It was now early evening and it was already dusk when we were finally able to drive out of the ferry harbour. Unfortunately, we had to abandon our plan to spend the night in a car park near the port as the guard sent us off the premises again. Without further ado, we drove south on the motorway to spend the night at the first major service area so as not to drive in the dark. You have to know that Motorways in Morocco, are not closed to people or certain vehicles as they are here. For example, we encountered pedestrians, joggers, hitchhikers, donkey carts, sheep, dogs and parked cars on the motorway. Therefore, an attentive and defensive driving style is advisable and travelling at night should be avoided if possible. We reached the first Tollbooth to buy a ticket and from a distance we could already see some children standing at the ticket machine. Once there, the children frantically pointed to the motorway toll prices displayed on the machine. Don't be unsettled in a situation like this. You are new to Morocco and certainly not used to such situations. Take your ticket and just drive on. Avoid paying, giving or tipping, even if it seems difficult or you feel pressurised.

The first night in Morocco

The first night in the service station car park was relatively sleepless and we had to process all the new impressions. In the car park of the service area, just a few metres away from where we were parked, there was a lovely Shepherd dog tied up under a tree. Water was scarce and barely within reach. So we stopped by for a quick look, distributed Caresses and gave him a little water. But he wouldn't leave us alone all night. He kept barking whenever another car stopped for a moment and we wondered what had happened to the poor chap. Heartlessly abandoned by the motorway? We tried to get to sleep somehow. The next morning, he was still sitting under the tree and looked kindly over at us. We went to him and checked whether he had enough water and suddenly the supposed master came round the corner and greeted us. We asked nicely who the dog belonged to and he replied quite naturally and incredulously to our question that it was his dog and the guard dog of the rest area. Relieved about the situation, we smiled a little. What a dangerous guard dog. And warning, spoiler: On our further journey through Morocco, we were to meet many more supposed guard dogs that really didn't deserve the name. But let's go back to our first impressions: the poverty of many people, which you can already see on the first few kilometres, the short-tied animals, dead dogs and much more. Although we knew about the circumstances in advance, it was all difficult for us compassionate people to accept.

Tolls in Morocco

We continued our journey south that day on the motorway to Asilah. It was only a 60 kilometre drive. Here is a brief note on the Tolls. The fees for class two (motorhomes and small trucks), from Tangier Med to Casablanca, are around 230 DH, at an exchange rate of 1 euro to 11 dirhams, i.e. around 20 euros for a distance of around 380 kilometres. You either have to take a ticket or pay in cash at a ticket office. Always choose the passages with the green arrows, as the passages with the yellow "J" are reserved for holders of a Jawaz map. This is an electronic toll card with which you can simply drive through and the fees are debited. If you plan to drive a lot on the motorway, this is certainly worth considering, as there are sometimes long queues at the toll booths.

Asilah - A pearl on the Atlantic coast

In Asilah we headed for the Campsite Assada on. It's small, the showers are hot and the security guards are very nice. That should be enough for now. We paid 85 dirhams including electricity. For the sake of simplicity, let's divide all Moroccan prices by ten. So 85 dirhams is simply 8.50 euros. We settled in comfortably and experienced our first Meuzzin call. The Adhān, the Islamic call to prayer, is called five times a day and is unmistakably audible over the loudspeakers in the mosques.

Asilah is a coastal town with around 35,000 inhabitants. The old medina is very beautiful, with its white and blue houses surrounded by a city wall with defence towers and dating back to the Portuguese occupation. The partially painted walls of the houses are striking. They are painted by mostly Moroccan artists as part of the cultural festival, which has been held every year in August since 1978. SIDQ is the place to go if you fancy a cheap and tasty meal. You can sit outside and watch the hustle and bustle of the city. It is located opposite the exit of the medina towards the city on Avenue Hassan II. The staff are really helpful and cooked us a vegetarian tagine, even though it wasn't on the menu.

The first time we discovered the beautiful Grey bulbulwhich can be found in almost all areas of Morocco. Also the Cattle Egret can be seen quite frequently near the beach in the north. We also discovered the Hoopoebut he was gone so quickly that we didn't manage to take a photo.

A little tip on the side. There is a nice gentleman walking around the small campsite with whom you can strike up a friendly conversation in English. If you ask him if he works here, he is sure to answer in the affirmative. A bit of small talk and he quickly recommends the restaurant across the road, which is said to serve excellent fish and other dishes. So we decided to have dinner there the next day and lo and behold, the friendly gentleman greeted us with a smile. Whether he was the owner or an employee of the restaurant, or even the owner of the campsite, was left open. The food itself didn't leave us with a bad flavour, but was due to the circumstances. Oh yes, there was no menu and the prices were on the upper end of the scale.

So much for today. In the next post, our journey continues south to Essaouira.

SIM card Morocco

Now back to the topic SIM cards in Morocco. As already mentioned, we decided in favour of the provider Maroc Telecom. If you are travelling to Morocco for the first time and have not visited Tangier, for example, Asilah and the campsite are a good place to stock up on a card. There is a Maroc Telecom shop about 200 metres from the campsite on the other side of the road. You can buy one or more SIM cards there and the helpful staff will have everything activated and the cards topped up in a matter of seconds. Again, always remember your passport, otherwise you won't be able to register. A later top-up is carried out using small Scratch couponswhich can be bought on almost every corner. You scratch off the field on the coupon and a 14-digit number appears. Now you dial the speed dialling code 555 and are greeted by a friendly voice. The very first time you call, you select the French language (not applicable later), then dial "1" for a top-up. You type in the long number combination and now it becomes important. To top up the Data volume absolutely a *3 directly after the number combination. If this is forgotten, the credit balance will be Telephony booked. It happened to us, but you probably only do it wrong once. Once you have topped up correctly, the most important thing is done. You can now create an account with Maroc Telecom if you wish. Either via the browser at https://selfcare.iam.ma/ or via app, which Mon Espace MT calls. To do this, you need to know the telephone number associated with the card. This is not printed on the SIM card, but is normally given to you by the Maroc Telecom employee when you buy it. If not, be sure to ask. When creating the account, you enter your telephone number. You will then receive a code by SMS. This code must now be entered in the next step of the registration process, followed by your e-mail address and a password. Once you have received the confirmation e-mail and activated your account via the link, you can now log in and view your credit balance and, if necessary, add further telephone numbers to your account. We would have been completely satisfied if topping up had worked via the portal. However, this probably only works by credit card, but apparently no German cards are accepted here. At least our Sparkasse credit card didn't work. We can't say at the moment whether it works better with other credit cards. If you have other experiences, please write a comment under this article.

Picture gallery Asilah

Our driving route in this article

With pictures and locations (zoom in and click points).

Watch our journey on Youtube