Morocco bound - by caravan
In January we set off from our home in the northern Scottish Highlands (north of Inverness actually, but that would have made the title too long) with our Swift Challenger 635 TA caravan on a 5,672 mile epic journey that would take us to Marrakesh and back. We set off in foul wet weather one morning and two weeks later we crossed the Straights of Gibraltar and drove off the ferry into a warm and sunny Africa!
It was an incredible, exciting, and at times stressful trip that saw us tour Morocco from Tangier to Marrakesh and the foot hills of the Atlas Mountains, return to Europe via Spain, settle, so we thought, in The Algarve, get evicted from Portugal due to the Corvid-19 virus, and make a madcap dash back to the UK via Spain and France in just 4 days wild camping overnight at truck stops, followed by towing the length of the UK in just 2 days!
During the journey I kept a travel journal detailing the highs and lows, the adventures and escapades of a couple of fairly novice caravanners, as we threw caution to the wind and took our caravan to another continent and back.
On returning home I have added a guide to taking your caravan to Morocco to the journal, detailing how to get from Europe to Morocco, an itinerary suitable for towing a caravan in this wonderful country, a guide to the campsites we used and lots of information that will help you enjoy your trip there. The guide and the journal are both illustrated with photographs taken on the trip. There are also links to YuTube videos showing the routes into some of the campsites we used and others you may find of interest and help.
The journal begins with our first idea of taking our caravan to Morocco, why we changed our caravan, the equipment that we took, the maps and guides and the plan that we set off with.
This journal and guide is now available as a PDF. The cost? Well whatever you want to donate to a worthy charity, The British Moroccan Society's Covid-19 Relief Fund:
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic that is causing hardship especially during Ramadan in remote villages of the Atlas Mountains, the BMS has decided to set up a special fund in order to provide basic food provisions to people who are in desperate need of our help.
Thanking you in anticipation of your generous contribution to our worthy causes at this time of exceptional circumstances, to donate please visit: http://www.britishmoroccansociety.org/covid-19/
If you would like a PDF copy of the Journal, The Road to Morocco, send me a PM with your email address and I'll send you a copy of the PDF. The amount of your donation is entirely up to you, I don't even want to know what it was. Any amount will help and will be gratefully received by the British Moroccan Society.
So, take your minds off all the doom and gloom, sit back and enjoy the adventure, and you never know, we may even see you and your caravan in Morocco next year.
KH
Comments
-
The Road to Morocco? Wasn't that A Bob Hope film?
0 -
A PM?🤔
Quite a trip by the sounds of it.
0 -
-
Please note that the original post is almost a year old and the poster hasn't posted for a while. Also, unfortunately, this forum doesn't have a PM system.
0 -
Was the original post hidden for 11 months ? Did none of us see it ? Has it just emerged? I thought it was a remarkable adventure and am full of admiration.
0 -
Wow now that is showing your age CY
cannot think how this was missed last year during lockdown. Having been to Morocco I would have most certainly had a look at it. Perhaps I was too busy, I know I got cracking with getting on with lots of outstanding jobs during that period.peedee
0 -
Hi KH
were thinking of travelling to Morocco this winter via Spain with an Adria Adora towed with, like you, a barbarian. We would love to read your blog.
It would be great to hear from you. Wylie.foxes@yahoo.co.uk
Keith and Carol
0 -
Could you send me details on how I could get hold of your journal please. We are a couple in our 60’s from Angus who tow a caravan and are thinking of going to Morocco to do a workaround the 90/180 Schengen debacle. I seem to see a lot of negative comments regarding two to Morocco; it appears “the dark side” do not recommend going to Morocco with a caravan. Your article obviously debunks that myth and I would like to find out more.
My email is timorcottage@btinternet.com.
TIAJacquie and Alan Steel
Moderator Edit:
It might be as well to note that the OP is three years old and the poster hasn't returned to the forum.
0 -
Lots of email addresses posted on an unsecured public forum
.JK
0 -
You can get personal travel insurance but very few motor insurance policies will cover Morocco. Check that before you make any plans .
0 -
Having just read 'Morocco bound - by caravan'
I thought I would take this opportunity and 'swing the so called lantern' in 2 completely opposite directions. Firstly in the direction of travel - as far north as you can possibly travel by caravan or motorhome and secondly by climate from heat to cool minus 19.
To be as honest as honest as can be this road trip experience was undertaken in early March by my parents who presently live in Germany and access to this site isn't really possible.
They presently live in Germany and undertook a trip they have wanted to do for years, a trip to North Cape (Norwegian: Nordkapp) – the furthest north you can travel in Europe.
I would also guess quite a few others reading this would also love to travel this amazing road trip, but ‘where do you start??’ has often been head when they show their happy snappies.
The only element dad hadn’t really planned for was just how much gas they would get through in the 3 weeks and that was starting with 2 full 11kg gas bottles.
He had expected average temperatures to be much colder than they actually were – that come as quite a relief to my mother.
The warmest by day was -5 and by night dropping to a very modest -19.
Their motorhome a Knaus L!VE I 650 MEG automatic - effortlessly coped with the temperatures, when wild camping every other night they used gas and when on site switched to their dyson heater - the cold simply wasn't a problem. Due to the style of their van freezing water was not an issue having a full winter pack fitted as standard and in keeping with typical German winter driving protocols they had changed their summer alloys for steels and winter tyres - these being the 'only' item checked when entering Finland by Finnish customs. Their ‘road trip’ - entailed travelling via northern Germany where they presently live, Denmark, ferry to Finland, Lapland - Ice hotel, finally to North Cape (Norwegian: Nordkapp) – then back via Bergen, western fjords, not forgetting the Northern lights at Tromso and Gothenburg catching the ferry back to Germany and on to home.
All in all they covered some 7,500km in 20 days.
They say there was really was no dramas, unlike the TV programme no doubt a number of us watched on Sunday evening !!!!He says the further ‘up’ you travel the less traffic you encounter, except for fellow 'mad' motorhomers and the odd caravan typically being towed by the 4x4. In typical Scandinavian style camping sites were open for business, you just assisted in the 'dig your slot out' aspect - however; this was greatly rewarded with a typical on site sauna followed by a BBQ or Cadac in the snow - with a chilled beer or glass of wine, neither of which were never more than an arms length away.
Apart from the odd ‘real’ serious snow blizzard or wipe-out in which stopping was the 'only' option available and the odd occasion when you completely lost the ice compact road and you had to navigate via the red poles ‘there really was nothing to it!!
However, as he says you have to respect mother nature - snow like the sun - if underestimated and abused will bite!!
Morocco to Artic bound a real case of chalk and cheese -
Hope my parents little adventure provides a smile and possibly a little food for thought.
1 -
We went with our caravan, on a bit of a whim, for just under 4 weeks at the end of 2018.
We took the ferry from Tarifa to Tangier which takes about 1 hour. Our first stop was in Asillah - having decided to give Tangier a miss. At the campsite in Asillah, we met an 'old Moroccan hand' French couple who circled various places on our Michelin road map that they recommended we visited. That essentially formed our plan and route for us. We started in Fez and from there went south to Todras Gorge via Midelt and Errachidia. From Todras Gorge we ran along the top of the Sahara to Foum Zgoud via Ouarzazate and then south to the coast at TanTan. On the way back, we stopped at Tiznit, Casablanca, Marrakesh and Chefchaouen before ending up in Tangier. I only include our itinerary so that you can see, from the map, that we covered a fair bit of ground.
To put us in perspective, we were then both nudging 70, towing a 12 year old small but heavy German caravan with a 2 year old Santa Fe.
Very happy to answer any questions. Will we go again? Most definitely, and for longer, once my new knees have settled down.
Email: rjrwest@hotmail.com
Bob
1 -
Re-reading my post, it looks a bit irresponsible. It wasn't quite on a whim. We were on a 6-month drift through Spain going down the Portuguese side and coming back up the Mediterranean coast. We had been invited to a wedding in Toledo in the middle of October which was our only fixed point. Incidentally, it was only one of 2 sites that we booked in advance; the other being Bella Vista in Manilva that we found just before going Morocco and had to book for 2 weeks over Christmas as we had family joining us.
Other than 'bucket & spade' holidays a very long time ago in the Bay of Rosas, we had never really visited Spain - tending towards Italy instead. So this was an excellent opportunity to rectify that. Looking at the map, it was clear that we would eventually end up at the bottom of Spain so we toyed with the possibility of going to Morocco.
Before we left UK, I negotiated a Green Card from my insurance company for the car giving me a 7-week window of opportunity (you can, however, buy 3rd party insurance in Morocco at the port), the caravan was already covered for Morocco in the policy and I checked with Red Pennant that, although they had no formal agreement with any breakdown agencies in Morocco, if I kept any receipts, they would honour them (that may have changed).
I bought a campsite book (in French) from Vicarious Books and also a Michelin Road map.
We then sat in Tarifa for a week looking across the Straits at Morocco wondering whether to give it a go or would it be a totally mad idea. However, all the locals there (and in Gibraltar), who we talked to, said that we would love it. So we found a 10 year old Rough Guide to Morocco in a second hand bookshop in Gibraltar, downloaded the Lonely Planet Guide onto the Kindle and went for it.
0 -
Thank you. Is that just a Green Card providing the minimum compulsory third party cover required by Morocco, or the sort of fully comprehensive insurance most of us would have here at home? I have read of many motorhomers who have struggled to get the comprehensive cover they wanted.
0 -
I see the Roaming Radford's are currently in Morocco , you can catch up with them on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/roamingradfords/ I have not seen any videos on YouTube yet but I am sure they will follow.
David
0
