My "Saharagelber" 300TD

Today we departed again, although, that was the plan. We bought some bread near a tiny village next to the camping. It was a big mess, waste everywhere, small children running around, some old mud houses and starved dogs. I was able to buy some vegetable oil here at this small shop, so I bought as much as possible. When we wanted to leave we spotted some baby ducks in the small streamlet close to the camping. They were alone, probably taken by the stream. We spend three hours to bring them back to their parents but failed in the end.
So at five o’clock in the afternoon we headed for Casablanca, there we had to get our visas for Mauritania, as it was unclear to us if we could get them at the border, we read it was not possible and would not take the risk.
We took the route from Azrou via Khenifra, Kasba Tadla, Oued Zem, Khouribga to Casablanca. We found an utterly ugly camping l’Oasis, somewhere close to the embassy, whch was good. The camping was just some place in the middle of the busy city, surrounded by walls.

On the road again, heading to Casablanca.

Morocco is beautiful!

W123’s all around!

Somehow our clocks were 2 hours ahead of time, we found out at the office window of the camping, so it was 22:30 instead of 00:30. This gave us some extra sleep, 7am in the morning is now two hours further away
We had found ourselves a good spot, away from the others. It was pretty quiet on the camping and we went to bed early, after we prepared at the sloppy toilets.

Today was relaxing day, finally get some REST! Apart from hanging in the hammock, reading, eating, hanging again (but somewhere else), doing the dishes, hanging aroudn again, filtering water, eating, drinking, we didn’t do much.

The nice camping in Azrou

Our friend at the campsite

Feeding the cat, which was named ‘Mitsy’ by Ramon.

Mitsy happend to be a beautiful cat.

Ramon played with the camping dog and a straycat today and we both enjoyed our peaceful rest. Today some spanish people arrived in their Landrovers, they were working on their brand new Landrovers, at least, they looked like new. I enjoyed the scene, two Landy’s arriving and they start to play mechanics directly, The cliche seems to be true, with a Landrover you spend half your holiday under the hood.

The cliche is true They just entered the camping and knew their place

In the morning we thanked our parking lot guards and we left, apparently they were expeciting a present besides our payment. We headed on for Azrou, there should be berber monkeys over there. We did an alternative road again, very small and sometimes bad roads.

The streets in Ouezzane

We then passed very small villages, where people have nothing besides each other and houses of mud. They’ve got their goats and sheep and work on the land. There were no cars or mopeds arond, the kids ran through the village to catch a glimpse of this yellow car moving though their village. We had spend quite some time on the small roads, sometimes halting so Melissa and Ramon could do a search for bones, which they collect. At one stop a boy walked towards us and wanted to chat, he was able to speak english, which happenend more times in the east of Morocco I found out.

Along the route through the rif mountains.

Conserving the hey with clay. In the back you see they let trees grow again on the hills, after years and years of cutting trees, big areas in Morocco are completely treeless and just sand and stones.

Houses in the tiniest villages.

At he end of the day we enter Ifrane, a very wealthy place often called the ‘Geneva of Morocco’. A decadent place with villa’s and a respectable university and lots of greenery.
We then drove some time after a smellly truck I decided to overtake it, then, while we were on the left side of the road we saw a roadblock, of course we had to stop and a severe looking police officer wanted us to pay 400DH. I thought he just made that up and refused to pay. This did not please him and he did not want to give my license back, he got mad and yelled at us that it was prohibited to overtake on that part. In fact he was right, but I refused to pay and made a scene of it. He walked towards the other officers to tell them I did not want to pay. They stood there talking for a while and then he came back, he told us because of the little boy in the back, he gave my license back and we could go on. I was stunned, I turned the key and thanked him and drove away, we were pretty much delighted. Darn, this was close! We saved about 80 Euro’s!

Driving through the plains

Looking for skulls and bones of animals, one of Melissa’s interests.

The plains

Big tree in Azrou

In the beginning of the evening we found a nice camping in Azrou. It’s a very nice camping in Morocco, which is very rare. This place is really a recommendation! I think it’s the only camping in Azrou, close to a big old tree of 800 years old, where there should live berber monkeys.
There was another dutch couple on the camping we spoke to. We chatted with them for a while and then had our dinner, a nice meal pepared by Melissa. Then we arranged a nice place for Ramon to sleep and we sat outside for quite a while and decided to stay here at this relaxing place. We sat outside and enjoyed the place very much.
Equipped with a rooftent, good chairs, a waterfilter and waterbags, good torches, a jumpstarter and even a table this time! It started to look like we’ve become professional campers.
At a certain moment we saw one of the people walk out the thet, this french guy, a father of a family walked towards the edge of the camping. ‘What is this guy doing?’ Melissa asked. ‘The toilets are the other direction, he won’t do what I think he will do, or does he?’.
Indeed, he used his torch to find himself a place and when somewhere behind the trees his torch went out. ‘No way!’ I said. ‘This filthy freak is going to shit over there, where Ramon was playing this afternoon’. I just couldn’t imagine she was right, the distance between the toilets was practically the same as the distance he walked right now. ‘Use the lamp!’ Melissa said. I took my torch and shone in his direction and then turned it off. He was still standing. I turned it on and kept the torch on this time. He started walking again, knowing he was ‘in the picture’
Slowly he walked back to his tent stood there for a sec and then walked towards the toilets. ‘Darn, you were right’ I said to Melissa. ‘Those awkward french people!’ we laughed.
We sat there for a while at our spot and enjoyed our first night on the camping. The ideas about we what we also could have done made us even laugh more, like the idea that we would wait for him to poop and then start flashing the light and making noises, oh well, our type of humor I guess

After a long and very interesting day, Ramon could go to sleep.

When leaving the hotel after a good night sleep we were packing the car and preparing to leave. And old man explained to us we had to pay him because he guarded the car all night. I told him the car has an alarm and pointed at our room where we slept.
‘I watched it myself and did not ask you to watch it, so forget about charging me, we did not arrange anything and this is not how it works in Morocco’ I explained in my best french. Apparently he did not agree and was leaning against the car.
We told him we weren’t going to pay anything, He was demonstratively pointing at some badge where his photograph was on it too. I told him I didn’t car, I repeated what I said before and we left. The man got angry but did not jump on the car or something
We bought ourselves 3 pizzas and hit the road.

Beautiful door. Chefchaouen, Morocco

Today we took all kinds of small roads and wanted to take a beautiful route through the rif mountains. We drove via a lot of country and small village roads. We took the smallest routes and enjoyed the countryside, the moroccans were clearly not used to tourists here and this showed they then behave different from what we’re used to: They don’t scream at you and they don’t bother you, they’re just curious and very friendly. When you stop they come over and just watch you and try to be friendly, without any commercial interests.

Rif mountains

A touristic route we took today.

After a while we were in the mountains again, driving over dirtroads which were winding through the landscape. Then we were very luck, as bird watchers we were stunned by what we sawn then. Golden Eagles! They do live here but as our birdwatcher book told us, it’s a very rare sight in the Atlas.

Enjoying the small roads through the Atlas. At this place we spotted some golden eagles, very rare!

We ended up in Ouezzane today and parked the car on a guarded parking lot. Then we tried to find the cheapest hotel around, but that was a bit too miserable. The rooms were filthy and the shower on the roof which we had to use in the morning, was used as a toilet too, the shit was on the floor and this was a bit too primitive for us
We managed to find another simple hotel, only beds and no shower but we had a washbasin in the room, pretty clean and enough for us, which was important.
The room costed us 80 Dirham, no discounts. According to the hotel owner, there had never booked any dutch person in this hotel. We checked in, filled in the paperwork (which needs to be done at every hotel) and ate some shitty fries at the cafe downstairs.
While eating the crappy fries, we sat in the middle of the live on the streets. There were only men outside in the evening. The local nut hang around here too. They seemd to care for him, one of the people around took his stone which he was carrying in a plastic bag, trying to explain him he mus not walk around with it. This man threw the stone away and warned this man again (or so I think). After some time, we saw the local nut wandering around again with his stone in this plastic bag.
We then went for a walk through the main street. This street was full of life in the evening, we did not see any tourist around here the whole night and we seemed to be an interesting topic for them. They stared at us, when we stopped by to find some slippers, and dealing about the price was funny for them . they stared and laughed at us, as if we were walking around naked,
After some research we found that the first one offered the slippers for 20 dirham, the secnd for 100 dirham and the last for 25. So we bough them for 25 dirham at the last place. The moroccans were in fact were very friendly. We all enjoyed it very much on the market and when we were done we went to some odd place and drank a mint tea (of course).
When we were back at the hotel we drank some wine at the balcony and stared at the same street again where we sat and saw how the restaurants cleaned up for today and backing the last meat and then putting back the decorative lettuce leaves again after they cleaned those display cases, great All the waste was neatly put into garbage bags and put at the roadside. After a while the streets were quiet and everyone went home.
We sat there on the balcony for quite some time and saw how first recyclers came on the stage, the homeless people. They opened the bags again and started to pick things out and consumed what they thought they could eat. After they disappeared the next participants entered the stage: The dogs. They ripped open the garbage bags and started to look for their food and consumed all they could, leeaving the place scattered with old garbage and teared open bags. When the dogs disappeared, the cats came by to see if there was left something for them.
It ended up as a big mess on the streets, and we were wondering if they did not think about garbage cans or something.

From now on, it’s only half a day to arrive in Algeciras, where the boat departs to Africa (Morocco)! Still not bad, with this very inefficient way of driving-sleeping-driving

I had slept perfectly well! I slept on the ground for 8 hours, not too much people around and it was a very quiet place. We alread saw a lot of moroccan people who were of course heading to Morocco.

Roads much travelled..

Coastal Highway of south Spain

Today we took the boat to Ceuta. In Algeciras we were able to find some tickets at the counter. The meter showed 98368km, so it’s about 2200km from Almere to Algeciras. Before departure a moroccon guy walked around with white pieces of paper we had to fill in, then he charged us 2 euro’s after filling it in. Nice trick dude! But no, we already know how it works around here, it’s not the first time. He walked away disappointedly. These papers were just the pieces of paper you need to fill in when crossing the border, but that’s not somehing to pay for. I was shocked to hear the price of the ferry with our car: 286 Euros roundtrip! The price was for vehicles with a maximum height of 1.90m, and we’re abit above it but we got through it, otherwise it was even more expensive!

Port of Algeciras

The powerferry to Morocco

Then the boat arrived in Ceuta after 35 minutes, we knew the situation at the border so we try to look as we were home, so they didn’t bother us with all that crap that we need help and about ‘vague and difficult formalities’. After some time we were done, even the car was not inspected at all. We’re in W123 paradise again! W123’s all around the place here, It’s still the same as back in 98, when we visited Morocco too, but now we’re driving in a W123 ourselves too.
We took some pictures of the well known spot, after entering Morocco, all those blue W123 taxis standing on the big parking place. Through the whole of Morocco you’ll find W123’s. That quality monster is used as a Taxi all-over, but it’s also a much used family car.
Out of the bigger cities it’s the car you see most I guess.

You don’t need a station to transport a refridgerator.

The taxi standing place in Ceuta

After that we stopped for a swim, Ramon was amazed about the difference between Europe and Morocco. We saw the moroccan women swim with their clothes on, which was a strange thing to see. While leaving, I circumvented a crazy man who wanted to charge us for parking somewhere on the sand.

Ceuta, Tarred roads, but not too much pebbles in it, so it sounds like you drive in a parking place and you don’t have too much grip

No drinking water and electricity in the room? Take it with you

We continued to cosy Chefchaouen today and stayed in Hotel Sahara, next to the old medina. We could park the car in front of the hotel, so we could see it. Then we went to the room, to avoid the heat and to take a nap (I was still tremendously tired).
We wanted to filter some water so we took the jumpstarter with us and the filter and the waterbags. After the nap we went for a walk and a meal into the medina and then walked through the tiny streets of lovely Chefchaouen. The first day in Morocco pleased us all.

Typical moroccon door

All kinds of color for painting stony surfaces

Around 3am we were close to St Sebastian, there we filled her up and went on, but in fact I was pretty tired again. ‘I’ll never do it this way again!’ I thought. Until now travelling was never so slow as this time. Somewhere around 3 o’clock we stopped at a parking along the highway again,
Set up the rooftent again and went to bed. After some terrible hours of sleep again I was disappointed. The whole night people stopped and talked so loud as if they meant to wake us up or something. A truck was standing with its engine running, probably to sleep with the airco on.

A bad night of rest, people were making noise all night. A silly trucker had his airco on all night, so HE was able to sleep.

In the morning a W123 stood next to us. Destination: Morocco! Lots of the moroccan people still use the W123, often they sell them up there.

Great! I told Melissa I did not expect to arrive in Africa soon if I was not able to get any rest. Somewhere around 10:30am we woke up, luckily there was a shower in the restaurant and we freshed ourselves.

Hitting lots of kilometers

Even more kilometers

…

Ramon, was very relaxed, 10 years old and already a good traveller, not complaining and cheerful all the time. At 7pm, 540km further (200km north of Cordoba) we bought some food for us and for the Benz (38L vegetable oil, then the shelves were empty) at a small supermarket and cooked ourselves some dinnner, a great spinach soup ‘a la Melissa’.

A stop somewhere in Spain

Having a break

Enjoying a nice meal Melissa made: Spinach soup!

At 10pm we departed again for some hours and then again, I was tired of getting tired, but as we’re not in a hurry and safetey is important, we stopped again and I threw my sleeping bag on the ground and again tried to get some sleep, it was around midnight and we were already close to the coast of the south of Spain.

Taking a nap..

Departure 00:30 – Almere 96386km

Tonight is the night, we’re leaving, and a miracle, we’re finished with everything. The days before were like hell, but we ended up finished.
The last couple of days were quite stressful, buy all necessary books (Sahara overland, maps, Lonely Planets etc), insurances, carte grise, visa, vaccinations and things like that. The stress raised as the departure date approached. It was only yesterday that I arranged my international drivers license and international car papers.
At midnight we went off, in our Benz which was about to be both our transport and our home. Melissa and Ramon were sitting in the car and this remembered me of myself, sitting as a young boy in the back of my fathers car, when we went off for the holiday. Back then, I was jealous at my dad cause he was behind the wheel, now I am myself I started the engine and she started spinning. Running like a clock, 96386km on the meter. This year she had already hit 13000kms from the travels to Turkey and France this year.
We’re all in a fine travelmood, curious about what to expect. Saying goodbye to our families was difficult, but the only thing we can think of right now is adventure, so this makes it easier to bare. After some minutes we entered the high way, it was already very dark and we drove a hole in the night. I feel comfortable, driving in this very strong diesel from Stuttgart, and I’m sure she will make it all the way to Africa and back.
At 6:15 we were south of Paris and I made my first stop. We then continued for another hour to get some sleep. I set up the rooftent and tried to get some sleep, unfortunately I only slept for three hours. We filled our waterbags and tested our waterfilter and left the ‘Aire’ again.

At the Aire we’d set up the rooftent for a short nap.

The filtered water is awesome, we smelled the water before which contained chlorine but when we drank it was just perfect, no nasty tastes. This is succes number one, filtering water yourself, we save us buying bottles and we save the environment by not buying plastic bottles all the time.

At mid day we were back on the road again, we’re eating kilometers, but at a peaceful speed around 110km/h. Once in a while we see buzzards circling above the fields. Sometimes I’m listening to for example the Rolling Stones and Metalica on the Ipod while Melissa and Ramon are asleep. I enjoy the drive in the W123, the meters point to values I expect and the nice 5 ciilnder diesel runs smoothly. Not bad, 23 years old and driving like new, in fact, it is of course nearly new. In fact, I feel even more secure than being in a new plastic car, with all kind of electronics which can spoil your journey, as I found out when I drove to Sicily, Italia, in a brand new BMW cabrio and the coolfan steering unit broke down. A simple mechanic can’t help you. We ended up with a cool fan of a Fiat Uno, which was fitted badly and as a result the complete car was shaking while driving, let alone the disturbing noise. Of course this happend in a weekend of festivals on the farthest point of our trip, close to the Etna, oh well.

On the road: Nice (paid) highways in France.

Close to Bordeaux we stopped again, I was pretty tired (again) and so we had a long stop. Next time I really need to rest a bit more before departing for a long journey. After some rest we went on and passed the border of Spain in the evening, we kept on rolling..

The waterfilter is already a succes!

Today is the last day before departure to Africa. Lots of things needed to be arranged, at the last moment, that is today, I had to arrange the international drivers license, and the international car insurance at the ANWB yet (8 minutes before closing time, oef!). The tension rises, tomorrow we will really depart, after three weeks of preparing lots and lots of things. Until the last day before departure I had to work and besides that I had to do lots of things, so I did not have to much sleep and did 13-16 hours a day of working and preparing. Not a good condition to start a big trip like this.
Especially the preparation of the all the things for the car took lots and lots of time. Particularly the lifting of the Saharagelber costed too much time, I did not have the right stuff to do it, so I’ve been busy wrestling with the shocker and the coil springs for hours and hours.

Take away the dogs, always a bit difficult.

Important stuff for the trip, eg the waterfilter, the compressor, and some tools

This needs to fit in

And it easily fits. We like to travel as light as possible.

The Saharagelber is raised pretty much and well equipped with heavy duty shockers and coil springs. Only the rear shocker weren’t available, they just don’t exist for the T-model. I hope they will last at least this trip, I am not sure what to expect, but I’ve tried to prepare as good as possible.
It looks like we’ve finished bright on time, today we had pleasant evening with our families as we will be away for a long time. Melissa is now preparing the last things, mainly food and other stuff from our (immense) todo list. I’ve just put all the camera batteries in the chargers and now I’m done and tired, I am going to sleep now…

Ready for take off.

There she is, with the new imperial and rooftent installed. Furthermore the jerrycans and the sand ladders were installed too. Thanks to the help of Destination Adventures it was alle configured perfectly, you can shove the sandladders underneath the imperial. The jerrycans and the spare wheel go up front.
Then he installed the waterfilter on a wooden board. Perfect service, so if you live in the neighbourhood of Amsterdam and you need stuff for overland trips, give it a try.

http://destinationadventure.nl

The saharagelber @ Destination Adventure. The rooftent is just installed.