Sorry not exactly a trip report but here’s a link to photobucket which has some photo’s from our trip in Sept. 09.


Can’t even share my route as I forgot to set OziExploreer to store routes for more than 24hrs
Russ
Morocco 2009 pictures by russ300g - Photobucket

Hi,

I like your pictures, looks like a great trip.

How long did you spend on this adventure and could you please provide a map of your route, even if it's pretty basic?

Thanks!

OK following huge popular demand here’s a summary of our route

I think it’s pretty much the classic circular route taken by loads of people and follows Chris Scott’s Sahara Overland and Morocco Overland routes. Non the worse for that of course. Pretty annoyed that I don’t have the waypoints and the data from OziExplorer. I.E. distances, speeds etc ah well

Route linked to Photobucket pages and using Morocco Overland routes give or take:
Page 1. Ceuta – Meknes took 2 days for this. We have done Ceuta – Meknes in a day but it turns in to wacky races trying to do that on day 1 and you’re on holiday!!

Page 2/3 Meknes – Cedar Forest – Route ME1, 4, 5 and 2 ending up at Café du Sud at Erg Chebbi. 3 days. I know people claim this area to be spoilt by tourists on quads and 4X4’s blasting around but we didn’t find that. Can recommend Café du Sud, not cheap but after 3 days or so wild camping it was worth a bit of comfort. Not cheap though! Stopped here for a couple of days.

Page 4 roughly MS4 and Erfoud.

Pages 4, 5, 6. Café du Sud - MS3, 6 ending up at Oasis Mharech. 1 day. Beautiful place, great people and cheap. Food great and loads of it. We camped but they do have rooms and facilities are good. Would have been quite happy to stay for a few days and watch the world go by (not tat there was much to watch!)

Pages 7, 8. MS6, 4, 2 – Zagora. 2 days.

Page 8, 9. Zagora – Tizi Tazert pass MH4. 1 day.

Pages 9, 10. Around the Dades Gorge area MH1 mostly. We have previously done the Todra gorge so didn’t use MH3, 2 but it is an OK circuit. Too many people/touristy for our liking though. 2 days chilling.

Last couple days were spent heading north and eventually on to the motorway which runs along the coast. Pretty depressing but it’s got to be done if you are on a tight time scale as we were by then. Best bit’s IMHO being covered in photbucket pages 2 to 9.

Russ

Sounds like a good trip.

I've got some holiday that I need to use up next month. So I've got from the 6th to the 22nd off work.

How bad are the roads? Would I need a proper 4WD vehicle like your G-Wagon or would a normal car survive? If needs be I can sell my car and buy a Nissan Patrol.

Did you need any visas or anything? AFAIK visas aren't required but thought I'd better check.

Thanks!

You would be able to do some of our route in a “normal” car but there were sections which would not have been possible in a 2wd.
Not many to be honest, it always amazes me at the amount of money people throw away on 4x4’s when the head for places like Morocco. Take a look at the G, more or less completely std. My prep. consisted of changing all the fluids, new shocks on the back, and an additional electric fan to supplement the std. viscous fan (the electric one didn’t come on once!).

I estimate the guy in the LR110 you can see in some of my pictures had spent £15-20k at various “Expedition Specialists”. It weighed nearly 3.5 tonnes by the time he had finished:confused1:
To be fair he did explain this as all being part of the anticipation and therefore fun of it all

Some section’s I wouldn’t have attempted solo either. Plenty will have I’m sure but it was a holiday and as such I didn’t want to be stressed worrying about break downs, being stranded etc.

If you get a copy of Chris Scott’s Sahara Overland or Morocco Overland it does explain the type of road and suitability for 2wd’s.

Normal road’s are no issue at all. Having said that (and I have no personal knowledge of this) this time of year could be an issue dependant on where you intend going, snow, floods, mud, land slides, bridges washed away etc. We’ve certainly seen evidence of this after the event.

Russ

I'd think it would be best to sell my Mercedes saloon because
a) It's likely to get stuck
b) Fuel economy isn't it's strong point being a 6.0 V12.

I'll get rid of it and buy a Patrol, give it a good service and make sure it's got proper tyres on it.

I'll pick up that book you suggest and read it for tips.
How did you get to Ceuta? Did you drive there from Shropshire or did you get a boat from say Portsmouth to Bilbao and the drive?

EDIT:- How important is the V5 for the car? As I haven't got the car yet and am not sure if I will get V5 back from DVLA in time? Also my drivers license is still in an old address, is it important that it is in new address?

Just to update this thread.

I bought a Toyota Landcruiser 80 and I plan to drive this route MAP in July/August with 3 friends, so it'll be 4 up which is a packed car but we all get along well on long journeys and between us we've got a good knowledge of map reading, mechanics and camping.

Good stuff James, I’m sure you’ll love it. We’re not going to make it this year but hopefully next Easter we’ll be there.

Could be a tad warm in July / August




Russ

First thing I thought was 'wow, 250m from a 1/4 tank, must have a large aux tank fitted.' Then I realised it said 58*c which is very, very hot.

Is it a humid heat or a dry heat? Hottest I've ever been before is mid-late 40s in Dubai or part of South Africa but they where okay as not too humid all the time.

I shall let you know how I get on. Did you camp much? I was planning on camping but there seems to be so many little hotels/motels for not much money that I might as well just lord it up in Morocco finest two star hotels!

That was taken maybe 80 miles south of Zagora where I had filled up. It does have a 100 litre tank though.

It’s a dry heat and we had been parked up for maybe 20 minutes so the reading was slightly distorted by radiated heat from the ground. I think it was in the 50’s though (we got through 7 litres of water each that day). No air con, it’s a 1990’s Merc. remember so it was probably an option costing the same as a Ford Escort

We camped / Hotel’ed 50:50, your plan seems a good one. I see your route passes this place, well worth a little diversion:
http://www.elmharech.com/index.html

IMHO. Your route seems a little optimistic for 2.5 weeks especially driving through France. We use the Santander ferry. When I did the maths, fuel, stop over’s in France, toll’s etc there was nothing in it money wise but you get a day and a night to chill on the ferry (sorry cruise ship).

Russ

I'm not really sure how long it will take to get around Morroco, I shall just get as far as I can get before I need to turn around.

As for getting from Dunkirk to Algeciras. I do have this uncanny knack for driving for ages and not getting tired. I regulary drive from London to Nurburg (DE) and back in a long day. Have driven back from Poland and Estonia in one go before. Drove to Alicante non-stop before. Although usually I'm driving a powerful saloon car so cruising at higher speed than in the Landcruiser. But I think it's safe to assume I can get from Dunkirk to Algeciras in 2 days especially since Day 0 my plan is to leave work and head straight down to Dover and drive a few hours through France so when Day 1 dawns I should already be a couple hundred miles into France.

We'll just see how we can get.
My worth fear is really enjoying this and needing to do a massive 6 month trip sooner rather than later. The worst part of this trip is going to be fueling the Landcruiser.

What engine does your G have?
I love 1990s Mercs by the way, W124 and W140s are excellent, best car I ever had was a very late W140 6.0 V12. Wish I'd never sold it now, the newer W220 S class is completely crap, I can't wait until I get rid of it (tommorow hopefully!!)