Driving a little Citroen Saxo through Morocco, WS

[kingkurt]

Hi guys

We are driving a little Citroen Saxo 1.1 to Mauritania in a few weeks time and wondered if anyone else here had travelled Morocco, WS and Mauritania in just a standard car

I have driven this same model to Mongolia in 2009 and to Syria last year so am quite a confident driver (Mongolia dosnt really have roads) and can drive it on most surfaces except deep sand / mud

I have searched this Hubb and other sites and there is so much information but really only for 4x4's and motorbikes

Any feedback, stories or suggested routes would be much appreciated

Cheers

Kurtis

[TheWarden]

well you can get all the way down through Morocco and WS on Tarmac if you take the N1 coast road. I've been down as far as Boudjour in a Fiat Uno before no problems

nice drive and the coast is interesting but maybe not as much fun as taking the pistes though

When do you go? we're heading out on the 7th through the middle atlas and down to Tafroute arrivig around the 13th/14th October. About as far south as we're planning this year

[kingkurt]

Tarmac is boring and we try to stay away from it as much as possible

We are hoping to zigzag down and do alot of the Pistes and the SE desert

Should be leaving in the next few weeks so might see you on our travels - what are you driving?

[TheWarden]

Black Landcruiser Colorado,

Did the WS last year with Waypoint Tours, fantastic. Having had a breakdown I'm not sure I'd want to do it in a saxo it's is very remote compared with Morocco. Having said that we skirted along the Mauritanian border and it was flat smooth and fast nothing a car couldn't do

some pics of my trip
Morocco Overland - a set on Flickr

[kingkurt]

Originally Posted by TheWarden

Black Landcruiser Colorado,

Did the WS last year with Waypoint Tours, fantastic. Having had a breakdown I'm not sure I'd want to do it in a saxo it's is very remote compared with Morocco. Having said that we skirted along the Mauritanian border and it was flat smooth and fast nothing a car couldn't do

some pics of my trip
Morocco Overland - a set on Flickr

Some great pics - That road through the massive wall nr 'Er Rachidia', is it easy to reach from the main road and does it have a name?

[TheWarden]

Dead easy to get to only about a 10minute drive from the N12 near Rissani. Not sure of the exact name but the coordinates are N31 18.100 W4 23.872

the road only gets you iinside the wall and natural rock outcrop. 4x4 will get you to the top of the cliff in later photos but a saxo may struggle. Its not a long walk to the top.

various sources list it as either
Berber/toureg stockade/ganary/stronghold
Portugeus Fort/Prison
Cistern/Water Storage
Film set from the "Mummy"

a fossil seller tried to tell me but my french/arabic/berber aren't good enough