Morocco October 2015

[Chris]

The bolt isn't actually missing you know. I have a Frog's rear bumper and there isn't anywhere to put a bolt once you've removed the OEM original.

 

[StarCruiser]

Dummy bolt fitted with silicone or a nut/clip on the back…?

Too fussy maybe?

 

[Chris]

Yep....

 

[Chris]

And here's a nice clip of Gary in the sand. Best watched with sound full up!

Nice looking 80 there dude.

 

[Gary Stockton]

Cool I wondered how that would turn out!

 

[StarCruiser]

Do I detect the burble of a 3" side exit exhaust in the mix?

Nice vid BTW.

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

Nice video, not a bad looking 80 that

 

[Chris]

Nope. It's a 2.25" side exit burble. Close though.

It's made up from the bits I cut away from the over axle section welded together and shoved out the side. Had to move it as it melted my side steps on the way down to Portsmouth.

 

[MarkW]

So time for my photos and a little tale from the trip....................

Day 1 Rendezvous at Portsmouth Tesco, all went smoothly, Chris and Gary went to a random Tesco but were waiting in the right place with Pete when I arrived. Then it was off for the ferry, we just pulled over and Byron drove up. Security was a bit tighter getting onto the ferry and a couple of us got a cursory search. Nice smooth crossing for the rest of the sailing.

Day 2 Arrived in Santander on time, said hello to Pete Girling, who was collecting his Portugal trip from the same ferry, and had a look at the new Atlas Overland 70. Then it was off into the Spanish night. Petes lack of turbo assistance meant the mountains were a bit of a challenge but I could hear his exhaust through the tunnels a long way in front so knew his wasn't too far behind. We stopped for the night at a truck stop just south of Salamanca.

Day 3 We got off to an early start aiming to meet George and Mussy at Algerciras. Whilst enjoying a coffee north of Seville I got a call from Mussy, they were 250km from rendez vous point but had gear box problems. Our resident LC expert, Chris, provided some advice over the phone after a quick chat with a Portugeus LC owner heading home from Morocco we hit the road again. The UK convoy arrived at Lidl, Algerciras as expected and the rest were waiting. The group drew a few crowds before we headed to Carlos' to collect our ferry tickets. As normal we all got a bottle of booze and a cake with our tickets

After a slight hiccup when I qued for the wrong ferry we had a lovely sunset cruise across the straights and into Africa. Customs went reasonably well, not the worst or the best I've had. As normal the Insurance booth was closed so we headed to Fnideq and the luxurious Hotel Dreamland for the night.

Lidl Carpark
IMG_0284 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

Queing for the Ferry
IMG_0285 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

George Relaxing
IMG_0288 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

Stickers looking Cool
IMG_0287 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

Nighttime cruisers
IMG_0291 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

 

[froggy Steve]

more of the same please !

 

[MarkW]

Day 4 Back to the port first thing to pick up insurance and then it was off into Morocco heading south as fast as we could. Todays destination - El Jaidida to meet with the Irish lads. Fairly smooth day, lot of miles covered but we arrived at the campsite as planned to find Gary and Ray had secured a good spot. Most set about cooking bt George and I wandered into town to find a bank and a café. The day finished off we a crowd of us enjoying the locals bar in the middle of the campsite

Day 5 Much more leisurely day along the coast, but our first dramas arose. Just leaving town and my truck starting making a hideous clanking noise. Nothing apparent on inspection we carried on. No noise then it would start, I'd stop to check etc. Eventually traced to a crack in the plastic transmission guard flapping against the chassis, Chris came to the rescue with a piece of foam which stopped it when wedged in place

a little while later we got a shout on the radio, Gary had a puncture. Again Chris dove in a swapped the wheel over. Turned out that the left rear damper had come unbolted and rubbed a hole in the tyre .

All this had put us a little behind schedule so lunch was at Oulida rather than Safi as planned. Half went to a café while the other half found a lovely spot next to the lagoon for a bite to eat. By the time we found them Byron had a G&T on the go and it looked like they had settled in for the day. After prising them out of the spot we headed off for Essaouira.


Day 6 was a nice relaxing day in Essaouira finished off with a great meal overlooking the ramparts and the Atlantic


Service Station Stop
IMG_0299 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

Beech North of Essaouira
IMG_0309 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

 

[GeorgeG]

 

[MarkW]

Day 7 - After a nice day relaxing in Essaouira we continued on our Journey south with the aim of a night at Fort Bou Jerif. Following a delayed departure we headed for Agadir and a stop at a Hypermarket for supplies and lunch in the carpark.

A few km south of Agadir we heading down to the coast to pick up our first real off road through the Sous Massa National Park. Turned out to be a great coastline piste winding its way along the cliffs with a few soft sandy sections. One of these caught GaryS in a little daydream and he became the first trip member to get stuck. After a few minutes discussing whether Gary was stuck or just taking photos, Byron decided to go back and help, closely followed by Mussy and me.

IsleofMan
P1090004 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

Garfieldus
P1090006 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

P1090009 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

GaryS Recovery
P1090015 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

Byron to the rescue
P1090016 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

P1090019 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

Snaaaaaaaaatch
P1090022 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

The next obstacle was a sandy bombhole. I preffered the very obvious detour around but the gungho went straight throught. I took the easier diversion but hit a bump under the sand which sent me off track getting my stuck for the first time ever. Straight on the radio for some help not realising the rest of the group had driven on and didn't know where I was Mussy was quick to head back after coords were exchanged. But in the meantime I had a look at the situation, rolled down hill a little engaged diff lock and sailed up.

By now it was looking like Fort Boujerif was too far to reach, so we camped at Aglou Plage in quite a nice campsite. The fantastic George was kind enough to cook dinner for the both of us. All in although we didn't get as far as planned the route was cracking

View from the campsite
IMG_0313 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

 

[clivehorridge]

Nice little vids guys, much appreciate the postings!

Spotted both the the missing mudflap bolt and the floating breather pipe Chris, but I'm a bit late catching up on these.

I haven't experimented with under-truck shots yet, might give it a go after seeing yours.

I'm putting the overtake down to the other 80's wheels rotating backwards...

Thanks for the postings Mark, and the write-ups

 

[MarkW]

Day 8 - Todays mission, visit Legzira arches, stop at Sidi Ifni for supplies and the Plage Blanche. So we set off on our mission, heading for the POI for the arches. Arriving at the beach and small village at the end of the tarmac we parked up and walked down to the beach to see the arches. From here they were actually quite a way along the beach and the tide was high so driving along would have put us in soft sand.

P1090025 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

After a quick look on the gps there were 3 POI's for the arches so we decided to head on to the next one a see if access was any better. The route actually put us on the clff right over the top of the arches with a scramble down a footpath to the beach.

P1090027 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

P1090030 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

P1090036 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

Time was getting on a bit and I was a little nervous that we'd miss the tide and being able to drive on the beach (something of a highlight for a few on the trip). A quick fuel/coffee stop in Sidi Ifni and we knocked out the, hopefully, last section of tar for the next 1.5 days. Lunch stop for the day was Fort Bou Jerif for a picnic and some photos

P1090042 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

P1090046 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

Gary & Chris took advantage of the forts inspection pit
P1090050 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

 

[MarkW]

Day 8 continued........................

As we were running behind schedule I decided to head straight from the Fort to Plage Blanche rather than take the planned coastal route which I'd really wanted to explore. Arriving at the beach and initial impression were not good, the tide looked far to high to be safe for the next 50km. The beach is backed by high, soft sand dune with no escape routes other than the entry and exit points at 2 rivers.

Mussy and I dove down onto the beach to confirm. Comparing the tide to my last trip down the beach didn't inspire confidence so we thought we'd take the planned detoure. However on the way back to the main group I stopped and spoke with a local fisherman who said the beach was ok and the tide dropping. We were on! time to hit the beach.

The tide was much further in than when I drove last time which pushed us up into softer sand and it was very hard going. My lightweight 95 was having a tough time and the more obese 80's were really struggling. After 10km we stopped to discuss options. Mussy was concerned that his already problematic gearbox would suffer more serious damage and as a group the decision was to head back the way we came. George decided to disappear into the sea spray in the opposite direction and with no cb communication with George we lost him, txts and phone calls were made by with no signal we couldn't communicate to let him know we wear heading back.

An hour later we were back where we started, still no sign of George so we headed off on my detour route. A few km from the beach we had a nice river crossing providing a nice photo opportunity
P1090058 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

P1090059 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

P1090060 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

The detour was a reasonable dive but nothing exciting, but we still had no comms from George an I was getting worried if he'd made in to the end of the beach or was stuck somewhere!. We pressed on and after donating a litre of engine oil to a stricken local Land Rover we got to the river valley that provides the exit and found a spot for our first nights wild camp

P1090074 Panorama 1 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

P1090080 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

Then we got news from George he'd cleared the beach rescued stuck land rovers and made it all the way to Tan Tan safely! Then he announced he'd come back to find us over 50km away in the dark. Couple of hours later and we could see headlights in the distance and not long later the group was reunited

 

[MarkW]

Day 9 - Whilst packing up camp Byron realised that he'd mislaid his paperwork somewhere. Whilst this wasn't going to effect the trip getting back out through customs would be a real headache with out the paperwork for his 80. Taking this into account and the fact that we were a little behind schedule with the planned route it was decided to drop back onto Tarmac asap and take the main road into Tan Tan.

After negiotiating the police chackpoints on the way into town we refuelled grabbed some supplies. Phone contact was made with the campsite at Aglou Plage, the last place we could remember Byron having his paperwork, but they hadn't found it there. Byron decided to head back to the camp site to double check and we agreed to meet at lunch time the following day in Assa.

As Byron headed back north the rest of the group headed South East to begin our long stretch following the River Draa East across the desert. As we entered Tilemzoun, othe last village before we got offroad again, we had another police check before we got on our way.

The next day and a bot was a new route for me, and although it was only 10-15km north of a route I'd done with Waypoint-Tours, it was on the other side of a long mountain ridge. Leaving Tilemzoun we ascended over a small ridge before descending into the Draa valley itself.

We encountered a few nomads along the way and a huge camel herd. Negotiating the large herd was a little slow going, but the herders were a good laugh and it was quite a sight. The tail end of the group had a chatwith some nomads with tyre problems on an old Land Rover Santana.

Accomodation for the night was a beautiful wild camp under some Acacia Trees. Mussys gang got a fire going and soon the alcohol was flowing. GaryS found a whopper of a scorpion next to his truck.

Mobile signal was poor so we hadn't heard how Byron had got on with his quest.

Lunch Stop
P1090082 Panorama 1 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

Descent into the Draa Valley
P1090090 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

Camels.................thousands of em sir!
P1090104 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

P1090106 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

Wildcamp 2
P1090119 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

P1090122 Panorama 1 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

Oh, and I had my first official getting stuck whilst looking for a nice spot to camp requiring Georges assistance to get out

 

[clivehorridge]

Wonderful photos Mark, I'm on the edge of my seat now, awaiting the next episode ....

 

[MarkW]

Day 10 dawned with some heavy cloud and a look of rain to the West, no fear we're heading east

P1090135 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

With no phone signal we still had no idea how Byrons quest for his missing paperwork was proceeding. We were heading for Assa so had arranged to meet Byron there late morning or so.

The Draa valley proved to be a nice little route, good mix of dry flat lake areas, little tricky bit were rain water had carved gullies into the ground as it raced towards the atlantic. We had a few technical sections an the odd detour where the piste route varied from the sat nav

P1090142 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

P1090145 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

P1090159 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

Coffee Break at some Nomads Graves
P1090162 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

P1090165 Panorama 1 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

P1090175 Panorama B&W by Trackasylum, on Flickr

We were unlucky that morning with both Garfieldus and IsleofMan getting punctures. Wheels were soon changed but they did take a bit of time to sort out and we still had no news from Byron!. About 25km from Assa a message was receieved, Byron had completed his quest and was waiting for us in Assa. Based on progress we expected to get there for about 14:00 so I decided to press on ad have a late lunch in Assa.

As Morocco can often do that last 25km took a lot longer and we rolled into Assa around 15:00 hungry . Still the group was reunited, Mussy and the Romanians found a hotl for the shower. Gary and Ray tried to get their tyre fixed without success and George reversed into a petrol station

Another nights wild camp was planned in the foothills of the Anti Atlas so we headed off. Garfieldus decided to push onto to Tata on tarmac to get his puncture fixed meaning the group spilt again.

With GaryS taking the lead we found a nice scenic camp site in a mountain ridge under some tree.............................or so we thought. Whilst setting up we noticed lots of blood around the trees and slightly eerie abandoned clothing

The Butchers Camp
P1090179 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

P1090180 Panorama 1 by Trackasylum, on Flickr

 

[GeorgeG]

.... Mussy and the Romanians....

They're HUNGARIANS Mark Mishi and Dobi from Budapest, Hungary.