Africa-trip 2010/2011. Spain/Morocco

We started our trip on Friday the 17^th. of December.We, this is Lena and me. We met in a traveller forum. She wanted to go to Africa and I was looking for a travell compaignon.

We met once before and thought ok, let´s go for it together.We checked the prices for the ferries to Morocco before we left and decided to buy the ticket in the port. On the motorway close to Malaga there was sign „tickets Algeciras-Ceuta“. We stoped-by and asked for the price and surprise, the ticket was 50€ cheaper than the cheapest we found in the net.The ticket for 2 persons and the Landrover was 109€. So when ever you want to go to Morocco don´t buy your ticket in advance.The car; we have just paid for the tickets and went back towards the car when I discovered a big amount of oil underneeth the car. Oh no I thought, we just made 300km and already the first problem. There was no time to fix it neither. We had to go on to Algeciras to catch the ferry. As far as I could see it was the engine bleeding system where the oil was coming from. We stoped twice to check the oil level but strangly the level was ok even the leak seemed to get bigger.Anyway, we arrived in Algeciras two hours in advance. It was not busy at all. The ferry was not even have full. I wanted to stay on deck to watch the lights of Europe getting smaller and finally they disappeared. It was freezing cold so I went inside and when I came back on deck, voila,
Ceuta.Ceuta looks already arabic. The Guardia was very present when we left the ferry but they didn´t even look around when we passed. We where the last leaving the ferry and than the tires hit african ground. We found a nice place directly at the sea where we spent the first night.The first we did the next morning was filling up the fuel tank. 97,9 cents for 1liter of fuel. Unfortunatly we had some heavy rain. Funny to follow signs „Morocco“. I thought it might be complicated to pass the border but it is not very spectacular. Only we got ripped off like green horns. My mistake, there was this guy turning up telling us he is going to help us with the documents. But the only thing he did was giving us some forms and said with his signature we will pass directly and bla...! At the end it turned out it was not even the right form. We spent 15€ for nothing. The funny thing is we were not even close to the border, haha, 1:0 for him.At the „real“ border we met a very competent guy who really led us through all the paper work. He charged 10€. But he was worth his money. Checkpoint, no problem and here we are, in Morocco.The only thing they asked for were hunting rifles.Just after the border I thought I couldn´t trust my eyes. Every second car was an old Mercedes. Not only two or three, without choke it was hundreds of them and it was like this all the way through Morocco. Every taxi stand looked like a meeting point for classic Mercedes. The condition some time is not very good but they all go, and always overloaded. Up to 8 people in the car and lagguage on the roof.We wanted to go to Fes. We looked on the map and took the road through the monrains, the so called Rif. It was so funny, almost every single person wanted to sell us drugs. We were followed by cars, overtaken by cars and than they tried to stop us, once I said, take care they are going to throw the drugs into the car. But all of them friendly.

We stopped for fuel in the middle of the mountains. They are spectacular. Only the weather was rainy and cold. As soon as you stop your car you are surounded by people, all trying to sell. It must be smokers paradise. Even with a bad exchange rate for Dirham the price for fuel was 72cents.We met this young guy who went shopping with us. We invited him for a cafe and another guy just sat down with us inviting himself. We were invited to stay in someones house for a couple of days but we wanted to go on. When we left the village it was amazing. We were surounded by ten and more cars, all old Mercedes, all of them wanted to sell and than all of a sudden they were all gone.Outside Fes we had the first police check point. They are all over the country, but all of them are very friendly and we never had to show any documents.We just entered Fes when we had this moped next to us. I just heared the word camping. I put the window down and I was talking to this guy while we were driving, holding up all the trafic behind us. This guy was leading us to a campside outside Fes. The campside was very quite. I counted 7 campers. We parked the car under some old eucalyptus trees, very nice, but the toillets and the showers, uff. The toilet I was sitting on was falling over to the side. I opened a tab and on the other side of the room the shower started to work, very funny. Hot water, no way. At the end I asked a guy from Berlin and he led me to the only working shower on the campside.The next morning I discovered two problems. The first was a flat tyre and the second was more serious. Oil was coming out of the rear right brake drum. Not a very good start I thought. The third day and problems again. Funny enough the seals were changed. This is a Landrover.After I put a spare wheel on (the hi-lift jack was doing an excellent job) we were heading for Rabat to get the visa for Mauretania. This time we changed money in a banc office to get a better exchange rate. I don´t know why people think Morocco is a dry and hot country.
The only thing we had was rain and wind and cold. And it is a very green country as well. The temperature for example is much colder then in Almeria/Spain and much more rain. The rain was the main reason why we didn´t go to see Fes.We slept close to Rabat and the morning we got up early and drove into town. The mauretanian embassy is in the so called cartier administrative. A very quite area with 10 or more embassies.We practicly jumped out of the car and queued for the visa. While Lena was queueing I went for photocopies and informations about the visa for the other countries. It is really amazing how much information you get in only one hour by people they have been in Africa already. All the researches in the net were just a waste of time. Here in the queue was the center of information. And the people, most of them very interesting, all of them characters. This woman from Sydney for example. She is travelling the world since 30years by herown. Travelling only in buses, trains or autostop. She said she never had a problem. Than the other guy who was going to Ghambia with his girlfriend, selling two Mercedes vans. He said he is doing this trip already 30times. Than all the French people, and everybody has to tell a story. Anyway, after 1hour in the queue our papers were accepted and we had to wait 1 day to pic up the passport and the visa.I used the day to fix the car. I just did it on the side of the road where we were parked. This is funny anyway, many people are just staying in their vehicules to wait for the visa. It is like a little campside. Everybody is sitting outside chatting and having a good time.
And there is one guy looking after the place. But he is cool. He makes sure you get your place back, is helping with information etc. The next day after queueing we had the passports with the visa. The fuel prices with the official exchange rate dropped to 65 cents.We were heading for Casablanca which is maybe the most known town in the world. After some shopping we decided to go as far as possible. We took the coast road which was maybe not a good idea. The wind was getting stronger and stronger. It was so strong I needed to shift in third gear and the car was only doing 50 km/h with full throttle on the flat bits not to mention the mountains. And than the rain started. One of the strongest I have ever experienced. It was like driving through a waterfall. The roads were flooded and the fuel consumption went up. Luckily we found a station in the middle of nowhere. I was soaking wet in 20seconds, and the whole roof of the station was moving in the wind. I thought it might collaps. No choke later we passed some street light who were just crashing down to the ground. I talk about a lamppost maybe 20meters high. Once we had to turn round after the water was almost reaching the bottom of the doors. What a drive. In Sika we stayed for the night. Not a very beautiful town.In the night we had a wonderful hailstorm. I don´t know if this weather is normal, but all the people behave like it is a total normal thing. We just wanted to head off the next morning when the next heavy rain started and turned the town in 5 min into a river. Amazing. We continued on the cost road and arrived around 6pm in Agadir. We had the atlantic ocean constantly on our right hand side. We were driving through very beautiful areas almost totaly abandonned. Between Sika and Agadir they grow the argan tree. Looks a little bit like an olive tree, even the fruit looks similar to olives. We bought one liter of argan oil, what a smell. It smells like nuts. Like a mix between hazelnuts, walnuts and almonds. I can´t wait to cook the first meal with it.Agadir was disappointing. I heared so much about Agadir, but all it is is a tourist center with Mc. Donald, KFC and all this kind of stuff, not nice.

But I found a tyre place where they changed the innertube. We ended up on a camp-side which was not very nice neither but we needed to do some shopping the next day before we were leaving for the desert.Since we had the heavy rain I had this squeaking noise somewhere from the engine compartment.While Lena was shopping I had a closer look. Bad surprise, one bracket of the vaccum pump was broken. There was a huge hole in the pump and for this reason no oil left and squeaking. Hmm, what to do. I took the pump off and sealed it as good as I could with silicon and put grease instead of oil in the pump. I don´t know how long this will last but fo now it worked. When we were in Rabat waiting for the visa everybody was telling us about „petit cadeau“. These are little presents who are expected on some checkpoints or on borders. Sure we didn´t have anything. But we went to the bazar in Agadir. I am still laughing when I think about it. The just try to rip you off. Sure, for them we are just some other stupid tourists. It is nerve-racking. And these guys stick like glue. Once they´ve got you, you can´t get rid of them. And they have all brothers and uncles who make very good prices. Once I asked the guy who took care of us when he led us to another shop if the owner is a brother of him as well. He was laughing and he said in our religion we are all brothers. We left the bazar with sunglases, t-shirts, tennis socks and so on. I hope they will be helpful when we need them.
The picture on the left shows the entrance to the bazar. Ok, back on the road. From Agadir we went to Tiznit where we stoped at a station and where we met Juergen, a german guy who was since quite a while in the area looking for greyhounds. He told us a few places where it is possible to stay for the night. After Tiznit the country is just turning in to a desert. Almost no population and just rocks. And the fuel prices are dropping. With a good exchange rate we paid 47 cents for one liter diesel. We thought we just do maybe another 100km but at the end we made almost 300km. To drive at night was not a good idea, and we decided not to do it again. There are checkpoints al over the place. Always the same questions, nationality, profession and destination. After Tiznit we had to show pass ports every time. Most of them were very friendly but the later the night the more uncomfortable we felt. They started to ask for a „fish“. This is french and means document. I had no idea what they ment until one of them was telling us all they want is a sheat of paper with our details like pass port number, our profession, our destination, the number they stemped into the pass port at the border, the day we arrived in Morocco and the number plate of the car. We just wrote this by hand on a sheat of paper and they accepted it.Once they tricked us. It was in the middle of nowhere between Guelmim and Tan-Tan. On one control they said I had not respected the stop sign. When he asked me for my driving license I knew we are going to have problems. At the end all they wanted was money. It was three of them, I had to step out of the car to negociate. At the end I gave them 100Dirham which is 9 Euro. One of them buggers invited us to spend the night at his house but nono we went on. Luckily we were close to El Quaita. From Juergen we knew there is a camp-site. At the next controll point I asked the guy how to find it. We arrived at 1am. We just entered the site and the next morning I was dealing with the owner who was from Mauretania. On this camp-site we only met french people. You have to imagine this site is a walled in peace of desert with nothing around it. Ok, the beach is in sight. I asked one of the campers how long they are staying and they said 6!!!month. What the hell are you doing on a place like this in six month. I asked them and they said, oh, we are going fishing and we keep ourselves busy. I don´t know. I would not even stay six days. One night is actually the limit. Anyway, we went on. We went through Tarfaya and Laayoune to El Quaid. The whole day we had the
same scenario. Just rocks and the sea on our right hand side. Click on the video, it gives you an impression. Every two to three hours a small village and that´s it.Only Laayoune is different. It looks like a very modern city. But on the other hand it is packed with military forces. Every second person we saw was either a member of army or police force. A couple af weeks ago they had some 100 people killed here. Not really a nice place to stay. And two checkpoints into town and two out of town. We arrived on the place we were looking for just before nightfall. We left early the next morning and went via Boujdour and Echtoucan to Dakhla. This is a 500km distance. The only interuption from the monotony we had after Boujdour where we stopped at a very beautiful beach.

were overtaking two guys on bicycles. They were from England heading to cape town. Later we overtook two more. French guys heading for Senegal. We had a small chat with them. They told us about a camp-site in Dakhla. Dakhla is a dead end. When you turn off the main road towards Dakhla the landscape is changing. Instead of boring rock desert there are nice sand dunes. It is a surfers paradis. We saw at least 100 of them. We only had three or four checkpoints today but they started to ask for beer and whisky. I thought maybe it is time for a petit cadeau. But as long as not really necessary I don´t give them nothing. Outside Dakhla we found a beautiful place directly at the beach were we decided to stay for the night. It was a little bit windy thou but what a stunning sun set. And than the stars, wow. The reason we went to Dakhla was to meet people who are heading as well to Mauretania. It takes only one day from Dahkla to the mauretanian border.On the camp site in Dahkla we met an italian couple with their mother in law and a swiss couple, but they were all staying in Morocco. Later at night Ralph, Odo and Laurance turned up. They came from Koeln in Germany and were travelling in a Landrover Discovery heading for Mauretania to sell the car. Ralph was an experienced Africa traveller. He had some interessing news for us. And....they had beer. Not cold but very, very good. In the evening we checked out Dahkla. Dahkla is a beautiful small town and the people were very friendly and helpful. There is some sort of indoor market where they sell tasty fruits and vegetable. I was asking myself where they are growing the vegetables in the middle of the desert but on the road out of town we discovered some huge greenhouses, voila, there they come from, and from somewhere further north of the country. We had a basket, maybe 3kg full of all sorts of vegetables and all we paid was 1Euro. The fruits like Oranges and pomegranate were almost on a european price niveau. But so good. I really forgot the taste of a good tomatoe or a paprika. Delicious. We had a very windy night and for this reason not a very good sleep, and anyway I was a little bit nervous to pass the border. We heard all sorts of horror stories. In the morning we changed some money to fill up the tank and to buy water and bread. The bread by the way is as well very good in Morocco. It is round and maybe 25cm in diameter, made out of leaven and cost not even 10cents. Money exchange in Morocco is easy. They like the Euro. Whereever you go the Euro is a welcome currency. But the exchange rate is only 10 Dirham for 1 Euro. The better solution is to go to a banc to get the official course which is exactly 10% more. Back to the road, today the landscape was even more boring than the other days. Lena was dozing most of the time and I started to drive zic-zac, trying not to fall asleep. Sometimes for almost one hour we didn´t see a soul. It seems like the end of the world. And hot, we had 27°C. It summer it must feel like driving in an oven. Finally at 4pm we arrived at the border. The plan was actually to fill up the tanks and the second jerry-can, to stay for the night and to cross the border in the morning. But you know plans somehow never work. The last petrol station was shut. I thought to go back to the one before but it would have ment to go almost 100km back. So, no fuel, luckily the second fuel tank and one jerry-can was filled. The border looks like an abandonned western town. They close at 6pm, so we had only two hours, but spontaniously we went for it. What a procedure. The first guy has to fill out a form, for sure he is charging for this, than another guy is checking the form.

After the check two guys searched the car and finally the forth guy gave us the stemp of departure. The best part is the no man´s land between Morocco and Mauretania. You cannot imagine the condition of the track. Hundreds of scraped cars are lining the track. Luckily we had a 4x4. Other people were always waiting until they built up a group and than they were going together to pull each other out of the sand. Not far in front of us someone was hitting the sump of his car and lost all the engine oil. The track is four km long. Even lorries and coaches have to pass on this track. To be honest it is not even a track. Just rocks with sand in between. Finally we entered the douane in Mauretania.
The link underneeth will lead you to the picassa photo page

http://picasaweb.google.com/106213480355655195189/AfricaTrip20102011SpainMorocco?authkey=Gv1sRgCLntxtadwZi2RQ#