The Rive Maroc Rallye finished in Quarzazate. You can find my detailed report about the Rallye here. In this blog post, I will describe my experience on the way back from Quarzazate to Germany.
Directly after the end of the Rallye, I drove together with Mira and John Otto from Quarzazate via Zagora, M’Hamid, Erg Chegaga, Lac Iriki, and Foum Zguid to Taznakht. This absolutely stunning adventure is described here.
After one night in Taznahkt to fully charge my car I continued my trip to Agadir.
The temperature change on that day was really surprising. The day before I had over 30 degrees Celsius at the Lac Iriki, one day later it was only 6 degrees and raining. In some other parts of Morocco, there was even snowfall.
Shortly after my start in Taznakht, my car showed a range of 220km and a distance to the next charger of 230km. My average energy consumption was around 45kWh/100km and I got a bit nervous. The main reason was a very strong headwind combined with a climb to a pass with an altitude of 1850m. Luckily, after the pass the consumption significantly went down again (to around 22 kWh/100km) and I easily reached Agadir. All HPC chargers in Agadir are Tesla only and the only other DC charger from FastVolt was out of order. Therefore my only choice was to charge at the Kilowatt 22kW AC charger. It worked reliably and even the activation via the website went very smoothly this time.
After the charging, I drove to the Atlas Kasbah Ecolodge Morocco just outside of Agadir to spend the next night there. It‘s a stunningly beautiful hotel. Perfect to relax from the challenging desert crossing.
After a very nice breakfast at the Atlas Kasbah Ecolodge, I drove to the Agadir seafront promenade and beach. It was great to see the sea again but otherwise, I wasn’t impressed by Agadir at all. It is very clean and modern but it looks like all the other beach towns in the world. It reminded me a bit of Viña Del Mar in Chile (which I also didn’t like).
After cleaning my car from some of the Sahara dust and sand at the huge Marjane supermarket I continued in the afternoon to Taghazout, a famous surf spot just 30km north of Agadir. My plan was to spend the next night at the beautiful campground Terre d’Ocean in Taghazout. The ocean view directly from my „bedroom“ was stunning. The camp also has a nice pool and a good restaurant. And I could charge my car overnight with 10 amps using my Juice Booster at the campground.
The next day I moved to the Radisson Blue Taghazout Bay Surf Village. I found a very good deal for this 5-star resort on the internet and thought it might be the perfect place to further relax a bit after the days in the desert.
It‘s a beautiful place and since most of the guests are here for surfing the atmosphere is far more easygoing than in other luxury resorts. My plan was to stay here for two nights before continuing my trip to Marrakech.
During the next day, I drove my car exactly 0km and explored Taghazout instead on foot.
After breakfast, I walked along the nice beach in the direction of Taghazout village.
Of course, in Taghazout village, it‘s all about surfing. The city is a bit dirty but otherwise has a very nice and relaxed atmosphere. It also has preserved a little bit of that hippie vibe from past times.
And it was surprisingly the first town in Morocco where everybody was speaking English. Not only the tourists. Very unusual in Morocco. Normally you are always addressed in French. Not here.
That day was also Halloween and interestingly, even in Morocco, you can find now Halloween decorations. I didn’t expect that.
The next day was mainly a driving day. I left Taghazout around noon and drove 280km to Marrakech. I had planned to stay the next two nights at the beautiful campground Le Relais de Marrakech, located a bit outside of the city.
Along the way to Marrakech, I charged three times. Since my car was only at 75% at the start I already had to stop at the FastVolt Type 2 charger at the Imintanoute Afriquia station. This charger was a bit different than the other chargers I have seen in Marocco. The connector was hidden behind a cover. It was not obvious how to open it but a call to the customer hotline solved the problem quickly. You have to first start the charging via the FastVolt app then the door unlocks and you can connect your car using your own cable. I charged there to 50% and then continued to the 50kW DC charger at the Chichaoua station. And finally, before arriving at the campground I had another quick charge at the Targa station (FastVolt 50kW DC).
The campground is really beautiful and a calm oasis just outside of Marrakech. I will definitely return to this place next time.
Next, I wanted to explore the Medina of Marrakech. I took a taxi and left my car at the campground. This definitely makes sense since the traffic in Marrakech is extremely chaotic.
For an afternoon snack, I went to the beautiful La Slimana Restaurant in the Medina. The food was fantastic and the restaurant can be highly recommended.
The Jemaa el-Fnaa at sunset is not as wild anymore as it was in the past but it has still a very lively atmosphere. Here you can find some images from my first trip to Marrakech 20 years ago.
The next day was another long driving day: 560 km from Marrakech to Tanger with four charging stops along the way (one 180 kW HPC charger from Kilowatt near Casablanca and three 50 kW DC chargers from FastVolt and Total).
For my last two nights in Morocco, I had planned to stay again at the Hilton Hotel near Tanger. I was already there at the beginning of my trip and knew the location. It‘s not cheap (for Morocco) but they offer safe parking for my car and I can charge there overnight at their 32 amps connector with my Juice Booster.
On my pre-last day in Morocco, I drove from Tanger to Asilah. It is a fortified town located 35km south of Tanger on the Atlantic coast. The town‘s history dates back to 1500 B.C. and the Portuguese influence from the 15th and 16th century is still very visible.
The Medina of Asilah is very beautiful and definitely worth a visit.
Asilah is also a city of art with many galleries and lots of interesting artwork on the walls throughout the Medina.
I drove in the early afternoon of the next day from the Hilton Hotel to the Tanger Med port. The customs check at the port can sometimes take forever since they X-ray 100% of all cars and have only one scanner. A few days ago Hans and Tom with their Tesla Model X had to wait for 10 hours at the scanner. Luckily, when I arrived there were only a couple of other cars there and I passed the customs check in 30 minutes. The „Excellent“ ferry had just arrived at the port but the unloading took forever. Five hours later, I could finally board the ferry with my car.
I spent two and a half days at sea. Luckily the weather was nice and the sea calm.
On the morning of day 2, we had a short stop in the port of Barcelona.
After 60 hours on the ship, I finally arrived at 7:00 a.m. in the port of Genoa.
The unloading and customs check took again more than three hours. But finally, I was back on the road driving from Genoa to Munich via Switzerland.
Near Lugano, I had a short meeting with Andi and his Tesla Model X. I got in contact with him via Instagram. Interestingly, he also drove to Lac Iriki with his Model X this year. But since he was alone he decided to not do the complete crossing from Foum Zguid to M‘Hamid but instead returned the same way back to Foum Zguid. He also has AT tires on his car and is also well-equipped for expeditions in remote areas. He was even carrying a gas generator in his car in case he ran out of electricity. We had an interesting chat and he gave me some good tips for the Dalton Highway next year.
We met at a Tesla Supercharger in Melide and it was my first time charging at a Tesla charger.
At 10:00 p.m. I finally arrived back home in Germany.
I drove 4919km and had an average consumption of 30.7kWh/100km on this trip. My average velocity was 45km/h.
I was 29 days on the road and had a great time. Thanks to Silvia for organizing the Rive Maroc event and to Ayoub and Hamza for their support with the charging infrastructure in Morocco.
I will for sure return to Morocco in the future!
In the next weeks, I will post some videos of the Rice Maroc and of our desert crossing. Stay tuned.
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