Tonight, we finish our joint journey through Morocco with a dinner. With a small group of camping cars we started on 19 October in Motril on the beach in Spain. The tour guidance Nancy and Hans drive strictly at 15.00 on the beach with their impressive vehicle and do the kick off. Introduction, drinks and information of the plans for the coming days.

The border crossing to Morocco is exciting, less chaotic than expected, but still…. even more exciting things happened before that. In the parking lot after the ferry crossing we discover stowaways, first under a camper and later under the vehicle of Nancy and Hans. We are still in a part of Spain in Africa and will cross the border into Morocco the next day. Hans and Willem bring a young stowaway to the police, who doesn’t know to do anything else then let him go again. Criminalization is it not (yet), what they do: hang underneath a vehicle. Stupid it is, because we are going to Morocco and do not take the ferry to Europe, for their “promised” land. In this way we are introduced to the refugee issue, other than through the newspaper.

The border crossing is carried out by Nancy very smoothly and she takes care that the formalities are carried out quickly and efficiently. Then in Morocco we first have to get cash; Dirham, how much do you actually need? Much less than expected, will show us during the journey.

Now we really start with our journey, first headed to the east and south of Morocco, the desert and later the west, the coast and the centre, the beautiful Atlas Mountains and intriguing cities such as Marrakech and Fes.

Led by Nancy and Hans we discover so much of Morocco. A journey in which each traveller can drive independently the route every day to the accurately selected place of stay for the night. Often “in-the-wild” and occasionally on a campsite for the (for us) much needed luxury of showering and washing hair .

Your own plan for each day and a gathering place at the end of the day was a great setup for us. In this way we could explore the country ourselves, but take advantage of the preparation and experience of our guides.

That requires something of “navigating”: to be able to find the route through the navigator (tom-tom or so) by yourself and to find the right way on the map in this country is sometimes more difficult than you think. A few sometimes don’t find the good route and gets caught up in narrow and unpaved bumpy paths. Fortunately, we have our phones and Hans makes every effort to resolve the problem that has arisen and through route guidance with his M.A.N.–desert truck or through phone guidance “at a distance”. For everything there is a solution, is his credo.

Yes, and if one of the suspension bolt of the engine of one of the participants breaks down, they arrange with their contacts, that the stranded vehicle is getting transported to a garage. Miraculously, the camping car is repaired again the next day. The next day we continue our journey all together.

And then a course changing tires! One of our fellow travellers has a puncture and manages itself to arrive at the overnight place. Reason for Hans to organize directly a workshop changing a tire. With a firm hand he leads the implementation: each needs to change one of his own wheels, like at a flat tire. Very useful, because some of us could not even get their spare tire underneath the vehicle; talking about travel preparations!

Every day there is a briefing in which the route of the next day is explained. Useful for information – “… are there questions …” – but also for the feeling to travel together.
In cities such as Marrakech and Fes, Hans and Nancy guide us with a great tour of the Medina. In this way we are able to find our own way the next day in the maze of streets and markets much better.

We had a great journey, thanks to the experience of Nancy and Hans. A combination of the nature and culture of the country and we felt their responsibility to perform the journey as great and fantastic possible, with a maximum personal freedom for each of the participants, through their extensive experience and professional guidance.
Thank-you-for the Experience Morocco Pure!

Jeanne van Vliet
Willem van Douwen