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This is a small write-up of the trip we made to Morocco in July and August 2008.
We are a family of three: Angelique MY70, Megan MY00 and Daan MY69 and we live in Biddinghuizen, The Netherlands.
Our transport is a Toyota LandCruiser 120VX 3.0 D-4D. (also known as J12, KDJ-120, Prado or even Barbie).
The LC is equipped with:
- Pirelli Scorpion ATR 275/70x17 LT version
- Hannibal aluminium roofrack
- Hannibal roof top tent
- Frontrunner 40 litre water tank
- Dual battery setup: National Luna Portable Power-Pack with Victron 100Ah AGM battery
- Victron 220V inverter
- Waeco fridge
- 7 aluminium Zarges boxes for clothing, camping gear, food and tools
- 27MC (CB) and walkie-talkies
We started our trip on the 12th of July in Biddinghuizen (NL), returned on the 9th of August and covered a total of around 8000 KM.
The route
Of course we couldn’t pass Paris without a visit to Euro Disney for Megan.
Unfortunately we planned our visit on the 14th of July, a national holiday in France, so it was a bit crowded.....
The evening parade was great!
The following days we drove further down south along the east coast of Spain and stayed on a several nice camp-sites, enjoying the good weather and facilities.
Enjoying a lunch in Spain near Barcelona.
On July the 20th the laid-back part of our trip ended when we arrived in Jimena de la Frontera (Southern part of Spain) where we teamed up with our travel companions.
Our team consisted of 3 other families and the 'guide'family:
- Peter, Yvon, Sam and Levie. Our guides from www.4x4adventuretravel.nl drive a 20 year old Toyota HiAce 4WD formally used as a fire-truck in the Netherlands but rebuilded to a small camper.
- Peter, Evelien, Puck and Joy driving a Defender 110.
- Andre, Karin, Florine, Hannah and Jonne driving a Defender 90 with trailer.
- Mark, Marinka, Luke and Daan drive a real nice Defender 130 with self made camper unit.
The total group consisted of 10 adults, and 10 children in the age from 2 to 12.
The kids playing in the river near the camp-site in Spain.
On July 22 after a last visit to the Carrefour (a giant mall) for some last-time western food shopping we headed for Algeciras. Algeciras is situated in Spain at the most southern tip of Europe and here we had to take the slow boat to Tanger - Morocco.
Waiting for the boat in Algeciras.
When we entered the port of Tanger the hassle with customs, police, harbour-patrol and other Moroccan authorities started. All kind of friendly Moroccans offer their services to do all the paperwork which is needed to get you through customs, at a small fee off course. All wear a badge and some kind of official looking clothing so it’s a bit confusing to find out who is officially related to the authorities, and who is not. We did the paperwork ourselves, which sometimes resulted in amusing conversations with the authorities. Most important to keep in mind: smile, try no to get upset, take your time, stay friendly, play dumb/ignorant and try to see the funny side of it.
It took about one and a half our for our group to pass customs and we could enter this complete other world. At first it is overwhelming; the crowded main streets filled with loaded donkey’s, horses with carriages, stray dogs, pedestrians, but most of all old cars (classics in Europe already like the Renault R4, Peugeot 404 and 504), Toyota HiLux and Mitsubishi pick-ups and overloaded trucks. The cars, trucks and even the horses with carriage have one thing in common however: a loud horn which they are very keen on using it, all the time and without any necessity. Luckily the Prado isn’t a very small car (and it has a horn as well), so they give way when needed.
Leaving Tangers driving southwards along the Atlantic coast the roads became less filled, and we stopped for a swim and drive on the beach. Leaving some air out of the tyres made the sand easier and coped better with the worse streets/tracks as well. No more smooth European asphalt roads for us the next 17 days.
A stop on the beach.
Buying some fresh melons.
The first night we stayed at a small camp-site in Larache. As a camp-site not much special; no spectacular scenery just a fenced-off place with a little playground for the children, a toilet and a shower. For us good enough to unfold our Hannibal tent and make ourselves a small but tasty dinner on the Cobb. Megan in the meanwhile played with some Moroccan children, they all were trying to pull her blond hair to see if it was real.
The shower was just a rusty pipe coming out of the wall spraying cold, smelly, water. The toilets….. well the toilets. We normally wouldn’t call them toilets but our perspective of cleanliness and proper sanitary, and the rare combination of these two, was subject of change the next weeks anyway.
Still trying to acclimatize (the temperature was rising to 45 degrees and we where trying to soak up all the new impressions) we headed to the city of Fes.Along the way we made a short visit to Volubilis. Volubilis is an archaeological site built by the Romans around the third century BC and features the best preserved ruins in this part of northern Africa. It is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Very impressive!
Unfortunately we arrived at Volubilis in the middle of the day and therefore it was too hot for an extensive visit.
One of the little ones even fainted. The rest of the day we took her with us in the Prado, out of the non-airco Defender.
We certainly will visit Morocco and Volubilis again in spring or autumn.
Driving through the holy Muslim city of Moulay Idriss Du Zerhoun.
In the late afternoon we arrived in Fes, Fes is one of the major ‘King cities’ in Morocco with a nice history and an ancient medina with narrow streets and hundreds of little shops.
The leather tannery in the Medina of Fes.
This leather tannery is at least 600 years old and the oldest leather tannery in the world. It’s a cooperation of 25 families. They use pigeon droppings for bleaching the leather, the smell is awful.
We stayed in Fes for 2 nights in a nice hotel with swimming pool for the kids and air-conditioned rooms.
The kids eating pizza in a fancy restaurant in Fes.
Fes at night.
Although Morocco is a very safe country every hotel has guards outside who will look after your car. They take their job very serious and guard your car all day and night long. This did cost us about 10 Dirham for 24 hours of surveillance (that’s less than € 1 / AUSD 1.70). They sleep outside in a carton box near your car.
The Moroccan inhabitants appreciate you visiting their country and are very friendly and helpful showing you around. Little children begging for a pen, candy or a Dirham does become a little bit annoying sometimes however. The new Moroccan king is improving education and stimulating everyone to go to school. Giving children little things, which they try to sell later again, is keeping them away from school and therefore not advised by the authorities.
Police is everywhere around, almost every crossing or roundabout in the country has his own set of policemen trying to control the traffic; they even have got laser-guns. Speeding tickets are a major source of income for the Moroccan authorities. They don’t tolerate much from the locals, a big mouth will let them grab for their baton immediately. For us western visitors however they are very friendly and correct.
After 2 relaxing days in Fez we drove to the camp site of Timnay, near Midelt, a great place to camp by the way; clean, trees for shade and nice people.
Along the way we vist a forrest with apes and conquered a couple of stony off-road tracks.
The Timnay camp site at Midelt.
Cooling problems.
Contact between the cars over CB and/or walkie-talkies is crucial for communicating about upcoming traffic, technical problems (not applicable on Land Cruisers of course), the need for refuelling, speed traps, the weather, etc. We had a CB installed in our car and brought a set of walkie-talkies of which we gave one piece to another family.
Setting the CB right, adjusting the antenna properly, is very important otherwise the transmitting range is very limited. It appeared we had done our preparations well, everything working like a dream, so it turned out we had to drive in the middle acting as a relay communications car between the first in group (over CB) to the last (via walkie-talkie).
The next day from the trip took us from Timnay to Merzouga, through the High and Mid Atlas with mountains reaching over 4000 meter, you can even ski here during winter. Merzouga is a small village about 10 kilometers from the Algerian border and most famous for Erg Chebbi, a Saharan erg (sand sea) and the main reason for our visit here: dune riding and gliding!
We stayed at hotel Mohayut, this hotel is situated next to the hight sand dunes of Erg Chebbi, offering a great starting place for daytrips through the dunes by 4x4 or Camel. The staff is very friendly and helpful and the traditional Moroccan food they serve is very good.
Hotel Mohayut in Merzouga.
The rooms have their own clean! toilet, shower and even air-conditioning. As a result of the giant gaps in the doors and walls the air-conditioning doesn’t stand a chance to cool things down though, providing noting more than a slight breeze. When the power failed during the night that gentle breeze was gone to....
The view from the balcony at Erg Chebbi is great.
The hotel even has a small swimming pool, very welcome with outside temperatures reaching 50 degrees.
Pool “The Spitting Camel”
Yes it is rather hot in the northern part of the Sahara during summer.....
The most houses over here, including our hotel, are build of straw, sand and camel droppings (?). These kind of buildings can’t withstand water very well and a couple of houses and parts of our hotel had flushed away two years ago when Merzouge flooded.
The walls
So when it started to rain (most unusual in this area) the hotel employees became very nervous obviously. But luckily the rain shower only lasted for 5 minutes, hardly letting the drops touch the hot ground.
It’s raining! (But it didn’t get any wetter than this)
Of course we did a small camel tour. The idea was to see the sun come up in the Sahara, so we left at 5.00AM and we (the camels that is) walked an hour into the Erg Chebbi dunes. We stopped, climbed up a large sand dune, sat down and waited......
Unfortunately it was a bit cloudy so it took a while for the sun to show up. But to see the colours of the sand change by the minute, and to experience the complete silence is worth the trip anyhow. I tried to capture the colours on camera but the photo's just don't do the colours justice.
Merzouga in the back.
Mark is speechless admiring the Sahara.
Back to the hotel.
The Red Camel Camper Crew searching for a passage.
More pictures of the Erg Chebbi raid will follow.
Searching for fossils, great fun for the kids!
After 2 nights at Merzouga it was time to move on again. Next time we will stay longer in Merzouga, playing in the dunes.
Leaving Merzouga, Erg Chebbi in the back.
The brave little fire truck, with raised air intake!
The air filter is situated between the front seats, the noise of the engine gasping for air was deffening, so the created their own snorkel made from rain pipe.
The initial plan was to set up a bivak in the northern part of the Sahara. Unfortunately the wind was to strong this day, the sand was everywhere. We decided to stay this night at a camp site in Nekob, which was surrounded by a wall. The idea was that this wall would keep the wind out. The problem however was the wall being only 2 meters high, so our roof top tent was sticking out above the wall and we catched the full blown wind.
At 2.00 PM we were forced to leave our bed and remove the fly sheet because of the flapping noise.
After a short night the next part of the trip took us to Ait Benhaddou. The trip led us over rocky pistes, along green valleys and we had to cross some cold (refreshing) rivers. This was Morocco at it's best!
Stunning views.
Parts of the piste were flooded by a river.
Keeping our feet dry.
Defenders can swim as well.
Ait Benhaddou has some beautiful examples of kasbahs, and several films have been shot here, including; Lawrence of Arabia, The Jewel of the Nile, Gladiator and Alexander.
The camp site we stayed at isn't worth mentioning, dirty toilets and showers and a @sshole manager shouting to his employees all day. I should have known better eating here........ Food poisoning. So I haven't seen much of the scenery, just laying in my tent or chair trying to sleep and feeling very sorry for myself. Better luck next year.
The air filter needed some attention.
My state of sickness continued the next day when we had to ride to Marrakech. I took some medication subscribed by Peter (our guide who is a veterinarian in 'real life' by the way) and managed to drive the piste from Ait Benhaddou to Telouet. This is the former route of the karavans from the Sahara over the Atlas mountains to Marrakech. The piste is around 35 KM long, very rocky and it took us 4 hours to get to the end, where the tarmac road started again.
The passengers of this LC were not so fortunate. This was a French group with a local driver who rolled down the slope 5 meter below. Two passengers severely injured. It took the ambulance 2 hours to arrive at this site, driving over the difficult piste, and 2 bumpy hours back to the hospital again. It made us aware of the risks again.
Local transportation
Parking the car to let oncoming traffic pass.
When we finally entered tarmac again Angelique took over and drove us through the Atlas over the Tizi N Tichka pass (2260 M) towards Marrakech. I can't recall having seen this pass, being to sick. Peter took over from Angelique when we entered Marrakech because of the chaotic traffic.
We stayed in Marrakech for 2 nights in a hotel. I suffered from high fever, diarrhea and vomiting so haven't seen much of Marrakech. The last evening I managed to get out of bed, went for a hamburger at McDonalds (normally you can't go wrong with McDonalds food, 'food poisoning wise' that is) and we visited the Djemaa el Fna square. This is the largest traditional market (souk) in Morocco and also one of the busiest squares in Africa. To much people here for me, still feeling a bit like a zombie so we left in a hurry and took a horse-drawn carriage back to the hotel again.
Djemaa el Fna square at night.
This post is still under construction :!:
We are a family of three: Angelique MY70, Megan MY00 and Daan MY69 and we live in Biddinghuizen, The Netherlands.
Our transport is a Toyota LandCruiser 120VX 3.0 D-4D. (also known as J12, KDJ-120, Prado or even Barbie).
The LC is equipped with:
- Pirelli Scorpion ATR 275/70x17 LT version
- Hannibal aluminium roofrack
- Hannibal roof top tent
- Frontrunner 40 litre water tank
- Dual battery setup: National Luna Portable Power-Pack with Victron 100Ah AGM battery
- Victron 220V inverter
- Waeco fridge
- 7 aluminium Zarges boxes for clothing, camping gear, food and tools
- 27MC (CB) and walkie-talkies
We started our trip on the 12th of July in Biddinghuizen (NL), returned on the 9th of August and covered a total of around 8000 KM.
The route
Of course we couldn’t pass Paris without a visit to Euro Disney for Megan.
Unfortunately we planned our visit on the 14th of July, a national holiday in France, so it was a bit crowded.....
The evening parade was great!
The following days we drove further down south along the east coast of Spain and stayed on a several nice camp-sites, enjoying the good weather and facilities.
Enjoying a lunch in Spain near Barcelona.
On July the 20th the laid-back part of our trip ended when we arrived in Jimena de la Frontera (Southern part of Spain) where we teamed up with our travel companions.
Our team consisted of 3 other families and the 'guide'family:
- Peter, Yvon, Sam and Levie. Our guides from www.4x4adventuretravel.nl drive a 20 year old Toyota HiAce 4WD formally used as a fire-truck in the Netherlands but rebuilded to a small camper.
- Peter, Evelien, Puck and Joy driving a Defender 110.
- Andre, Karin, Florine, Hannah and Jonne driving a Defender 90 with trailer.
- Mark, Marinka, Luke and Daan drive a real nice Defender 130 with self made camper unit.
The total group consisted of 10 adults, and 10 children in the age from 2 to 12.
The kids playing in the river near the camp-site in Spain.
On July 22 after a last visit to the Carrefour (a giant mall) for some last-time western food shopping we headed for Algeciras. Algeciras is situated in Spain at the most southern tip of Europe and here we had to take the slow boat to Tanger - Morocco.
Waiting for the boat in Algeciras.
When we entered the port of Tanger the hassle with customs, police, harbour-patrol and other Moroccan authorities started. All kind of friendly Moroccans offer their services to do all the paperwork which is needed to get you through customs, at a small fee off course. All wear a badge and some kind of official looking clothing so it’s a bit confusing to find out who is officially related to the authorities, and who is not. We did the paperwork ourselves, which sometimes resulted in amusing conversations with the authorities. Most important to keep in mind: smile, try no to get upset, take your time, stay friendly, play dumb/ignorant and try to see the funny side of it.
It took about one and a half our for our group to pass customs and we could enter this complete other world. At first it is overwhelming; the crowded main streets filled with loaded donkey’s, horses with carriages, stray dogs, pedestrians, but most of all old cars (classics in Europe already like the Renault R4, Peugeot 404 and 504), Toyota HiLux and Mitsubishi pick-ups and overloaded trucks. The cars, trucks and even the horses with carriage have one thing in common however: a loud horn which they are very keen on using it, all the time and without any necessity. Luckily the Prado isn’t a very small car (and it has a horn as well), so they give way when needed.
Leaving Tangers driving southwards along the Atlantic coast the roads became less filled, and we stopped for a swim and drive on the beach. Leaving some air out of the tyres made the sand easier and coped better with the worse streets/tracks as well. No more smooth European asphalt roads for us the next 17 days.
A stop on the beach.
Buying some fresh melons.
The first night we stayed at a small camp-site in Larache. As a camp-site not much special; no spectacular scenery just a fenced-off place with a little playground for the children, a toilet and a shower. For us good enough to unfold our Hannibal tent and make ourselves a small but tasty dinner on the Cobb. Megan in the meanwhile played with some Moroccan children, they all were trying to pull her blond hair to see if it was real.
The shower was just a rusty pipe coming out of the wall spraying cold, smelly, water. The toilets….. well the toilets. We normally wouldn’t call them toilets but our perspective of cleanliness and proper sanitary, and the rare combination of these two, was subject of change the next weeks anyway.
Still trying to acclimatize (the temperature was rising to 45 degrees and we where trying to soak up all the new impressions) we headed to the city of Fes.Along the way we made a short visit to Volubilis. Volubilis is an archaeological site built by the Romans around the third century BC and features the best preserved ruins in this part of northern Africa. It is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Very impressive!
Unfortunately we arrived at Volubilis in the middle of the day and therefore it was too hot for an extensive visit.
One of the little ones even fainted. The rest of the day we took her with us in the Prado, out of the non-airco Defender.
We certainly will visit Morocco and Volubilis again in spring or autumn.
Driving through the holy Muslim city of Moulay Idriss Du Zerhoun.
In the late afternoon we arrived in Fes, Fes is one of the major ‘King cities’ in Morocco with a nice history and an ancient medina with narrow streets and hundreds of little shops.
The leather tannery in the Medina of Fes.
This leather tannery is at least 600 years old and the oldest leather tannery in the world. It’s a cooperation of 25 families. They use pigeon droppings for bleaching the leather, the smell is awful.
We stayed in Fes for 2 nights in a nice hotel with swimming pool for the kids and air-conditioned rooms.
The kids eating pizza in a fancy restaurant in Fes.
Fes at night.
Although Morocco is a very safe country every hotel has guards outside who will look after your car. They take their job very serious and guard your car all day and night long. This did cost us about 10 Dirham for 24 hours of surveillance (that’s less than € 1 / AUSD 1.70). They sleep outside in a carton box near your car.
The Moroccan inhabitants appreciate you visiting their country and are very friendly and helpful showing you around. Little children begging for a pen, candy or a Dirham does become a little bit annoying sometimes however. The new Moroccan king is improving education and stimulating everyone to go to school. Giving children little things, which they try to sell later again, is keeping them away from school and therefore not advised by the authorities.
Police is everywhere around, almost every crossing or roundabout in the country has his own set of policemen trying to control the traffic; they even have got laser-guns. Speeding tickets are a major source of income for the Moroccan authorities. They don’t tolerate much from the locals, a big mouth will let them grab for their baton immediately. For us western visitors however they are very friendly and correct.
After 2 relaxing days in Fez we drove to the camp site of Timnay, near Midelt, a great place to camp by the way; clean, trees for shade and nice people.
Along the way we vist a forrest with apes and conquered a couple of stony off-road tracks.
The Timnay camp site at Midelt.
Cooling problems.
Contact between the cars over CB and/or walkie-talkies is crucial for communicating about upcoming traffic, technical problems (not applicable on Land Cruisers of course), the need for refuelling, speed traps, the weather, etc. We had a CB installed in our car and brought a set of walkie-talkies of which we gave one piece to another family.
Setting the CB right, adjusting the antenna properly, is very important otherwise the transmitting range is very limited. It appeared we had done our preparations well, everything working like a dream, so it turned out we had to drive in the middle acting as a relay communications car between the first in group (over CB) to the last (via walkie-talkie).
The next day from the trip took us from Timnay to Merzouga, through the High and Mid Atlas with mountains reaching over 4000 meter, you can even ski here during winter. Merzouga is a small village about 10 kilometers from the Algerian border and most famous for Erg Chebbi, a Saharan erg (sand sea) and the main reason for our visit here: dune riding and gliding!
We stayed at hotel Mohayut, this hotel is situated next to the hight sand dunes of Erg Chebbi, offering a great starting place for daytrips through the dunes by 4x4 or Camel. The staff is very friendly and helpful and the traditional Moroccan food they serve is very good.
Hotel Mohayut in Merzouga.
The rooms have their own clean! toilet, shower and even air-conditioning. As a result of the giant gaps in the doors and walls the air-conditioning doesn’t stand a chance to cool things down though, providing noting more than a slight breeze. When the power failed during the night that gentle breeze was gone to....
The view from the balcony at Erg Chebbi is great.
The hotel even has a small swimming pool, very welcome with outside temperatures reaching 50 degrees.
Pool “The Spitting Camel”
Yes it is rather hot in the northern part of the Sahara during summer.....
The most houses over here, including our hotel, are build of straw, sand and camel droppings (?). These kind of buildings can’t withstand water very well and a couple of houses and parts of our hotel had flushed away two years ago when Merzouge flooded.
The walls
So when it started to rain (most unusual in this area) the hotel employees became very nervous obviously. But luckily the rain shower only lasted for 5 minutes, hardly letting the drops touch the hot ground.
It’s raining! (But it didn’t get any wetter than this)
Of course we did a small camel tour. The idea was to see the sun come up in the Sahara, so we left at 5.00AM and we (the camels that is) walked an hour into the Erg Chebbi dunes. We stopped, climbed up a large sand dune, sat down and waited......
Unfortunately it was a bit cloudy so it took a while for the sun to show up. But to see the colours of the sand change by the minute, and to experience the complete silence is worth the trip anyhow. I tried to capture the colours on camera but the photo's just don't do the colours justice.
Merzouga in the back.
Mark is speechless admiring the Sahara.
Back to the hotel.
The Red Camel Camper Crew searching for a passage.
More pictures of the Erg Chebbi raid will follow.
Searching for fossils, great fun for the kids!
After 2 nights at Merzouga it was time to move on again. Next time we will stay longer in Merzouga, playing in the dunes.
Leaving Merzouga, Erg Chebbi in the back.
The brave little fire truck, with raised air intake!
The air filter is situated between the front seats, the noise of the engine gasping for air was deffening, so the created their own snorkel made from rain pipe.
The initial plan was to set up a bivak in the northern part of the Sahara. Unfortunately the wind was to strong this day, the sand was everywhere. We decided to stay this night at a camp site in Nekob, which was surrounded by a wall. The idea was that this wall would keep the wind out. The problem however was the wall being only 2 meters high, so our roof top tent was sticking out above the wall and we catched the full blown wind.
At 2.00 PM we were forced to leave our bed and remove the fly sheet because of the flapping noise.
After a short night the next part of the trip took us to Ait Benhaddou. The trip led us over rocky pistes, along green valleys and we had to cross some cold (refreshing) rivers. This was Morocco at it's best!
Stunning views.
Parts of the piste were flooded by a river.
Keeping our feet dry.
Defenders can swim as well.
Ait Benhaddou has some beautiful examples of kasbahs, and several films have been shot here, including; Lawrence of Arabia, The Jewel of the Nile, Gladiator and Alexander.
The camp site we stayed at isn't worth mentioning, dirty toilets and showers and a @sshole manager shouting to his employees all day. I should have known better eating here........ Food poisoning. So I haven't seen much of the scenery, just laying in my tent or chair trying to sleep and feeling very sorry for myself. Better luck next year.
The air filter needed some attention.
My state of sickness continued the next day when we had to ride to Marrakech. I took some medication subscribed by Peter (our guide who is a veterinarian in 'real life' by the way) and managed to drive the piste from Ait Benhaddou to Telouet. This is the former route of the karavans from the Sahara over the Atlas mountains to Marrakech. The piste is around 35 KM long, very rocky and it took us 4 hours to get to the end, where the tarmac road started again.
The passengers of this LC were not so fortunate. This was a French group with a local driver who rolled down the slope 5 meter below. Two passengers severely injured. It took the ambulance 2 hours to arrive at this site, driving over the difficult piste, and 2 bumpy hours back to the hospital again. It made us aware of the risks again.
Local transportation
Parking the car to let oncoming traffic pass.
When we finally entered tarmac again Angelique took over and drove us through the Atlas over the Tizi N Tichka pass (2260 M) towards Marrakech. I can't recall having seen this pass, being to sick. Peter took over from Angelique when we entered Marrakech because of the chaotic traffic.
We stayed in Marrakech for 2 nights in a hotel. I suffered from high fever, diarrhea and vomiting so haven't seen much of Marrakech. The last evening I managed to get out of bed, went for a hamburger at McDonalds (normally you can't go wrong with McDonalds food, 'food poisoning wise' that is) and we visited the Djemaa el Fna square. This is the largest traditional market (souk) in Morocco and also one of the busiest squares in Africa. To much people here for me, still feeling a bit like a zombie so we left in a hurry and took a horse-drawn carriage back to the hotel again.
Djemaa el Fna square at night.
This post is still under construction :!:
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