In 2018 we decided to spend our three weeks of summer holidays in Morocco. In order to have a more relaxed trip when driving there, we booked the ferry boat to Tanger from Barcelona.

We started our trip on 27 July. Since Daniela was on nightshift before our departure, we took the opportunity and she added another night shift as conductor of the Crocomobile. It is hard to imagine, how crowded the highways are during the night on holiday time: The parking area next to the highway was overcrowded at 3 o’clock in the morning. But bevor getting there, we had to deal with traffic jam between Lausanne and Geneva. At 11 o’clock the next morning we arrived at a pre-reserved campsite in Le Barcarès close to Perpignan. We relaxed for one day on the campsite with pool and waterslide before continuing the 200 remaining kilometres to Barcelona.

Once we arrived in the harbour, we realised the chaotic organisation. We arrived on time in the harbour and quequed up with the other waiting cars. But there was nobody from the ferry company. Finally one and a half hour before the planned departure, the people arrived and we could go through customs. We had hardly gone through customs Daniela received a message on her mobile phone that the ship would depart only three hours later – that means at 6 pm.
Be prepared for a long waiting time , but finally the ferry already arrived at 3 pm in the harbour and left the harbour at 5 pm. We could install us in our cabins for the 26 hours of ferry crossing.
In Tanger, we could pass customs quickly and tried to find an overnight place close to the Hercules Caves. Since the 30.07. was a holiday in Morocco, the camping site was transformed into a visiting parking place for the cave. We had to move on to the second campsite in town and could set up a tent only at 10:30 pm in the evening. After buying grocery supplies in Carrefour, we drove the first section of our trip to Chefchauen.

In Chefchauen, it was the first real evening in Morocco, we started venturing through the small alleys of a Moroccan town. The characteristic feature of this mountain town is the blue and white colour of the houses. In front of the fortress (Kasbah), we enjoyed local food specialities for the first time (Tajine, Couscous, …). On the campsite we had Spanish neighbours who spread out around us and our car in an impertinent way. Finally, we talked to them and managed to ban them on the side where their Camping-Cars were places.

The next day, we drove through the Riff mountains via Ketama to Fès, a Royal historical town, which is famous for its big old centre (médina) with its endless market. Due to its geographical setting in a valley , we got to experience Moroccos heat for the first time: 10 km before getting into Fès, we still had a pleasant thirty degrees – but once arrived in the city, the thermometer climbed up to 44°C. Later in the evening, a hot desert storm blew through the city and the campsite which made sleeping impossible till late in the night. Fortunately, we had the possibility to cool down on the campsite and the adjacent big waterpark the ext morning. We wandered through the little streets in Fès for two days and bought some Souvenirs on the market – but we had to struggle to get rid of some obtrusive sales persons.
The day after, we escaped from the heat into the mountains and could spend a cool and pleasant night in Azrou.

Afterwards we started searching for Berber monkeys and also found some of them – but unfortunately, they were accompanied by obtrusive self proclaimed guides. When continuing our trip through the middle Atlas, we also got to see some wild Berber monkeys. Our next destination was Imilchil. On the edge of the lake Tislite we found nice landlords and next to their little hotel, we could enjoy a nice and cool evening right next to the lake.

After waking up the next morning, they surprised us with puff pastry for breakfast. This address is definitely worth a visit. The next day, we drove through the mountains and over passes up to 2900 m down into the Dades-Valley. The little 4×4 Road is very nice, but pretty narrow if there is oncoming traffic. On the highest pass we got into a thunderstorm with hail and had to backward because of an oncoming truck.

We drove through the canyons of the Dades and finally left The Valley 70 km further east wehre we spent the night in the Thodra-valley which became famous due to movies like „Lawrence of Arabia“. Unfortunately, due to the masses of tourists and salesman everywhere , there is not much left of the beauty of this valley. We only spent a short time there and continued our way into the direction of the sahara, to Merzouga.

As a surprise for the kids and highlight for everyone, we booked a camel tour into the dunes of Erg Chebbi including an overnight trip. Before the tour, we could cool down in the swimming pool of the hotel. Later on, we had to climb onto our camels.
Fiona had to share a camel with her dad, Nora and Daniela received camels for themselves. Nora was afraid of the special manner the camel stood up, but after the first 100 meter of rocking around, she felt comfortable on her new means of transportation. She was surprised how secure the animals could move in the soft sand. After a two hour trip we reached the desert camp. We had the opportunity to try sand boarding and could enjoy the nice view of the beautiful sand landscape. After the sunset (which was partly obscured by clouds) we were called for dinner. Everybody received a huge serving!
We first received the traditional Moroccan tea (Green tea with mint), afterwards Moroccan salad, vegetables with chicken and rice and for dessert, we received watermelon.
We Lay down under the sky in our beds and could watch the stars while falling asleep. After a beautiful sunrise, we rode back to the hotel and received a rich breakfast.

After taking a nice shower we packed up our crocomobile and drove around the dunes on the Eastern bypass Before turning on the 4×4 road towards M’Hamid. This road passes very closely to the Algerian border. On the was, the owner of a small hostel tried to bring us into his Hostel by Telinho us a horror story: He told us that three off-road vehicles got stuck in the sand when trying a river crossing lyimg ahead on our planned Route. After a Long struggle, they managed to turn round and gratefully, they spend the night in his hostel. But this river crossing was 40 km further on and was no problem for us for a 4×4 with enough ground clearance, We spent the next night with wild camping on a little side road. Later on in the evening, the weather surprised us with a desert thunderstorm with violent wind, thunderstorm and rain.
The next day, we continued the track and had to cross a military zone. On August 8, we arrived at Zagora. In Zagora, it was very hot with around 40°C. We only stayed there for one night to continue our trip the next morning through the Dra-valley and direction of the high Atlas.

Our next destination was Ait-Ben-Haddou, a famous movie city. Initially, we wanted to visit the film studios in Ouarzazare, But after we had a traffic accident with a crazy scooter and afterwards, we had no motivation anymore for such a visit. The historical town of Ait-Ben-Haddou Is recommended to be visited in the evening light, but that was not possible in our case due to a lack of sunshine.

When continuing our trip in search of a campsite, a vigorous rain started and we could not reach the previously select the campsite anymore due to landslides and floodings. Once there is rain in Morocco, there are landslides and floodings everywhere because the dry ground cannot absorb the water and there is no drainage system.
Finally on the other side of the mountain, we found a spot close to a hospital in Telouet. The next morning, we went on and wanted to do a lonely walk to the waterfalls close to Setti Fadma. But we did not realise that it was Friday and Moroccan school holidays. The whole valley was overcrowded with daytrip tourists and it was almost impossible to pass through. The people sat down in one of the restaurants which I had put their chairs into a river bed that the guest could cool their feet in the water.

We escaped and went 30 km further on to Oukaimeden, the Moroccan ski resort where the installations are going up to 3200 m. This place is supposed to be completely empty in summer but when we arrived, there also were a lot of people. We enjoyed the landscape and a little bit further down the road we found a little hidden place between trees at 2600 m where we spent a nice and cool night.

Our next destination was Marrakech. Since all main roads are leading into the city center, Daniela chosen a route bypassing the city centre on little roads. But it was not marked in the map that this this route turned out to be a little dirt road passing through cactus fields.

We stayed for two days in this city and visited its “old city“ (medina) with its small and chaotic little streets, the hand craft markets, the showmen, the snake evocators. We bought some souvenirs ,but we had to bargain hard to get a reasonable price. In Marrakech it was again very hot, around 40°C, and we drove onto the Atlantic coast where it was pleasantly cool. We stopped on the camping “De la Plage” northeast of Essaouira. The camping looked pretty nice with a swimming pool and a playground for children, but at 7 pm , directly next to the campsite at noisy generator started to recharge the electricity supply and it did not stop before 10:30 pm. The generator started again at 7:30 am in the morning. We were really annoyed by this, since it was one of the most expensive campsites in the whole country. We complained but since we had paid the camping fees directly on arrival, there was nothing to do about it. We will give it an appropriate rating In a travel guide book.

In the meantime , it was already Wednesday of the last holiday week and we had to be back in Tanga on time to reach the ferry boat to Barcelona. We visited Essaouira, an Andalusian-type city. In the afternoon , we continued to the north to Mohammedia north of Casablanca. We drove past the big cities Mohammedia and Csablanca and Rabat and continued to Adilah where we passed the last night on Moroccan territory.

Early on Friday morning , we went to the harbour. But we were again a lot too early. On arrival to Morocco we received a piece of paper indicating that we would have to be in the harbour eight hours before departure of the ferry boat. We arrived on the harbour at 8:30 in the morning, four hours before the official departure of the ferry boat, but the information desk was still closed. We finally received our boarding passes around 11 o’clock and queued up again in front of the customs. Since they did not have anything to complain when controlling the persons and the vehicle, we
could could go on to the unsheltered place under the sun in front of the ferry boat. There we were lucky to meet Christoph and Manuela, a couple from Zürich also with a Landrover 130 who were coming back forms out Morocco trip and we shared travel experiences with them.

There was again some trouble before entering the ferry boat: suddenly security staff started searching the cars for gas bottles. We proposed to empty our bottle in the harbour and to take it with us without the gas. But unfortunately , this was not allowed neither. So you were angry about the loft of the bottle when we entered the ferry boat. The kids already knew the ferry boat from the trip when coming to Morocco three weeks ago and explored it on their own. After a pleasant night in a real bed, they suddenly called out for a doctor early in the morning. So Daniela had some work to do (delivery of free time twins) .
As a reward, the whole family was invited to a dinner by the ship crew In the evening. Due to the medical emergency we only arrived in Barcelona at 10:30 in the evening and spend the night In the harbour before driving the 900 km back to Switzerland.