We embarked on a ‘stock’ Hyundai Tucson on a trip to the desert with the aim of learning a different culture, enjoying 4×4 and taking school help to the villages of southern Morocco
Children’s desert. That said, it requires an explanation, and this is very simple, although it is not short. Almost all adventurers who take their car out to enjoy 4×4 driving, the tracks and dunes in the south of Morocco usually bring some help for the hundreds of children who appear on the road in search of their ‘gift’ gift –: clothes , slippers, toys… But the organizers of one of these routes, Nacho Salvador, Ana Martínez and their fantastic team –Luis, Javier, Vicente, Mamen, etc.– thought that giving things without rhyme or reason is not the best way is to help. On the contrary, many children don’t go to school to ask for presents on the way, so they had two brilliant ideas.
The first is that those who travel to the south of Morocco with their ATVs can do so with children without being boring for them. Customize the trip so that the little ones have fun, get to know movie sites and enjoy the adventure, as well as monitor the hotel times when the little ones still have some time. The second idea is to provide as much assistance as possible to those who need it, so the organization became the ‘Children’s Desert Association’ to coordinate, in conjunction with local entities, the arrival of aid in southern Morocco. As a result, schools, nurseries and social centers have been built with financial contributions in recent years, and school supplies, games and school supplies have been brought in with a clear focus on the little ones and their education. Little by little, wheelchairs or crutches have been added, wells have been built and solar panels have been installed with only one goal: to enable families to settle in and children to go to school. The union of both ideas leads to the ‘Children’s Desert’.
One of the major supporters of this association is Hyundai Spain, which annually participates with an average of fifteen cars and participates in humanitarian work involving its dealer network. Both journalists travel in these registered cars, which will thoroughly test the qualities of the cars of the brand in unusual places, such as, for example, the volunteers of the Alain Afflelou Optics Foundation, who in this edition make more than 700 revisions of sight and then glasses. strength to those who need them. In our case we have one of the new Hyundai Tucson hybrid 4×4, a model with two engines, petrol and electric, which together provide 230 CV, with automatic gearbox and four-wheel drive. We depart from Valencia to Tarifa, more than 800 kilometers through the interior of the peninsula to avoid the summer traffic on the coast. After sleeping in Seville, we arrive at the port of the city of Cadiz, where we meet the rest of the entourage, composed of colleagues in the information work, the general manager of Hyundai, Polo Satrústegui and the press officer of the brand, Santiago de la Rocha. Several people travel with their own 4×4 or with those rented from the company Bujarkay, an employee of the association, although they are less than in other years because they make the trip in August instead of Easter, when the border between the two countries Closed.
From Tarifa, the strait can be crossed in an instant – there are few shorter sea voyages and fewer connections between two continents – and the adventure begins in Morocco. Tangier is a very modern city, with all the advancements of the western world mixed with Moroccan culture, but we hardly ever visited. After sleeping in one of the many hotels, we headed south with the aim of crossing the Atlas Mountains, which exhibit a totally different idiosyncrasy to the north, crossing areas that even have ski slopes in winter, all along beautiful roads they take us to cross the palm grove of the Ziz River, a river that does not flow into the sea but instead becomes a lake, leaving a large irrigation area in its way.
After crossing the Atlas, we arrive at Erfoud, Merzouga and the Erg Chebbi dunes, where Berber merchants mingle with visits from nomadic herders. ‘People of the desert’ slowly catching up with the West.
There we begin the most authentic part of our adventure. With temperatures between 40 and 50 degrees, our Hyundai can withstand a marathon march that combines tracks and off-road routes in the morning with visits to educational and social centers where school, social and medical aid is distributed. Ouzina, Karkimia, Derkaoua or Hannabou are some of the places where we set up goals and swings, deliver clothes, toys and school supplies, open wells or deliver bicycles so that children, and especially girls, can travel the miles that separate their nomadic homes from schools.
At any point, the children of the trip are playing soccer or rope with those from there, while the elders learn about the life of the people who were born there and a union is born that goes beyond a holiday trip. Many people need to learn addition or subtraction, know the alphabet or, as the girls at the Alain Afflelou Foundation confirmed, in order to see and feel more useful to those around them. In addition to the solidarity deliveries, we visited places such as the place where ‘the Mummy’ was filmed, with Brendan Fraser, or ‘Sahara’, with Penélope Cruz and Matthew McConaughey, the Rissani market, the Taliflat springs, we bought fossils, spices, fruits with a fantastic taste and craftsmanship that can hardly be found anywhere in the world.
Our Hyundai unabashedly undergoes a much harsher treatment than this SUV expected it to undergo when it left the dealership, especially the climate control. Like the rest of the entourage, consisting of Tucson, Santa Fe and Staria with all kinds of engines, petrol, diesel, hybrids or plug-in hybrids, there were no reliability problems during the long journey and there were sections where the demand It goes way beyond what we ask from a ‘stock’ car.
After five days in the south of Morocco, we start our return with two long days on the road, perfect to test the comfort, quality and silence of the car and… we don’t want to get out. It has behaved superbly, consumption is low for a petrol model and circulates on all types of roads – 7.6 liters on average in our 3,500 kilometers – it has a large trunk, great comfort, plenty of space and a design that will fall in love It amazes We don’t know that the Tucson will be the best-selling car in Spain in 2022. This is one of those trips that changes your perspective and, moreover, captivates you, we are already thinking about future editions.
Several companies took part in this journey that wanted to partner with the Children’s Desert through the EXTRAMOTOR team, these are the Valencia Automobile Fair, Marcos Automoción, Bass Motor Detailing, the sustainable clothing brand Clotsy, the Gasari car enthusiasts club and the corporate design agency Molca World. The contributions of all will go in full so that the Children’s Desert continues to bring education, illusion and future to those who need it most. The association is open to associations and participants of the trip through the website eldesiertodelosniños.com
The general manager of Hyundai Spain went to the ‘Children’s Desert’ for the first time, a good time to know his impressions of this trip. “The humanitarian and social action being carried out here seems frankly extraordinary to me, and I am proud that our brand participates in it every year. The desert also serves us to test our cars. We know Tucson and Santa Fe are extraordinary generation after generation, but now we’ve tested the hybrids here and the Staria minivan, which surprises by overcoming and overcoming the same obstacles as the rest of the range.
As for the Spanish market, Satrústegui is very satisfied «we are the second best-selling brand in 2022 and we have the best-selling model in Spain in the Tucson. This is achieved with a wide range of products, a clear commitment to electrification and highly successful models. I believe that Hyundai has managed the microchip crisis better than other brands, but leadership is only possible when there is demand, and this only comes with a competitive product, a solid image and a good commercial network, with which we can cope with the straight end of the year with optimism.
The foundation of the well-known chain of French opticians, present in Spain for several years, regularly participates in the latest editions of ‘El Desierto’, six volunteers travel there with equipment to be able to carry out free eye examinations for the inhabitants of the areas that furthest from the local public health system. Every year a volunteer repeats the edition and five new faces join, and this year the ‘expert’ is Blanca Fernández «on each of the points we install our equipment and start the revisions, helped by local employees of the association who They’re putting names and surnames on every file of the people whose sight we’re checking.
The heat has been very hard this year, yet we passed the 700 diplomas, although some days we went without food to continue to serve people waiting their turn at a temperature of more than 45 degrees ». The glasses will be manufactured in the coming weeks and sent to southern Morocco as humanitarian aid.
Source: La Verdad
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
