It finally rains in California and I find some quite time to finish up our blog about our recent Morocco trip.

This blog focuses on part one of our overall 4 week, 8,000 km trip – an off-road expedition through the Moroccan desert.  These first 17 days were loaded with off-road training and workshops, organized  by Expedition for Trucks. After these first 2,000 km, we spent two more weeks touring through Morocco on our own and exploring different cities and other areas – more to come about that in a future blog.  Although we don’t like organized group tours, we decided to invest in this training since – A) we did not have much time to really prepare for this trip as we usually would and – B) we did not have any real off-road experience, at least not with a big truck like our ‘Guhonda’. Besides us in our EXCAP STEYR with KRUG cabin, the  ‘expedition team plus trucks’ consisted of three more couples and a dog. Nancy, Hans and their dog Lucy, our Expedition guides in a MAN rig with ActionMobil cabin, Wilfried and Ulrik in a MAN with a Bimobil cabin and Jorn and Elles driving an the ‘prettiest’ truck, an EXCAP STEYR with Orangework cab.

After a 2,300 km trip from Germany to the southern tip of Spain, we met up with the group on a beach in Motril to do a quick briefing and then catch the afternoon ferry to the Melilla, crossing the Street of Gibraltar in about 4.5 hours.

From here on we relied on the GPS coordinates that Hans and Nancy, the owner of Expedition For Trucks provided to us every day. Using our Garmin RV 770 LMT-S GPS with the excellent Morocco map from the german publishing company ‘Reise Know-How’ that Hans had provided, we were set. As a backup we bought a great GPS offroad guide for Morocco from Pistenkuh that we hardly used, since Expedition For Trucks lead us through their pre-planned route through the desert. You can find more Morocco information on the Pistenkuh website, plus lots of offroad travel related infos & tips. Interestingly enough, according to Hans, our MICHELIN Morocco map is illegal and could have been confiscated at the border, since it does not properly reflect Western Sahara. Western Sahara, formerly the Spanish colony of Spanish Sahara, is a disputed territory claimed by both the Kingdom of Morocco and the Polisario Front. It is listed by the United Nations (UN), as a non-decolonized territory and is thus included in the United Nations List of Non-Self-Governing Territories.

We spent our first night on the African continent in Melilla, a Spanish enclave and left early morning towards the Moroccan border post to avoid the crowds. Although we were first in line, unfortunately ‘the boss’ who had to give us the last stamps for our fiche documents and passports was nowhere to find. Watching the chaos at the border, trying to figure out a pattern, all of a sudden somebody waved us through and we finally got a late start towards Bouarfa. Some of the trucks were casually inspected and luckily nobody cared about the loads of beer and wine we brought into the country, being ready for long ‘dry runs’ through the desert.

33°7’15” N 1°57’57” W – Somewhere between Ain Bni Mathar and Tendrara

The first day in Morocco we ‘clocked’ 395 km of excellent roads before we left the tarmac of N17 to pick a random spot for our first desert camp, enjoying the first moroccan sunset. We got some local moroccan dinars in a bank on the way, replenished our food supplies and topped off our tanks with cheap moroccan diesel, knowing that we would not have another opportunity once we hit the desert tracks the next day. We quickly adjusted to the moroccan way of driving. The locals drive very good and disciplined and compared to other countries it was very relaxed driving. Some roads are really narrow and I was happy that I brought some spare mirrors – which I luckily did not have to use – usually you bring the wrong spare parts anyways.

33°7’15” N 1°57’57” W – Erg Chebbi – North Side

After another 388 km on paved roads on the second day, we were finally face to face with the impressive dune fields of Erg Chebbi. We veered off the asphalt onto a piste, released our tire pressure to 1.8 bar front and 2.0 bar rear and drove on sand tracks to our rest place for the night.

Finally we could ‘release our Guhonda into his natural habitat’.

The truck felt like a boat, floating over the sand piste. Having the correct tire pressure makes all the difference and when getting into softer areas we even released some more air. I did not have to use any differential lock – just the low gear-group.

As an ice-breaker Ulrike and Wilfried pulled out a liter bottle of good German Schnaps to start the evening with a group toast and announced that they had 10 Liters of Goulash Soup to share. We felt bad with our basic supplies that would not have allowed to create a group dinner for 8. Lesson learned and for the next trip we will also stock-up a bit more – especially beer. Ulrike lit up a small fire to heat up the Goulash Soup and we enjoyed a great dinner in the middle of our ‘wagon fort’.

31°12’40.0″N 3°59’03.0″W – Erg Chebbi – South-East Side

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