Spain > Morocco in December..any probs ?

[jazzmand]

Dave and I are getting our Lambeth-tinkled Teneres over to Morocco for some Xmas off-roading...

Just a quickie.

We've booked our Portsmouth (UK) - Bilbao tickets, arriving Spain 12th December, Leaving 7th Jan. Just wondered if anyone knew of any difficulties getting across from Spain to Morocco at this time ??

Also, I hear it's best to avoid Tangiers and go to Ceuta..true ?

jasper

[Jose Brito]

Hi,

No worries, lots of ferry companies and possibilities with timetables.

Ceuta is much better than Tangier. Besides, in Ceuta fuel is tax-free :-)

José

[ronlon]

Jasper,

how much were the ferry tickets from the UK to Spain ?

Ron

[t0by]

I just got a quote from Motor Sport Travel,
£135 - 1 person / 1 bike

http://www.bmf.co.uk/benefits/po-ferry.html

[jazzmand]

It cost us £620 rtn for 2 people, 2 bikes sharing a 2 berth cabin.

[Kudi]

Just returned from a Morocco trip a few days ago wehre we could see both borders, Ceuta on the way in and Tangier on the way out. Tangier has the advance that the harbour is a closed area, controled by the police, with nearly no hassleing peopel in the area (or at least no obvious hassleing peopel...). But once left the harbour your first step in Morocco is the town of Tangier, maybe a hard first step into the country.
Ceuta has huge, confusing crowds of peopel on both sides of the border, everybody is trying to stop you and wants to sell you anything you don't need. But once crossed the border you have plenty km of free roads with nearly no traffic (but a lot of peopel trying to stop you and sell dope near the Riff mountains).

If Ceuta: Pass the crowd and the Spanish customs, then you're in a quite area with no hassleing peopel. You can get all docs and do all the paperwork in this area. Be aware of one very official looking guy trying to help you. He's helpfull but he wants some money at the end (has an ID card on his chest and seems to like bikers). Park your bike in the middle of the area on the right side. Get a yellow visitors form, fill it out and pass it with your passport to the same counter (left hand, aprox in the middle of the area). Then go back to a counter left hand near the Spanish customs and ask for a green vehicle registration form (or so...). Fill it out and pass it with your passport, green insurence card (be shure MA is mentioned on it!) and vehicle documents to the counter right of the one you got the green form from. If ok, go forward to the sheriff controling vehicles and ask him to check and sign/stamp it. If this guy says ok (maybe he will control your bike), jump on the bike and ride forward until the last document check, that is near a fence with the crowd on the other side. Once passed this, ride slowly throught the crowd and do NOT stop. Now you're in Morocco, bikes seem to have a special status at Moroccos borders, you should be able to do all the stuff in 1h or so, lot faster than the cars ;-)

One tip: Even if you don't smoke or drink, take as much cigarettes and Whiskey (in smaller doses) as you can, this might be very helpfull in some tricky situations...

Save ride, MA is a fantasitic country to discover on the bike! Travel light, Kudi