All right lads,
Im driving my van to Morocco in Sept, and looking for a heads up from anyone who has done this trip before. Ive surfed around Hossegor/Bidart, and into Northern Spain, spent a week surfing the Algarve, and Ive been to Morocco a good few times but could always do with more info.
The plan is to take 2 months going thru France, N Spain & Portugal, then take the ferry across and spend 3 months in Morocco in my van. Any info would be appreciated, and specifically:
Any quiet (ie free) places to park up overnight in France/Spain/Portugal.
Any spots en route where people have scored waves?
What paperwork is required to enter Morocco in a van?
Can you just show up or do you need to book a ferry in Spain?
My insurance wont cover driving in Morocco, can I source insurance elsewhere/over there?
Cheers,

can i come please!!!

I think their's an article about a couple doing the same trip in the travel section of surfingireland.net

enjoy it!!

Never did a surf van trip on the continent but myself and the lads drove from paris to pamplona for the bull run, on to barcelona and back to paris and never once paid for camping. We just abandoned wherever looked alright, dont think its the done thing over there though, we used to get lots of snotty looks. We stopped in hossegor and parked in a car park, cops were not impressed and gave us tickets. But nothing has ever happened regarding those tickets.

Ya know yourself seems like ya can park up anywhere in Morocco, just the odd bribe im sure

Read somewhere that they do a pretty detailed inventory of what you have in your van ariving in Morocco and then leaving, so you have to bring everything back with you - that includes broken boards!! Otherwise your slapped with a big duty charge that they can make up on the spot

What happens if ya crash off a van?!

I'm pretty sure camping in non designated areas in France is seriously frowned upon after all those forest fires a few years ago. Even if you dont have a fire going, police can, and will, move you along fairly swiftly.
In Morroco, personally I would get out of the Tangier area pretty fast. You've been there before so you're probably aware of the warning about going too far south into the Western Sahara because of political instability and s... I'd head straight for it if I were you!

Was half planning a trip exactly like this in my head for the last few months, hope it goes well!

Cheers lads,
Heard about the inventory thing before, bit of a balls having to bring back broken boards and the like. Are they as strict in Spain and France about parking up overnight? I remember the gendarmes being real arseholes about it in France.

Its getting pretty strict around Tarazoute now as well, theres a new campsite near Tamri that the cops are telling people to move to, and all the old Germans and French in the campervans are gone from the area around Crocodile rock. I'd say i'll be spending as little time as possible in Tarazoute, its turning into a right shithole and getting seriously crowded.

TCo do you know what the craic is in Western Sahara? Sidi Ifni is as far south as i got last time, but i will be going as far south as i can this time, and if the political situation isnt bad in Western Sahara (Its usually never nearly as bad as is reported....) i might keep going, Senegal is meant to have savage surf, and Mauritania is bound to as well.

I didn’t make it even as far as Sidi Infi, time was against me so I went as far as Mirleft then circled back towards Agadir through the mountains. (Worth checking out if it gets flat for a few days!)
I did intend to go much further south though, and did a bit of research.
History lesson coming up!
Basically it was abandoned by Spain in 1975 and Morocco claimed it as their own. They started moving troops in but trouble came from the local Saharawi tribes (backed by Algeria) who wanted to establish their own democratic republic. Morocco sent even more troops in to crush resistance. The UN managed to broker a cease-fire in 1991 and the Saharawis were promised a referendum to decide between independence and integration with Morocco, but it was never held.

Morocco pretty much own the place now, they developed all the infrastructure, brought in people from northern Morocco to populate the place, etc. But since the referendum was never held it doesn’t "officially" belong to them.
I don’t think theres been any violence for years, the dispute is just taking place in offices. There is still a huge army presence around though. I'm sure you'd be perfectly fine driving through, its not like its a warzone or anything. I'd say you're more likely to come to harm in a surfing or driving accident.

The two biggest towns Laayoune and Dakhala are supposed to be real shit holes, nothing to see, just military garrisons and red light districts..
The whole region is supposed to be fairly uninteresting compared with the Morocco to the north… I suppose it is just stony desert after all…
On the plus side theres no tax cos the government is trying to get people to move there so petrol will be a bit cheaper. The roads are supposed to be fairly savage too.
And of course the promise of unexplored, uncrowded waves…

Oh ya, you need a visa to get into Mauritania, they cost 200 dirham. If you’re driving through Casablanca you can get them in the embassy the same day you apply. The Mauriatnian government insist you use a guide to bring you over the border because of the risk of landmines!

Hope it works out for ya, lucky fecker!

there is no Irish Embassy in Morocco

http://foreignaffairs.gov.ie/home/index.aspx?id=5496

Would you not go to the Mauriatnian embassy for a Mauriatnian visa?

Suppose I should have mentioned that alright... thought it went without saying. We'll put it down to the heavy weekend eh Herbie?

have the flu, drugged up to the eyeballs and am running a 4 man helpdesk here by myself!!