See previous blog Part One for details of preparation for the Raid.
Terrain
We think of the desert as being all sand, but there was a variety of terrain to contend with ranging from dunes and wadis to compacted sand and rocky and stony paths, as well as tarmac roads, often partly washed away in places. Each type of terrain requires a different approach or preparation. Whilst we might have romantic notions of driving up huge sand dunes, in reality it’s impossible and you would soon sink into the deep sand. Even a smallish dune of sand presents a challenge for the Jeeps. For each type of terrain the drivers need to check whether they are in two-wheel or four-wheel drive, and high or low range. For driving on sand over a prolonged period, tyres needed to be deflated to a lower pressure and then reinflated for hard terrain, using compressors that we had to take with us. The amount of time required to navigate each type of terrain varies widely and in the dunes and wadis it can take hours to cover only a few kilometres.
Petrol stations were few and far between in many areas so each Jeep carried at least one jerrycan of fuel. When we did get to a petrol station it took some time to refuel 10 Jeeps and their jerrycans as there was usually only one petrol pump attendant serving everyone.
As we set off in convoy with a support vehicle front and back on the first afternoon heading south of Agadir, we were very quickly away from traffic and heading towards the desert, via the national park area of Souss Massa. Deep sand can catch vehicles out at any point, perhaps if they are not in 4×4 or don’t keep up acceleration, and we soon became used to messages over the radio of ‘on est planté!’ i.e ‘we’re stuck!’ when a Jeep was totally bogged down and couldn’t move. Either the support vehicle would double back and attach a tow rope to pull the Jeep out or another nearby Jeep might help to push or tow the Jeep out. The key thing was not to get stuck yourself by trying to help. Joe’s excellent driving skills got us safely through all of the challenges and we only got ‘planté’ once as we were approaching a fort hotel late in the day and he mistakenly thought he was in 4×4. A push by the youngsters and a tow by the Jeep in front soon had us underway. (Video included below in case you can watch it.)
Driving through wadis, valleys and ravines that are dry except in the rainy season, also proved to be exciting, with muddy conditions and deep water to cross in some places. The water caught a couple of Jeeps out, either because of going through too quickly and flooding the engine, or 6V Jeeps that don’t cope well with water. In any case, these mishaps provided endless photo opportunities for the group!
We also had the opportunity (twice) to do kilometres of driving on flat sand when we were taken to the famous ‘Plage Blanche’, a 50km stretch of white sand that was used in the 1920s by pilots of the former ‘Aeropostale’ French airmail postal service to navigate down to Tarfaya where they would then cross the Atlantic. Antoine Saint-Exupéry, pilot and author of ‘Le Petit Prince’ was based at Tarfaya for 18 months and regularly flew along this beach.
There is a small window of opportunity between tides when it is possible to drive safely along the beach as you can easily become stuck on the drying sand and Guy had plenty of tales of people whose vehicles had come to grief there. So our days were planned to hit those windows and we were instructed to drive near the water line to ensure we kept to damp sand. Crossing a short stretch of dry sand at the end of the day still caught a few Jeeps out.
Mechanical Issues
Inevitably driving for longer period on these terrains in these 60-80 year old vintage vehicles takes it tolls, so breakdowns or mechanical problems were to be expected, with every Jeep owner hoping it wouldn’t be them. The good thing is that hopefully you have the right spares with you and you have at least 9 other Jeep experts to hand, each with a different piece of advice. We also had the advantage of one Jeep owner being a mechanic in the fire-fighting service. At the merest hint of an issue he would be running towards the stricken Jeep and diagnosing the issue and helping repair it. Any time a bonnet was raised, every Jeep driver huddled round like bees around a honey pot!
The mechanical issues suffered included a leaking radiator (repaired by soldering), brake failure, battery issues, a puncture, carburettor and fuel filter issues for 2 Jeeps caused they suspect by bad fuel at one of the refuelling stops. Joe was fortunate that the only issue he had was the failure of his radiator expansion tank when a feeder pipe broke off, apparently a design weakness as another driver had the same issue. It just meant that we needed to top up with water in the morning and lunchtime to avoid overheating.
All of the Jeeps were able to be fixed en route and to get to the next overnight stop where more repairs and maintenance were carried out as well as general maintenance carried out by everyone each day. Which is more than can be said for one of the modern support vehicles which suffered an electronic breakdown and had to be towed to the next stop to await a breakdown truck. It couldn’t be repaired and the owner is currently trying to source a new engine.
Life on the road
Because of the possibility of breakdowns and the challenging terrain, our days on the road followed a pattern of prompt morning starts , stops when required to deal with breakdowns, comfort breaks or photo opportunities and an al fresco lunch stop somewhere along the route. One of our support vehicle drivers, Yann, provided the catering for these lunches, so tables were quickly set up, chairs and mess equipment provided by each Jeep and the supplies purchased by Yann early morning were set out. Most days he prepared a simple hot meal or BBQ whilst maintenance and running repairs were carried out on the Jeeps. Afternoon routes were amended as required depending on how the day was going to ensure we got to our evening destination by about 6 pm. The sight of our little convoy as we passed through villages or small towns raised many smiles and waves from the locals we passed. Police road blocks are fairly common but, on this trip at least, we were waved through them all, something that is not always the case apparently.
As you would expect with a French group, we ate very well throughout the trip and our local reps were keen for us to try local specialities. We ate of lot of tagines and couscous with various meats and also got to try sea urchin and camel meat -apparently low in cholesterol. As I think I’ve mentioned before about French groups, despite having to provide lots of information to the organisers before departure, not once we’re we asked about dietary requirements – and nobody had any. As a Muslim country it is only possible to buy or serve alcohol in Morocco in licensed establishments such as hotels, restaurants or tourist areas so it wasn’t a given that we would have wine or beer with meals, but we could usually buy wine to take away from one hotel if we knew we couldn’t get any the following evening. Morocco has its own wine industry and the local wines are surprisingly good.
Local culture
As well as local food specialities we were also treated to some local culture including a demonstration with snakes and local musicians at a couple of stops and we had the opportunity to visit a small local souk at one of the towns we visited.
The scale, contrasts, colours and variety of the scenery we drove through is so hard to capture in photos, particularly when you’re trying to hang on on over uneven ground. Miles of golden sandy beaches, towering sand dunes, flat rocky plateaus, ochre canyons and gorges as well as lush palm groves – all of them awe-inspiring.
We didn’t see a huge amount of wildlife – occasionally camels near the roadside, ostriches which are being reintroduced in the Souss Massa reserve after being hunted for their feathers and meat, gazelle and impala, donkeys, herds of goats and sheep. In towns and villages, near any restaurants, cats and kittens proliferate looking for scraps wherever they can. Groups of dogs also wander near inhabited areas, most not well-treated so they don’t tend to seek out human contact. We were fortunate to come across a herd of camels, or more accurately dromedaries, when we came out of a wadi near sand dunes – great to see up close in the wild and the perfect backdrop to the Jeeps.
Back to Agadir
And so our route bought us back to Agadir to meet up with the transporter again at Crocoparc, secure the Jeeps again and load onto the transporter. Our Raid was rounded off in style with a soirée-gala at a restaurant on the Agadir Corniche, owned by Yann, our 4×4 support vehicle driver and chef. We were treated to a wonderful evening of seafood with oysters from Agadir Bay, mussels, clams, calamari and friture de poissons. Musical entertainment was laid on and, with everyone relaxed at having survived and got their Jeeps back safely, the evening descended into an informal karaoke evening with requests for popular songs. To the amazement of our group, the youngest member, Jimmy, who like his father had been extremely quiet and reserved, gave an impressive performance of Charles Aznavour’s signature song, ‘La Bohème’. Other Jeepsters followed suit and at one point the microphone was thrust into Joe’s hand to sing a song which had English lyrics. We’re still not sure what the song was, apart from the fact it had the word ‘shipwreck’ in the lyrics and, without his glasses, Joe couldn’t read the lyrics on the IPad, but to everyone’s surprise he gave an impressive and animated performance with completely made up lyrics without any of the French realising!
So now the job of sifting through photos and videos begins. We invested in a GoPro camera before the trip so that we could fix it to the Jeep and take photos and videos hands-free. Just need to work out now how to edit them into a watchable format. Guy’s daughter was also ‘official’ photographer en route so we should end up with a proper record of the trip as well as doing our own photobook.
See Part Three for more about our stay in Agadir.