Morocco 4x4 - Rif

Morocco - got it, finally! Four years of attempts and each time something got in my way. Finally we have made it when Mirek from Rodzinkax4 posted on one of the fb groups looking for companions for the trip. The decision was lighting fast. So, we headed to North Africa in a 4x4 car, as a family, along with two other crews, in the heat of summer....

Summer is not a bad time to go to Morocco, unless you can't stand the blistering heat very well. During our stay it was a steady 42-44 Celsius during the day, and 22 in the morning. The highest we recorded was 49 on the wast plateau of south. No problem with that, there were days when we used air conditioning, but even that was occasional, the climate is just dry. What surprised me was that the temperature was actually little affected by altitude or region, and our route went from the Rif mountains in the north, through the Atlas Mountains, to the stretches of hamada in the south and the very edge of the Sahara. It was only colder by the ocean, and wet for that.

The huge advantage of summer is certainly the lack of tourists on main tourist axis. Instead, there are plenty of locals. Moroccans living abroad come in hordes into their country in July and August. The result are crowds at the border, and you need to take this into account when planning the ferry.

We prepared the car according to the old rule - the more last-minute things the better :-) This year we got a new Wild Land Voyager 160 roof tent, a Rhino 2m awning, a refrigerator, a compressor and a lightweight self-made euro box storage. The whole setup worked perfectly, and I have a feeling I could live like this forever :-)

Since we were riding remote area, often without a road at all, we were holding 60l of water all the time. This amount is easily enough for 3 days for 3 people without access to civilization. Anyway, there is no drama, in the hamada or in the mountains there are places where you can get water, such as wells for camels. Water in Morocco is drinkable. We navigated routes from Chris Scott, from a German 4x4 guidebook and some downloaded from wikiloc as well as hand drawn. Everything was a very smooth ride and we drove the factory LC150. You definitely need to use common sense though, I'm sure there are many singletracks in the mountains that are no go for a car. A completely different experience, however, is to drive hamada with the car, the 90-liter tank and the comfortable cabin make the thoughts associated with survival give a way almost entirely to those associated with photography :-)

Enough of this information flow, take a look at some photos from the first stage of the trip - the Rif mountains and Fez! The Rif is different than people often depict it, we have not experienced a chilly reception despite venturing into really strange places.