SPECIAL CARAVAN ADVENTURE An unforgettable campsite in the dunes
Ultimate CHALLENGE Ready for a different sort of adventure? Lee Davey headed to Morocco as part of Bailey’s Sahara Challenge and discovered a whole new way to ‘caravan’
T Club Director General Nick Lomas was a member of the party
Leaving Europe behind
74 August 2023
he Caravan and Motorhome Club was a trip partner of Bailey of Bristol’s ‘Sahara Challenge’, which saw a team of industry representatives, myself included, travel with two caravans and a motorhome from the UK to Morocco. Unfortunately the pandemic put an end to the original 2020 excursion, which ended prematurely in the Portuguese town of Sagres. So it was great to be able to reconvene with fellow participants three years later and pick up where we left off. Although the Club’s overseas campsite network doesn’t yet stretch as far as Morocco, it’s a popular tourist destination, and I was delighted to be invited along, towing a Bailey Phoenix+ 642 to the spiritual home of the ‘caravan’. The route took us from southern Portugal into Spain, and across the Strait of Gibraltar to northern Morocco, where the journey began in earnest. We were impressed with how accessible the country is – a 90-minute ferry crossing easily transforming a Spanish holiday into a North
African adventure through densely populated cities, vast sandscapes, and magnificent mountains, often travelling ancient routes that have existed for thousands of years.
SEA
The ferry from Algeciras at the southern tip of Spain to Tanger Med in Morocco is much like any other service, with a few notable exceptions. Unlike the roll-on, roll-off ferries that dominate the English Channel, on these FRS vessels traffic enters on the right-hand side before looping around and exiting from the left. Some vehicles – from articulated lorries to family-sized cars, but, thankfully, not caravans – were instructed to reverse on. There’s a customs booth on board; there, the Moroccan official examined my immigration form and passport, and stamped me into the country. Passport checks continue as the ferry is exited, and you also need to present your driving licence, V5 (logbook) and passport at Border Control in order to be issued with a temporary import certificate for your outfit. This needs to be kept safe, as you need it to exit the country.
