Where to store ten motorhomes ...

25.01.23 Meknes - Khenifra: 19:30. We stand. Finally. We have already stood today multiple times, but we always had to continue. Sometimes the place was closed, sometimes it was too small, and sometimes it was too dangerous, too uncertain. We received an official warning ...

It was around 5pm. We were at a rest area just outside of Khenifra. Ricci knew the place because he had stayed here on his first visit to Morocco. We were all relieved because the leg of the journey was difficult, dragged on, also because of the sometimes catastrophic road conditions. Communication was not possible because the three men only spoke Arabic. One of the men handed Udo his phone. It was a man on the line who spoke German. Udo immediately signaled that he was not the responsible person of the travel group and handed the phone to Ricci. In the conversation, the man made it clear that he was a municipal employee and that we could not stay here because it was dangerous. We were not safe here. He advised us to go to the parking lot at the police station. Ten motorhomes would not be a problem. One of the three men offered to take us to the police station in his car.

Well ... How safe was that? Could it be a trick to lure us into an ambush? We did not know the caller and we did not know the man who was supposed to guide us. We decided to take the risk and trust the man. I googled the police station in Khenifra and traced our route. The man did not look like a crook. In addition, he had obtained the 400 dirhams (40 euros) parking fee that we had already paid from the parking lot operator and returned it to us without any problems. But still: he could have taken us somewhere else.

We were all completely unsettled. Time was running out slowly. With ten motorhomes in the dark through a big city - that was anything but child's play. But we made it. We breathed a sigh of relief when we arrived at the police station. An officer - apparently informed about our arrival on the phone - showed us the parking lot - there was no way ten motorhomes could fit there! The first four were parked, two more could have squeezed in somehow, but never the remaining four. As always, the motto was: all or none!

We laboriously moved back onto the road. In the meantime, Irmi asked the surrounding policemen with hands and feet where we could safely park. One of the officers mumbled: "Carrefour." A big supermarket. "We passed it," Ricci shouted. "I know the way."

Since I was at the front of the line, I had to take the lead. However, I had no idea where this Carrefour was located. Luckily, Angelika was behind me, who had also spotted the supermarket on our way here, and directed me in the right direction via radio. Since the large parking lot was quite full, we had to improvise for now. We stood haphazardly - but we stood! And no one would take us away from here today!