Southern Morocco
5.1. – 5.2.15
Morocco offers tremendous landscapes
The gorge of Timguelchte near Tafraoute belongs to the fantastic gorges of Morocco. We definitely enjoyed it though the drive through one of the very narrow little villages was quite demanding. It seems like those tracks are built for Defender only ;-))
However, we went on thoroughly happy; here and there we ducked our heads when nasty branches hit our MANrock. But the longer it took the more challenging the road became, as it was carved out of the rock which forced us to move towards the yawning abyss – as otherwise our truck would have hit the rock at the top. We certainly wanted to avoid that as, as we didn’t rent a convertible! The original track has been washed away during the rainfalls of last November and now the road was alike the Via del Muerte (road of death) in Bolivia. Nevertheless we tried it, but when one wheel started moving clearly towards the abyss, Gabi left the vehicle, which balanced it to the other side, so that we made it. We were so relieved when we arrived at the bottom of the gorge in the Oued. Unfortunately the track unravelled all of a sudden. We decided to drive along the bottom of the river itself. Once we found an entry into the river, Gabi took the camera and walked down to the other side of the river. Despite my outranging driver expertise I didn’t make it. The back of the truck got stuck in the bank. Even all differential locks couldn’t help me. That said it became obvious that we had to do some shovel work!
Just started work as out of the blue 2 locals came along and offered to help. They explained us that here was dead end, there was no further track anymore. We turned around and faced the fact, that we had to drive back this horrible road we hoped we had left behind us.
In our books we found the description of another beautiful gorge. We took one of the marked tracks to the entry point. Here we got the real stuff: steep, narrow, exciting. The landscape was beautiful and the locals of the area are really nice: no tourist behaviour but just an open friendly smile and invitation for tea. They even spoke some French so having a conversation was easy. Down at the bottom in the bed of the river – the Oued – it became more and more narrow again. We decided – despite our old age we are able to base decisions on former learnings ;-)) – to turn around and drive back. What a pity that we don’t have our ATV with us.
All books, travel-blogs and maps tell us that there is a wonderful track from Souk-el-Had-d’Affela-Irhir to Icht. So we wanted to crack on with that road, but couldn’t find the described track. We started asking the locals and no matter who we asked the answer was always the same: there is no track, but there is a new one starting from Izerbi; after 5 km you have to turn left. Although our GPS didn’t know this road, we did find it and drove it, it was really great. We can only recommend it: breath taking views and no traffic at all….
One of the highlights for sure is Erg Chegaga. This desert is huge, empty and just amazing. Originally planned as sandbox for elderly men with big vehicles it allows those driver who don’t want to make a fool of themselves amongst the millions of off-road tourists at Erg Chebbi to test and experience sand driving a bit. Of course we did test our truck a bit and got stuck in the very first very small dune already. Following our rule not to take sand steel plates with us to the desert (of course we will have some with us for Iceland) we got offered a training session with our shovels.
Our learning was to even more reduce the air in the tires and to use all of our various differential locks. In addition this wonderful playground offers amazing camping grounds for overnight stays as well.
One evening a soft and gentle little wind came up, strong enough to carry billions of little sand grains everywhere where you don’t want and need them. We detected that we just experienced our first desert sand storm!
After a while when we arrived at the first overnight place without sand again, Gabi detected all the funny and unexpected places throughout MANroc where sand can hide! Cleaning took her hours. After all these efforts the surface was nice and shiny again. A few days later we were on the road again. It was sunny, warm, so Gabi opened the ventilator in the driver cabin with the result that the driver couldn’t see the front window anymore. When the sand settled, it looked the same as before the cleaning exercise. Very efficient!
Technology and us
With pride we acquired by purchase the software QuoVadis and installed it to our new computer. This is our navigation system. Unfortunately this program is designed for younger people. By the time when we manage to upload the correct map, we are already on a new map on our GPS. But hey, every day our learning curve becomes steeper and now we are able to join our route real time on our Topo map.
Next level was to buy a book from Gandini, which offers not only descriptions but also waypoints. Now after a month we are so experienced that we are able to combine waypoints to a full route and follow it even by car. We are so proud!
Track GP3 is an easy one if you listen to Gandini. And at the beginning we were in complete agreement. We found the right track, enjoyed the landscape – the desert was really unnaturally green this year because of the former rainfalls – and the driving itself. As all of a sudden in the Oued – without notice – a mellow sand passage appeared. Once you are in it you don’t have a chance: there is no time to change gear or to deflate the tire. The only thing you can do is put your foot on the gas and drive as quickly as you can. We did it. Gabi was silent! After 5km soft sand the driver could have taken a shower, but… hey Peter is coolman ;-))
Deflate tires is easy: put a bit pressure on the valve wait a bit and it’s done. But inflate a tire is a different story. MANroc unfortunately doesn’t have an automatic system to inflate tires and no connection to the compressor. We need to do it the good old way with the break pipe. If you have pressure on the break pipe, you don’t have pressure on the break. This means that the truck is not secured. Whenever we had to fill our tires with air, Gabi stood in front of the truck to make sure that MANroc doesn’t roll away.
Even before we started our journey a lot of people told us, that travelling is not having holidays. It’s more like work: there are so many things you have to do, to repair, change etc. Problem is: we detest do-it-yourself!!!! We’d rather prefer to have holidays. That feeling changed immediately when we saw a medium sized flood in our cabin. Acting quickly was the mission: stop the water pump and then trying to find the leak. Following the water pipeline we found the leak at the hot water boiler.
Luckily the owner of the camp site could help us with a rubber seal. Since then we live in a dry and cosy cabin again.
Food in Morocco
In the mountains north of Tafraout we found a beautiful old Kashba “Agadir Tizourgane”. As the nights up here are still quite cold – close to zero degree – and the rooms are not heated we decided to sleep in our cosy MANroc home. But we accepted the offer to have dinner in the Kashba. During dinner time they heated the dining room a bit with a tiny little oven. The food was good, but we had to eat with 3 layers of pullover plus our barbour jackets and scarfs on.
Morocco is designed for warm weather. No room, no restaurant is heated. Furthermore they tend to leave all windows and doors open. We had to learn therefore to put basically all our warm cloth’s on if we wanted to go for dinner.
In Zagora we met Said a friend of friends of us. He offered to demonstrate how to cook a true couscous in our truck. Of course we accepted and went for shopping in the local souk (market). We got all ingredients quite quickly only the purchase of a special couscous cooking pan was a bit time-consuming. But we got it!
Luckily we could give Said the pan as we don’t have the space to take it with us.
Back in our cabin Said showed Gabi step-by-step how to cook this traditional meal. We filmed it, so that hopefully generations after us can also enjoy this Moroccan dish.
In Merzouga next to Erg Chebbi we could taste “Méchoui” – lamb in the clay oven. Also in this case we had to wait quite long. It takes hours to prepare the lamb. I don’t know how the folks here can stand it that long, it smells so good from the first minute onwards. The six of us (3 couples on the camp ground) had to buy one entire lamb. We didn’t want to see it alive and trusted the cook to choose the right one. Later on the meat was marinated with herbs for 2 hours and afterwards cooked in the oven for 2.5 hours. The result was fantastic – as the atmosphere around us: a little fire in front of the Berber tent, where were eating.
In the middle of the desert we camped on the ground of a farmer family. They did explain and show us there entire farm and invited us for tea. Really charming and welcoming. Unfortunately we could only talk with Malika as she was the only one of the family who speaks French. Every day Malika bakes the bread for the family in their little bakery house. And today she did one for us as well. Malika allowed us to follow the whole procedure with the camera and we now know why the flat bread has a little hole in the middle on the top. The bread swells in the oven like a ball; to create a true flat bread they have to let the air go: that’s the little hole for.
All our colleagues are in Morocco
Back in Switzerland already we made an appointment with Rosmarie and Fritz to see them in Morocco. When we got closer to each other we started sending short text messages and agreed to meet in Foum-Zguid. On the way to that village, about 3 days before the agreed date, we saw a cool truck near Tata. We speeded up to get closer to that vehicle. Coming nearer we detected that this is the truck from Rosmarie and Fritz! Amazing. We had a great time with them travelling through the South and East.
Another story: we camp in Icht. A pickup with a removable on-top cabine passed along. Swiss plate. In Seelisberg in Switzerland we were attending an off-road course some months ago. And we remembered a similar car being there as well. And indeed Jacqueline, Pekka and their dog Kuno crawled out of the car. What a nice coincidence. We did quite a bit of dune driving together and had a lot of fun.
Erg Chebbi is known for its many ATV’s driving through the dunes with a lot of noise of course.
It is also a bit annoying that they can nearly climb any dune (which we couldn’t….). And this special ATV with a plate from the canton Valais was even driving on our camp ground. Strange.
The driver happened to be Christian Mariethoz from Nendaz, the place where we go skiing very often.
No, these are not all our colleagues, but the others we haven’t seen or met yet in Morocco.
