Christmas & New Year's eve

Sorry we have not updated our blog in a while
We have had internet access a few times but not good & long enough to upload the pictures.

Update: 12-23-2012  Erg Chebbi, Morocco

Not a lot of newsworthy stuff since the last update. We stayed at a very nice, quiet campground for a week nearby Essaouira, where we waited for the Carnet de Passage to be delivered and also took the opportunity to fix some little things on the car (broken lock, leaking rooftop-window). We also visited a camel market (where they also sell sheep, goats, cows, etc...). Marc has not exchanged Rosana for some camels yet as he did not find any camels that could cook a decent dinner.

If you are wondering about the sound of a camel: http://youtu.be/a-uR6XEWLI8

We haven't bought any meat in the local markets... Are you wondering why ???

The Carnet de Passage arrived a lot quicker than expected (thanks Patrick) and we picked it up in Marrakech.

Marrakech was a little bit of a disappointment. It is very touristy and the Medina does not feel as original as the ones we visited in Fes and Tetouan. To prove our disappointment, we only took a picture of the famous Mosque with its 75 meter tall tower.

We spent the night practically right under the Mosque, so we got a nice wake-up call at 5.30am (Ian, if you are reading this, going to a Baptizing is not that bad and no wonder the state of Michigan did not allow a Mosque to have speakers installed on the Minaret).

After Marrakech we started to drive in the direction of the Sahara desert. We ended up “bushcamping” at some beautiful spots along the way. We drove through canyons and valleys. Absolutely stunning !

Mountain pass: two dutch cyclists, a German on his motorbike, and a Berber on his Donkey

 Right now we are at Erg Chebbi, basically the entrance to the Sahara desert. It looks like we will be spending X-mass here in the desert.

Update: 12-25-2012 Middle of nowhere (see movie), Morocco

We spent Christmas eve by the dunes of Erg Chebbi. Marc decorated our Christmas tree
 and Rosana cooked a nice meal of beef, carrots, green beans and roasted potatoes with mushroom sauce. For dessert we had a vanilla cake with pineapple and cream.

Desert X-mass tree

Today we drove about 140km through the desert. Beautiful landscape. We even saw a baby camel with his mom. So cute !!! (this is Rosana's comments... of course Marc would not post anything like it)

Although we always think we have chosen a camping spot far away from any living creature there are always Moroccans on their “mobilet” trying to sell us fossils. Marc was already thinking about buying their entire bag and as soon as the next one stopped by we would offer him our fossils….

(We are driving from Merzouga to Zagora through the desert. Most of  the piste is good but still slow going. We did the whole route of 240km in almost two days.) It looks like we are lucky tonight. It is already 7pm and nobody stopped by. Well, according to the route we are at least 25 km away from a water source (meaning “people”) so we might be OK.

To get an idea of the vastness of the Sahara, here some videos:
http://youtu.be/sUu3Kg8Ez7I
http://youtu.be/vGq0wQKSSFU

General update:

Rosana is cooking every day and has been creating some delicious meals mixing canned veggies with fresh veggies (carrots, green beans, zucchini, onions and potatoes), also using some of the frozen meat (we have not bought ANY “fresh” meat at the markets) and dried sausages. We always have fresh bread with cheese, some deli meat and pate. Our coffee/tea is accompanied by cookies or homemade cake.

Fruits are also good. We have had mandarins, bananas, grapes, strawberries and kiwi.

So life isn’t that bad, is it?

Update 12-31-2012
The last few days we stayed at a campground near Agadir where we met 2 other overland couples that are planning to drive all the way to South Africa. One couple from The Netherlands and another from Austria. Very nice to finally meet people that are doing the same as us. We hope to meet them again in the new future. We also had to stop in Agadir to fix the air conditioning in the box. The ventilator motor was broken and we needed to order a new one.

Have ever wondered where dates come from ?

Spending New Year’s eve along the coast wild camping. The sounds of the waves is A M A Z I N G. There is nothing around here. Just shepherds, lots of sheep, goats and camels. We had our champagne for sunset with camels in the background. Thanks Erik & Simone.

Can you see the camels ?

Update 01/01/2013: Happy New Year

We have only been driving for 15 minutes in the new year and we are stuck for the first time. It was the price we paid for not lowering the tire pressure for just 50 meters of very soft sand.

Stuck for the first time

Digging, hopefully for the last time

 Below is a video on how we finally got out, without lowering the tire pressure but with diff locks engaged.
http://youtu.be/a-uR6XEWLI8

Right now we are in Tafraout, in the Anti Atlas, a nice mountain town after taking a very scenic route from the coast.

Tomorrow we will slowly drive back to Agadir to collect the new motor for the ventilator of the air conditioning and then we will be off  to Mauritania (still 1500km South of Agadir).