Tony was concerned about an intermittent noise coming from the truck engine. He suspected the alternator regulator was causing the drive belts to slip and squeal. We had a spare alternator but to exchange it was too big a job for Tony (at his age) – so we decided to seek assistance from the MAN concession in Agadir.
When we had had work done at the new MAN concession in Errachidea, Tony was impressed with the expertise and diagnostic skills of the technicians there. In Agadir the mechanic didn’t appear to have any insight into the possible causes of the problem and kept insisting that incorrect sized drive belts had been fitted. Tony disagreed and it took him a while to persuade them to replace the alternator, as asked. It was a long and difficult job and we were there for most of the day. Fortunately the exchange solved the problem and the MAN technician shook Tony’s hand, happy he had succeeded in sorting out our problem. The visit cost us £118.
It was after 4.30 pm when we left MAN and we had to hurry to find somewhere to stop overnight before it got dark. We had heard reports of a better than average camp site at Tifnit, 30 km south of Agadir. The site was called La Palmeraie and was run by two Frenchman. It had beautiful gardens and a restaurant overlooking the swimming pool (too cold). We enjoyed several days there.
Our fellow campers were almost all French, many of them travelling in large motor homes pulling quad bikes or small cars in trailers behind. More and more camp sites in Morocco, especially on the coast, had been colonised by such people who tended to stay in one place for the whole winter, making their pitch and surroundings their territory. We risked getting a Gallic frown if we had to park too close. Individually they were perfectly pleasant but as a group they were intimidating. Maybe lone travellers on bicycles or motor bikes found us intimidating in our big truck – but we always smiled and said hello in the appropriate language.
A Cautionary Tale
We had heard from a Dutch couple whom we met in Sidi Ifni (the ones with a truck like ours but bigger and better!). Robert and Christel were catching the ferry from Tanger Med back to Europe and had stopped for diesel at a fuel station 25 km from the ferry port. Unbeknown to them, three young men got onto their roof, smashed the roof light and concealed themselves inside the truck. The stowaways were only discovered when the truck went through the x-ray scanner just prior to boarding the ferry. The police arrested two young men and Robert and Christel began clearing up the broken glass inside – only to find the third youth hiding in the shower. They were traumatised and called the police who took the youth away. They told us that the authorities were totally unsupportive and seem to blame them for allowing the stowaways to gain entry.
One more than one occasion young men have jumped onto our truck but never has anyone actually broken in. A lesson to us to be more vigilant.
