A mate from Wisharts days dropped in for a visit today, Kenny Oliver. He was with them for over 30 years.
I asked him about the North Africa trips.
He told me that it was mainly Oil Rig work, into Algeria. They also went to Tunisia 
, Libya and Morocco.
They used to double man down to Marseilles, where the second driver would be dropped off off to fly back home.
The load would then go to Langalet (the port for Tunis) by ferry. The freight/passenger ferries were the French ship Liberty or the Tunisian (I think) Habib. These both took 24 hours. They also sometimes used the freighters, which could only accommodate 12 drivers (again, not certain of that number). These took 33 hours to cross. In busy periods, Ramadam for eg, they would put their wagon on the ferry, fly to Tunisia and wait in a hotel for the ferry to arrive, then get a taxi down to the port to collect their wagon. The hotel they used overlooked the approaches to Langalet, so it was quite straightforward.
Then would start the process of Customs clearance. He said the quickest ever for this was 5 days, usually it took around a fortnight. Once it took him 3 weeks n 3 days to clear.
They had to take the paperwork to each department individually, even though several of the departments were in the same building. Each department would then take a couple of days to do whatever they did, before stamping up the paperwork.
They then had to collect the papers, go back to Customs who sent them on to the next department. Many in the building they had just left. You were not allowed to deliver to the next department off your own back though. You had to be directed by the customs officials. Some departments he mentioned were
Ministry of Commerce
Health Ministry
Agriculture Ministry
Once that was all done, they generally sailed back empty, unless there was oil rig gear to bring back.
They usually sailed back to Marseilles or Genoa and back-loaded the usual kind of stuff. Tiles etc.