VAN LIFE: Surprises in Morocco (not all of them good) // S04E03

When you're overlanding through Morocco you have to expect surprises. I mean that's half of the reason we travel like this. Sometimes those surprises are great like monkeys visiting your camp or making new friends on the road and other times they're not so good. This is the story of our journey down from the Atlas Mountains to the surf coast of Morocco and all the unexpected things that happened on the way. We're picking up this story after a few days off-grid camping so we have to resupply before we can move on. So yeah this side of the road's water fountain thing. A lot of the water sources we've come across so far in Morocco have been dried out so there's been no water there at all. This one is dripping so there's water in it. Thankfully, hopefully it tastes good. Everyone's so friendly at the community well here. They're all filling up with water and chatting to each other and everyone's been really nice to us. Everyone's lovely in Morocco. Very lovely. Suspiciously the water well is situated right next to this river. I do wonder whether that is the same water that we're drinking. It doesn't really matter because we have our ultra awesome water protection system so it should be okay. But I do wonder if that is the open sewer of water that we're drinking. This is the third kind of small city that we've driven through in Morocco today on a big drive and above each city you wouldn't believe how much smog there is. Honestly I've only ever seen it like above a really big city like say Los Angeles before but Morocco's got some smog problems and when you see what they're putting out here into the atmosphere, holy moly, all of the surf reports for all of the beaches report pollution, really bad pollution. It's a bit of a shame but I guess that's what you get in a developing country. It had been a couple of days since our last shower so our priority for today was to find somewhere we could freshen up. We're not exhibitionists but we do shower out the back of the Kombi and it is a little public. Being an Islamic country here in Morocco it's especially important to find a more secluded location for us to Unfortunately we can't stay here. We have been moved on by the police, by the Moroccan police. The policeman turned up earlier on and he was running, jogging down the beach, sweating profusely, just out for a jog I think, but he was wearing his full police kind of exercise uniform with a police hat and stuff and told us very clearly, even though I tried to pretend I didn't understand him, that we could not stay here at night time. So we will move on but I think the chances of us getting moved on again are quite high in this region. There was a nice little camp spot as well we found. A little difficult to get in as you can see. There is some quite deep sand here. It's just off the road and we have a beach to ourselves over here. Let's have a quick look at that. Someone has been stuck there for sure. I thought about coming up here because it's a really nice little spot and there's a few tire tracks but someone has made a real meal of the entrance. That's not nice. We would be stuck in that for sure. Let's have a quick look at the beach. What a shame because the swell is just picking up and there is nobody in. I don't want to leave. One, two, three. I've got to say, as nice as the beach might look on the camera, it kind of smells here. It doesn't smell like nice kind of fresh salty air. It smells a bit dirty and there's a lot of trash on the beach. It's one of the dirtiest beaches I've seen which is a real shame. I hope that's not a sign of the rest of Morocco but that's how it is sometimes you know. Maybe we'll do a bit of beach cleaning whilst we're here. Do you think we'll get out of here without getting stuck? I guess we have to go find somewhere else eh? We'll stay here I guess. I mean nothing wrong with this place and I don't think the police are going to find us here. So this will do nicely and it's flat and it's a nice sunset too. It's really nice in Morocco. They will fill the tank for you and won't let you do it yourself. It's really nice until they put diesel in your gasoline car. Oh my days! How pissed off am I right now? It's only two and a half litres which is like less than a gallon so who knows. As the pump attendants must do the filling we always get out to supervise. On this occasion unfortunately, despite me being there, diesel got selected and pumped into our tank before I could do anything about it. You wouldn't believe how quick they are. So apparently diesel is heavier than whatever. Diesel is bad at gasoline tanks. It's only two and a half litres but it's thicker and it can clog up the injectors and being that I really love this engine and I promised I'd take care of it I'm not just going to run those two and a half litres through the engine. So I'm going to drain the tank. That's what you want to do before breakfast isn't it? Luckily there's this facility here. Should make the job a little bit easier. These two washing stations here that one of these has got a pit underneath it. This one is just a pit full of oil so people just drain their oil straight into that one. So I'm not getting down into that because that would be gross. I'm just waiting for someone to find some keys for this thing and hopefully I can use that pit to get underneath and drain the petrol tank. This is a really messy job. Due to the awkward angle and location petrol gets everywhere. It ran down my arm, into my armpit, down my chest and right to my waist. Not fun. One of the things that also is difficult here is that communication is obviously very very tough. In this part of Morocco it's quite rural. They don't speak French apart from a couple of words. I think they have about as much French vocabulary as I do and they don't read Arabic either. So even if we can get a signal and do some online translation they're like reading the Arabic and they still don't understand what it is we're trying to say to them. So there's literally no way for us to communicate other than like sign language and that's not that effective. But I guess it's part of the challenge and part of the adventure right? Cleaned up, petrol empty. I think we're good to go. Very fortunate that we could use this pit because that made the job a bit easier. What a pain in the butt. It's like we had to wait an hour to be able to get in here and then like it took you know half an hour to do that. We did a grease job whilst we were here and we're filling up with water as well. I think I'll take a couple of extra bags of water and have a shower as soon as we get out of here because I have petrol absolutely everywhere all over me. Dripped all the way down my chest, my arms. It's just, no, not a pleasant job doing that. I hope that doesn't happen again. We're going to need to put a petrol sticker on there in every language that says this is gasoline not diesel. Car works. Back on the road. Was it the right thing to do to spend all that time and effort to empty two and a half litres out? It would have been about 7% of our tank and we filled it up. 7% of our tank would have been diesel. I still think it was the right thing to do to empty it. The guy didn't say sorry but his face looked like he was sorry so that's good enough. Let's just go somewhere nicer and watch the smell of petrol off us. For the most part Morocco has a pretty good road network, especially the paid tolls. However in the more rural parts there are often no bypasses. The main road runs directly into town. One minute you can be on the highway, the next right in the middle of the market. Oh look. Come on little one, he's scared. Where are you going? It's not this way. This way, this way. I think we're going to move them because they're in the middle of the road and it's hot and they're looking for shade but let's find some shade on the other side. Spouse, mate. Probably baby. I think the baby is with you. It's alright buddy, it's alright. Take them over here? Yeah. To your new home. It's pretty hot down here and there's donkeys careering around the racetrack of Morocco. Got trampled. Can't have turtles getting trampled. We just, after throwing away all our money in petrol this morning and continuing down the road, we've just been pulled over in a speed check in the middle of the desert. There's like literally no other soul on the road and they're like, look at this video, you're doing 67 kilometers an hour in a 60, you owe us 150 dirhams. Absolute scam, man. Like I don't even think I was speeding. Honestly, like I've been driving super slow all day because I'm not in a rush and I'm never in a rush. What a scam. And of course, like of course, he goes, give me your documents and I hand over my original driving license and the original registration, which I know, I know is the one thing you don't do because as soon as you give them that, they're like, we're keeping this until you pay us 150 dirhams. Right, let's get those photocopies and then they can keep them. We've heard mixed reports about speed traps in Morocco. Some tourists say they felt targeted and that they were sure that they weren't speeding. We will say that speed checks are very common, so stick to the speed limits if you're coming here. So there's some really good surf spots in between Essaouira and the south. And so today there's a swell coming in and we are going to go hunting for some waves just to the south of town. This is about 30 kilometers south. What a nice surprise. How long have you been here for? Two days. And this spot? One around there, but the police came and said that we have to leave, it's not secure, blah, blah, blah, this kind of thing. Then we moved here and we stayed two days. Now we're going to Marrakech to pick up our friend. Oh yeah, yeah, cool. Awesome. I've been looking forward to surfing in Morocco for a long time. This is my first surf in Africa, but it also marks the 20th country that I've surfed in. I am not a great surfer. I'm not even really a good surfer. That is not why I do it. I do it for me. I do it so that I can be one with the humbling power of the ocean without distractions. From time to time, I used to film some of my surf sessions and occasionally I used to bring you guys along with me, but these days surfing is for me. It's the time when I stop working and stop focusing on storytelling. It's my time between me and the ocean. Morning from the Kombi and the beach. Just had to grab the camera real quick to show you the scene this morning. It feels like we woke up on Mars if Mars had pump and surf. You know, I'd live there if it did. Look how beautiful it is. The sun is just rising. It's about, I think it's about 8 o'clock. It's rising pretty late because it's winter time. The tide is out. The waves are pumping and nobody's in there, but there are lots of people on the beach collecting, I think they're hunting for octopus in the low tide in the rocks. A guy came and told us last night he was going to look for octopus and asked us for some water. Happens a lot here, people asking for water. Obviously you never going to refuse someone water. I'm quite happy to meet locals and give them water, but it is odd that they do that. I do kind of partly wonder if they're just kind of scoping the situation out and just asking for water and like having a look what you've got and everything. Or they're just thirsty, but I've never been in another place where I've been asked for water quite so often. Why do you think that people come and ask us for water so often? It's usually people that have been out all day. He was out all day fishing. He didn't have any water with him. So he's just thirsty? Yeah. You don't reckon he was trying to escape out of the Kombi or anything? No, I think he was just thirsty. It happens a lot here though, doesn't it? Yeah. Maybe there's a rule. I remember hearing something about, I think it was in Morocco, that it's illegal to refuse water to somebody. Do you remember that? Do you remember someone told us that? I do remember hearing that. Or was that Portugal? Somewhere that we've been recently that said, yeah, you can't refuse water. I do remember that. Beautiful this morning, isn't it? So nice, it's like we're on Mars. I was just saying that. That's where I got the line from. Woof, woof, woof, woof! My life! Woof, woof, woof, woof! Hey. Hello. Well, good morning. She's so playful. You're cute. Hi, buddy. Someone's jealous. Ah, ah, ah! No biting! Oi! No! No biting rabbit, though. Ah, ah, ah, ah! Ah! No! Jesus. Puppy. Doing puppy bites. It's nice to have, like, a friendly dog around camp, because usually there's, like, packs of, like, ten dogs, and most of them are quite friendly, but when there's, like, a group of them, you never know how they're going to react with the laska. Sh, sh, sh, sh. So, yeah, it hasn't been that, like, comfortable when there's dogs surrounding the van, but hey! Oi! You know, if you've got, like, cuts on your hands, which, like, I always have a cut somewhere, and then a dog with rabies licks you, and it gets into your bloodstream, it can happen. If it scratches you, if it's a puppy like that, and it's scratching you, climbing on you. That girl in Norway died when she was on holiday somewhere, went back to Norway, had the first case of, um, rabies in, like, a long time from playing with the puppy. So, it's hard, though, isn't it? Because you want to kind of, like, touch them, pat them, play with them. Yeah. But you've got to be a bit careful. Just here in Morocco, because it's, like, high rabies risk. I want to keep her. I think Alaska needs a friend in the van, and she's a great size. You want to keep her? Yeah, I want to keep her. One thing is for sure, Morocco is full of unexpected surprises. Every day here has us looking at each other in shock and awe from what we are seeing. And the experiences of being immersed in this incredible country fills our souls. We promised ourselves before we embarked on this multi-year expedition driving around the world that we would have our loved ones come out and visit us. So, next week, we're moving into the city. But not just any city. This is Essaouira, an unbelievable old medina. Plus, we're taking the family into the desert for a night of not-so-typical camping. It feels like mountains in the morning. Oh my days, look at that. Atlas Mountains right outside the tent. But that is a story for next time. Guys, thank you so much for watching this video. We are giving you a real-time update right now. We are still in Morocco in quarantine. We hope you are all doing well wherever you are in the world. And just a reminder, these videos were filmed before the coronavirus outbreak. And we are going to get those videos about what's happening in Morocco right now to you very soon. Yeah, those episodes are coming up. I hope you guys are feeling healthy and you're getting through this. It's a tough time for all of us and we hope that this little adventure was a bit of a distraction for you. Thank you so much to our Patrons who support our videos and the Combi Crew on YouTube. If you want to join, click the Join button below. We'd be very much appreciative of your support to help these episodes keep coming. Until next time, stay safe guys.