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Morocco 2014

MarkW

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Aug 20, 2014
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morocco
Hi all

Arrived in Morocco tonight on my 2014 trip just over 48 hours from leaving Portsmouth[emoji2]

Brittany Ferries were their normal stuck up selves. The noticed my new frontrunner rack and charged me another £36. But for a French business how they justify not changing the menu in 4 years is astonishing.

Only other overlanders on the ferry was a group of green ovals. Followed them for half an hour when we arrived in Spain before the dived into a service area...... Probably needed a new engine by then.

Knocked out a good bit of the journey last night covering 550km from docking to finding a hotel for the night.

Today was therefore fairly easy arrived at Carlos the ticket mans at 15:00 got some tickets and the obligatory free cake and wine but this year was as much as last year with two of us [emoji19]

Caught the 5pm ferry over to Tanger Med which was only 15 minutes late leaving. A smooth crossing later I was Morocco and flew through customs. Only downside is the insurance booth was closed so I staying at Hotel dreamland (great name!) just down the road so I can get some cover tomorrow.

Whilst at the ticket place I did have a good look at 2 Spanish 80's and a 90 with a pop tip conversion.

Tomorrows mission after insurance is to get down to Essaouira so I can catch up with some Moroccan friends before heading off road for a couple of weeks

I'll try and update this as I can a maybe even post some pics but you may need to wait until I get home/decent internet
 
Excellent, yes please keep it updated. All useful stuff for those like me who aim to follow the trail down there one day.
 
Might need to edit that first post....tapatalk and my thumbs don't make a good combo

New rebuilt diff is doing ok still paranoid about the slightest noise though. Sat at a steady 70 all the way through Spain so looking good
 
:text-+1: Watching for this one Mark, take it easy and the best of luck :thumbup:
 
Well yesterday was a marathon but killed all the motorway miles and got me a day ahead of my itinerary. A full tank and a half of diesel and 800km

After having to go back to the port for insurance and a mild panic when I saw it was closed it opened at 10. Paid 950Dh for a months cover. The price has been about the same for the last few years. Obviously you can save a bit if your uk insurers will offer a green card. Mine wanted £300 for a month so I told them where to go

My Plan was to get to El Jadida for the night followed by a slow drive down to the coast to Essaouira today. I got to El Jadida at 3pm which was far to early so I pushed on thinking I would either stop at Safi or go all the way.

This year Morocco adopted summer time and the extra hour of light is useful for stretching the day out. I think when I get off road it'll help a lot as well, instead of looking for a camp site at 16:30 I can leave it a bit later.

Finally hit Essaouira at 19:30 with last light. Slight issue was my usual cheap seafront hotel is shut down so I popped into town for a bite to eat and checked in to the Ibis. Think travel lodge in the sun but expensive for Morocco.

This morning I had a quick dive down the coast and my first piste of this year. About 1 km of road a warning light came on[emoji35] fortunately only the timing belt. I had this done 20k ago and have a spare with me. Guess the garage didn't reset the light.

Just checked into another cheaper and nice hotel so will stay today and then head south tomorrow
 
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I hope to get down to Morocco next year but I will only be able to spend a couple of days there. I'm very jealous of you spending a couple of weeks there! Keep the updates coming Mark.
Paul.
 
Back with Wiffy as they say in Morocco so time for a bit of an update

2nd hotel in Essaouira wa much better but moving mant I didn't have as much time to spend in town which was shame. A last minute rejig of my planned route was called for because my original plan bypassed all the local beer merchant. New plan was to head south to Tafroute stopping in Agadir to get beer at the big Marjane.Just as I was leaving the hotel a small portly chap wearing a long coat came panting up to me...."Je suis le Guardian du nuit" he said. Funny I thought I'm sure batman was taller and didn't recall Gotham being in Africa.

So a quick drive down the coast to Agadir and I stopped at the Marjane but this one had no beer so off to another for a case of Flag Special. The on to Tafroute getting there for just before sunset and set up camp at Camping 3Palmiers, few other French overlanders in but they weren't up for much of a chat.

The next day was my first full day off road doing a circular route south and then back to Tafroute for the night. The first route was MA2 (from Morocco Overland) unfortunately this had been graded ready for tarmac. A little disappointing as this used to be a fantastic piste and it felt odd driving off road but with speed limits and road signs. This route eventually joins route MA1 which I took back north and was much better. Running along a river bed through the Anti Atlas the piste moves as it is washed away and rebuilt but I was making good progress. Then in the distance I could see Disco coming south, turned out to be young French coupled and we stopped to exchange details of the conditions. The said the way I was heading was very bad no piste lots of gullies etc to cross and advised against it. I didn't have any trouble as they mentioned, maybe my maps were better. The river bed is very wide and it would be easy to miss the piste completely and drive the whole thing on bolders.
 
Today was time to move on from Tafroute, taking Route MA8 through the Anti Atlas to Igherm and then onto Taliouine. Things were going great until I got about 60km in to the route. This was where I found a group of friendly Moroccans working away to repair the piste, they confirmed there was no way through and the directions the gave didn't seem to match the maps. I did find a new tar road that heading roughly the right way so took that feeling a little cheated that I would miss some piste although I did do the blocked section a couple of years ago.


Route MA8 finishes in Igherm so I had planned my own route from here which turned out to be a fantastic route through little villages etc. I did take a wrong turn but didn't realise for a while. Whilst on one high mountain pistes I met a Audi 4x4 coming the other way with 2 locals in. They stopped had a chat and then invited me back to theirs for some feats they were having for one of the guys son. Where else in the world can you meet total strangers on a dirt track 1600m above sea level and ge invited to a party? Probably should have gone but I still had 100km to do before dark and rain is forecast this weekend.

Now stopped at camp site in Taliuoine with a group of brit overlanders on a tour with Yorkshire 4x4 and competitors on a banger rally. Tomorrow I head south back through the Anti Atlas to Foum Zguid and from there a trek across Lac Iriki to Erg Chegga and Zagora. Rain is forecast so plans may change! :)
 
.... from there a trek across Lac Iriki to Erg Chegga and Zagora. Rain is forecast so plans may change! :)
There has been a lot of flash flooding in the South this summer..... make sure you have your escape route planned.
 
Well 5 days without an update and I finally have wiffy again and its been a real adventure

This is a post I wrote a few days ago but the hotel I was in switched of the wiffy before I clicked submit

Well the last two days have been epic and not exactly to plan. The forecast rain came overnight whilst I was in Taliouine, but the following morning everything was sunny and pleasant so after bidding farewell to the Yorkshire 4x4 Group I set on off on my planned route which was to take me SE through the Anti Atlas to Foum Zguid.

The planned route was 230km which is a monster day off-road, I normally plan tocover bout 150km a day with 8 hours travelling time. 200km is normally a long day so I knew it was going to be a long trek but if I didn't get to Foum Zguid I could wild camp on the way. The Route was one I'd planned to connect to 2 routes from Morocco Overland, SE from Taliouine then picking up MA6 for the monster climb up onto the Issil Plain before climbing back out of the plain down to Foum Zguid on MA7. I'd done MA6 a couple of years ago so knew the route and it as only 50km of repeat but the climb took several hours last time to cover a few KM. I'd planned this repeat visit to get some footage on the gopro.

The first bit of the route was across some high mountain plains before dropping down into a valley and was a fantastic drive the descent had you driving through people’s house at points. I then picked up MA6 repeating a section from 2 years ago. I seem to have forgotten about this section of nasty rough bolder strewn piste before the climb and the recent rains had taken their toll with the track gone and several rivers to pick your way across. It was already getting late and looking like I'd be wild camping somewhere plus the rain had been back on or off all morning although the forecast didn't mention any more. Well at 14:30 I was within 9km of the summit approaching the last river crossing, I could see the tracks exiting the river so knew where I needed to go. Drove round the corner to descend into the river and whilst I could have got in, there was no way through with massive boulders. I had a look for a way through but couldn't see any option. Maybe with a group scouting routes moving rocks etc you could get through but stuck in a mountain river bed with rainstorms on my own was not somewhere I wanted to be.

So I turned round to face the hour retracing my steps back to the tarmac, just then a thunder storm hit. As I thought about it even if I could find a way through facing a long climb in low range with slippery rain covered boulders and a 100m vertical drop would not be good for my nerves. So where to go next, I had a look for alternative pistes but nothing looked promising so it was either tarmac to Foum Zguid and pick up my planned route or backtrack slightly to Tata. From here I could take a piste to connect to my planned route making up some of the lost off-road for the day. I also knew the Yorkshire bunch where heading there so I could catch up with them. Tata it was then, gotback on to the tarmac and a sand storm hit reducing visibility to zero. Firs ttime I've been caught in a bad one and it’s quite alarming how disorientating it can be. Sand either side of the road, sand across the road and sand in the air, you can't see jack!

Got to Tata
refuelled
and headed to the campsite. Sorry it’s all reserved they said! Come back in two hours and maybe. Well this was 6pm and by 8pm I wanted to be fed and have a cold tinny in my hand. Then the let me in, great! got set up and a group of French 4x4's arrived, a very trick hilux which they strapped back together with a ratchet strap, an Isuzu thing and a 70 series with camper conversion. These guys really knew their stuff having travelled through Libya, Algeria and Tunisia previously. Then the Yorkshire lads and lasses turned up. Turns out they had similar difficulties with their route and got turned back after negotiating the 5th landslide, they even got out their winches at one point. Nice bunch to chat too but I felt sorry for the tour leader, this was his recce trip and was having to cope with some difficult customers who buggered off to hotels at every opportunity.

We were having a pleasant chat about over landing, Morocco etc when the campsite staff starting setting up chairs and amplifiers. It turned out the reason the campsite was reserved was that it was hosting a local band playing that night.We were sure that the staff said they'd finish at midnight, what actually happened as the band started at midnight, finishing just before 3am!!!!!!

Next post will be about today’s adventure, a 70 series cabriolet, an army ambush and getting lost in a sand storm
 
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So Sunday was supposed to be a easy day, the sun was out and I had 300km of nice easy Desert to cover from Tata to Mhamid across Lac Iriki and Erg Chegga.

Got up fairly early considered the entertainment the nights before and bid fairwell to the Yokshire gang having informed them of closed pistes as they may have been taken some I had tried early.

My planned route was Ms8 from Morocco Overland skirting south of the N12 Desert Highway close to the Algerian Border, a border that has been closed for a long time. As such there is quite a regular army presence and although you don't see them they know where you are most of the time. The Route skirts around a big army base and as I passed behind the hills I could see the lookouts watching. Not that its difficult to see a landcsruiser in a flat desert with a kilometre of dust billowing out the back. Roughly 110km into the route I encountered something of a Landcruiser Rarity and 70 Series Pickup Cabriolet, well I say cabriolet this version has no roof windscreen or other parts above the waistline. Merrily driving along with the tunes blasting outand this thing came tearing up to me and stopped.

There then followed a very peasant conversations with the two soldiers in languages nonone understood but with much hilarity and sign language it became apparent that they weren't going to let me go any further. I think the rain had damaged the river crossing a few KM ahead but the soldiers sign language could also have included acts of bestiality with camels.

Again I found myself backtracking, this time 40km back to take the tarmac to Foum Zguid and then pick up route MS7 which ties in with MS8 part way along. Showed my papers to the nice soldier at the start and off I went. After about an hour I passed a French 80 towing a really crap trailor and then about a km later I found their suitcases in the track. I stopped trying to decide what to do with the cases but the 80 turned upto collect them.

Lac Iriki was interesting but rougher that I though not like the nice smooth flat lake beds of the Western Sahara. Saw a couple of green ovals going like they were being chased and another unidentified 4x4. Looking at the GPS and consulting the guide book I was heading to 40km of really rough piste, but the sat nav showed a direct route across the lake that I reckoned would cut out most of the rough stuff so off I went.

In the distance I could see the ominous signs of a dust storm approaching. Somewhat sooner than expected dunes staring appearing and more that there should have neen so soon, regardless I carried on. The wind was picking up and with it the dust and sand. Before I knew it I was deep in sandunes with zero visibility. After recklessly ploughing on taking in more dune driving than I've done before, reality kicked in. I was in a desert, in a sand storm, on my own and no one knew exactly where I was. If I got stuck my only hope to get extracted was to dig myself out. Time to find the piste again. In hind sight this was really a situation that could have gone horribly wrong.


Rest of the routie was fairly uneventful and I finally arrived in Zagora about 8pm. NO sooner that I had stopped to get some food that Said from Team Ali Nassir pulled up on his scooter. I've know Said and Ali for a few years since they did my Moroccan lift and some repairs a few years ago. If you've not been to Zagora before it is a certainty that within seconds f driving a 4x4 into town on foreign plates a scooter will show up trying to get your into their garage. I told Said I had no problems but promised to drop in in the morning to see Ali and have some tea.

Well that's it for tonight but I'm still 3 days behind. Next More Soldiers, Dinosaur Kem Kem and being in a Rally.

Oh and discovered a cracking motorsport Rally Roses Du Sables - young/attractive girls (sometimes scantily clad) racing Landcruisers across the desert.
 
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....Oh and discovered a cracking motorsport Rally Roses Du Sables - young/attractive girls (sometimes scantily clad) racing Landcruisers across the desert.
Pitchas or it didn't happen :icon-biggrin:

Sounds like you're having fun down there Mark. It never ceases to amaze me how the Moroccan landscape can change in the blink of an eye almost, and will quickly catch out those not prepared.

Keep it coming :thumbup:
 
Wow, lots of changes in pistes etc since I was there last October
We passed the rally babes on the road, coming from North. Lots of waves as we passed them

Thanks for updatez


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
I know you all want to see pics but with everything I'm just not getting the time or wifi to post any

I got pissed with the rally babes in the desert :D saw them again today on the tarmac looking like they were going home loads or cruisers 60, 70, 80 90 and 95's all racing. Lots more updates to do but I'm too tired tonight to write loads. Had 2 great days on routes I found/made up and now on the way back north :(
 
Great write up Mark, a pleasure to read it as well as the trip, and the photos to come :pray:

:clap::clap::clap:
 
These half naked (made that up) Rally babes in the desert, were they driving these?

DSC_0064.JPG


I hope you are still having fun?
 
No fun anymore just boarded the ferry back to Blighty after the drive back through Spain. The Spanish are a useless nation yesterday's ferry was an hour and a half late leaving and this one should have left 10 minutes ago but they're still loading checking pas parts etc. no wonder their economy is fecked

I'll start getting photos up soon and finishing the trip report
 
HaHa, they are still ok compared to Grimaldi lines Livorno (Italy) - Tanger Med that I use regularly (every year for past four years). Once I experienced a 5 hour delay at embarking and other time the ferry was delayed for 8 hours on arrival. But it also happens from time to time that they manage to keep up with the schedule.

Nice write up and ... more pics, please, please!
 
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