Ferry Crossing to Morocco
We bought ferry tickets a couple of days ago from the famous Carlos and now we’re boarding! This ferry crossing to Morocco is a new experience for us and so far it’s been an interesting learning curve.
My last blog came to an end as we were driving onto the ferry one Spring morning in late March 2024. So, let’s carry on where I left off, boarding the ALM ferry crossing to Morocco.
We’re on board – Ferry Crossing to Morocco
The lanes on board are narrow, but it’s fine as nothing is next to us at the moment. We gather our passports for immigration, our V5 document and anything else we think may be relevant.
After jumping out, we stop and take a few pics of the campervan before leaving it below deck. This is mainly incase of any damage on our return, after an incident with our touring caravan back in the 90’s on a cross-channel ferry. Live and learn we say!
We give one final glance back from the empty lanes beside us, little do we know, these will be full to bursting when we’re next down here.
Something from the 80’s
There’s a black knob to press below deck which slides a heavy metal door open leading to passenger stairs. Up the stairs we come and end up right outside the passport and immigration desk. Here the blinds on office windows are down and lanes for queuing empty. We take a quick look to check the office which is definitely not open, but here’s our first mistake!
We know we have to go to the immigration desk on board but really don’t know much else at this point. Instead of hanging around, we look for toilets.
Eventually, we find some open, which are old, smelly and not particularly the cleanest. Not all cubicles are open and toilet paper is sparse, but I quickly use the facilities and re-join Nigel in the corridor.
Billowing funnels and black soot
The ferry is old, like stepping back in time, reminding us of high school trips in the 80’s crossing the Channel. Remembering when things were dirty, noisy and creaky, this takes us back to those carefree days.
Venturing out on deck, sprinklings of black soot fall, rising from funnels above. It’s really chilly today, rain clouds are hovering and the outlook across the 20 miles or so of sea to Morocco looks bleak.
Quickly back inside for a bit of warmth and cleaner air, we notice a plaque which gives the date of the ship – 1980, Denmark.
The Immigration Queue
Remember what I said about the immigration office earlier? Well, now the office is open and the queue is huge! If only we’d hung around at the beginning when there wasn’t a sole in sight.
People in the queue have white immigration paper slips, but we can’t see any blank ones to fill in. I ask a young lady in the queue who luckily speaks a bit of English and tells us to go to the cafe.
Nigel waits in the back of the queue and I venture into the adjoining cafe area. Here on the counter next to the coffee machines are a pile of photocopied white slips of paper. These are the immigration forms.
I sit down and fill out one for each of us, re-joining Nigel in the queue afterwards. We then wait in line for about another 20 minutes until our turn comes up.
Immigration Officer
We hand our white paper slips to the immigration officer at the window of the office. He checks over our completed forms, which are pretty basic but there’s a couple of things we’re not sure of.
For instance, there’s one question asking something along the lines of the address we’ll be staying or accommodation details or similar. Sorry, but I can’t recall exactly. I point this out to the immigration officer, saying we’re travelling in a campervan and will be touring across Morocco.
He then says that’s fine and writes something in the blank space for us. I’m not sure what he put!
I did make an error on the form, I think it was to do with the date but again, can’t recall the exact question. I’d misunderstood the question and put the current date, when it should have been a date on the passport or something. Sorry for the vagueness, but I’m going off poor memory because I forget to take a photo!
After another quick check, we’re able to move on for a long cup of coffee.
A bit of a shock with Insurance
We order a couple of cups of coffee and take a seat by the window. Many people are sleeping on floors, wedged between tables and seating. It’s quite extraordinary how deeply they sleep in what appear to be such uncomfortable places.
It’s then over our coffee that we get a bit of a shock. I get out our papers ready for immigration and customs at the port in Tanger Med.
Going through what we may need, such as the V5 document, passports again and our vehicle insurance Green Card. As I read over the actual Green Card (no longer green by the way) from LV, Nigel suddenly realises LV have made a mistake.
Our hearts sink, because this is our fully comprehensive insurance for us driving in Morocco. Although we read through it when it arrived in the post at home, the details on the letter with it is correct, but the actual document has an error which we’ve failed to spot until now.
The error is on the actual Green Card which isn’t showing the X removed in the box for MA. This means our insurance driving in Morocco isn’t showing. MA is of course the country code for Morocco and on the Green Card, there’s a long country list with a boxes showing an X. When the X box is blank, then it shows green card applies to this country.
Phoning our Insurance quickly
By now, we’ve been sailing for some time and know our phone calls and data will cost a fortune when reaching Morocco. Nonetheless, I try using my mobile to call LV and fortunately, we’re still picking up Spanish signals.
Luckily, I’ve got all the phone numbers for LV to hand, so don’t have to search too far. Once bitten, twice shy after last years accident in Croatia where the phone numbers for LV didn’t work from abroad.
We don’t have to wait in a phone queue, it’s quite simple to reach a real person and the guy on the other end admits the error. He speaks to a colleague and tells us they’ll e-mail over a replacement within 30 minutes.
At this point, we don’t know if we’ll need a printed off version for immigration and customs at the port. After quickly explaining the predicament and the fact we may or may not have to buy 3rd party insurance at the border, LV advise us to keep receipts for which they’ll reimburse us.
Thankfully, my phone signal remains, another 10 minutes later and it disappears as we approach the coast of Morocco.
The moral of the story, check, check again and do this before leaving home!
Arriving at Tanger Med – Ferry Crossing to Morocco
The weather’s too chilly and windy to be out on deck, but we don’t feel any swaying on board the ferry.
No sooner have we come off the phone to LV and we’re docking at Tanger Med. We turn data roaming off on our phones to avoid heavy charges. From now on we’ll be relying on top up data sims from Maroc Telecom which I’ll come to shortly.
We walk down to the vehicle deck, only to find it full of HGV’s with no sign of our little campervan behind the masses. The lorries are bumper to bumper, so tightly knitted together, it feels claustrophobic. There’s barely enough space to find our way but somehow, we squeeze through sideways until we see our Sprinter van.
There’s not enough space to open the passenger door. Luckily though, our parking space is on the end next to the ship wall, so we’re able to open the driver door enough to squeeze inside.
The ferry doors open and before we know it, we’re driving off into the port. That’s it, our ferry crossing to Morocco is over!
Vehicle Scanner – Ferry crossing to Morocco
We drive along exit roads along the port, with little in the way of stopping for some time yet.
Then we approach a row of immigration booths, but drive away from these to a waiting area. There’s numerous other vehicles waiting too, very old cars and small lorries, stacked high with goods. Top heavy is an understatement.
There’s a vehicle scanner here, which is a big machine on a lorry. We have to wait some time for our turn and when it comes we need to give our V5 document to officials and get out of the campervan.
We stand aside while the camper has a scan. We’re waiting with other occupants and return to the camper after about 5 minutes.
Now we continue driving to the next stop point.
Immigration and customs
It’s here where immigration officials, some with sniffer dogs check each vehicle. Vans, cars and everything in between are getting ready to have their goods checked.
These come off the vehicles and scatter the tarmac, no matter how high the roof stack. It’s quite a scene, with goods all over the parking area of customs and immigration.
An official comes over and asks for our V5 document and passports. He takes these as we hope to see them again very soon!
Another official comes over with a sniffer dogs, asks for the doors to be open and checks the rear, cab and inside of the campervan. He asks if we have anything to declare, to which we say ‘no’. He then asks if we have a drone, which we don’t.
It’s illegal to take a drone into Morocco, so apparently you can leave one locked away here somehow and collect it on the return.
We don’t hide the beer or wine that’s in the back of the camper, although we don’t have too much of it.
After about 15 minutes, the official returns with our passports, V5 and a tiny white slip of printed paper. He tells us it’s very important to keep this safe and we’re free to go. We keep this slip with us at all times throughout our trip!
One last stop and we’re off
There’s just one last stop ahead, at another lane and booth. This time, the official asks to see the tiny white slip of paper. Just as he asks, a gust of wind blows off his hat! Now his priority changes from us to his hat, so he waves us on saying it doesn’t matter!
It’s probably taken us a couple of hours to get through all the immigration checks and customs at Tanger Med. Now we’re off, ready to explore Morocco and the big adventure awaiting us for the next few weeks.
Insurance and SIM cards
After all the immigration and custom checks, is a car park with offices. There’s a sign saying it’s where you can buy insurance and phone SIM cards.
We haven’t been asked to show proof of vehicle insurance at all. I need to check if LV have sent over the e-mail with our Green Card, so quickly connect a Maroc Telecom 7GB SIM card into our mi-fi device and try to connect to the internet. We bought this SIM card from Carlos when buying the ferry tickets, just enough to get us going here. It cost us €10.
Thank goodness, the internet on the mi-fi kicks in straight away and I can check e-mails. There’s our Green Card from LV as promised, so we don’t need to stop and buy 3rd party insurance. We’ll print this off at the first campsite later. I transfer the document to iBooks on the iPad while I can, so at least we have a bigger screen to show it on if we get stopped en-route.
Because we already have a Maroc Telecom SIM card, we don’t stop at one of the sellers frantically waving at us from the side of the road.
There are unlimited data SIMS but we’re told people have then had difficulty stopping payments afterwards. With this in mind we only use the top up data sim, apparently Maroc Telecom is easy and has good coverage. After our time in Morocco, I agree with this!
Now it’s time to exit the Port at Tanger Med and begin the adventure across Morocco, heading to our first stop, the blue city of Chefchaouen.