Sanna writes... 1

I am keeping a daily journal of our 6 months away and thought I would put some excerpts on the blog from time to time, but having looked back at what I’ve written these contributions would essentially be about food (unsurprisingly) and Jonnie heroically repairing our electrics in various different locations. So I’ve decided instead to tell you various anecdotes. The first is about arriving in Morocco without the all important green card:

In Morocco with no Green Card
A green card or ‘carte verte’ is basically a flimsy bit of paper which insures you for driving in Morocco, not so much for your own benefit, I have come to realise, but more because in the (very likely) event that a crazy Moroccan crashes into you all their expenses are covered and you still have to pay to repair your own car. Genius. Anyway, I very efficiently double checked with the man at the RAC and various other sources that I could definitely buy our ‘green card’ at the border – all replies in the affirmative. We decided to cross between Algeciras and Ceuta (instead of Tangiers) because we thought that, with Ceuta being Spanish (in much the same way Gibraltar is English, but with better duty free options), we would be able to hang out in ‘Spain’ if there was a problem. The border with Morocco is 1km down the road from Ceuta and we arrived without incident. We were ‘helped’ by very friendly people who I thought, at first, were either a modern version of the Knights Templar for tourists, or extras on Star Wars the New Generation, but in fact they were just helpful Moroccans wearing brown jellabahs (see photo above). With our passport form (yellow) and car form (green – although crucially not green card which is not actually green at all) filled out we were waved through with no problems whatsoever. I did mention the fact that we had no green card to the border guard, but he didn’t seem particularly bothered so we happily drove off thinking how easy it had all been.

Five minutes down the road, having experienced an alarming glimpse of Moroccan driving we turned back to the border to try and ask more firmly where we might get a green card. Armed with my very official looking file of every conceivable piece of information you might need when driving in Africa I approached the guard (who seemed more concerned that I was walking the wrong way through a border post than the fact I was illegal) and insisted he tell me where the green card cabin was. He replied that the green card cabin was only open at the Ceuta border during summer and that we would have to get it somewhere else (although not so forthcoming on where exactly) otherwise we’d have to go to Tangiers. We continued on the the nearest town Tetouan where we were going to change our Euros into Dhiram anyway and thought we would try to get the card there. After 4 hours and lots of to-ing and fro-ing between extremely kind people from the tourist office and AXA, lots of mint tea and several telephone calls later we found ‘Assurances RANDA’ who were able to issue us with a ‘carte verte’ for Dh 950 (about 90 Euros).

So we are now completely legal and ready to face everything Moroccon driving has to throw at us! (We are certainly the friendliest drivers on the road as Jonnie happily hoots his horn at anyone and everyone and waves out the window with abandon – especially if it’s a landrover!)