple who drove the 1940 model BSA with sidecar. 600 cubic, 12 horses. It didn’t go very fast up the slopes with up to 10% climb, but they came up.
We arrive at the camp at 4 pm, an open area in a pine forest.
Day 8 Anti Atlas
Further towards the South, this time crossing the Anti Atlas. More desert-like than Atlas, and not so high mountains. And then there are far more pistes to drive as there are more people living here. The barren desert-like mountain hides a series of oases along a river bed. Here it is green with palm trees, and several rural towns. Some of them are dramatically located on mountain tops. It does not seem that they are often visited for all children in the village come running when we come driving. They just wave, not beg like other places. The descent from the mountain is a highlight. It is steep, and at the foot of the mountain is a village in a green oasis where the valley spreads out. The road is very narrow and with a number of hairpin bends. Drives down on 1st gear low. Fortunately, it is partly concrete covered so it feels quite safe.
Well down we camped by the river bed a little further down.
The descent mentioned is between Aguelmim Iznaghn and Aguinane 30.213864N, 7.571149W
Day 9 Sahara
Continuing into the desert towards the Algerian border in the middle of a rally that was supposed to be in Libya, but that had been moved. Motorcycles, ATVs, special cars, regular (many LC80) and trucks. The cars get good beating. A lot of stone desert, but towards the end it turns into sand with dunes much larger than in Tunisia. Really great. We camp among the dunes.
We are miles from civilization, and then, out of the vastness, one of the locals walks, dressed in trousers and t-shirts, says bonjour and comme se va, and sits down 2 meters away from my car. There he sits and watches me for an hour, and then he strolls away. You have to get used to that. We the tourists are also an attraction.
Finds an oil leak. It turns out that the top 5 bolts on the front diff have loosened so that oil is ejected here as I drive. The piste is often severely corrugated , and it is a good idea to check the car daily.
Day 10 – 11
Driving out of the desert. Partly very bumpy and rocky, but also some fun driving in the sand.
The others depart on the piste towards the dunes of Erg Chebbi, but I and another car have decided to stay in a small town for another day. We are a little tired of endless driving on the bumpy piste. We do the city tour, but it is not much to see, based solely on tourism as it is. It consists of new flashy hotels built in Kasbah style, for Saudi money, and very little charming residential buildings in concrete. Tomorrow we will take another, paved road and meet the others in Erg Chebbi.
Day 12
We follow a mostly good tarmac road for 200 kilometers and stop in a small desert town along the way, no tourists. The town has many kasbahs, 45 according to a sign at the entrance, so we take a walk into the alleys. A kasbah was a fortified family home, or complex that could house many families, often related. There are fewer and fewer of these because they need regular maintenance. They are constructed of clay reinforced with straw. But rain showers will wash the walls out. Then you have to build on new layers. If this is not done, they will be reduced to a pile within 10 years.
Inside the Casbah, a young girl calls to us and asks in French if we want to come in. After a quick consultation, we thank yes, a little skeptical because of all the begging and “my friend” trickery we have been exposed to. But this is maybe just an expression of Arab (or Berber) Hospitality, and we are shown into the living room which is a narrow and long house made up of a room. Possibly it is also the bedroom. The decor is carpets on the floor, a half table and some pillows. In one short wall is a closet with all the possessions and an old TV set. I stepped in without remembering the important thing: take your shoes off. On the wall hangs a well-used guitar. It is owned by the son of the house, a 19 year old who I guess was 15. He speaks good English and tells about his school days, his last year of high school, and about life in general. The young girl who turns out to be his sister-in-law serves mint tea and bread as we dip in olive oil. An older woman, the boy’s mother, comes and wants to give us a shawl. Or sell it? Here we have a dilemma. Is it a gift or will she sell? We don’t get a clear answer from the boy. If it is a gift, she will probably be offended if we give her money. However, it is not unlikely that she wants a gift back. We don’t have anything with us. We end up not accepting the shawl. Probably totally wrong ..
Day 13 Rest day in Erg Chebbi
Erg Chebbi is a small wonder in the stone desert. It is a small sand desert, only 3 times 7 km large, with huge dunes. The highest ones are 150 meters above the desert floor. It is a tourist highlight in Morocco with guided tours by car and on camel. Two of us wanted to play a little in the sand and decided to drive across, albeit a place where the dunes are not at the highest, but high enough. The others are skeptical and remain in the camp. Dietmar, our guide joins in my car, and thats good as he have far more experience than me. I’ve only been driving in the small dunes in Tunisia, and that’s a whole other thing. Here they are steep up and steep down again on the other side and then steep up again once more. If you get a stop between two dunes you can be in trouble because you are not getting enough speed to get out of the pit again. The key to success is enough speed upwards, so relax just before you reach the top or else you’ll end up in the loose air as you cross the top. To get enough speed you need big engine and little air in the tires, about 1.2 bar is suitable to start with. Then the tires get a much larger contact surface and the car flows higher through the sand. The sand really sucks the power out of the car. Automatic transmission is an advantage, otherwise you have to change the gear very quickly so you do not lose speed and sink into the sand.
In the first dune I have to little speed and do not get up. The G-Wagon that runs first jumps right up here with no problems, but it has 225 hp in a lighter car, and both lockers are engaged. My problem is not that I spin, my 160 Hp just can’t pull the 3 ton heavy Land Cruiser up. I have 1.8 bar in the tires, just for testing. I reduce to 1.2 bar and on the 3rd try I come up after taking a long run in new tracks. Old tracks are difficult because here the sand is looser.
A few dunes later, I have to winch the GW out when standing on top of an extra pointed hill, with wheels in the air on both sides. My 4.5 ton (metric) winch fails to move the car so we have to dig under it as well.
While we are in the process of getting the car loose, a moped suddenly appears. He driver has silver jewelery to sell, and insists that is exactly what we need right now.
After this first training I have got the technique and can handle the rest of the track without any problems. Really funny. Only somewhere is it scary. Sometimes the dune takes an unexpected direction when you get to the top. This is also a good reason to have moderate speed at the top. If you are unable to get the car turned so you drive straight down in the direction of the dune, but come at an angle, the risk of rolling sideways around is absolutely present. Then it is just to send the remnants of the car home.
Day 14
We head north towards Fez. Transport Stage. Overnight in small campsite on the road. It has a large pool which is crowded with local youth (boys). Towards evening it calms down. Only a few beer-drinking Czechs keep it going. A weird bunch. Heavily tattooed guys and somewhat faded blonds. Their interest next to beer is insects. They set up a cage of nets with light inside, and photograph and capture insects that are attracted by the light in between the beer drinking.
Day 15 and 16, Fez
We visit the old town and I buy a Fez. The old town is big, a real maze with very narrow alleys. If someone calls ballag-ballag then jump away. Then comes a goods transport on donkey or cart. Don’t go here without a guide. If you go alone, at least bring a compass. GPS does not work and you hardly see the sun so it is difficult to navigate. Lots of shops and small industry. Our guide takes us through the carpet and perfume makers so we can see how they work. Of course, it is also a mild buying pressure. The famous tannery is viewed from a balcony on the 4th floor where a leather shop is located. They have a lot of nice leather goods and I buy a shoulder bag. Starting price 130 Euro. I get it for 55. The seller looked sad and tired so I got a hint of bad conscience, but it’s probably a sellers trick.
Day 17 Transport to Tanger Med.
Passports, customs and boarding are as chaotic as they where on arrival. Cars cross back and forth between the queues depending on where there seem to be a little movement. Occasionally a car passes the entire queue and push in far ahead. This seems to be accepted, no horns or gesturing because of that. Probably the word sneak does not exist in Arabic. It takes about 4 hours from the first check until we are on board, after a bit of sneaking. The cars were lined up in queues in two physically separate areas. For reasons unknown, it turned out that only cars in the right area were allowed to drive on board. I stood quietly in the back of the left area, it was past midnight and I would really like to get boarded. But the right area was inexhaustible because new cars that came were obviously queuing up there. Finally, some cars drove over to the right through a gap in the barrier. I followed and was quickly on board.
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