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Morocco Sept-Oct 2013

Working for many years in foundries and steelworks where it could certainly be described as quite warm, salt depletion is pretty rare. You really do have to sweat an enormous amount really to put yourself in that position. As long as you have salts and minerals in your diet you shouldn't really have to take any more specifically. Too much salt is not good. And just taking in plain salt isn't really what you want either. Sports drinks work quite well - these isotonic things. You can get a special drink in the form of a squash but for the life of me I can't remember what it was called. Usually, plenty of clear fluids should be fine.

We used to have to wear MM3 wool suits when standing over induction furnaces with iron in at 1500 C. Enough to set your boots on fire. But only ever saw one case of heat stroke - a chap who was fasting and took in nothing all day.

I can see that AC isn't good. It's doing its best to dry you out!

Glad to hear you're sorted. Looks fantastic. Hey, maybe next year. Who knows.
 
At lovely auberge near Merzouga next to amazing sand dunes. Just completed 4 days of the most amazing offroad travel i have ever done. Awesome scenery and driving. Rocky trails, corrugations, sand and sand dunes, dry lake beds, oueds. Difflocks. Low range and winch been used.
Rest day tomorrow before heading north homeward bound.
 
Glad your enjoying the trip, it's good fun down there. If Pete's still using the same auberge, it's in a gorgeous setting.

Safe travels.
 
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Yes same Auberge- perfect place to stay.

had a few hours dune driving this morning, and my wife took the wheel of our Colorado for an hour with Peter in the passenger seat helping her, I went in other Pete's collie as co-pilot. She loved the dune driving and drove down some steep ones:icon-twisted::icon-twisted:
so chuffed she gave it ago and enjoyed it :icon-cool::icon-cool:
Carrick got his Disco 4 bogged in the sand, and after some attempts to push it out and using maxtrac's I pleaded for first dibs to winch it out. my wish was granted :)
 
Attempting some photo uploads as we cruise past Brittany on the Pont Aven

some dune driving photos
 

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Holy shit!!! A giant! Run away! :lol:
 
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Home now :(

4400 miles'ish and £870 spent on diesel (only £100 more than the Alps trip which was 2500 miles!) cheap Moroccan diesel :)

Vehicle did very well, apart from wearing out the new front ARB bushes, and one of rear lower control arm bushes is banging away so needs the bushes replacing.

will type up a report and photos over next few days,
sahara sand/dust everywhere in the truck!
 
trip report

Thanks to Peter & Carrick of Atlas Overland – we had a fantastic and very memorable trip to Morocco. It was a big adventure for us, a lot more interesting and challenging than our solo trips to Alps and Pyrenees.

The whole trip was very well organised and we were well cared for, and also had great fun at the same time. We will treasure the memories for a long time.
and Wife would already like to return to Morocco for another trip, even though she was initally reluctant to go on this trip - she loved it in the end!

so....

We left Aberdeenshire on the Thursday afternoon and drove down to Carlisle, where we stayed at a Premier Inn,
Next day trundled down to Portsmouth, with a detour on backroads to avoid a closed M6.
Boarded the ferry at Portsmouth bound for Santander.

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Arrived in Santander on the Saturday evening and we drove south for an hour and stopped for the night at a campsite by Emblase de Aguuilar - Aguilar de Campoo, Canabria, Spain -

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Next day drove south for 5 hours across Spain and stopped at a great campsite at Caceres, each pitch has its own cabin with a loo and shower, appreciated by my wife who had caught a nasty bug. We met Pete here, and I had dinner with him at the bar after a swim in the pool

Monday we continued south to Tarifa, where we met Peter & Carrick, and also Thomas and Judith in their landrover.

Tuesday morning we set off to Algecira’s and caught the ferry to Morocco, passing the “rock” and we had an easy entry to Morocco at Tanger Med, and after a fuel stop continued driving to Fez
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We had a morning exploring the medina in Fez, a great experience

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We left Fez after lunch and headed south through Mid-Atlas and onto a piste near Midelt, and explored an old mine

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Camped near Midelt, and following day headed into High Atlas,
Donkey disguised as a hedge
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First river crossing, shallow
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And another ford
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Locals come to watch when we have a coffee stop
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Landslide had been cleared luckily, so avoided a detour
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Us geologists loved the rocks in the Atlas
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Pete’s collie had a leaking transfer box oil seal
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Gaining height in the Atlas
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Sheep transporter
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First camels!
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A shade under 3000m – Dades gorge, amazing!
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Camped by an Auberge in Dades Gorge, had a nice meal in the restuarant
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Traffic jam
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And onto Djebl Sarho
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Pickup on wooden stilts whilst owner worked underneath
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Kasbar near Zagora
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Date palms at campsite in Zagora
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How many camels is she worth?
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Pre-desert vehicle inspection. Only Petes collie needed work, a new transfer oil seal
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Morocco



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Always time for mint tea in morocco
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Cars got a wash too
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Landy tethered to landcruiser
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Beer o’clock in Zagora
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Some 80series
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Stuck… towbar beached on a dropoff into an Oued – but winched myself off after attaching winch rope to Peters Troopie
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At a tea stop I smelt diffoil… the new transfer seal had failed on Pete’s Collie. Turns out the gearbox mount was knackered, so gearbox was moving around. Peter started towing him back to Zagora, and Aziz came out from garage and fitted a new seal. We all returned to Zagora for night. Unfortunately Pete had to miss desert crossing, and stay in Zagora 3 nights whilst waiting for a new gearbox mount to arrive and be fitted.
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Herself takes the wheel, after I fell ill
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Sahara crossing after driving from Zagora to Foum Zguid,
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Driving the Dakar route, part for 2 day crossing from Foum Zguid to Mhamid
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Desert wildcamp 1
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BBQ
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Sunrise in Sahara
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dust
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Dune driving
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Stuck…
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Troopie also stuck
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Sorry Peter!
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Chegaga dunes
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Wildcamp 2 near Mhamid
Firewood!
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G&T
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Carricks might Disco 4 – Stuck!

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Dung beetle tracks
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Heading north towards Lac Maidar
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Fesh fesh and high winds
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So we escape wind and stay in an Auberge at lac maidar
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Amazing bats here
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Brand new front ARB bushes chewed to peices
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Donkey being refulled!!!
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King coming to Rissani
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Lovely Auberge with a pool – 2night stay here
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Peter kindly gives me some old polybushes that came off his Troopie, Fraser cut them to fit my collie. But this only cures one of the knocking noises, the offside rear lower control arm bushes are also shot
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A morning of Dune driving, my wife took the wheel for an hour with Peter co-driving, she loved the driving
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Two green collies
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Stuck again carrick?
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Pulling out my winch rope to help haul Carricks disco out of sand
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Oopps stuck again, this time the Troopie pulls me out
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Morning tea
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French team of Collies
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Desert art
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Cedar forest camp, nr Azrou
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atlas
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Cows on motorway sliproad
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Back in Spain, campsite near Tarifa
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Wife and I head up a trail in mountains of Cantabria, N.Spain for a walk
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Then drive another 25km on the trail 
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Great photos Andy. And yes, you'll probably go back :)
 
Video

I have compiled a series of video clips shot in Morocco into a single youtube video

enjoy

 
Fantastic Andy. Will show the current Missus and see if I can get her tempted.

OK so what things (short list) turned out to be invaluable - must have, life savers, don't leave home without, made all the difference

And what were they didn't use, can't see I ever would, why do people bother, waste of space, got in the way bits and bobs?

If you don't mind. I guess things like winches, tyres, radios etc are a given.
 
thanks Guys

Chris:
one of most valuable items was the fridge, to provide cold beers! and other cold drinks.
space to carry a lot of water and spare fuel important
The kampa geyser portable shower was a big hit with my wife, although we didnt connect to gas when in desert as a cool shower was more freshing, but we used the gas a couple times to heat water when in cooler areas
Space for plenty beer and wine and important to stock up on this in Spain :)
A good easy to use boot storage system saves hassle and make sure everything secure in truck. The corrugations and shaking of truck and sand/dust chafe anything loose badly. Never had this on greenlaning or other europe trips. Lots of kit got "camel chafe", my 12v 3-way box on centre console moved around and wore away plastic, led lanterns in boot rattled around and wore away plastic casing on them etc etc
RTT much better than a ground tent we reckoned
Jetboil great, saved time for brew stops
Decent aircompressor a must, for inflating tyres after airing down to drive on dunes - not a cheapo halfords one

Only used the foxwing twice on trip, wasnt worth it when arriving at camp an hour or so before sunset, too much faff. Others had hannibal or fiamma rollout awning, wish i had something like that - maybe on rear of truck to use for shade at lunchstops, as quick to deploy. We often stood under peters awning at lunch! As it was HOT in sun

i took my rocksliders off to save weight, and didnt scrape the sills during the trip - no rockcrawling so didnt need them

thomas had a folding land anchor - he only used it to test i didnt take mine, there was always another vehicle to winch off

What didnt we use... Mmm.. spare cooker, lots of the tools and spare parts we took - BUT if we did need them, they would have been invaluable

Therte will be other things i will remember

Yeah winch was usefull, but not a must as could get towed out.
Decent tyres, BFG. Not grabbers, side walls to thin
Atlas use UHF radios, on PMR frequency. I had a uhf hand held with 12v adapter in place of battery pack. So no need to recharge.
Sent from my GT-P1010 using Tapatalk 2g
 
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Hi Andy

It was really nice meeting you and Gorge on the trip, your photographs and video show what an excellent tip it was, and I can't wait to go back to Morocco next year
 
Great trip Andy, great report and thanks for taking the time to upload all those photos and putting together the vid.

I know this can take forever and be very frustrating. Much appreciated! :icon-biggrin:
 
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