BACK IN EUROPE

This time we crossed the ocean taking the ship from Tanger Med to Algeciras - the shortest way. The vessel only needs a little bit more than one hour, but for us it was almost a day due to a delay and a very inefficient boarding procedure. Anyway we are not on the run though we have time and we left the boat early enough to find a nice place to overnight before it became dark.

After a two days visit in Marbella at Rainer - a friend I didn’t see since years - we are heading North. The weather is still not what we want, pretty cold, windy and rainy. One evening we stopped at a good place away from the road beside a forest. During diner it started to rain heavily though I decided to leave. As we did we left, we left in 4WD and even with the diff-lock. Looking we saw pretty deep traces in the meadow. Anyway Gisi gathered some spices for cooking the diner…

It was becoming colder, we reached Andorra. This small and nice deviation we made for shopping; liquor and tobacco are taxfree, jambon, cheese and salami are very good and less pricy than in the countries around, also the Dieselfuel is wheigh cheaper, though we left a lot of money in Andorra…

After a cold night in the mountains we got sunshine while crossing the summit having great views. Gisi saw a lot of people falling while they went downhill on their ski.

KETAMA - TETOUAN - TANGER MED

All the travellers-handooks are warning: the roads through the Rif-Mountains are dangerous. They say hashish-dealer have terrible and aggressive methods to sell their stuff. Ignoring this we went on that roads direction Ketama, because we know this is a spectacular way with grand views. Along the road there were a lot of dealers advertising their stuff. As soon as we stopped looking for place to sleep we had the first contact to a dealer, he invited us to overnight at his house having diner with him and his family and smoke a bit. We refused and said we woun’t buy, but he insisted further. It was hard not to come with him. At a roadside place which we found a little later we got six more invitations like the first one and a bunch of phonenumbers. At least we were impressed of the “aggressive” way they presented their hashish. The writers of the handbooks must have something missunderstood, they didn’t want to sell us their stuff. When we said we don’t want to buy, they gave us their stuff for free always with a invitation… there was a lot of laughter during negociations. ( of course I know they want to make business, but for us it was a nice experience we had in the mountains; nothing was dangerous. )
Passing Tetouan I found it so much bigger and more modern as 30 years ago, also the Meditereanean coast has changed, it’s now completely developed for tons of tourists with hotels, clean beaches, promenades and funparks.

Meanwhile we are back in Europe.

MESKI - AZROU - FEZ

After some days rest in Meski we headed North pasing slowly the High Atlas and overnighted at the Circe of Jaffar in the evening with a lot of dust we barely saw the mountains. Next morning it was pretty clear, though we could enjoy the spectacular scenery around.
Near Azrou in hunting preserve is the biggest but dead Ceder located which is nevertheless a highlight for tourists with the annoying sideeffects touristshops and nervy kids. Only a few meters away we found a nice and calm spot to sleep. The other day in the morning we got other visitors a herd of about 20 Berber-Monkeys. It was funny to observe them playing around also on the roof of our motorhome.
Here again we learned: where animals are promised by travellerbooks or brochures you barely find them, but if you don’t count on them they are coming.

MARRAKECH - AIT BENHADDOU - GORGE DU TODGHA

Coming back to Marrakech after 29 years was quite something you wouldn’t guess but everything has changed, except touristic highlights like the famous Kutubiya-Minarett and the Jemaa el Fna. It was a short visit in Marrakech only a little shopping at Marjane and a tour through the city...
More interesting for us was the following drive to the Tizi ‘n Tichka. This pass leads over the High Atlas. The great views are all the sweat worth you might have driving the countless curves changing even more often the gears (mostly between 3rd and 4th). This pass is also the most important connection between the cities in the South and the cities in the West of Morocco, though there is a hell of traffic. Busses hurrying, trucks crowling and between them overloaded vans and taxis, and of course tourists with their motorhomes....
Next we went to the gorgeous Gorge du Dodgha. This is a very impressive canyon and one of the most beautiful places in Morroco. In the upper part of the valley where nearly no tourists driving we were lucky to see two Capricorns pretty closed to the road....

BOUIZAKARNE - TAFRAOUTE - TIZI ‘N TEST

We found a nice place to overnight at Lac Naila in a nationalpark with not too many tourists. Again we got a fish fresh from the sea this time a Dorade really very delicious.
The wind still blowed from NW, though the more we went E the wind came from the side which is not so annoying.
In Bouizakarne we visited “our” butcher -we know him from our way S- and bought some nice lamp-cottelets for diner. From now on we are in the mountains in the Anti-Atlas climbing steep and narrow passes in a breathtaking scenery. But the nights are cold….
Tafraoute is situated between nice boulders palms and so on it’s amazing. Though no wonder there are so many tourists with their white refridgerator-like motorhomes you barely see the landscape. ( yes I know I’m tourist too.) I know they want to be in that nice ambiente like me. I can’t blame them for that. I have no solution for this, beside to pass through very quick.
Less tourist-trafic on the Tizi ‘n Test because it’s uncomfortable to drive. The road is in a bad shape and mostly a single lane. Some people find this dangerous. Not necessary to say the High-Atlas is also gorgeous.

DAKHLA - LAAYOUNE

Shopping and internet was our first goal in Dakhla. Though we went into the souk of Dakhla to buy fruits and vegetable in much better quality and for less money than in Mauretania (almost everything is cheaper here than there). Gisi is apleased, me too because of the fine sweet cookies for my breakfast. We found a real highspeed-internet 30 Dirham an hour which was also a pleasure to us.
The wind is turning to NW no more that strong and only in the afternoon but still nervy and cold. That’s the reason I didn’t opened the swimming-season.
The most of the retired people which enjoyed a calm, comfortable and affordable winter at peninsula of Dakhla are on their way home, though the beaches and campgrounds are almost empty.

After this short regeneration we started to go North on the boring road along the coast. We found a nice spot to overnight at the oued Kraa beside a fishers village their were already a few plastic-motorhomes. An auktion-hall was behind us which didn’t realised at once, but than we took the chance to buy an excellent fish for less and had a good diner at the beach.

A few hundred km North on that boring road with headwind in the afternoon we are now in Laayoune and hope to find a internet tomorrow in the city.
There is also some maintainance to do on the Mercedes.

NOUAKCHOT - ARGUIN - GUERGARAT-DAKHLA

After a few days rest in Atar we said Good Bye to the two young guys from Germany which were for almost two weeks part of our fellowship through the desert. They left for Mali via Tidjika. We instead went for Nouakchot with the Dutch couple we travelled together since Dakhla. They were really nice fellows to us, hoping we stay friends. We had a delicious diner at Nicolas who runs a restaurant at the beach near Nouakchot. Though it was another almost sentimental farewell. Wil and Gerard heading South to Gambia and we are going North.
Unfortunately the water-temperatures were to low for me to open the swimming-saison, I’m hoping for the bay of Dakhla.

On our way North we went into the NP of Arguin. They promised turtles, various birds and rare seals. Beside some nice birds we saw no wild animals. Anyway we had a nice spot to overnight on top of the Cape Tafarrit.

In only two hours we made the border-formalities - on both sides gendarmerie, customs and police -from Mauretania to Morocco which is really not long for a bordercrossing between two African states.
After filling the last container into the tank between Morrocain gendarmerie and police we reached the first gas-station in Western Sahara with the affordable Diesel-fuel.

It is getting cooler again from a cold Northeastern wind. There is nothing else to tell about this boring road, finally we arrived in Dakhla.