Light in the desert

Deep in an ancient Moroccan ravine after torrential rains, the Range Rover up ahead suddenly drops a wheel off the jagged rocks that form its intended – albeit precarious – path into the swirling brown waters of the flooded Atlas Mountains canyon.

We are the first group through the ancient African gorge since the previous week’s deluge, so the going was always going to be tough, but surging bonnet-high water and large, razor-sharp river rocks had so far failed to halt the progress of this priceless convoy.

By now, however, a $240,000-plus luxury SUV was teetering on two wheels at what looked like at least 45 degrees and with limited time and worried looks on the faces of our seasoned Land Rover guides, there was cause for concern.

But there needn’t have been, because after some brief but terse coaching the inexperienced off-road driver – who shall remain nameless – righted his Rangie in the swollen river and simply drove out of the metre-deep whitewash.

The escape from a predicament that would have stranded most other SUVs was a graphic illustration of the off-road capability of the fourth-generation Range Rover, which Land Rover chose to launch in Morocco this month.

Befitting a model that is no ordinary SUV, this was no ordinary launch. Land Rover tested its original Range Rover in the rugged African kingdom in the late 1960s and has since launched the Freelander and Range Rover Sport there.

But political circumstances prevented the first Rangie being launched to media on the diverse terrain of Morocco, so what was widely regarded as a ‘plum gig’ by automotive scribes worldwide was very much ‘unfinished business’ for the British SUV brand.

Land Rover won’t reveal the cost of fielding up to 300 vehicles, including about 70 new Rangies for more than 1000 journalists to test, and many more support staff in the wild north African nation for more than six weeks.

But insiders admit it will be more cost-effective than six months of advertising, which is why you won’t see any paid promotion of the revolutionary new all-aluminium Rangie until well after first deliveries begin here in February.

And what better way to showcase the class-leading off-road credentials of its 900mm wading depth and a combined 600mm of front/rear wheel travel than in the water and rock of the 5000-metre-high Atlas Mountains to the country's south - or the new automatic mode for its ground-breaking Terrain Response 2 four-wheel drive system than in the steep, soft sand of the beach dunes to the west?

In between, an extended section of broken bitumen backroads undulated through the spectacular Moroccan scenery, and a long gravel-road stint not dissimilar to some Aussie Outback roads wound its way through endless Moroccan valleys dotted by sparse green crops, windmills, cacti, camels, goats and, yes, gum trees.

Although donkeys, scooters and equally well-worn tractors remain the preferred mode of Moroccan transport out of town, French colonial influence remains evident in the battered Peugeot 504s and Renault 19s that dominate its rural landscape and the lavish uniforms of the gendarmerie that carry out regular roadside spot checks.

In fact, Morocco is distinctly more Middle Eastern than African in flavour and the majority of earthy folk in the modest mud-brick villages perched on the hillsides of the Moroccan moonscape speak either Arabic or Berber. Of course, while there’s also a surprisingly large Jewish population, most of Morocco’s 32 million inhabitants are Muslim.

A lengthy highway stage on the thoroughly modern toll road that joins the coastal city of Essaouira in the west to Marrakesh in the centre and then Casablanca 250km to the north saw temperatures soar from the low teens to the high 30s.

It also allowed us to stretch the considerably long legs of the new Rangie, discover the limousine-like quietness of its luxuriously appointed new cabin and revel in the new-found high-speed stability of its well-sorted electric steering system.

Further proof of the claim that the Rangie continues to offer a broader range of capability than any other vehicle came in the heavily eroded Atlas Mountains, which separate the relatively green northern nations of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia from dry central Africa and the Sahara.

Nobody could tell us if we were the first to ever traverse by vehicle that millennia-old chasm that almost caused one Rangie to DNF, but it slowed our 350km passage enough to prevent us seeing the snow-capped Atlas peaks or the hustle of downtown Marrakesh.

No, a day and a half wasn’t enough to get more than a taste of amazing Morocco, but it was enough to prove this is easily the best Rangie ever produced.

Read the full launch review of the Range Rover in Morrocco