The weather remained unsettled; there was a severe weather warning as far south as Agadir. For many years Morocco had suffered from a chronic lack of water caused by drought and increased irrigation used for the cultivation of crops. The Moroccans were happy with the rain and snow – – annoying for us tourists, but a lifesaver for them.
We stopped at Guelmim to pick up fresh supplies from Marjane (Morocco’s major supermarket chain). We spoke to a couple of English travellers who told us that the previous night they had been staying in Sidi Ifni at one of the three camp sites on the beach. They were woken in the night with the sound of several explosions and were horrified to see that a nearby camper van was on fire. It was parked on the perimeter of the crowded site, the French occupants managed to escape but were badly burned; their dog didn’t survive. The women we spoke to in the car park were quite traumatised and left Sidi Ifni as soon as they could. In the UK there were camp site regulations to ensure there was a minimum distance between parked vehicles; no such rules existed in Morocco. It was fortunate no nearby vehicles caught fire.
We continued south into the desert to Fort Bou-Jerif, a remote camp site offering accommodation and camping facilities for 4 x 4 expeditions into the Sahara. Access was along 6 km of rough track which we bumped along for forty minutes before we arrived at our destination.
We met a group of 27 drivers from Germany on a three week rally to Dakar in Senegal, they stayed one night and all left at dawn. We also spotted this big red German truck called a Rolling Hotel that provided transport and accommodation for overland adventure travel. They arrived after dark one evening and left after breakfast the following day. Mostly we were on our own.
