Our preparations for heading off on a trip start long before our wheels start rolling, and an extended trip with Morocco in the mix has meant we’ve had to do a little more than normal. As well as the obvious things like what to pack and booking our crossing into Europe, there’s also additional insurances and paperwork that need to be organised.

Vehicle Insurance

The options for covering our motorhome fully comp in the UK are very limited when throwing travel to Morocco in the mix. The two companies that offer this were L.V. and Saga. We opted to go with LV as they were the more competitive of the two. After organising the policy you need to call them to add on the Moroccan green card and when you do this you need to give them the dates or when will be travelling to Morocco (we paid for 4 months cover to give us some flexibility). The cover worked out at £50 per month in addition to the cost of the vehicle policy. Just as a comparison if you pick up 3^rd party cover at the border it works out about £58 a month, so it’s competitive and more importantly it’s fully comprehensive. Sterling insurance also offer a green card for Morocco without having to take your vehicle policy out with them, but it’s eye wateringly expensive! Note that LV will only send the green card by post so you have to either be in the UK to receive it or arrange for it to be sent on.

Home Insurance

There are several companies who will offer policies for extended trips of up to 90 or 120 days, but we found very few that would cover longer. After a painful week of phone calls and form filling, we opted to use Frontier Insurance. As with most insurance companies there are certain stipulations you have to adhere to. Fortunately we have family close by that make regular checks and some very good neighbours who also keep a close eye out.

Travel Insurance

As well as our GHIC cards for Europe we also always take out travel cover. Last year when our trip was 90 days we were able to take out a multi trip policy, but as this trip is longer we had to opt for long stay cover. We have also used L.V. for this as they were the most competitive after hunting around (note we don’t have any affiliation to them, but maybe we should have!).

Data

In Europe we have access to data via our phone packages and a separate data sim. Our phone packages are with ID mobile and although we get 100GB in the UK and cost £10 a month each, this is limited to 30GB each when in the EU. We also have a mifi unit which we use a PAYG data sim in from Superdrug mobile. At home it’s unlimited, but in the EU we can only use 12GB, we pay £20 a month for this. We can pause this anytime we don’t need it, so we will do this when we go into Morocco. All of our packages use the 3 mobile network. Last year we used a Lobster sim in Spain, but we haven’t needed the additional data this time around.

In Morocco though we will be reliant on buying a local sim and using that instead. For this purpose we have a Netgear portable MiFi device which we can just connect our devices to. I will update regarding sim packages once we are there and have one in place.

Mapping

As our Aguri Sat Nav does not cover Morocco instead we have opted to use Maps.me an off line mapping app. We’ve been using this app for a number of years now, however recently they have put limitations on the number of maps and info you can store without paying. You need to download the maps beforehand. We have loaded it onto several devices just in case and as a back up we also have a Michellin Morocco 742 road map, we find a map invaluable for forward planning of destinations. We have also downloaded an offline version of google maps as back up, but it is much more “Clunky” to do.

Guide & Language Books

I don’t know what it is, but although I use a kindle for everyday reading, I still like a physical book when using a guide book.  Although we have been before there is still lots we didn’t see and do so our Lonely Planet guide is packed. As well as a Moroccan Arabic language guide and with their 2nd language being French, I also have my trusty French phrase book. Having studied French at night school for 6 years some 20+ years ago, I’m looking forward to having the opportunity to use my somewhat rusty language skills. If all else fails, we have downloaded both French and Arabic on Google Translate so that we can use this off line.

Camping Apps

We pay for both Search for Sites and Park 4 Night apps both of which can be used in off line mode if necessary. If we see any good recommendations on forums I use the favourite function on the app’s and stick a pin into Google maps to mark the spot so that we don’t forget.

Social Media and routes

As well as this blog we also post info regularly on both our facebook and Instagram pages and also post our route on Polar Steps.

Gas

Like lots of motorhomers we’ve had a refillable gas system installed in Boris, which has proved very convenient when in Europe, for just a few pounds we can fill both bottles at numerous petrol stations. As this isn’t an option in Morocco we will buy a local bottle and use our external BBQ point to back feed our system. We did this when we travelled to Morocco 3 years ago and it worked well.

Cooking

As we have a British motorhome we are lucky to have a full sized cooker with grill, oven and hob (3 gas rings and 1 electric). As at first we thought we wouldn’t have access to gas we invested in a double skillet which would have allowed us much more flexibility when cooking on a single electric ring as it can be used for either layer cooking or as a mini oven. It may be a little surplus to requirement now, but I’ve brought it along for the ride anyway! Our preferred method of cooking though if the weather allows is always outside. With our BBQ point being used there though for feeding our gas, instead we’ve invested in a small Weber charcoal BBQ along with a BBQ charcoal starter which can be used both as a small grill and a device to get the charcoal going .

Store Cupboard

We are not big on bringing lots of food from home with us, after all part of the experience of going to another country is to enjoy the local cuisine. I do always carry spices that I may not be able to get hold off elsewhere and of course with Morocco being a mainly dry country we will be making sure we take plenty of booze with us. We know from experience that chocolate, cheese & bacon are hard to get hold of so I will be sneaking a little bit through the checkout!

Medicines

I’ve always been known for carrying a just in case medical kit with me wherever I’ve travelled and so this time is no exception. As well as the normal paracetamol, ibuprofen and anti histamine, I also carry tablets for both the runs and constipation (well you just never know). Fortunately we don’t have many prescription medicines, but our doctors have allowed us to stock up before leaving. Although we know from experience that often prescription meds can be much cheaper in Spain than back home.

Other important Items

We always carry alcohol hand gel when traveling and use it very frequently to try and avoid tummy bugs. We also carry Milton Tablets which we use for several functions such as Sterilising our water bottles and grey water tank. We stocked up on suncream in the UK as it’s about a 1/3rd of the price of buying it overseas. It may seem strange, but we are also taking an empty egg box! Eggs are sold loose in Morocco!

Items for the locals

When we travel we always like to consider giving back where we can. This may be by simply ensuring we eat and drink out and shop local. We are carrying lots of items of clothing and also some kids toys (all of which will be distributed responsibly as we don’t want to encourage begging). We have also collated our old mobiles and other devices to pass on, these can be used for bartering or payment for services.

Travelling with a pet

This has been the most complicated part of our preparations, so much so that it deserves a separate post to convey what’s involved in detail.

If all goes to plan with our vet health checks and the paperwork from the PIF office at the port we will be catching the ferry on 1^st February. Yippee we are finally returning.

Adventures Await

Andi, Paul & Nutmeg