Back from Morocco, brief report...........
 

Firstly many thanks for everyone’s help on this forum. Just a brief report back, and sorry it’s late and have to say just love Morocco! Planning to go back in the near future.

Santander to Algercias; we took the route via Valladolid, Salamanca and Sevilla, excellent roads, fast mostly flat dual carriageways. Only 1 toll E6.10 between Sevilla and Jerez.

Ferries; from Carlos, excellent service E170.00 for a Landy and 1 person. Please note that ferries can be cancelled due to bad weather, we had to change our route and ended up in Ceuta on the only ferry that day, as all sailings to Tangier Med were cancelled.


Ceuta – Morocco customs;
Drive up to (passing all the “helpers”? they are badged officials if you need them, but they will expect a tip) the 1st checkpoint booth, have an entry slip filled out ready (given when got tickets) and passport to be stamped.
About 20yrds is the 2nd booth, here your passport and D16 (printed off the web and filled out) and your original V5/logbook, pass all over, get D16 stamped and keep 2 of the 3 copies.
Drive forward to the customs, he’ll check the vehicle and take the D16 away and get them stamped officially, he’ll give you a copy back, DO NOT lose this, you’ll need it to get out of the country.

Ceuta/Moroccan customs leaving;
Pull over at the booths on the right to get your passport stamped.
Drive forward to the customs, give them your passport and D16, they’ll check and sign the D16 and give it back to you, through customs and that’s it. KEEP the D16 if you want to return to Morocco in the same vehicle.

No problem really, quick and easier than I’d hoped.

Campsites; (all based on 1 person in a roof tent on a Landy)
Chefchaouen, about £5 per night, nice simple campsite, nice clean facilites although rustic. Bienvenue Camping Azilan Camping 2 Etoiles

Fez; about £6 per night, excellent campsite, great facilities and plenty of building going on eg pool etc.
Diamant vert

Imichil; about £6 per night, stunning location, good breakfast, toilets and showers, rustic.
Camping and Auberge Tiste about 4kms north of Imilchil.

Dades Gorge; about £8 per night with an excellent evening meal.
Berbere de la Montagne (or sometimes called Camping International on gps data from Olaf map) at the top of the gorge on the right.
http://www.berbere-montagne.com/ - Domaine gratuit par IFT.CX

Mergouza; about £5 per night, camping on the edge of the Erg Chebbi, an excellent place, some shade, pool, etc. Hassan the owner and staff are really helpful and genuinely nice.
camping sahara, dormir sud maroc, dormir merzouga, camping sahara hassilabied, auberge erg chebbi, auberge sud maroc

Zargora; about £4 per night, Sindibad campsite is nice, shady, basic, rustic, but noisy.

Ouarzazate; about £6 per night, a great campsite 20kms north of Ouarzazate near Tamissint, not much shade, good clean toilets and showers.


Marrakech; about £6 per night, no surprise, one of the best campsites we visited, pool, excellent, clean facilities, good food and bar etc
relais de marrakech accueil

Moulay-Bousselham; (north of Rabat) about £6 per night, there are two campsites as you enter the town on the left, the first we stayed at; nice but ageing the guidebook said, the other near a river apparently is pestered by mosquitoes. Clean toilet and showers.

Money; Found an exchange about 2kms on the right over the border in Findeq. We used banks and got a reasonable exchange rate.


Insurance; none in the Ceuta crossing into Morocco, looked in Chefchaouen, Fez and the odd small place, couldn’t find it/any, so left it against my nature.

Fuel;– Spain 1.30Euros a litre (approx) not many stops on our route – Morocco 70p a litre (approx) stations everywhere, humbly suggest stick with the bigger named ones.

Food/drink; – Morocco, cheap enough, some big supermarkets in major cities, plenty of little shops all over the place. Bottled water everywhere, but found to be high in chemicals, can give you the squits as you’ll need to drink plenty of fluids, it was into the 40's while we were there for a few days in April.


Hubb Sahara forum is an excellent source, as is Chris Scott’s book Morocco Overland.

Thanks again and safe travels.

We were in that Marrakech square about 2 weeks before the bomb, sad for Morocco as a whole, rarely been to a country that has been so friendly, I’ll return as soon as.

Cheers, Mark

Hi, Thanks for your post, i found it most helpful with my plans. Andy

Hi Mark,

Thank you for sharing your experience. I'm still wanting to do my trip to Morocco and this post helps a lot with my planning.

Did you have any problems with the terrain as far as driving goes? Any problems with your vehicle?

Hi James,

Thanks for the comments, and go to Morocco you won't regret it!

Terrain; a lot of tarmac and very good/new condition of a lot of it. Corregated roads bounced the contents of a loaded 110 Landy around, but no really trouble. Sand, I just sunk and had to use more power to avoid getting stuck, didn't get to do any dune bashing, but wasn't really interested in case of rolling, if I got stuck not that much of a problem, hopefully. One of the dry river beds we were going to cross, we found out later, had a hard crust on top and soft underneath, so best check any of those before you cross.

Problems with vehicle; not mine only lost about 1/2 of water and a rubber end axle cap. My mate broke his clutch fork and that took him a day and half to fix, thankfully he knows want he's doing.

Cheers Mark