Jones

Today we bit off a bit more than we could chew. We’re heading to Fez over the next couple of days with a break at the middle of nowhere. But first servicing… The local dogs came round and asked for some of Flynn’s food.

Of course I’m not allowed to give them that but they did get a couple of lamb ribs rescued from the bin – to be fair, before they just ripped the bin open themselves. Then, filling Jones. I was worried there wouldn’t be enough water pressure again. Wrong. The water pressure was OK but the tap wouldn’t accept any of the four connectors and adapters we carry. So this:

Then we set the sat nav to our tentative spot for the night. In a small no name town, the nav took us off the metalled road down the RP601also signed as Le Piste du Col du Beksalem. P is the lowest category of Moroccan road but they’re mainly pretty good and navigable by car. 

In the first kilometre I had to get out and check the route through a washed out section three times. We had 35km more to go.

After the third of these oued crossings we decided it wasn’t worth the effort or risk of carrying on on this road up into the mountains. We got a video of the first, easiest crossing. Even this felt a lot more challenging than it looks in video. That said, Jones now has another battle scar.

Despite the minor ding, the sprinter AWD managed the loose soil, steep exits and minor drop offs really well. It never felt short of grip although on one off-camber side swing, all the drawers suddenly shot open!

Back at the road, we needed to detour. We’ve come quite far East and the passes across the Atlas are all closed. We drove an extra 125km round the houses to get back to the other end of the Piste du Col du Beksalem.

We didn’t see another truck, van or motorhome all day. The area is very sparsely populated and the only other traffic is the long distance taxis mostly based on Mercedes TN Vans.

Because there are no other tourists over here there are very few stops. We looked into leaving the road and heading off up another gravel track a few times but, given our drive time so far we eschewed the exploration and went for the original, tentative stop at a petrol station. It’s actually quite great, I love these weird things. This is the biggest petrol station ever in the middle of nowhere.