Jane & Rog’s retirement tour, Morocco 2023

Yep an OBD reader would be a good investment and will pay for itself over and over again .
There are LOTS available, some offer basic functionality and are cheap as chips, others slightly more expensive but do far more.
Bluetooth units are small and can be left in place for live data runs .
🤞your reset sorts it
 
First a Flynn walk. The early morning light was lovely, and we saw almonds in flower for the first time.

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We paid for the campsite and gave the owner, Abdullah a couple of photos - one of himself and the campsite, the other of Denby freshly painted, both with “thank you” written on them. It was the best we could think of with the limited resources at our disposal.

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Good news as Denby’s engine started - no error light. So we drove west towards Tiznit. 5km in, the light came back on. We decided to carry on. At the top of first bum-clenching climb, Rog pulled over. The engine had much less power, and this wasn’t the steepest or longest climb. Also, we were burning through the diesel and only had a range of 100 miles - enough, but a bit tight. The sensible thing was to turn around.

Back in Tafraoute, Rog spoke to Abdullah - but now on the phone, as his mother was ill. He said someone different would call round, which, eventually, he did. Someone Different’s French wasn’t amazing and mine is very lacking in car vocabulary beyond pare-brise, so communication wasn’t easy. It seemed SD lived in Tiznit, and the suggestion was that we take him back there, to his garage, where they could work on Denby.

We had little option to agree, so filled up with diesel and set off again, with me sharing Flynn’s bench-seat and SD in the front with Rog. At least we had a mechanic with a mobile phone & contacts with us, if we did get stuck.

The views as we drove back to Tiznit were apparently amazing, but I have no idea as my eyes were tight shut for most of the journey. SD directed Rog in French to his garage somewhere in a maze of twisty passages in the outskirts of the town. Miss Caroll would be so proud.

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SD’s (slightly) English speaking colleague joined us with a more advanced doohickey which had no need of a laptop. This showed the list of all Denby’s faults since the beginning of time, including the turbo one. SDC said that tomorrow they would clean the turbo / sensor and that we should stay the night here.

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It was 6:30pm by now, so there did seem little point in finding the campsite, and we agreed. It’s good how safe we feel in Morocco - I wouldn’t be very happy in a similar location in many British cities, especially on a Friday night.

Tiznit is known for its walled medina, with five historic gates. We walked through one of them, Bab Iaouayna, into the medina, which most famously sells silver jewellery. It looks like a fascinating place to explore - I hope we’ll have time today.

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Dinner was at Riad Le Lieu, at retina.lamppost.spoils. We ate in the courtyard, open to the sky, but for cloths hung across to act as a ceiling. The menu was the change we’d been looking for. Rog had a chicken pastilla. Pastilla is a pie straight from the Middle Ages - sugar-dusted filo pastry wraps meat and almonds, seasoned with cinnamon and other spices. Its closest relative in British cooking is the mince pie, back in the days when it actually had minced meat in it.

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I ordered a camel tagine, which was actually described as a “Dromedary tagine”. If Bactrian camel is also on the menu, do you think the waiter asks “one hump or two?”

We spotted wine being drunk at the next table, and ordered a bottle ourselves. The waiter delivered it, but asked if we’d mind keeping the bottle on the floor between us, and pouring glasses in a secretive manner.

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The meal was good, and we wandered home to our garage car-park in a better frame of mind. Today, perhaps Denby will be fixed! 39088233-5E4C-478B-B7FD-2D65DC9B7C61.jpeg DEB2ACCD-8E31-4548-9C05-1820EE3B1F5E.jpeg

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Jane And Rog said:
First a Flynn walk. The early morning light was lovely, and we saw almonds in flower for the first time.

View attachment 708493
View attachment 708494

We paid for the campsite and gave the owner, Abdullah a couple of photos - one of himself and the campsite, the other of Denby freshly painted, both with “thank you” written on them. It was the best we could think of with the limited resources at our disposal.

View attachment 708497

Good news as Denby’s engine started - no error light. So we drove west towards Tiznit. 5km in, the light came back on. We decided to carry on. At the top of first bum-clenching climb, Rog pulled over. The engine had much less power, and this wasn’t the steepest or longest climb. Also, we were burning through the diesel and only had a range of 100 miles - enough, but a bit tight. The sensible thing was to turn around.

Back in Tafraoute, Rog spoke to Abdullah - but now on the phone, as his mother was ill. He said someone different would call round, which, eventually, he did. Someone Different’s French wasn’t amazing and mine is very lacking in car vocabulary beyond pare-brise, so communication wasn’t easy. It seemed SD lived in Tiznit, and the suggestion was that we take him back there, to his garage, where they could work on Denby.

We had little option to agree, so filled up with diesel and set off again, with me sharing Flynn’s bench-seat and SD in the front with Rog. At least we had a mechanic with a mobile phone & contacts with us, if we did get stuck.

The views as we drove back to Tiznit were apparently amazing, but I have no idea as my eyes were tight shut for most of the journey. SD directed Rog in French to his garage somewhere in a maze of twisty passages in the outskirts of the town. Miss Caroll would be so proud.

View attachment 708495

SD’s (slightly) English speaking colleague joined us with a more advanced doohickey which had no need of a laptop. This showed the list of all Denby’s faults since the beginning of time, including the turbo one. SDC said that tomorrow they would clean the turbo / sensor and that we should stay the night here.

View attachment 708498
It was 6:30pm by now, so there did seem little point in finding the campsite, and we agreed. It’s good how safe we feel in Morocco - I wouldn’t be very happy in a similar location in many British cities, especially on a Friday night.

Tiznit is known for its walled medina, with five historic gates. We walked through one of them, Bab Iaouayna, into the medina, which most famously sells silver jewellery. It looks like a fascinating place to explore - I hope we’ll have time today.

View attachment 708499

Dinner was at Riad Le Lieu, at retina.lamppost.spoils. We ate in the courtyard, open to the sky, but for cloths hung across to act as a ceiling. The menu was the change we’d been looking for. Rog had a chicken pastilla. Pastilla is a pie straight from the Middle Ages - sugar-dusted filo pastry wraps meat and almonds, seasoned with cinnamon and other spices. Its closest relative in British cooking is the mince pie, back in the days when it actually had minced meat in it.

View attachment 708500

I ordered a camel tagine, which was actually described as a “Dromedary tagine”. If Bactrian camel is also on the menu, do you think the waiter asks “one hump or two?”

We spotted wine being drunk at the next table, and ordered a bottle ourselves. The waiter delivered it, but asked if we’d mind keeping the bottle on the floor between us, and pouring glasses in a secretive manner.

View attachment 708501

The meal was good, and we wandered home to our garage car-park in a better frame of mind. Today, perhaps Denby will be fixed! View attachment 708496 View attachment 708502
Click to expand...


Good luck for Denby today 🍀🍀🍀🍀
 
Good luck with Denby today. I am amazed how safe you feel, like you say some cities over here we would never stay in the van overnight. Stay safe all of you(y)

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If you’re looking for an excellent campsite not far from Tiznit, then head down the coast 30 odd miles south towards Mirleft.
Carry on beyond Mirleft towards Sidi Ifni and you will find Camping Erkounte. One of the best campsites we stayed at in Maroc.

Camping Erkounte park mirleft

www.erkounteparkmirleft.com www.erkounteparkmirleft.com
 
We slept very well in the car park next to SD’s garage. He arrived, as promised, at 9.30am and we “negotiated” a price. “Negotiated” in inverted commas because we accepted the first offer. We’re not great at bargaining and we are already pretty committed to SD’s service. Maybe we can charge him passage back to town yesterday? Either way, it’s still massively reasonable by UK standards.
We left SD and Yet Another Someone dismantling Denby’s engine and set out for a stroll round town.
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Tiznit is an old walled medina town surrounded by modern development. It was originally the site of a cluster of forts that were encircled in the 19th century by some 5km of pisé (rammed earth) wall. It quickly became a trade center and remains a provincial capital and center for Berber jewelery, with a souq devoted to the silver stuff. It’s also not really on the tourist trail and doesn’t get the same attention as Fez or Marrakesh. It was nice to walk around poking our noses into shops without any hard sell.
Jane managed to get her silver necklace repaired for a very reasonable £2. Ask at number 30 in the jewellery souk if you need something similar.
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We ate baked eggs in the Cafe Atlas on the main square. It wasn’t anything special but a table of local coffee drinkers took a shine to Flynn - asking his name, almost stroking him and reassuring us it was fine if he sprawled all over their feet. After lunch, we returned to sit out the midday sun in the shade of the van. Might as well get some vanwork done, we thought, so we cleaned as thoroughly as possible with only a little water left in the tank, and changed the bed ready to find a washing machine. Flynn supervised SD and YAS as they reduced Denby to a pile of random metal parts, some covered in thick black soot, which they cleaned to sparkling newness.

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When SD and YAS got to the air filter, we found the root cause of our problems: we had mice over winter and it looks like they tried to eat some of the bonnet lagging then stashed the leftovers in the air filter 🐭. Clever people on MotorHomeFun had already predicted (nearly exactly) this as the problem.

We spent the afternoon doing the van work and taking Flynn for occasional constitutionals around Tiznit’s suburbs.

Work finished about 17:00 and we took Denby up the fast road for a test. Unfortunately when we hit 2000 rpm there was an audible turbo suck behind the front right wheel. A quick investigation showed the crash had cracked on of the air ducts feeding the turbo. Back to the car park for further fixes. SD and YAS worked into the night, removing and repairing the pipe and giving me strict instructions to get a real replacement in the UK. SD said this repair was only guaranteed for two months!

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Despite not doing any of the work today we were tired out. We walked into town and ate at A l’Ombre du Figuier - which really is in the shadow of a huge fig tree. Then back to the van. We’re out of water, the bog is nearly full (no photos sorry) and we’re sleeping on a car park again. Despite that we’re both having a whale of a time - the extra perspective you get from a long trip makes things like this part of the journey, not problems to spoil a holiday.

Footnote: SD is actually called Rashid and he’s the chef proprietor of Le Garage Boudi
0672106471 (standard.pupils.birthdays). He specialises in Motorhomes: bodywork, mechanical and electrical. It’s quite a medium sized operation and he is super efficient and professional. He doesn’t speak any English though but did find us a translator even though Jane speaks French very well.

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What an incredible journey you are on. I would be in tears by now and convinced the van was being sabotaged by bandits who were trying to kidnap me and eat my dog!! You are so brave but rubbish at bargaining you need Mr Ginam with you he is so tight and will spend hours at it:giggle: loving your tales of highs and lows so Thank You.
 
Jane And Rog said:
Unfortunately when we hit 2000 rpm there was an audible turbo suck behind the front right wheel. A quick investigation showed the crash had cracked on of the air ducts feeding the turbo
Click to expand...
Great that you have found the problem. As said in my other post, I thought you may have been loosing boost due to the accident damage.
 
Great thread. Van life ‘ups and downs’
My favourite saying is “everyday there is a fix”

We are at Tarifa reading your thread. We hope to give Maroc a visit next year.

Fingers crossed you get everything sorted 🤞
 
I’m not sure if it was clear in Rog’s blog yesterday, but we spent another night on the wasteland by Rashid’s garage. Rashid had kindly offered us a tap to fill up with water, but by the time the works were finished at nearly 8pm, neither of us fancied anything more than getting dinner.
So Denby was sorely in need of services this morning. We decided on visiting Sidi Ifni - a Spanish town built in the 1930s and apparently one of the most beautiful Art Deco garrison towns in the world. (Are there others? It seems unlikely.)

It was a short drive, just over an hour, to Camping Gran Canaria. Before too long, Denby was fettled and we were walking Flynn on the beach, carrying water and a bowl, to prevent a return of poonami.

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Here someone was nasty to Flynn for the first time - the oldest of a group of girls, a child of about 11, threw stones at him. She was a poor aim, luckily. I went over and gave her an angry piece of my mind, but she didn’t speak French. Or perhaps, “didn’t speak French.”

After the walk, we had a fishy lunch at Ait Baamrane - a lovely spot with its view of the Atlantic, and all the surfers waiting endlessly for the perfect break. The only thing spoiling proceedings was the presence of a restaurant cat, which seemed to delight in taunting Flynn. Flynn is, of course, easily taunted, and rather than taking the high ground, he emitted the loudest shrieking noises I’ve ever heard from any animal, and disturbed the equinamity of the nearby French diners, never difficult at the best of times. Just eat your cheese after your pud, not before.

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What was left of the afternoon was dedicated to washing - two loads through, and I chose to pay 50 dirhams to have a water temperature of my choice, rather than a quick, cold wash for 30 dirhams.

Jobs done, Rog and I had a brief wander through town. The Ifni area was occupied by the Spanish in 1934, after it was ceded to them in 1860. In three years the town went from being an occasional tent camp to 600 buildings, and became an important stop off for flights to the Canary Isles, not far offshore. It was only returned to Spain in 1969. (Spain still has two enclaves in Morocco - a useful fact if you find yourself in an argument about Gibraltar down the pub. I know it’s a common topic down the Duke’s Head in Hamstreet on a Friday night.)

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We found the Sunday market (appropriate.tariffs.reliability), and, it being Sunday, we shopped for vegetables. It seems there are some exceptions to the everything in a basket rule - our avocado & custard apples were pulled out for special pricing - still cheap though.

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After that we crossed the road to the town market (advises.complications.fight) where we bought a large fish to grill (bream?), bread, and four sea urchins. The latter are enormously cheap here - 20 dirhams a kilo, about £1.60, whereas in the UK it’s £40.

The fish barbecue was good. Rog reminded himself of how to open sea urchins without spiking accidents, and I made a salad for the fish, of tomatoes, avocados, radishes, cucumber, almonds, sumac, garlic and pomegranate molasses.

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Dad news - sadly he wasn’t released from hospital over the weekend, and they are trying a new antibiotic as he still has a fever and is not himself. Fingers crossed this one does the job.
 
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And of course it couldn’t last. This morning the heating and hot water are kaput again, and we’ve sprung one of our all too frequent leaks. (Push fit connectors and Moroccan roads.) Sigh.
 

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