Dwti Draig

I had to be dragged, kicking and screaming away from those fabulous beaches, as it was time to be heading to Morocco. We left the park up and headed into Tarifa to drop our waste water, before bumping along some atrocious roads towards Algecriras. Luckily we went quite high up into the hills and were rewarded with fantastic views over the sea, and we could see Morocco and also the huge rock of Gibraltar. 

We were going to sail from Algeciras to Tanger Med, but had to pick up our tickets first, so we headed to the town of Los Barrios first. We had a man to see about a ticket! As soon as you start researching how to get to Morocco you will come across the infamous “Carlos”. He is the guru of Moroccan ticketing, and most people head to him to buy. We found a huge park up area not far from his office, where many motorhomes were already parked up. We had to negotiate driving between big barriers to get in, but was ably assisted by a helpful Frenchman. The barriers seemed to be there to limit it to motorhomes only.

We set off, and entered the cool air conditioned heaven of Carlos’ office. We were served by his daughter, who was a real character. They really have cornered the market here, with every important point to consider written out in several languages. We were given a laminated sheet with 3 ferry companies and all their associated crossing times, with a standard fee of between 250-270E, regardless of size, for an open return. We were also able to buy a Moroccon Sim card, get some currency out, and bought a map. We paid by card for the ferry, but needed cash for the others. They really do go the extra mile here, giving us passport covers for our passports, and writing our names on the front for easy access. We were even given a paper clip to change the sim and a bottle of red wine and a cake! They were an absolute pleasure to deal with.

We then did a big shop in the massive Carrefour nearby, and I got my nails done, while Lyn sat for a beer with the localsin the shopping centre. We then traipsed across the shopping complex to visit Decathlon. It was boiling hot, and I was worn out by the time we got back. It was a noisy hot night in the park up!

It didn’t help that we had opted for the 7am Balearias ferry, so our alarms went off at 5am. We drove the 30 minutes or so to the ferry, and joined the line. Algeciras is a massive ferry terminal, but it all looked very quiet at that time of the morning. We played the waiting game as the ferry was delayed, and eventually drove on. There were not many vehicles on it at all!

From our research we knew to take our passports and a pen on board with us as passport control is on board. We picked up entry cards at the reception desk and the girl filled them in for us. Lyn went to watch us sail out, and I grabbed a little shut eye. Lyn came back to find me asleep in an empty restaurant whilst the rest of the boat had made a huge line in another area of the boat, waiting for one police officer to stamp the passports!

We joined the end of the line, and that was where we stood for the whole of the 90 minute crossing! The line was very fraught, with a lot of nationalities, and a lot of people trying to queue jump. Three men managed to successfully blag their way to the front, and were treated to a loud chorus of boos; not that it seemed to bother them!

We eventually got to the front of the queue as the boat was docking. We were the last vehicle on board, not that it seemed to matter. Whilst there were hardly any vehicles on board, there were two buses which I think had clogged up the queue. 

We drove off, and then had to successfully manoeuvre the huge Tanger Med port. Our first stop was to join a little line of vehicles to be X rayed, but this moved quite quickly. We drove up onto a ramp with 4 or 5 other vehicles, we exited the vehicle and a lorry drove the big x ray machine over and past us. I don’t know what they were looking for, but we were fine! We knew not to bring our drone as these are forbidden. We left ours at home, but could have left it with Carlos until our return. 

We then had to drive through the Douane, or Customs. This area seemed a bit chaotic, with lots of cars being emptied out and checked again. We managed to drive straight through, only to be turned back at the next checkpoint as we had no ‘little cards”, which we should have been given at the customs lane. Lyn drove back down the one way road, parked up and went to investigate. It looks like someone had wandered off from their post, as we should not have been able to drive through an empty lane. It was all quickly sorted after an official took a quick look in our truck and opened a few cupboards. Lyn needed to show him his motorbike as well, which would have taken ages to unwrap, but luckily a photo of it on his phone showing the number plate sufficed. We were then given two “little cards” which are mega important as they are the temporary import cards for the truck and bike, and we need to show them to get out.

We then got through the next check point, and made our way to the huge area with ATMs and insurance. It is very difficult to insure vehicles for Morocco outside the country, so most people do it at the port. The insurance is third party only and cost us £170 (2000 MAD) each for 3 months for the truck and also for the bike. We had to pay for this in cash, hence the ATMs, although we could have paid in euros if we had had that much with us. The ATMs were easy to use, but our cards have cash withdrawal limits, so we had to do some money shuffling. We also had no control over the exchange rate or fees, which is something we will have to get used to as Morocco is very much a cash-based society. Getting the insurance documents was all very easy and straightforward; just show the original V5’s and Lyn’s passport. 

The motorway outside the port was very good to start with, which lulled us into a false sense of security until we hit some dire roads. We drove about 3 hours, feeling every shake and bump, with Lyn stopping when he could to let the tail back behind us pass, as there is no way we could drive fast! Only paying a very small fee of 28MAD (£2.28) at a toll and very cheap diesel at 85-90p per litre made us smile! The miles wore us down, especially after our very early start, but the scenery and the mountain views helped.