A New Adventure in France

It seems we were very lucky with the weather we had in Spain as they have apparently had some of their wettest March weather on record. One of the very scenic roads we drove from Ronda to Marbella suffered a landslide and the road will apparently be blocked for some time. Back in France the weather has been pretty good with lots of sunshine and crisp days. Trees are in blossom and the grass cutting will keep Joe  busy now until autumn. Life is fairly quiet until Easter arrives but we had an enjoyable Repas des Chasseurs (Hunters’ meal) last Sunday and won a ‘panier garnis’, a bag with wine, pâté and saucisson, and we were happy to have dodged the half a side of venison. 

Much of our time has been spent preparing the Jeep for our next ‘adventure’, one that we hope really is going to be worthy of that description. Last year Joe saw a post on one of the Jeep groups he follows about a rally for 10 vintage Jeeps in Morocco, organised by a Jeep enthusiast who lives near Perpignan. We decided to sign up as Joe has always wanted to use the Jeep on the type of terrain it was built for. Since then, under the guidance of Guy, the group leader and organiser, together with the owners of the other Jeeps (mostly French, one Belgian couple and we Brits), we have been preparing the vehicles for the 10 day trip that will take us south of Agadir. The Jeeps all need to be mechanically sound to ensure we don’t spend all out time by the roadside carrying out repairs or waiting for others to do so. Some modifications have been required to allow for high temperatures although it doesn’t look like we will have any excessive temperatures in April. We’ll be accompanied by a couple of support vehicles, one for cooking lunches en route (well this is a French group…) and one carrying the larger spares that hopefully won’t be required. Each Jeep is required to carry a supply of its own smaller spare parts. We’ve had strict instructions on securing the Jeeps and their contents for travel ( to avoid petty theft en route) and customs scrutiny, so metal boxes have been fitted ready for the off. 

Our group is called the Raid ‘Les Gerboises’ or ‘Desert Rats’ and I imagine that most of the owners have visions of our trip being like something from ‘SAS Rogue Heroes’. The Jeeps will be transported from France to Agadir on a car transporter and the group will fly to Agadir to pick up the Jeeps for the 10 day rally.. Our accommodation en route will be small hotels and desert tents on a couple of nights.

So this week we trailered the Jeep to Guy’s property near Perpignan in preparation for loading on the transporter.  It was great to meet Guy at last after corresponding for many months and we’re looking forward to getting to know him better, as well as  the other members of the group. We’ll be back to Perpignan in about 10 days to fly from there to Agadir and start the adventure. Watch this space!