Sahara Desert to Marrakech driving

I had been driving in Morocco for over 1,000 km and had many experiences which were mostly with friendly and helpful people.

From Casablanca to Rabat to Tangier, the driving was mostly on toll roads, and driving was very fast with occasional stopping for tolls. The roads are very well-maintained.

Driving from Tangier to the Erg chebbi desert, was mostly on national highways which are smaller, sometimes single lane and little bit bumpy.

The return journey was also on same highways and I started early morning at about 7 AM for a 550 km drive to Marakkesh on the slower highways.

On the way over, I was very surprised when I first got stopped by the Royal Gendarmerie police. They asked for my driver license and passport and inspected it, then let me through.

Most of the drive to the first big city called Ouarzazate had desert and mountain vistas.

The roads were empty and there was hardly anybody on it for miles and miles. However, I was closely monitoring my speed because of my experiences getting to the Erg Chebbi desert a few days ago.

After being stopped a few times for just routine checks, the next of my police stops was for speeding. At the time of the stop, there were three vehicles in front of me, and I was surprised that the police asked them to proceed, but asked me stop on the roadside. A very big truck with hay on it (the hay extended far beyond the front of the truck) two vehicles ahead of me was slowing everybody down, and I was driving just a little off the center of the road to see what was slowing everybody when I got stopped.

The two police asked me to come to the police vehicle parked on the side of the road. They asked for a 400 dirham fine for speeding. I was trying to explain to them that for a long time I was behind the three vehicles which were going very slow, so I could not be speeding. They were in no mood to listen, and I handed over the 400 dirhams.

I also gave them my passport and driving license. Of the two police, one was aggressive, and the other was the good cop.

To my surprise, the good cop just suddenly decided to give me back my money, and asked me to leave and drive safe.

The desert road I was traversing had small towns dotting it, and occasionally I would see that minarets of mosques from a distance.

Some of the landscapes in the way had very interesting mountain silhouettes, and I used to stop to take their pictures.

One time I got stopped by a police, the policeman was very good humored, he asked me where I was from and was impressed about San Francisco. But he still insisted on having my driver license, the car registration as well as the passport. He demanded a 150 dirham fine for speeding in a desert road, which had no traffic at all. I was actually surprised to see the police there because it was really in the middle of nowhere.

Unfortunately, I had just had lunch an hour ago and had only 43 dirham with me. The three dirham were in coins and I had two bills of 20 dirham each.

I told him that and gave him what I had. He pocketed the 40 dirham bills and handed me back the three dirham coins, and said I could leave.

I was wondering why for the past several days I was not stopped by the police when traveling over thousand kilometers from Casablanca to Tangier and realized that the speed limit was 120 km consistently on the toll roads.

Moreover, as soon as the toll roads end, there are royal police stationed. On the toll roads, there are no police, and these roads virtually have no traffic. So the police are only stationed on roads with more traffic. On a stretch of 250 km drive from Safi to Casablanca, I barely saw 10 cars. As soon as the city arrived, and the toll road ended, I saw the Royal Gendarmarie.

As I came towards the village of Afra, I could see the beautiful view of the village nestled in the mountains. I was reminded of another police stop I had.

For this police stop, I was about 100 kilometers from Erg Chebbi and had decided to give a ride to two soldiers from the Moroccan army. In general, while driving on the roads of Morocco, you can see many people wanting a ride; they can be students, workers, soldiers, or just people who want to go from point A to point B.

At an intersection, I was stopped by the police and they told me that they had seen me speeding about 21 km away from that location and had a picture of my car doing 68 km/h in a 60 km zone. They wanted 150 dirham which I did not have.

After making me wait for an hour, I could wait no longer because I had to go use the restroom. At that point they told me that there was an ATM machine close by that I could go to get the money and give it to them while they held on to my passport, driver license and car registration.

I did that and came back, got my documents back along with a handwritten official citation, before continuing to the desert

The remaining route to Marakkesh continued to be very diverse with interesting rock formations, hills, and the high Atlas Mountains.

A village named Tarmigt on the Iriri river had a beautiful Medina that I could see right from the highway without even having to slow down to take a picture.

As I came to roundabout in the desert, I was very surprised to see a big sign indicating there could be a movie studio nearby.

Sure, enough, around the bend, I could see the entrance to the CLA Studios.

Nearing to the small town of Zerkten, about a couple of hours from Marakkesh and up in the high Atlas mountain, the scenery became very intense with high rising mountains, and zigzagging roads through the mountain passes.

I stopped at the Vista point which had a very beautiful view of the road ahead. There were also many vendors there selling fossils, geodes and other souvenirs.

Before long, I came to the city of Marakkesh and saw the city walls.

As I came within a few minutes of the hotel, I had realized that in the 10 hour drive, consisting of 550 km, I was not stopped a single time by the police because I was doing a great job using the cruise control settings on the car.

As the map showed 400 m to the hotel, I was at an interesting section where sure enough there were police, and they stopped me. I stopped, realizing that my good luck had come to an end. However, after I stopped, they let me continue through and instead motioned to the car behind me to stop.

I was successful in avoiding any traffic infractions in this daylong trip. Marakkesh was full of activity and hundreds of people on the street, beautiful art and buildings.

The Kutubiyya mosque was prominently visible.

The Medina had sooks with plenty of tourists walking around, looking for the good deals.

The Jema Al-fnaa square had many local performances and fruit juice vendors.

Marakkesh is quite different from the desert and both places have a lot to offer to the tourist. I was glad to do the trip from end of Morocco to the other safely.