A group pic at last ..

 


Nice flag!!

Bye bye for now...

but stay tuned for our future adventures!!

Cheers


 

The trip back...

Well, it is always more exciting going to the unknow, but we had a nice trip back and meet up with Adrian & family back in France for a last camping together in France.

Very nice memories and plans for the next trip already...Bring it on the summer in the UK for a nice trip to the Lakes...


 

Our little ones...

 

Girls Aloud...

 

The dudes...

 

The Carvalhos (or Ali-Babas)

 

We all loved it! The scenery, the adventures, the unknown and the great companions! Great Experience!!

Very succesfull trip for the G4 Challenge Owners club!

The Hartleys

 

The Roberts

 

The Khans

 

Did we like it?

 
 

Last day in Marrakesh..

 
 
 
 

We went for another leisure walk in the medina and then after a nice lunch took horse carriages to visit the famous vila Majjorelle with its exquisite gardens, very nice goodbye to its truly unique city!

Next day it was time to say goodbye to Holly who took a flight back home!

Another truck ...

At our camping site, we saw this 6x6 truck and went to meet the owners, a nice youg couple from Slovenia who were waiting for their friends to start their adventure in Morocco. They came for a chat over the campfire and had some drinks to talk a bit more...They had 2 quads in the truck for their friends, who would reccie some of the terrain in the desert ahead of them and give some guidance. They would also meet with other fellow truckers for the adventure..

Emon and I started to daydream about travelling around the world on these machines, which can go anywhere as much or even further than a 4x4 and still carry a quad, have a nice bed, toilet, etc... without need to set up & down camping every night...Ana and Sally also seemed to like the idea, so think we will start to work on the idea...

The Roberst wanted to start to head back home and left with the Hartleys on Thursday heading to Spain. I was supposed to stop by at the Land Rover Experience in Spain as previosly arranged with Moi, the owner that franchise, so I gave him a call to see if they could spend a night at their very nice facilities on their way back and also got to know the centre. With everything arranged they set off and later told us it was indeed a very nice experience there.


 
 

The evening...

In the evening the market trasnformed itself into a live and buzzing place with many food stalls for you to try the local specialties. in the typical Moroccan style, the vendors chase you to try their food. Emon told us about a bad previous experience he had once sitting down to eat and later getting a steep bill....we then negotiated to pay first and then eat later with one of the stalls and they accepted full of smiles...we wrote down what we order and the price next to us...

The cooks all clapped once we all at down...later we found that they really pitch for all clients... a sales training program live.

The meal was very nice and the kids tried some of the local cuisine with chips on the side, which was great. When we finished they said: You pay as much you like and did not give us a bill, which was very nice and everyone was pleased to pay for the right sum!

After such a nice dinners we got some sweets from the locals as well and head back to the camping!



 
 
 

The shops..

The more we saw, the more we liked it. There is so many nice and beautifuly crafted work here that finding the right buy or gift becomes a daunting task, but is really worth it. We bought few lanterns and carpets and when we got home we wished we got more...well lets save for future trips !

 
 
 

They work hard

As you can see this old Series is still in pretty well condition and ready for its towing/ recovery duties at the Market


 

Snake charmers

Next day off we go to visit the medina in Marrakesh, with its lively market with food, lanterns, carpets and leather stalls.The city also has seen a lot of development on recent years with lots of condominiums and high end hotels.

Our first stop was at the snake charmers that quickly wrap them around tourists ...not for everyone's taste but Felipe and Alex loved it! After a "kind donation" we headed to the markets again!

 
 
 

On the way to Marrakesh

 
 
 





















The problems with fuel continued and despite having jerry cans, it was difficult to cover great distances particularly on my D3 as the V8 was quite thirsty on the sand parts. The group also wanted to stay a bit longer than a night in Marrakesh so we adjusted the itinerary and headed towards the city of the Snake charmers a day ahead of planning.

The route was very pretty and we crossed the Atlas at another pass with amazing views. We met a family in a DII with problems on the gearbox, which was serviced in Zagoura but still needed further attention. They headed back for another check while I was saving every drop to get to Marrakesh and all fuel stations were empty.

At sunset, Ana said "look I think there are some cars filling up here..." and they were indeed...I managed to fill 83 litres on my tank (86l is the capacity) and then both jerries, as did the rest of the group.

Back on the road we arrived at Marrakesh and went straight to our camping north of the city, which was very nice and clean indeed.

Alex, the kids favourite..

Alex was always playing with Felipe or the girls, great kid!! Despite being the oldest of the gang, he knows how to play nice and behaved very well all through!!

He deserved his own "Camel Trophy" at the end of the trip for being a top kid!!