We have signed up for a 17 day training course that takes place in the deserts of Morocco. We heard about this course from a couple we met at KrugXP in Schladming, who had just completed the same course and thought it was great!
Nine expedition trucks gathered in Almeria, Spain for the ferry crossing to Nador, Morocco. In the group we have 3 vehicles from Krug (on Mercedes Arocs chassis), 2 from Action Mobil (on MAN chassis), 2 from Twigga Travelcars (1 old Mercedes Firetruck chassis, 1 MAN chassis), 1 from Azimoo (Fuso Canter chassis)and 1 from Box Manufacturer (Unimog chassis).
Hans and Nancy, from Expedition4Trucks, the leaders of our foray into Morocco shepherded everyone around the port of Almeria, onto the ferry, through the port of Nador and into a very tiny little parking lot where we would spend our first night in Morocco (we were supposed to be in a larger parking lot, but it was not available for some reason or other).
The next day we head out and found ourselves driving in… the rain? In Morocco? Yeppers! It’s raining in Morocco and has been for several weeks. There has been extensive flooding in some parts of the country and some of the places we were schedule to visit are currently impassable, so Hans and Nancy are going to make up our schedule on a day-to-day basis depending on reports they get as to where we can drive. Our first and second days are mainly road driving as we get to the area where we will be doing our “classwork”.
When we were last in Morocco, in 2022, there was a drought that had been effecting the country for at least 2-3 years. This time the country looks quite different, due solely to the rain and the greenery that is springing up everywhere!
The piles of stones, as seen in the previous photo, are a common sight and a bit of a mystery. We think there are a few reasons for the piles: (i) cleaning areas for agriculture, (ii) stacking rock for building material (fences and houses), and (iii) fossil and stone collecting. There are many, many vendors at markets, or even standing along the roadside, that sell fossils and geodes (plain looking rocks with crystalline interiors). There is a bit of a tourist scam in which the crystalline interiors are dyed in order to make them more appealing to potential buyers. Apparently Morocco is a place for rockhounds to find or buy interesting minerals.
Next day we are driving in some more arduous terrain, so it is time to raise the bumpers on the vehicles. For some vehicles, like the Krug Arocs, this is a simple matter of pulling a couple off lever/pins and lifting the bumper. Some vehicles have fixed bumpers. And some vehicle require tools to adjust the bumpers. Definitely liking our Krug for easy of use!
In addition to adjusting bumpers, tire pressures also need to be adjusted to match the trail, or “piste” as they are called in Morocco, conditions. There are three main types of piste: normal piste (combination of not deep sand, gravel and some rocks); hard piste (mainly rock); and sand (deep, soft sand). There is also wet sand (called mud here), which is to be avoided at all costs as there is no way for 16 ton vehicles to successfully negotiate mud trails!
All types of piste require a lower tire pressure than when driving on asphalt roads. To lower the pressure in Rosie’s tires is a simple process due to the central tire inflation system (CTIS) that was installed on our vehicle, another win for Krug! For those vehicles without a CTIS it is necessary to manually deflate each tire, a process which took some vehicles 10-15 minutes or more.
Once we are in a secluded location it is time for class!
Every day starts at 9:00 with either a briefing, a class, or ready to drive. This means we have to set an alarm clock to make it in time. Egads! I thought our days of early morning alarms was a thing of the past!
Some classes require all participants to set up a table in front of their vehicle and put out the tools and supplies that will be required for that class. Not everyone (including ourselves) had everything required. Sometimes we fell woefully short of the required items. In all cases, Hans was not merciful in his description of our inadequacies! Towards the end of the trip people would clap and cheer if Hans grudgingly accepted a tool or item on display!
The classes covered many areas and were, in our opinion, the most valuable portions of the trip. Areas covered included: driving in various conditions; large vehicle driving tips and tricks; recovery equipment and methods; self-recovery; checking the chassis, engine and running gear; swapping tires mounted on rims; mounting and dismounting tires from rims; tire puncture repair.
Some classes were unscheduled…
While driving we communicated using handheld VHF radios (Hans & Nancy had a VHF base station built into their truck). Handheld VHF radios have a transmitting power of 3-10 watts (Rosie has two of the 10 watt version), and a base station typically has a 75 watt transmission power. So we can always hear Hans and Nancy, but they can’t always hear us! For the most part the VHF radios worked well as we usually stayed within 2-3 kilometers of each other. Not everyone has VHF licenses (ie. no one) so whenever we approached a police or military stop our standing instructions were to stay off the radios because the police and military also use VHF for their communications.
We crawled our way up a hard piste trail to a pass through some good sized hills. At the peak of the pass we discovered that coming up was nothing. We now had to descend a steep, winding, narrow (very narrow) rocky path. “Don’t worry” says Hans, “this is what your training was for!”
Unfortunately our training did not include remembering to turn on the dashcam, or remembering to stop part way down the death-defying trail to get out and take a photo or two. In most places it was not advisable to get out during the descent as stepping out of the truck would have necessitated a few hundred foot jump to the bottom of the canyon.
As we were descending the navigators job was to call out how many feet or inches of space there was between the tire and the edge of the track. For most of the descent it was “6 inches”, “8 inchs”, “4 inches”, “6 inches”, “1 foot – tons of room!”, etc. Much joy and relief when we reached the bottom of the canyon after a couple of kilometers of winding trail. I don’t know what we would have done if we met anyone coming up the trail. No way we were backing up!!!
The descent was definitely worth it as we ended up in an incredible valley, which we had all to ourselves.
The photo at the top of this post shows the trainees lined up for the vehicle inspection training class.
Our last day of the expedition is spent in Marrakesh. We all squeezed into a tiny parking lot that was located in the heart of downtown Marrakesh, right across from the famous Koutoubia Mosque. Had a fun wander around the very touristy Marrakesh market.
Not a great place for dogs. Moroccons are not big on dogs (bit surprising seeing how many wild dogs are running around everywhere) and on a previous trip someone’s dog became ill when it eat a poisoned bit of something in a nearby park (dog was okay), but people are known to place poison in some areas where they don’t want dogs.
Our second last night was spent in a Marrakesh campground called El Olivar Palace, which was a nice place to park. We, and several others, came back to this campground after our night in downtown Marrakesh. We spent a few days here just relaxing and not getting up to an alarm clock!
List of overnight locations during the expedition:
- Oct 25 – Almeria ferry terminal, Spain
- Oct 26 – Nador, Morocco
- Oct 27 – 33.7983000, -1.9977900
- Oct 28 – 31.864437, -4.282970
- Oct 29 – 31.2137000, -4.0250100
- Oct 30 – 31.0963000, -3.9564400
- Oct 31 – 30.9942000, -3.8188900
- Nov 1 – 30.7464000, -4.2686300
- Nov 2 – 30.7449000, -4.2659200
- Nov 3 – Campsite in Zagora, 30.3139200, -5.8302252
- Nov 4 – 30.0924000, -5.2978100
- Nov 5 – 30.9086000, -5.3247900
- Nov 6 – 30.631500, -4.8050600
- Nov 7 – 30.6316000, -4.8040700
- Nov 8 – 30.0789000, -6.8778200
- Nov 9 – Ait Benhaddou
- Nov 10 – El Olivar Palace, Marrakech
- Nov 11 – Parking Lot Marrakech, nr Koutoubia Mosque 31.624270, -7.996315