We woke early in our police-station carpark in Tendrara to find a heavy frost on the ground. Although you know it gets cold at night in the desert, somehow the crisp white covering comes as a surprise. There are stray dogs and cats galore in Tendrara so after a very swift dog walk, we pack up quickly to have breakfast in the desert 😎🏜️
We are a little concerned to have a coolant warning light when we try to start the truck due to the cold (we think about -10 degrees). However, after a quick inspection all looked ok and the truck started, so we set off planning to just keep an eye on that. We pulled over off the highway to a track to have breakfast and it was bliss to finally just open the door and let the dogs run free. They go a little crazy running round barking at their new found freedom and we sit back with a cup of tea and reflect on how far we have come already and how crazy it is that we are in the Sahara.
Today’s destination is the far east of Morocco, the town of Figuig, a green oasis in the desert, thick with date palms and literally surrounded on three sides by tall fences marking the border with Algeria. As we approach the town, we have to stop at the police check and show our passports.
Literally 2 miles later, there is another police stop, as usual the hand signals are vague / incomprehensible, Kevin thinks we are waved on, partly because we just showed our passports and literally there is a straight road in between. However, as we make our way down the wide 4 lane road into town we hear the beep of a moped horn behind us and a guy, not in uniform, shouts that we have missed the police check and have to go back.
We had only gone 300 yards, but we felt bad and a little nervous as we returned. Kevin apologised profusely to the policeman, who asked if we spoke French. Kev therefore sent the policeman round to me where I got a telling off in French whilst he was chatting about English football with his colleague at the other window, typical! After a cursory and clearly symbolic glance only at our passports, we proceeded into town.
The wide road soon narrows and we are again weaving through oblivious pedestrians, food carts, abandoned vehicles etc. even the most out of the way towns are absolutely bustling with people on the streets and cafes etc. We find the suggested parking spot outside some sort barracks, but are soon told we should move by someone stood by to another spot which looks far too short. We decide it does not feel to welcoming and skip a walk round town to park up at a viewing point over the date palms for lunch.
We had spent the evening before planning our first off-road route of the trip though and are keen to get started. So we set off and turn west from the most easterly point of our trip and take the road out of town. We are a little nervous to take the turning to the off-road section literally opposite the first police stop, but after checking we know where we are going he waves us on.
The tarmac eventually becomes gravel, which later becomes sand. However the track is fairly easy to follow and we use our GPS to check waypoints and route directions. The truck does really well on rough ground and with our tyres aired down it is just a good fun drive. An absolute highlight of our first off-road route is seeing a large herd of wild camels including a white one. White camels are highly prized and natural leaders, it is believed they can sniff out water in the desert.
We decide to get a little closer toward the end of the route before finding a nice isolated park up so we are in a better position for the next day’s drive. However, at first we start to see concrete pipe work piled up at the side of the road and then diggers, graders then dumper trucks full of gravel and it seems our track is being made into a road! That has to be up there amongst the weirdest things that can happen when off-roading.
The workman don’t seem to mind us driving right through the middle of their roadworks and we don’t reach the end before we are on tarmac again, not far from Bouarfa town. There goes our wild camping as there is not much option for that in towns without hassle, so we chose a secure park-up in the walled garden of a hotel, alongside a Unimog from Luxembourg and even an outdoor swimming pool. We decide not to make use of that facility, but do opt for a tagine instead, which is sadly a little disappointing.
The next morning we have another off-road section planned, starting just outside Bouarfa, infact we have up to 400km route available if we have time. As 400km on tarmac motorways is usually enough for us in a day that seems unlikely, but we set off early to see how we get on.
We leave Bouarfa and see policemen and police cars beside the road, though not as a police stop it’s a little unusual but we wave and they salute back at us and we continue. Then we see another policeman further up, standing out from the stony desert with the white hat, gloves and a fluorescent tabard. Then we see another policeman, then another police car. We travel 33km on the national road out of town before we turn of to a minor road and every 400-800 yards there were lone policemen at the side of the road. The police presence to date has been regular and reassuring, but this level of attendance verged into the disturbing and we begin to worry about tensions with neighbouring Algeria / some other incident. However they all wave back at us and no one seems worried.
On the minor road, much to our growing concern, there are more policemen spaced along the road. Then we realise there is some sort of barracks at the end of the road and a whole load of activity going on outside. Still no one stops us driving up the road literally to the main gate. Eventually two motorcycle policemen stop us 100 yards from the main gate, there are perhaps 50 brand new white Toyota Land Cruisers outside including some stretch limo type versions. Kevin winds down the window to ask what is happening, just as a cavalcade of yet more new white Toyota Landcruisers burst out the main gate at speed and head off down a dirt track to our right, followed by those amassed outside. Some seem to have families onboard, some are couples, certainly they do not seem to be military.
The policemen eventually responds to Kevin’s questions about who it is that this huge operation is for, only to say it was “a circus”. The entourage speed off into the distance in a huge mushroom cloud of dust, so we never find out. We carry on down our track which appears to have been freshly sprayed with water presumably as yet another diversionary route to the police-lined main road. We laugh about what a continual adventure Morocco is turning out to be and why it was we were allowed to drive quite so close to whoever these important visitors were. Although we had not realised until after we had left, that there was a 20mm manned machine gun under camouflage netting pointing right at us beside the main gate while we were waiting 😰
Somewhat relieved to head off into the wilderness, we decide to get clear of the military base before we air down our tyres. We open the doors and let the dogs go crazy again, I am just putting on the coffee pot indoors and I hear Kev is talking to someone outside. It seems our visitor appeared from nowhere in the desert. When you look more closely though at this corner of the Moroccan desert the vast deserted wilderness is actually anything but.
Blending seamlessly into their environment are Berber tents, sometimes with a single room cob-walled buildings beside. Our visitor indicated he has just arisen from a nearby tent. He did not look much like a traditional Berber with his puffer jacket and jeans, however, who are we to judge. Communication is rather tricky as he seems to speak only the local Berber dialect. Kev offers him coffee, then beer which I am not sure is strictly advised in this Muslim country, however, he seems keen on this idea and we hand him one. However, he takes a sip then asks for the lid using hand gestures / mime but keeps hold of the bottle (to drink later?). Moments later, what appears to be his brother also arrives. Not really wanting to be inundated and having finished our coffee, we decide to press on.
The track continues on fairly hard packed ground which is just as well, as we did not have chance to air down our tyres. It is a beautiful route in the valley between two jebel (mountain ranges). There are switchbacks and sand and open plains where you can see for miles. We stop in the valley to air down and even there, within minutes an old car pulls alongside to see what we are up to, but thankfully leave us to it. There are Berber camps dotted around and herdsmen or even children minding their flocks. Some have solar panels presumably running water pumps to nearby irrigated crops providing a swaith of green in the arid red surroundings.
We pull up on a vast plain to make lunch and by the time our pasta is on the table, a car has arrived from nowhere and sits yards away with the engine running, a guy and his young daughter for 10 minutes plus staring at us. We are eating our lunch and do not approach, as he has not. Only when we pack up to go, does he start to leave, heading the direction he has come from, obviously coming over especially for the spectacle. I hope we are perhaps just a curiosity rather than an intrusion.
Finally we are just about to hit the tarmac to Anoual and stop to air up. Sure enough a car pulls up beside us before we have filled the first tyre, from a brief exchange in bits of French, I think he was just seeing if we needed help. He seemed nice and friendly, but wow what a lot of attention we have had today. It seems the East is less well travelled.
Finally, after an enjoyable bit of off-roading we decide to take the minor road through the Atlas / Jebel valley rather than another 200km of off-road driving. The map suggests it is unpaved but in fact it is tarmac. We plan to find an remote park up but the valley is miles wide and very flat and options which are not visible from the road are limited.
Eventually we take a dead end track amongst some hillocks outside a small village and try to hide in a valley. However, as you have guessed, we had just levelled up with some rocks and switched off the engine when a car pulls up and two men arrive, one with good English. He said his friends father lives at the end of the track and it is safer if we park by his house. We’d rather not but reluctantly drive up the road to look, only to find no one home.
We decide we are not comfortable with that option and decide to head to Er Rich some 60km away, the next place with an option on Park4Night which is outside a Civil protection office. We chase the dying sunset and then drive into the dark. Thankfully after a long 11 hour day of travel, we meet the nice officer from Civil Protection who confirms we can park opposite and we will be secure.
The next day is one of the highlights of our trip, the Ziz Gorge, carved by Ziz river cutting through the Atlas Mountains which has formed a part of the traditional caravan trading routes for centuries. We pulled in at lay-by before the entrance to the gorge and could see the steam from nearby hot springs in the Oued valley. There were a cluster of locals enjoying the hot water for an early morning bathe.
We stopped again for a photos at a another viewpoint lay-by on the way and a fossil salesman appeared from nowhere to greet us. The Sahara was unbelievably a shallow sea millions of years ago and the black marble of the Erfoud region is particularly rich in fossils. We had been keen to see the fossils in the area and take home a momento and as he turned out to be a nice guy, we negotiated a price for a lovely ammonite and mussel fossil as a souvenir of our trip.
The views through the Ziz gorge and following Ziz valley are epic and the drive through was spectacular with regular stops for photos. The river valley gives a stream of green through the dusty red desert with copious palms and trees snaking through the landscape following the vein of the water, the Oued Ziz. There was only one moment of panic when we were confronted by a 3.5m sign ahead (we are 3.65m) shortly followed by a roughly formed rock tunnel.
The Tunnel de Légionnaire was built in the 1930s by French troops to create a route through the gorge. There was a moment of indecision and panic whilst we deliberated what to do, with traffic flowing behind us, but quickly spotted a tour bus on the other side who was clearly taller than us and hopefully had not just approached to that point from the other side! We decided to risk it with our breath held initially until it was clear we were through.
We did not have far at the other side to go until we made it to our final destination of Gara Medouar. A natural geological horseshoe formation, which has been fortified by a stone wall at its open end, its sheer walls reach 858m at its highest point providing extensive views over the surrounding plains. It has a dark past though, its nickname is the “Portuguese prison” as it was apparently used to hold slaves destined for Portugal. It has appeared as the filmset for SAS Rogue Heroes, one of our favourites series as well as James Bond Spectre and The Mummy plus apparently the latest Land Rover Defender advert.
As we made our way across the tracks to the site, we saw off to one side, three overland trucks parked up together, It turned out to be Dave and Amy from @the_day_we_ran_away who we met in Chefchaoen, Stuart and Charlotte from @orkneyoverlanders who passed us in Italy last winter but did not get to meet as we were heading different ways but we have followed ever since and finally Kathrin and Steph @ausfahrt4x4 in the Excap Steyr / Krug truck made by Krug in Austria (like ours) and only number #43 produced. Needless to say we had lots to talk about and we all shared a few beers that afternoon / evening until the cold of the desert drove us to our trucks.
In for a Penney 