Tafroute

On our way to Tafroute we pick up a couple of hitch hikers. Turns out he's a genuine Rocket Scientist:-) working for the European Space Agency. They're a really interesting couple who are on a whistle stop tour of Morocco. We've met a few people like this on our travels, they get a guide book and decide they have to visit just about every place mentioned in the book. Even if they do only have 10 days! These 2 are no exception. They are headed to Tafroute to see the blue rocks (which are about 15km out of town). All good, except they're catching a night bus to Agadir at 7pm ish. After lunch we head out towards the Blue Rocks and pass them. They've hired a couple of mountain bikes, yay fun in 30C heat. 

Tafroute could well be our favourite place in Morocco, the scenery is simply stunning, red rocks, weird rock formations. The town itself is really laid back, a really cool vibe, zero hassle.
We stop for lunch at a typical Moroccan restaurant, pretty good and cheap  
The scenery has been made weirder still by some Belgium guy who painted a load of rocks blue sometime in the 1980's. I guess some people would call this environmental terrorism but to me it looks cool.

We find a wild camping spot and as usual Marie cooks up a storm, but best of all is the sun set. We get a bit sneary about sun sets, laughing at the tourists running around with their iPads taking hundreds of photos. We see so many stunning sun sets on the Llyn Peninsular, but wow, this is like nothing I've ever seen before. And the cloud formations☺
We head back in to Tafroute for breakfast, through some really tight village tracks. It's times like this that my lust for an overland truck disappears. There would be zero chance of getting through these places in anything much bigger than the Sprinter. 
Breakfast, great coffee and wifi and we're off. As we get back to the van a very happy local starts talking to us. It's as if we're long lost friends. To begin with I'm a little suspicious, he's saying "it's Omar, it's Omar, from camping Granite". He's the guy in the Citroen van who over took us yesterday. It's good to meet people like Omar, puts you in a good mood for the rest of the day☺☺

     

Fez

Ouarzazate

Before we head into Ouarzazate we take a drive out to the fortified red-earth city of Aït Ben Haddou, a restored village. Paid for by the close by film studios. A bit of a let down hundreds of tourists crawling all over it like ants. Took a photo and turned around. Not until we'd been accosted by the usual Berber tat seller.
Marie picks up some ear rings, the price is 800Dh. Marie decides she doesn't want them at any price. As we're walking off the price drops like a stone to 150Dh. He just can't grasp the concept that it's nothing to do with the price. We just don't want them. We're just not programmed to deal with this haggling and the (in our minds)  insult that offering ridiculously low prices conveys. I'm sure westerners get used to it, as would we, but even after a month of this we still struggle.
So off to the film stuios. A bit weird to be honest. The first one, Atlas, doesn't seem to have produced much since the early 90's. The sets are remarkably intact, given that they're made of plaster, wood, expanding foam and mud🤔😂
The second one we go to is a bit more impressive, you drive to a castle used for some Game of Thrones episode's. It's pretty impressive, there's some full size trebuchets which look like they could be functional.

The Sahara

Yay, we made it into the Sahara
More importantly we made it out 😂
Day 1.
Foum Zagid to the dunes Erg Chigaga. I’ve got a couple of tracks imported and we attempt to follow one. The first 45km or so are OK, apart from the bloody corrugated sections (or jigglyshit as it should be called). We then get to the dunes and the track is taking us through the northern section of the dunes. It looks too iffy, too much soft sand so I decide to do a detour. It’s along some of the worst tracks ever, vast expanses of rocks. It’s down to 7 to 10mph max, it seems to go on for ever. In reality it’s 25km. 8 hrs in we get to the dunes😀

We’re a bit knackered and just park up in the first spot we find. Gin and tonic time
No kidding, 3 pints of gin and tonic 🤣

Marie (who knows how) knocks up an amazing vegetable concoction, loads of chilly and smoked paprika, and to finish it off coconut milk. Really good, we're missing spicy food. Weird given that every Souk you walk around there are mountains of colourful spices for sale, but for us, Moroccan food gets a bit bland. It doesn't help that they seem to think tourists only want tagine or brochette. We know for a fact, we've had it, that Moroccan food is so much better than that but it’s sometimes a challenge to find it. It doesn't help that our French is virtually non existent of course.
Anyway after food and G and T's we're feeling very happy and chilled. As soon as it’s dark the light shoe from the stars is simply stunning. The moon hasn't risen and of course zero light pollution means that we can see the milky way in it’s full glory.

Day 2.
We’re hoping for a nice easy drive out, it’s only 59km. I’m trying to follow the same track but the gpx waypoints are too far apart. This combined with the multiple tracks visible in this part of the desert means that it’s very easy to start following the wrong one. So we're constantly back tracking to pick up the track again. So in frustration I give up on that and start navigating by the sun
What could go wrong? It’s only the Sahara 🙄
No, not really. We just follow tracks in OsmAnd, it’s remarkably accurate. Nice easy going, smooth and flat happy days😎
Until. And this sneaks up in me. We’re into soft sand dunes. I haven't prepared for this in that the tyres are only deflated to around 22psi. That’s for driving over rocks and corrugated sections, not this. But we’re committed, no option but to keep going. So, this really isn’t my style, momentum, 3k revs and hope for the best. A packet of crisps stored I a net above Marie opens and showers her in Paprika flavour, all the stuff on the dash is around our feet, who knows wants going on in the back. I just have to keep going until we find some hard ground.

As soon as we do I can stop and figure out where we are. Go back or continue? After a bit of debate we decide to press on. The Sprinter seems happier ASR off in this. I couldn't figure out if it was the drag off the sand or the engine management reducing power in the sections we've just been through, a little disconcerting. Marie claims the front was air borne a couple of time, who knows but I’m a little tense right now!
But we make it out. I’m seriously impressed with the Sprinter. I'm glad of the 493Nm, anything less would have been seriously stressed. The temp gauge didn't budge from 89 to 91C.
Time for a chill and a beer by a pool now. We’ve booked a hotel in Zagora🍻

Yay, we made it into the Sahara
More importantly we made it out
Day 1.
Foum Zagid to the dunes Erg Chigaga. I’ve got a couple of tracks imported and we attempt to follow one. The first 45km or so are OK, apart from the bloody corrugated sections (or jiggly**** as I call it). We then get to the dunes and the track is taking us through the northern section of the dunes. It looks too iffy, too much soft sand so I decide to do a detour. It’s along some of the worst tracks ever, vast expanses of rocks. It’s down to 7 to 10mph max, it seems to go on for ever. In reality it’s 25km. 8 hrs in we get to the dunes
We’re a bit knackered and just park up in the first spot we find. Gin and tonic time
No kidding, 3 pints of gin and tonic

Marie (who knows how) knocks up an amazing vegetable concoction, loads of chilly and smoked paprika, and to finish it off coconut milk. Really good, we're missing spicy food. Weird given that every Souk you walk around there are mountains of colourful spices for sale, but for us, Moroccan food gets a bit bland. It doesn't help that they seem to think tourists only want tagine or brochette. We know for a fact, we've had it, that Moroccan food is so much better than that but it’s sometimes a challenge to find it. It doesn't help that our French is virtually non existent of course.
Anyway after food and G and T's we're feeling very happy and chilled. As soon as it’s dark the light shoe from the stars is simply stunning. The moon hasn't risen and of course zero light pollution means that we can see the milky way in it’s full glory.

Day 2.

We’re hoping for a nice easy drive out, it’s only 59km. I’m trying to follow the same track but the gpx waypoints are too far apart. This combined with the multiple tracks visible in this part of the desert means that it’s very easy to start following the wrong one. So we're constantly back tracking to pick up the track again. So in frustration I give up on that and start navigating by the sun
What could go wrong? It’s only the Sahara
No, not really. We just follow tracks in OsmAnd, it’s remarkably accurate. Nice easy going, smooth and flat happy days
Until. And this sneaks up in me. We’re into soft sand dunes. I haven't prepared for this in that the tyres are only deflated to around 22psi. That’s for driving over rocks and corrugated sections, not this. But we’re committed, no option but to keep going. So, this really isn’t my style, momentum, 3k revs and hope for the best. A packet of crisps stored I a net above Marie opens and showers her in Paprika flavour, all the stuff on the dash is around our feet, who knows wants going on in the back. I just have to keep going until we find some hard ground.

As soon as we do I can stop and figure out where we are. Go back or continue? After a bit of debate we decide to press on. The Sprinter seems happier ASR off in this. I couldn't figure out if it was the drag off the sand or the engine management reducing power in the sections we've just been through, a little disconcerting. Marie claims the front was air borne a couple of time, who knows but I’m a little tense right now!
But we make it out. I’m seriously impressed with the Sprinter. I'm glad of the 493Nm, anything less would have been seriously stressed. The temp gauge didn't budge from 89 to 91C.
Time for a chill and a beer by a pool now. We’ve booked a hotel in Zagora

Yes the desert requires respect! A tourist died more or less on the route we followed, they had hired a 4x4 and suffered a puncture. For what ever reason they couldn't change it, or maybe the spare was flat. My memory is a little hazy on the details. Anyway they had only taken a few litres of bottled water with them, which of course starts to run out pretty quickly. The husband decides to meet off on foot to try and find help, they’d seen a Nomad tent on their way in. By the time he returns, in only a few hours, his wife has died of heat exhaustion. We had around 30 litres of bottled water and 80 litres in the on board tank (that’s to be avoided if possible, who knows what bugs are in their by now! It doesn't have any uv treatment or filtration)

So for me the desert has a romantic allure, the adventure, solitude, size/scale, the wilderness. But it’s a bit of a love hate thing. It’s physically challenging for sure but that’s eclipsed by the mental challenge. Not to mention the mechanical challenge to your vehicle. Your mind is working at 80% capacity more or less the entire time. Are still on the right route? Am I taking the right line? Listening for any new and unwanted noises from the vehicle, concentrating on the navigation, when the route isn't as you expected running multiple scenarios through your head. Every time you enter a dry river bed or crest a dune you have recalculate everything. Anything that is normal behaviour, I expect to do that by that time, I will follow that route/plan needs to be reassessed. If you have to turn around or do 4mph rather than the expected/calculated 40mph. So be it. We're not programmed to think like that anymore!

I can assure you that if your mind is cluttered up with 1st world problems this will cleanse your mind. There’s no space for junk 

So it was great to travel through the Sahara, but even better to get out

Naturally if you get used to it that all reduces but this is the 3rd time in 10 years so we’re far from naturals at this. The first 2 times were with a group. Solo is another story🤔😀