PAGE 3

	Again part of the piste that goes N from the P32 just E of Taliouine and loops round W to Aoulouz. Included because miracle for the day it actually shows the gradient fairly well!!
	Same piste again, this was one of the longer piste stretches we did and this photo gives me the feeling we had that it just went on and on into the distance. Would our can make it so far....? yep
	Same piste. On the edge of the atlas, all day rocks and shrubs, then round a corner and bam - what seemed at the time like an explosion of green! Goes to show how relative it is to where you spent the last 6 weeks...
	Different piste. This one we took a chance on because we knew it would be the last big piste we would do. It took us over the Atlas and being the rainy season didn't expect to do much pisteing in the North of the country. I love the way it shows the drop for a change. This was the most tight road we took and we could go miles with hardly a passing place, which is why in the interests of the local drivers I'm not going to say where it was on the web.
	There was nothing in the guide books (rough guide or LP) but it is noted as a piste the map we had so we had half an idea how good it would be but the piste got nice and smooth as it took us up to a high plateau before the big big atlas.
	Then around a corner and at 1300m a vast bowl of a plateau totally enclosed by mountains and what's that Roman type ruin doing in the middle of the atlas if the Romans didn't get this far south....??
	A stunning place and oh, we gotta get up and over that lump of rock... bloody hell!
	Still going, half way up that lump of rock we found a sheltered camp site on the shoulder of a little peak sticking out. Our only firewood for the night the same smelly wood they make little boxes and things from in Essaouira (begins with T, can't spell it but sounds like 'tweyer') which makes for a pretty luxurious fire.
	From the pass at 2263m the piste going down into the mountains and northern Morocco. We were right to think it would be the last proper piste, north moroc is much more populated and wealthy so any road with something at both ends is either tarmac or rarely still a very flat piste and very soon to be tarmac. Vid shows the gradient better. We descended in first gear but without breaking would still be accelerating. On the GPS we fell at about 1 meter per sec under engine breaking in first! On gravel!! With lethal drops off the side!!! We stopped to let the brakes cool a few times...MOV
	But you know what. This is the most common type of road in Morocco, perfectly smooth tarmac, with perfectly even radius bends, no surface damage as joy of joy's practically no traffic. Don't believe anyone who tells you Moroccans are bad drivers. In cities it's a bit chaotic but in the country they are very steady, patient drivers who you can be as sureish as in the UK won't be on the wrong side around the next corner. I've ridden a bike in India and can vouch for the good work carried out by labotomists there... but not in Morocco.

Over two months and probably 5000kms including a good few hundred K's on piste's the already shagged Renault 19 suffered only one major breakdown. It was a major one but we were fortunately on the busy road down the coast in the Western Sahara. Realising we were going to have a boring old time driving down there I put my foot down and got the old pile up to 80 mph. Big mistake for it, the cam belt went, the engine disintegrated and vomited the cooling water out the exhaust. Which was interesting. We were prepared for something like this by having a tow rope in the car. It turned out though that it is ILLEGAL to tow a car on Moroccan roads with another normal car. You have to be towed by a 'Depanage' tow truck. (the rope was still necessary for piste's though where you could get a tow probably) We got a lift into the next town, Boujdour, got a tow truck and collected the car. 2 days later we were on our way again with the mechanics brothers engine from his Renault Express van. Regrettably it was about 2/3rds the capacity (1L instead of 1.4L) but still it managed to take us back over the Atlas so we're not complaining. The big bonus of that deal was that we could see the engine running before we agreed to it. The work and the engine came to £240 pounds which we thought was a bargain and proves another few points. Firstly if you are going to choose a normal car to take, try to make it a French one as they are by far the most common makes there. Secondly you don't need to worry too much about getting your car back out of the country if getting a new engine fitted only costs a few hundred pounds. The Moroccan mechanics seem to be great improvisers and I expect they could manage to fit a working engine into any car for similar money even if it's just to get you to Spain. I would not however feel happy with most Moroccan mechanics working on a nice new car as they are far more used to cheap bodge it fixes which is what the majority of Moroccan cars need and most are happier with the accordingly low mechanics bills. No other mechanical problems or even punctures. Suspension, drive etc were all fine.

Oh and we were fine too. No illness despite, steady yourself, drinking the water from any tap we found. Yep we drank the tap water and lived! One of my favorite quotes - 'In undeveloped countries don't drink the water, in developed countries don't breath the air.' (Jonathan Raban) is in most places now only half true. If it's a municipal supply I'll drink it, I've 18 months of Indian tap water and 3 months of Moroccan tap water in me and no problems from it to date. Chlorine poisoning is the biggest risk in my opinion. Maybe in some African counties not a good idea but Morocco is practically European so certainly the government at least ensures safe drinking water for all. It's the first thing a developing country does for it's people.

THERE IS NO CRIME IN MOROCCO!! Well almost. The religion, the close communities and the numerous police combine to make Morocco the least likely country I've been in to have problems. Watch for kids and hustlers in popular tourist areas (esp. cities) where they know they can get away with more with you than with locals but seriously, try to get your head around the idea that there is simply no crime if you avoid tourist places and cities. We couldn't unfortunately stop ourselves being paranoid. It's a natural result of living in our communityless, religeonless and under-policed countries. In London my Hornet needs a disk lock, chain, alarm/immobiliser, Smartwater, microdots and datataging. But then I meet people who think there is MORE reason to be cautious in Morocco! Madness and frankly racist, shame on you! Also since 2002 there has been a law making any assault on or theft from a tourist by a Moroccan almost inevitably lead to a jail term, believe it or not this even applies to the police and they have certainly lost interest in stopping tourists. Official orders I was told by one policeman! Rock on!!

A little bit of balance to the thinking on touts - The touts you WILL meet around the tourist areas in morocco ARE NOT EVIL as I saw one labeled on a recent journey blog. Yes they can be a pain in the arse, yes they often don't care about you as a person, yes they mostly just want your money but all this is understandable if you know a bit more about the situation they are in. They grow up in a country where unemployment is rife, they are given free education and high hopes by their government and then, as most know from the start, they will be unable to do anything with it as there are literally no jobs. So they bum around sitting in cafes, get stoned, try to get laid etc the same shit as anyone anywhere else. Even in the smallest villages you will see government subsidised TV dishes so they sit and watch the wealth of the world, firmly out of their reach. When you travel to places where tourism has just recently come to town you'll meet guys who hope to get some work from you but are genuinely friendly and interested to meet you. But then people like you come and go, stopping for a few days at most but expecting these guys to welcome you as friends. They want to correspond with you so swap addresses etc. As years go by a hundred people like you will have passed through and gradually they get cynical - none bother writing to them, none bother sending the photo's they promised to etc etc. What do they get out of it? So they start seeing tourists just as money pots, they see you splashing out money all over the place and want some. They've got time so they could hang around for days trying and it'll still not make them evil, just desperate. If they look upset at the end of it all it'll be because they are! They dream of riches just like us and you could be their best chance of a windfall all year. If it's your first time out of Europe I can see how you might get phased by it but Morocco is very soft compared to sub-Saharan African where the equivalent is hauling a tree across the road and not letting you past unless you give them some money. That would piss me off but still you are using their country for cheap thrills why shouldn't they want some money. Share the wealth a little and bung them a quid. You wouldn't think twice about standing someone a pint at home so make someone more happy for half the price. It won't be every day and if you keep it to people who can do something for you, ask them for help in something and pay them fairly, you'll not make things worse for others. If they can't do anything for you don't give them anything if you don't want to - I've never heard of anyone in Morocco being attacked by a desperate tout, just try to be honest and fair with them and you won't push them over the edge. Usually, but not always, once they know you know the routine they'll relax and be normal with you. Try breaking the ice by asking them how business is going? Many tourists this year? etc. It separates you from the elderly tourists in a coach normals who can't see past their outward differences to the guy just like you underneath. Oh and if you learn 20 or more words of Arabic (NB not French) you'll be welcomed like a brother. Cheap at twice the price believe me.

As far as outright beggars go I saw a Portuguese girl refuse giving an elderly woman equivalent of 5p, she said because she thought it would make her associate foreigners with money. Like they might not when they see her arriving by her own hired taxi as she did, or the expensive clothes she wore or just the fact she could afford foreign travel and time not working. Oh and they do see our wealth on TV's like I say. Giving charity is a fundamental requirement of the Muslim faith which produces what is perhaps the earliest loose form of welfare state, way predating our own modern forced taxation versions and by a long way predates tourism so don't start thinking you'll rid the world of beggars when they realise tourists aren't going to give them anything. Duh! Watch and you'll see the locals think nothing of giving a little change now and again, it's normal. We're in a better position to give than most, so give a little or just imagine how tight they'll think we are! Most of us go to these cheap countries where our international economic policies and colonialist pasts are at least partly responsible for keeping them poor and despite being chuffed to get a hotel room for a pound a night still don't want to shell out a little extra for the poorest there! However I would very rarely give money to children as it can encourage poor parents to send their kids out begging, it's still not a clear cut issue though as for parents to do that they would have to be desperate and putting their kids to work like that might be their only choice.... That's my take on a difficult and contentious issue but after a year and a half in India its a topic I've been over many times.

Back to driving -

For 4x4's the general consensus among locals was that Land Rovers are the strongest cars and they are common enough, especially in the western Sahara as share taxis to mean parts and mechanics will be easy to find. But all agree that on sand the venerable Land Cruiser is the way to go. Certainly in Dubai it was almost the only 4x4. We got a lift off-road in a Land Rover 110 and boy did that bounce on it's leaf springs, suspension is a term to use with a pinch of salt. I wouldn't want to lose my spleen so for me it'll be something like a Toyota Hilux Surf perhaps...... Adjustable suspension (on some), sand ability, good car comfort and legendary Hilux pedigree. Now there's an idea!

Despite the fantastic time we had anyway, there were places where we could have gotten at least a better camping spot if we had a 4x4 so next time I'll try to take one. My opinion though is that, especially on your first visit there, the difference in the places you will go is likely to be so negligible you might as well save the money and buy a £200 Renault that you can take to it's limit. That's the fun with any car and more easily attainable in a crap one :-)

If you have any specific questions about driving in Morocco email me at feedback2@podiatrypages.co.uk and I'll do my best to help