MOROCCO NEW YEAR’S EVE 2009
Tired of always spending Christmas in the same way, eating, eating, eating, drinking, drinking, drinking, always the same faces, always the same comments, always criticizing one, another.
What the fuck, I’m going with my family to do what I like the most, travel with my JK. By the way, I got into a friend who always signs up for everything.
I had 1,100 km ahead of me to Algeciras.
First stop in Valencia for lunch.
Almost all the way raining, we stopped for lunch in Granada, and arrived in Algeciras at 6:30 p.m.
In the hotel parking lot, my balls already fell to the floor when I saw the HDJs ready. He kept comparing Jk’s height with that of those prepared monsters. Inside I thought: “We’ll see which one handles better in hostile terrain.” I guess I was trying to self-suggest that my JK wasn’t that shitty.
The next day, I take an alarm clock, go on vacation and get up at 6:00 a.m. Inside me, I thought: “fuck where I have put my family, this rhythm will never come again”. But we had to be in Tarifa to board at 7:00 a.m. and start queuing for the Ferry.
In the queue, I was continually obsessed with the height of those HDJ behemoths. After 30 minutes of queue, we all began to enter that dark cellar. The monsters roaring their engines next to my CRD that looked like a Perkins sounding. But inside I thought “damn 177 hp. for this matchbox, they won’t have it so easy”
After 40 min. of navigation, we arrive at that chaotic customs office.
Wow, everyone in line has to wait for instructions from I don’t know who, because there were so many people that you didn’t know who was an official or who was there in amazement. Once we had passed the formalities, already in African lands, we took the highway to Marrakech. It takes 600 km more. In case we hadn’t had enough the day before.
At dusk, we arrive in Marrakech. A fucking *****-star hotel. Luckily the next day we had the day off to rest from so many kilometers.
Here I was negotiating the next day with a guide “Homar”. for 150 dirhams. He showed us the city to a group of 15 people.
The truth is that they are all artists of deception. They take you where they want, where they get a commission for what the pardillos like us spend. (I suppose they think that we each have a money factory in Spain). Poor people, the truth is that they have nothing else.
The following photo, I put it in rebellion to the Moor who attended to my wife. When she was about to buy carpets and practice a little of what women like so much, the game of haggling in the Souk, I was taking photos of that exotic environment. Suddenly that guy turns, and looking at me with the defiant face of an Islamic fundamentalist who has to open his robe and show you an explosives belt ready to blow himself up with us inside the tent, telling me that “don’t take pictures of me, my religion forbids me to do so”. -“Well, look, I have not only taken your photo, I also publish it on my forum for everyone to see.”
The nights in the Souk of Marrakech seem like something out of a fairy tale, everything that was snake charmers, street vending, etc… it is transformed into food bars. You don’t have to take into account cleanliness, otherwise you will have a bad time. But it’s worth it. In the surroundings of the beach bars, strange people in circles explaining fables, stories, and theater.
Third day: Diana at 6:30 a.m. In the car at 7:30 a.m., loaded and refueled. Route to Ouarzazate (fuck what names, I’ll never learn them, 250 Km. 180 km. of road and 70 Km. of track in good condition. We cross the Atlas in a safe place where there is no snow.
Going down the Atlas, and following the course of the Draa River, one of the largest palm groves in Morocco extends. They say that it has more than three million palm trees. You also realize that a few meters beyond the palm grove, the terrain becomes hostile. No tree, not a soul, just stones and stones. At noon, the organization took us to a restaurant that was very good. From the terrace, we could see a large Kasbah protected by UNESCO, where they shot the movie Gladiator. Notice that these little Moors are bastards, who removed the stones and logs from the river, to pass you on their donkeys and charge you 10 or 20 dirhams. But you have to take it as a joke. I guess it’s part of the game, and if you’re having fun, that’s fine.
Arrival in Ouarzazate. Right hotel (best in the area). It is what it is
Day 4. Diana 6:30h (Fuck, what I like to sleep with.) Route from Ouarzazate (damn, it’s hard for me to even write it) to Zagora. It is the gateway to the Desert. Total 270 Km. 200 asphalt 70 fucked track.
And the first setback. My friend Santi punctures his Mitsubishi DID (no wonder, with this scree and road wheels)
Setback solved. We get ready to eat. It’s not that easy. You have to look for a shady place. That is, to return to the palm grove.
After eating, with a glass of whiskey on your body, you have to get back on the road. We have to get to Zagora before nightfall. You go through villages, all the houses made of adobe (mud mixed with straw) look like a nativity scene. That afternoon, we were lucky enough to see how some children, at the end of school (I imagine), went to fetch water from the well that was one km from the town.
I tried to show my children that here it is not possible to turn on a tap and have water come out, that hot water only exists in mint tea, and that they can feel privileged to live where they live. (They didn’t even fucking pay attention to me)
Arrival in Zagora. Hotel, not bad (the best in the area).
We leave our suitcases, women and children at the hotel and go to visit a mechanic friend of the expedition. Mohamet nicknamed “El Gordito”.
He has to fix several punctures of all the cars, and for 50 dirhams he cleans the car, checks the underbody, shock absorbers, etc…
5th Stage. 300 km. of which 150 asphalt and 150 track and dunes. Diana 6:30h (I’m starting to get used to it) At 7:30h cars refueled in front of the Hotel
This time, all the groups went out together to the Erg Chebbi. 26 cars. Inside me I thought “today is the day I have to deal with the HDJs of the balls”, between all those mastodons they seemed to accumulate millions of kilometers through dunes, thousands of hours driving through dunes. And me, with my little red shit and no fucking idea how to drive around, but with two balls!!!!
We did about 70 km of narrow, straight road, with nothing around, covered in pieces by the sand of the wind. It seemed like a trip to nothingness.
Then, we began to enter a track that led to the bottom line.
More and more bumpy, more and more stones. Even so, no one let up, we were going at 40 km/h. It seemed to me that the Jk was disassembled from the inside. After a while we heard on the radio station that we have to go at least 60 km/h.
Fuck, is it the Toyotas cocoons that are pressuring us? Well, if they can hold on, mine too. After all, I have fewer details than a panda’s dashboard, and they have more tablier for it to dismantle. After 1 hour we arrive at an oasis in the middle of a stony area. Thank goodness 20 min rest. It was not long before the dunes, about 15 min.
Meeting of my group, the guide explains to us how to drive through the dunes.
Fuck, if you have to take the tire pressure off I was so nervous that I was going to shoot out without knowing anything. And the truth is that if they don’t explain it to you a little, at most you last 1 min.
Don’t think that everyone is good at it. As many of you know and have tried it, you have to have a special Filing between the accelerator, the wheels, and the sand. I don’t know how to explain it any other way.
All day long, it seemed as if they had made an amusement park to suit me. Damn, I had a good time.
Especially when I started to go around and around with my JK around the HDJs that stayed, like a fly fluttering the shit.
My wife kept telling me to stop making the cocoon, that we would have a host. But it was my time and I didn’t have ears for anyone.
I was completely hypnotized by that wonder of nature attached to my machine. And the dunes are addictive like a drug. (To see if Spain deserts soon, and we can have them closer)
In the afternoon, we went down a river of sand (no water, only sand) to Lake Iriky. I was nervous about putting the Jeep at 140 km/h on the ground.
Three or four km after going full throttle, we found this.
Damn!!!!, what are these guys doing here? Tuareqs. With their jaymas, super friendly, they even speak Spanish!!. We invite you to the usual, a warm mint tea. The truth is that I wanted to.
It was getting late, we had to go back to the hotel in Zagora, we had to celebrate New Year’s Eve and we still had 50 km. of fucked up track and 70 km. of road. The truth is that I wouldn’t have minded celebrating New Year’s Eve with these guys.
We had to go through the river of sand again before re-inflating the tires with the compressors.
Night was upon us. The moon was super big, and an idea came to me At that moment I thought of you. I will take a photo of the Jeep with the moon in the background, to hang it on the forum, it will surely be successful. And look what a shitty photo came out of me, with my camera shit.
The return was through the stony ground that we had done in the morning. We missed three cars from the group of 26. They all went to take the route that reached the asphalt before because it was night, and I followed a friend who had GPS. He was returning by the same place in the morning. Luckily the mechanic of the expedition was behind me and you know, if you joke on the station, joke, laugh, and you get distracted. You have to be careful.
We arrived at the Hotel de Zagora, and we had to take a quick shower because they were waiting for us for the New Year’s Eve dinner. I was broken, dusty, and tired of so many emotions together.
And don’t you know who was in the hotel parking lot waiting for us? The Great Mohamed “El Gordito”
Ready to take my Jeep, wash it, check the underbody, and return it to me like jets of gold. At that moment, I felt like a Dakar rider. Fuck, how handsome. This can only happen in this magical land!!
New Year’s Eve Dinner. Drinks: only a beer (not that there was no alcohol, it’s that I couldn’t handle my soul) Food (I almost didn’t taste it) I just waited for the bells to go to sleep. Never in my life, had I gone to bed so early on New Year’s Eve 12:20h
6th Stage
Queen Stage: 350 km. of which 320 km are track and 30 km are asphalt. THE FORBIDDEN
TRACK Diana 6:30h.
Departure 7:30h. Cars refueled to the brim (and mine cleaned and checked)
The mechanics had respected me. To think that a Mercedes G (one year old) super prepared (automatic gearbox to take by ass), a long Defender of a year and a half (central differential to shit), multiple bumpers from Phaidfander, mitsubishis, Discovery 3 (rear shock absorbers fired) etc. had already fallen. At the moment I am not at all
. On the road:
Objective: Merzouga (the other great Erg of Morocco)
You don’t know where the hell they come from because there’s nothing around, but when you pass by with the car, barefoot children come running through the stones, to greet you and ask you for something, anything, food, clothes, shoes, toys…
It is incredible that 2,000 km from your home you can go back 150 years in history. I’m still tomorrow, I have to go.
As soon as we left the hotel, we got into a road. The day was long, but super excited. The first hour of the walk was done through a stony area of a thousand pairs of balls. I looked at my wife’s face, and it seemed that she was complaining a lot, because the day before I realized that instead of inflating the tires to 2.5 bars, we would be more comfortable at 1.9 bars, in case we caught another stony place. Well, I was right, damn, what a difference. We were much more comfortable.
It is convenient to stop for 5 min. every 45 min. otherwise your family ends up destroyed. (I didn’t, because the emotion invaded me, and it didn’t let me think) This whole area is a bit of a no-man’s zone. It runs along the border of Algeria and Morocco. The Algerians say it is Algeria, and the Moroccans say it is Morocco. It has a strip of about 10 km. Not many years ago, Morocco conquered this strip up to the mountains. But if you look at a map, you will see that it only marks the border on the north and on the south. And it is that she is not recognized by anyone. This is all this area, it is where the Paris Dakar passes.
After 5 hours of walking, we enter an area of very small but super fucked up dunes. Almost all of them stayed there, HDJ, Discovery 3, Land Cruiser, 4 Runner,… NOT ME!!
Tired of pushing so much scrap metal and past the damned dunes, we decided to stop for lunch. 1. Seek shade. In the distance a tree. Go for it.!! I’ve already commented before, I don’t know where the fuck they come from, but 15 min. after arriving, two girls of 14 and 18 years old came approx. Without saying anything and about 20 meters away, without speaking, and without making any gesture, completely static, they watched as we ate. We approached, and we saw them dirty, hungry, barefoot, one with an infection on her face, the other with eczema on her fucking hand. We started to give them food, a blanket, my wife looked for some Crocs (shoes) and gave them to her. Also, as my wife is a pharmacist, we take out the first aid kit and cure them. We gave them Betadine, cotton, a cream with cortisone,… come on, everything we could that they could use safely.
After a while, this guy appeared, who was crossing that area with 3 camels and asked me for a cigarette and something to eat. I gave him the cigarette, and a classmate gave him a prawn that he was eating. The guy would say, “Is this from the sea? Is this creature from the sea? Someone, from afar, said: “It’s a sardine!!”
The guy started saying “!! I want more sardines, more sardines!!”
Believe me, we were dying of laughter because the man ate all the shrimp, shell, head and everything inside.
When we were picking up to leave, the two women we cured and gave them everything, stayed curled up on the trunk, covered themselves to protect themselves from the sun and the sand, and watched us as we marched. The look of those people showed all their gratitude. I will never forget it.
I had time to take out my camera and immortalize them.
I’m not a sentimental person, nor do I get excited about anything, but that day, I saw how barefoot children ran approaching my car, I saw how children removed stones from my path, so that my car wouldn’t suffer, waiting for some gratitude. With anything used they were satisfied. That day, January 1, 2010, driving my Jeep, tears fell from my eyes as I saw how the children pushed the stones off the road, and I had nothing left to give them. (My wife, she looked at me and noticed. Although I was wearing sunglasses) Next to this Kasbah that you see above, I found this Kangoo ready, I slowed down the Jeep, and I took the photo. I found it funny, because I sell them.
Later, it must have been 4 a.m. we entered another river of sand. It wasn’t just any river of sand, it was FES FES, the fucking FES FES. Many of you will wonder what the fuck it is, I didn’t know either, but I haven’t forgotten. It’s fine powder, like flour. He comes out a lot at the Paris Dakar. It’s very difficult to drive because you sink a lot, and it blends into the sand and you can’t follow the one in front because you can’t see anything. You have to wait at least 5 min. for it to rest.
There, many ran aground. A Land Cruiser 3 times in 100 meters. I; NO. I laughed a lot at the station. The Land Cruiser was nicknamed “El Palas” (because of the great use it gave him that day)
Once we have passed the river of FES FES, we enter a dry lake. Damn, what a blast. We went in parallel, and gas, gas and more gas…
We had to stop making the cocoon. Night was upon us, and we still had many hours to reach Merzouga.
We made so much dust in that lake, that the women were in danger, they were in the middle of the lake taking the photos and they could no longer see each other.
We arrive in Merzouga at 21:00h. On the way we found more Fes Fes, and at night, we had to turn on even the fog lights front and rear. It was dangerous because to see the one in front, you had to get very close and you swallowed a lot of dust, and if you moved away, you lost sight of them and the dust, you kept swallowing it.
I didn’t fall into a ditch by a miracle.
We arrived at the hotel tired, and what was our surprise that it was not just any hotel, but a Kasbah. “Kasba Le Tuareg”.
I had never carried so much dirt and dust on me. Not even when I was little and rolled around on the ground. Dinner and sleep.
Diana: 7:00h Departure: 8:00h with flat tires, since we have the dunes 5 meters from the Kasbah. Today all day of dunes. First objective: The Hidden Oasis. Today I have to deal with the HDJs again.
With the help of GPS we found the Hidden Oasis. A couple of Berbers live there, who sell Coca-Cola, snacks, etc. and they invited us to a mint tea. You can also spend the night in some small tents that they have, and they also leave you skis and snows, to go down the dune behind you that is quite steep.
Inside the Oasis, there was this yellow Hummer H1, it was very spectacular and beautiful, but the organization told me that the Hummer is not good for this.
In an Oasis, all rainwater accumulates, and if you dig only 40 or 50 cm. you find water. We tried it. You have to be careful because under the sand there is a lot of fauna (cockroaches, worms, etc…
After the Oasis, we went to the Kasbah (hotel) to eat. It was good, because women usually end up with our balls, the cars, the sand… and so in the afternoon they could stay, and do what they like the most, go shopping in the village, and we take the 4X4s again and go goat again and without them, in the Erg. That afternoon, among the entire expedition (26 cars) we made a competition to see who climbed the highest to the great dune. (it is the highest dune and is about 150 m. high)
RESULTS:
Large Cherokee V8 petrol (super prepared) Jeep Wrangler CRD (red) just 2 metres away. Mitsubishi DID long (my friend): 25 meters. HDJ several at 50 meters. And few other people wanted to try it anymore so as not to look ridiculous.
PS: I would have climbed more than the Cherokee, but I made a beginner’s mistake that I explain: In the morning, I lowered the tire pressure to 0.9 bars, but the outside temperature was 6º cent. In the afternoon, with the heat and the friction of the sand with the tires, my pressure went up to 1.4 bars. And this has a great influence.
When the party was over, and everyone was already parading to the Kasbah, we stayed 3 cars on a dune to watch the sunset. It is a picture that you cannot miss. In the photo it is not very well appreciated because the Sun falls in only 3 minutes.
In the evening, having dinner together, the Organization distributed some very beautiful crystal reminders with the name of each family. That, although it may not seem like it now, was very emotional because we all knew what we had been through together during those 9 days. And also the route began to come to an end, since the next day, we went directly to Nador (next to Melilla) to embark for Almeria.
8th STAGE MERZOUGA-NADOR 650 km. all asphalt and secondary road. Diana: 6:30 a.m. Departure: 7:30 a.m. Cars loaded with suitcases.
Already, sad because we were going up to the north, we contemplated on the road the ways of life of these people, the methods of transport they used, the customs,… Perhaps you paid more attention to the small details that before, because of emotions, escaped us. We knew that our reality was not far away. During the route up, we were all walking one after the other, quite quiet about the stations. While driving quietly you usually think about everything you have seen. At that moment, it occurred to me that my 7-year-old daughter’s sandals that she wore in the hotel showers would be too small the following summer, she wouldn’t take advantage of them anymore. In a fit of rage, I left the formation when I saw two girls waving on the side of the road. Without saying anything I opened the suitcase, took my daughter’s flip-flops and gave them to one of those girls. I got back into the Jeep to rejoin the formation. My children looked at me, and smiled at me. I am already satisfied with this.
In this restaurant, we had to negotiate the kilo of meat, then they roast you, they serve it to you, and with your little fingers, you eat it…
Recommendations: The less you look around, the more comfortable you eat. Arrival in Nador at 7:30 p.m. Customs formalities (a pain) Entry to the ship. Find the cabin.
When the ship sets sail, you stay on deck watching the city lights get smaller. You try to summarize in a few minutes all the experiences you have lived, invading yourself with nostalgia and thinking how long it will take you to return… They call you at 5:30 a.m. So that you can get ready to take your vehicle out of the warehouses. We left Almeria the whole group together. We made the uphill trip following the same formation. I think that had a meaning, “we did not accept that it would end”. And to say goodbye we all stopped together to eat a lobster paella in Las Casas Del Canar (Tarragona). I don’t want to explain the farewell.. (I guess you understand me)
DEDICATED TO THOSE WHO, WITH THEIR STORIES, MAKE PEOPLE DREAM AND SHARE THEIR EXPERIENCES WITH OTHERS.
I have been reading chronicles of many of our colleagues from this forum and others for many years, who awakened in me this wonderful love of 4X4.
I ALSO DEDICATE MYSELF TO MY FAMILY, AS A THANK YOU FOR ACCOMPANYING ME, PUTTING UP WITH ME AND SHARING ALL THIS.
SPECIAL THANKS TO THE ORGANIZATION OF TERRITORI 4X4 FOR THEIR PROFESSIONALISM AND DEDICATION.
INTERESTING FACTS Kilometers traveled 4,200 km. (from Tarragona) Cost of the trip counting the car check-up, filters I took with me, diesel consumed, picnic during the route, etc.. for two adults and two children (11 and 7 years old) 4,500 ? Remember that the hotels we have stayed in were 5 stars, or the best in the area. Damage to the Jeep 0
