Trans-Iberian and Moroccan Trek

[Mblinko]

Time has flown by so fast. It doesn't seem like 15 months ago we took possession of our first 80. Converting the car from standard to an overlander has been a great experience, though as we know the job is rarely done and tinkering is a way of life

Anyway, having done Portugal off road earlier this year, tomorrow we leave our house in the hands of sitters and set off on our trek. On the map below, the blue route is going out. When we get to Gib, we are linking up with Waypoint Tours to do their Moroccan trip for a couple of weeks. After that the red route is coming back. We plan to take 3+ weeks to get to Gib on the blue route which is 90% off road. Then there's 2 weeks in Morocco, then we will be taking another 3 weeks or so to get back home in France via the red route which is about 70% OR.



Once again, routing will be handled by our trusty Garmin GPSMAP 620 and where questions arise we have the original tracks (courtesy of wikiloc routes knitted together) on a new iOS app we found called GPS Kit HD. This is brilliant, thoroughly recommend it. You can download maps for off line use.

I will be posting occasionally on here but mostly on a Facebook Group called "M & M's Trans-Iberian Trek". If you want to follow, just look it up and ask to join, it would be great to have you on board.

Ohh, and as it's my birthday tomorrow as well, my beloved wife got me a brilliant present .... a mechanics endoscope ... brilliant screen and it has got LED light, hooks and magnet for retrieving stuff as well

Wish me luck sleeping tonight, I feel like a child at Christmas

 

[BRE Fabrications LTD]

Sounds awesome. I'll be sure to look you guys up on face book. Enjoy!


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[stumog]

Good luck it must be nearly time join to sad book as most people seem to put lots of info on there.

 

[MarkW]

We'll keep and eye out for you

 

[Mblinko]

We'll keep and eye out for you

yes, me too

 

[Mblinko]

Good luck it must be nearly time join to sad book as most people seem to put lots of info on there.

.

I know now what you mean. I looked at all the alternatives I could find and it seemed to be the lowest common denominator that was reasonably easy to update.

 

[GeekOKent]

Looks like a great trip. Have a ton of fun!

 

[Gary Stockton]

Have fun and drive safe!

 

[Mojo]

Hope to catch up for a cold beer in the Algarve - I'll also be exploring the Sierra de Grazalema (NW of Malaga) in early October. Just came back from hiking El Caminito del Rey and biking the Via verde. The 80 took all the steep climbs with one minor 5 sec glitch. The orange coil warning light came on. Then went off. Have a safe drive. Weather is great at the moment.

 

[froggy Steve]

have a good one and may catch up somewhere if we can get organised!

 

[GerryTLC]

This really looks total fun and exciting adventure! Hope you will be able to post updates along the way. Always keep safe and enjoy

 

[GeorgeG]

I'm also thinking Transiberia on the way back from Morocco. Have fun!

 

[clivehorridge]

Bit late on this one, happy travels Mark, take care.

 

[Mblinko]

Thanks all for your wishes. It's been nearly 2 weeks now and we are now a little north of Cordoba which is south of Toledo. We've done the Pyrenees and all the national parks on our route and the scenery has been stunning. Driving has been been interesting at times, especially through the mountains and forests and the route we chose has been almost all Unpaved roads and tracks. Journeys through the plains was after a while a little tedious so we have skipped a few parts in favour of getting to campsites in good time. The Pyrenees was brilliant weather during the day but got progressively cooler which made us move south earlier than planned just to keep in t shirts and shorts. Here's a few pics we took along the way. It's just a small sample of what's on FB.


Spotted this in a shop window in a village !


Loving the hairdo ....



Then, on a very nice long trail with fords and rough tracks we bumped into some French guys and gals on a trip the Pyrenees. There were two camel trophy replicas and our truck attracted much attention.


did an awful lot of mountain stuff up around 2500m in Andorra and it felt a bit funny to drive down to the ski resort past all the lifts as opposed to up to them.



We we did have a nice place for lunch. Pretty good view here.



The mountain tracks were amazing. One car wide. Sheer drops and waterfalls.



Solar power on on a scale I just couldn't capture in one picture. There were hundreds and hundreds of arrays.


We planned to have lunch by the lake but it had largely dried up. So we had it in the lake instead.


Funny where you see road signs. Here in central Spain there was no Tarmac for miles.


Chez nous


Couldnt resist this one



A moody shot heading back back into the hills



A gratuitous 80 shot.

We we will probably arrive in Gibraltar 3 days ahead of time to take a break before joining up with the waypoint tour of the atlas and Sahara

 

[AndyCook]

Looking like a good trip. Recognise a couple the the Pyrenees spots. Shame it was cold, but we found that in Massif Central this time of year. Morocco should be warmer . Did a great mountain biking holiday near Córdoba, one day we rode in hills above Córdoba before doing some urban riding and stopped at a great ice cream shop, a nice town.


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[Mblinko]

Finally, I figured out how to put stuff on YouTube from an apple device.

this is video showing capabilities of on L200, a disco4 and my 80 on this particular terrain.



This is in the Jaffar Gorge. No roads or tracks here, just a river bed. Sadly, the video does not do the terrain justice. Again, same obstacle, different vehicles.

Disco 2 has 2 goes:




Disco 4


80

 

[froggy Steve]

impressive!