164. Berber country

Agadir

Well south now

Marrakech to Agadir

Starting to get down the world a bit and will get further south yet. In a couple of weeks we will be heading up and to the right. Arriving Agadir this afternoon it was twenty six degrees, not bad for mid winter though cooler for the next few days.

As we were breaking camp this morning we met a lovely German family, Niki & Jennifer, their eldest of three, Mackenzie a girl aged fifteen and two boys. Iris was delighted and we were strongly tempted to stay on but as we were already packed we did our best to coerce them into joining us here. I really hope they do join us as they are infinitely more interesting than we are but I won't let them know that prior!

Learnt today that Edward and stuff (Matthew and Claire) have had a failure of insurance for Morocco so won't be joining us here as planned. They are gutted but insurance is balking at their Transit based motorhome as they are targeted by thieves, through Europe. Matthew has encased the OBDII port in steel as the thieves can reprogram the ECU but that wasn't enough for the insurers. Very disappointing.

Wonderful trip on beautiful dual carriage motorways that make NZ look absolutely third world. 4G coverage all the way with electrified dual railways visible at times. Everything about Morocco is promising and I hope the country prospers.

Camping Imourane

The Atlas Mountains are spectacular and I would say very like the South Island's Main Divide but at over thirteen and a half thousand feet they dwarf our best.

Arrived on dusk at the campsite and got a welcome from the guard who cheerfully took our passports as the office was closed. He waved us through and said park anywhere. We turned the corner into tiny lanes no wider than the Giantavan with every site taken. Unable to turn into the narrow crossroads I ended up reversing all the way back through parked cars and concerned Frenchmen. One of them stopped me while I was reversing in the mirrors and helpfully informed me You need a smaller car. OK, no problem, give me a minute and I will push the button on the dash labeled Turn Disco into 106. The Disco already has a Peugeot motor (another story) so it won't be a problem. Eventually found a park and also discovered that the six of us can manhandle (one woman, a boy and four kids) the Giantavan onto a site. Actually, it was all done with remarkably little fuss.

I am delighted to be here as Agadir was one of the first destinations I focused on when first thinking about the trip.