Winter temperatures, tire super meltdown 🤪 and Dades Valley

While we sit outside on our pitch in Tinghir, the weather suddenly changes; suddenly a icy wind sweeps across the pitch, it starts raining and gets significantly colder - in May there are usually temperatures around 30 degrees here; we are now at 12 degrees 😳 - absolutely unusual here, as we are assured many times.

In pouring rain, I quickly buy something, on the streets the water collects in huge puddles in no time. We want to do a less traveled off-road tour and drive off-road, where we expect good weather again in the afternoon.

In sleet and 3.5 degrees we drive through a high plateau and landscapes that are reminiscent of Scotland or Ireland 🥶...crazy.

At the roadside, a boy gives us a thumbs up, probably waiting for a shared taxi in just a sweatshirt - we take him with us for 20 kilometers to the next village.

We make a stop at a pass, have something to eat and wait out the rain, and as planned, the sun comes out again.

We continue driving and find a nice spot behind rocks and only a shepherd passes by and greets us. Since the bush telegraph works very well here, we see 3 little boys sitting on some rocks at a distance during dinner outside, just watching...two of them barefoot in these really cool temperatures.

They greet us kindly and signal that they like our car - otherwise they just look at us with big eyes. They answer all my questions in French only with "oui"...unfortunately they don't understand a word.

We still have some bread left from dinner and they gladly take it, we wish them a good night and they go waving.

The next morning a shepherdess comes by with two little children and asks kindly if we have something for her and her children. We still have some children's clothes, shoes, and a warm sweater, and it seems to be really needed here (once again).

We continue driving through a great landscape and take a short break on a plain in the sun.

Suddenly Basti notices a large bulge on the rear tire and we discover another smaller one on the second rear tire (which is still not much used as a former spare tire).

Both on the tread and as we then find out, a carcass fracture - not good at all and you probably shouldn't drive on it any longer (big or small).

But unfortunately we are in the middle of nowhere and the track is barely traveled.

We decide to at least change the tire with the big bulge for our patched spare tire from a few weeks ago - which unfortunately does not hold the air because the hole was obviously too big for the patch and as we later find out, this one also has a carcass fracture.

And yes, the compressor was a worthwhile investment, as often as we use it 😜.

So we patch the hole again (which has to harden for a while) and change back to the bad original condition and hope that the tires will hold up to the next workshop despite the damage....a village comes in about 15km after the off-road track and the next bigger town in 60km.

But today is Friday and according to Google, most workshops close at noon.

So we continue on the track, keep an eye on the tire pressure on the display and after the track we arrive at a mini-village with a workshop - which is locked.

We only stand around briefly; a few children apparently inform the owner directly and he immediately comes with some other men.

They look at the tires and confirm that a repair is impossible and a change is unavoidable and urgent.

They immediately make phone calls, looking for the right tires, because due to the weight of the cabin we need special tires on our heavy-duty rims.

In the city where we left yesterday, Tinghir (60km away), there seems to be a tire dealer or THE only tire dealer who supplies the entire south of Morocco with tires.

They offer to get tires within 2 hours. But since we want to go back to Tinghir anyway and at this point we are not sure if we are being deceived here, we tell them that we want to drive there ourselves.

Our suspicion is completely unnecessary, as it turns out later. They point out to us that the drive is not safe, because the tires can burst, and then they send us the location of the dealer via WhatsApp - they still react very friendly and, as it turns out later, also very caring because they inform the tire dealer that we are coming and then ask us in the evening via WhatsApp if everything worked out.

So we drive at a moderate pace on the asphalt road to Tinghir and I search for a well-rated workshop on Google and find Kamil. In our skepticism, we decide to briefly check out the location that was sent to us and otherwise drive to the workshop I found on the internet.

That's the plan - we're just driving over a bridge into the town of Tinghir when suddenly the left rear tire whistles and loses air so quickly that we just make it over the bridge to a roundabout where the police have a small station and successfully block the complete view of the two policemen sitting there 🙈.

They see our mishap and ask us to at least give them a little more visibility and then watch the spectacle as we - once again - try to put on the spare tire that was patched 3 hours ago - which unfortunately does not hold the air again and now we also see the obvious bulge of the carcass fracture there.

It's 4 km to the workshop and we only have 2 intact, one half intact, and 2 completely broken tires - a very sorry record and so we can't get away from here.

I ask the policemen if they know a workshop that can help us now and one of them takes out Kamil's business card (our Google selection) and calls him immediately. He says: "No problem, someone will be here in 5 minutes."

Kamil arrives within 3 minutes; a reserved, friendly person who actually has the day off and has his little daughter in the car.

He immediately grasps the dilemma and explains to us that he will quickly take one of the tires with him, patch it so that we can drive to the tire dealer (THE tire dealer) with it, and then we can figure out how to proceed there.

He grabs the tire and disappears. The police ask us how we like Morocco and when we say that Moroccans find solutions very quickly and creatively, they confirm this with a laugh.

A suspicious figure on a bicycle passes by twice and says that he knows better who can help us - the police angrily chase him away.

About 20-30 minutes later, Kamil is back - now in his work clothes, without his daughter, and with our patched tire.

Calmly and professionally, he puts it on and asks us to follow him.

The tire holds and we drive behind him through the town, exactly to the location that the Moroccans had sent us...THE tire dealer, who is also a workshop.

We were obviously already announced there and Kamil takes care that we see completely transparently which tires are available and what they cost...only two are even an option and the prices are very high due to the import, but we already knew that.

We decide and since you can only pay cash here, Kamil quickly takes me to the nearest bank and I withdraw money.

Then he drives me back, explains to us that the tires will be put on right away, and that he is now leaving because everything is settled.

We look at him astonished and ask about the price for his support and service and he waves it off - we insist on paying him something and he gives us a more than fair price, which we gladly double. He modestly accepts and says that we have his business card and can contact him anytime if we have a problem with the car.

Our new tires are mounted and we take the best of the three bad tires as a 'emergency/spare tire' and sincerely hope to be done with this issue for this trip (and with any other car issues, of course 🤪)

In addition, we now know which tires will no longer be an option for us in the future; the permanent stress caused by the cabin weight in combination with the different tracks and above all road conditions was and is simply too much for the make and model - at least for the rear axle.

Later I receive a WhatsApp message from the small village workshop, asking if everything went well. I thank them (using Arabic translator) for the great support and receive the reply that it is the duty as Moroccans to do such things and that we are welcome in the country. Incredibly nice and we feel even more guilty about having been so suspicious.

In the end, we were very lucky in terms of location as well and received outstanding support from people who helped selflessly.

Our travel plans for today are of course ruined and we only arrive at the beginning of the Dades Valley at a parking space near a small hotel where we can eat very tasty and have breakfast the next day.

There are other German campers there and we learn about a great hike in the immediate vicinity of the so-called Monkey Fingers, great rock formations that you can walk/climb through. We had not even considered that, it's not even in the travel guide, and would have missed it completely with our original plan.

So we spontaneously decide to stay here and the next day we go on a great hike with various climbing passages (including through a tree to the next level of rocks🙈); during the hike we carry the backpack for nothing, because Mia masters everything brilliantly 💪.

The hotel also offers guided tours through the gorge and gives us good tips for our tour - we park at the recommended place and once again we experience the good connections here, because we are addressed directly there, that Mia left her teddy bear on the terrace of the hotel 🤩.