Leg 2: Waypoint tour of Morocco

So. We're computer mobile again after picking up a bit of tax-free bargain in Gibraltar (If you're nearby - Gibraltar is also worth a visit for £5.95 1L bottles of Jim Beam, oh and also great views from the top of the Gibraltar Rock where we spent some time with the Barbary apes - make sure you've got some pounds (the currency kind) on you cause they really stitch you on the exchange rate and lots of places dont take card. There is border control for those who were wondering. We got searched on the way out).

Morocco - Where to begin. Well given it's me that's writing this I'll start with food! Our Waypoint Tour began on 6th June at La Casita camping San Roque (a good town to get lost in) Spain with a great BBQ (braai) and meet and greet. Nice change to have someone else preparing the meals for us! and I have to say no one ever went hungry that's for sure! We had nothing but great quality food the whole trip. Everything from tagines, to kebabs, Nandos spiced chicken yum yum. The only times Barrie didn't cater were once in the desert where we got caught in a dust storm we ended up eating in a restaurant in the Kasbah we were camping in - though the tagine there wasn't a patch on his, and most definitely not the same portion sizing; a lunch in Tinehir where we had stopped for the day so the cars could rotate through the garage to fix various issues - we had a couple of kebabs on a roof top terrace overlooking the markets. and Pizza in Marrakech - again the food was a let down there - but we had a great position overlooking the main square, watching the sunset and the crowds growing - great atmosphere. So definitely no complaints on the food! Did miss my cereal for breakfast but most mornings we were up and going and i much preferred the extra 10 minutes kip to a proper breakfast.

The tour was a lot more than we expected. A lot less time spent on tar roads than even we imagined! We had everything, rock crawling through beautiful gorges, steep ascents and descents on very tight, bumpy tracks through beautiful valleys and cedar forests. Then there was the desert driving, sand dunes, salt beds and those bloody corrugations! No way we ould have navigated this ourselves without having done a significant amount of prior research. Taking seemingly random tracks in the middle of plains, no signs in most places. Only once did he miss turn off. We ended up driving through a farm. Good 4WD, but obviously we felt bad driving through their fields. It was difficult to get back onto the track as there was a deep drain to get across. Some kids helped us navigate our way out and thankfully they had already done their harvest so didn't do any damage.

Kids.... that was actually one of the things I will remember most from Morocco. Unfortunately a lot of kids would just come to the car asking for "Bon Bon" "Stillo" (actually took us a day or 2 to work that one out... thought they just thought everyone's name was Stevo). They would see us coming and in some cases run for a good couple of hundred metres just to be able to get to the road and try and wave us down. Some of them would clear the road up ahead of rock (usually really small ones) .. like hey.. I've helped you... in one town they kids started showing off their martial arts and cartwheeling skills in a hope to get a bit of a 'present'.
At the end of first day off-roading we were airing up our tyres, right across the road from a school just as they all started running out at the end of the day... Started off with just a few kinds checking out the cars, saying hello. But in the end there must have been about 50 kids. All good fun to begin with - blasting the air-compressor at them. Trying to explain we were from Oz... they all had a good laugh at Matt when he bent down to do one tyre and showed a little too much! But then one kid decided to throw a stone at the car... then another and it all started to get a little out of hand. Matt cracked it when one hit the car and took off, almost literally - scaring a few kids out of the way!! Shame that a couple of kids wrecked it for everyone else.

I mentioned car issues before. Trevor, one of the other travellers on the trip, decided on day 1 to start an issues log. It made for interesting and lengthy reading by the end... over 40 issues, luckily mostly minor , by the end of the 14 days. We, personally had cracks in the tyre sidewall, bash plate for the gas tank fell off, bust in a pipe for the auto-transmission cooler - not good when you've just started through the sand-dunes, fuse for the dash and the alternator (were glad it was just that and not the alternator itself) ummm.... overheated on climbs when we had the air-con on (had to do away with that luxury).. think that was it... others had flat tyres, broken leaf spring, cracked steering rack, Pete's dodgy exhaust on his Discovery kept falling off... so all in all.. our cars definitely kept us on our toes!

We also camped in some spectacular spots. In a riverbed, in the dunes, in the forest... every now and then (and more regularly than I had hoped for) we camped where there were toilets and showers. The Kasbahs were quite cool... Drove through a fortress looking entrance to an open area then a building that had internal courtyards as well... Would love one day to be able to afford to build my own house like that... one can dream.

Didnt spend a lot of times in the towns themelves, but when we did, we had fun. Wandering round the food markets in Tinerhir and other towns, a lot more authentic than what you get in Marrakech. But that was good as well. Would love to furnish my house (when I have a home that is larger than 2m wide by 5m long) from the antiques shops in the soukhs. Some great stuff, everything from rugs, to lamps to pots to chests... loved it all... maybe when I have that dream house I'l be able to fly back for a special shopping trip :)

So thanks to Barrie of Waypoint Tours, and our travel buddies, Peter aka Tom/Jerry/Ralph/Stevo, Sam aka Pedro, Trev and Nick... we had a fantastic time in Morocco - a great start to our adventures through Europe and beyond.
Now in the Costa Del Sol... soaking up some sun... sorting out some admin things, catching up with friends and need to get the car looked at... it's making cranky noises, even after we've washed it (we thought that may pick up her mood).