Motoring In Morocco

The Nissan LCVs took the challenge of the tough Moroccan desert, not only validating their reputation for strength but revealing a few surprises as well, writes James Deakin

- James Deakin

You want me to do what?” I asked the Nissan #GoAnywhere experience instructor in disbelief, half expecting the crew from a local YouTube prank channel to come out from behind the shrubbery laughing their turbaned heads off. “Follow the Armada down this 4-story vertical drop, [he called it a sand dune, but I digress], then drive through the river bed to the lunch destination,” he repeated, with all the seriousness of Tony Robbins doing an intervention in one of his motivational conventions.

“This is probably where they got the word sandwich from,” I said, staring down the windscreen into a sea of sand, hoping for some sobriety to prevail. “You’ll be fine,” he assured me. “Just keep your momentum up. Not too fast, though.”

They could have picked a quaint country hotel in England or rented a mediaeval castle in Scotland to test-drive Nissan’s line-up of light commercial vehicles (LCVs) and had us sipping expensive champagne while listening to a string quartet from Austria. But no. Instead, there I was, barrelling through a flowing riverbed deep in the mountainous regions of Morocco and climbing up sand dunes the size of Megamall, feeling like a modern-day Moses, and praying to hear the Almighty say in His booming voice, “Thou shall not get stuck!”