My "Saharagelber" 300TD

Afther breakfast we filled the Benz up with SVO (straight vegetable oil) and filled the car up at the gas station for 4,42 dirham per liter, something like 60 eurocents! In the evening we turned from the road and drove over the sand and through the bushes and found ourselves a nice spot in the Sahara, some 1000 meters from the road about 130km north of Dahkla. It felt great to park just somewhere in the western sahara and set up the rooftent. It was peaceful and quiet and the wind made it feel relaxed.

Camping Le Bedouin. In the middle of nowhere, and it feels just that way. One stand just on the sand and can use the shower and the toilet.

Look out for the sign in the middle of all the other signs around!

An odd road sign we don’t have in Europe

Lots of boring parts…

…and sometimes a boring place, but atmosphere it has! It feels like we’re on our own road movie.

Today we departed for the sahara, we saw some wild mules and an amount of nice birds. It was a long trip today we had already seen the big dunes. Furthermore the area consisted of great plains with stones. I found out the car was leaking motor oil today, which was strange and I hoped this would hold for the rest of the trip, I have to keep an eye of this. During the trip we did not see a lot of cars, and the cars we saw were mainly Mercedeses. Lots of W123 taxi’s but also loads of W201’s and W124’s.
That night we arrived at the camping ‘Le Bedouin’. After you see the sign ‘Le Bedouin’ you drive for about 5kms over a piste and then you arrive at the camping, there is practically nothing but sand and stones over there. It is windy and small place but very clean.
You just park on the sand and during the day you can stroll around.

The Cactus, a real die-hard able to survive in the dry sahara

Melissa being excited. Fort Bou-Jerif

Endless roads

Are we there Yet?

Bird watching

Some nice part with a small lake and greenery

The dunes, Sahara

Our favorite time of the day: cappucino with a bit of Amaretto while driving and enjoying the surrounding views.

The official beginning of the Western-Sahara

The camels

A camel with the sea in the background

Spooky..

Early in the morning we had breakfast on the roof, with a view over all the roofs of the buildings in the old medina. We had a relaxing day today, it was about 40 degrees so too hot to do something. I started to read about the sahara (Sahara overland, by Chris Scott). We sat on the roof all day. In the evening we went to the Djama el Fnaa again, to have some food. We recognized the funny man who was working here 8 years ago too, we recollected this guy, he had grown a bit more fat but it was definitely the same guy, at stand 25. We used to call him Eddy Murphy, he makes a lot of fun and is entertaining the people who are passing by to attract them to his stall. Marrakech is not the place like it was some years ago, it has lost a bit of its charme, it’s very, very touristic now and the moroccons here lost their natural interest in people and are only interested in your money. But still, Marrakech is among our favorite destinations.

Our hotel in the old medina.

Eating at stand 25, Djamaa el Fnaa

Buying something in Marrakech is a tedious job, everytime you need to start the whole procedure again when you see something you’d like to buy. This ‘what-does-it-cost, no-way, that-is-way-too-expensive, I’ll-offer-you-this, etc. etc.’ thing is fun for the first time in Morocco, but it’s quite irritating if you just want to look around and know the prices of thing to decide if you want to buy it or not. We delved in the souks close to the square but wanted to get out asap. We were definitely not interested to stop at every stop and play the game.
They all start to scream at you ‘Hey! Hey! Want to look! Look at this! We have special price for you! Where are you from? Hey stop! Don’t leave!’.
We know their trick, they ask you where you’re from and then classify you. Whey you say you’re from an asian country youre finished, they charge you the maximum, statistics learn they pay nearly the price they ask. Then, I believe second worst are americans, they seem not to be familiar with the process. West European aren’t much better either. South Europeans are better and even more the north Africans. Of course, the Moroccans theirselves know about the whole game and pay the least. I read this in a Lonely Planet before and Melissa and I started to give the strangest answers possible, like Antarctica, Sudan, Irak or just Morocco. Then they stare at you and look funny at you, their trick doesn’t help them further. Then they start to guess Then we start to ask them the same questions ,like wher they’re from.
Melissa was looking in a shop for a nice cushion and I was just standing next to her in the shop. One guy started to talk to Melissa and so the other started showing stuff to me, as I was standing a bit bored (hoping they would leave me alone, which did not seem to work).
I told him I’m not interested in anything but he kept on showing stuff to me. He ended up telling me that I’m not interested in moroccon handcrafts. I told him, I was, I wanted to buy his old stool he is sitting on all day. That was possible he said (of course, they would sell their own hands if you make a good offer). He asked me if I really liked it, I told him it was real ‘berber quality’ to make a bit fun of the moroccan way of trading. He could laugh about it and played the game too. He pointed at the broken part of the chair and how it was fixed wit some cheap rope saying ‘real quality!’. ‘Yeah, yeah! Real good souvenir! Real solid berber wood material from the atlas’ I yelled. He started to trade in the moroccan way too, he asked 200 dirham! So I did what I usually do an started with a stupid offer of 1 dirham, we had lots of fun and ended up at 50 dirham, still way too much for this crappy stool, but we had fun and I paid it. The other guys from the shops around all came to see what was happening and laughed.
He told me that this stool had to be packed very good and we had to take good care of it. This was the only thing we bought in the souks, we went to the market place again and gave Ramon another Henna tattoo, this time we bargained and we got if for 20% of the price from yesterday.
Tomorrow we’re heading for our visa again in Casablanca.

There’s enough food for vegetarians too

If you weren’t hungry, you sure will when crossing the Fnaa square in the evening.

And yeah, it’s like this every evening

Cheese!

Getting another henna tattoo.

This moron proposed to get a picture of Ramon and him. Then he charged us money for it. Yeah right! I suggested him to pay us, as it seemed equally reasonable to me.

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