Morocco Itinerary
 

Hey guys,

I'm new here! I'm right now in Marrakesh, setting off on Thursday, with my Toyota FJ Cruiser. It is basically stock except for a few modifications that I believe have little use in Morocco. I have no camping equipment, staying only in hotels. The range of this car is atrocious, but it looks like distances in Morocco are pretty short, so this should not be a problem.

I'm looking for easy, scenic drives.

I have bought Chris Scott's book, but the all the routes are like a maze. IMO, some sample itineraries depending on difficulty + days would go a really long way. So I'm trying to put together some kind of a reasonable itinerary.


Day 1: Marrakesh - Tizi n Test - Taroudant
Day X: Possibly take a day off in Taroudant
Day 2: Taroudant - Igherm - MA14 / MA3 / Tizerkine Gorge - Tafraoute
Day 3: Maybe stay in Tafraoute and rest / do a day trip
Day 4 & 5: 2 days to drive Tafraoute - Erg Chegaga in the most interesting way, stay in desert camp
Day 6: Erg Chegaga - Nkob - Ikniouen - Dades
Day 7: Climb out of Dades either via Dades gorge or via MH19 + MH18, don't know where to spend the night.
Day 8: Drive to Fes

How reasonable is any of this? Do I need to add more days, and if so where? I have absolutely no idea how accurate Google Maps driving times are in Morocco. I would like to drive out to Erg Chebbi, but I crossed it off the list in favor of more time in mountains.

Overall, is this a good itinerary? Would you add other detours, or maybe even simply go somewhere else? Looking at pictures, I think I'm quite interested in the Anti-Atlas and the deserts / valleys / gorges there, but I obviously haven't been in any of these places so I have no idea.

Day 1: Marrakesh - Tizi n Test - Taroudant
Nice easy start.


Day X: Possibly take a day off in Taroudant
I think an evening stroll may do you


Day 2: Taroudant - Igherm - MA14 / MA3 / Tizerkine Gorge - Tafraoute
I presume you mean MA3 all the way to Ait Ballou, then back via northern MA14 (road). MA3 is still amazing, tight/unused for a few km in the west but a bit improved at the east end. See my Book Updates. Fyi outbound, Ait Mansour gorge more scenic if you have time.

Day 3: Maybe stay in Tafraoute and rest / do a day trip
No, keep driving!

Day 4 & 5: 2 days to drive Tafraoute - Erg Chegaga in the most interesting way, stay in desert camp
You could save your time/backtracking by carrying on the previous day to Tata. Next day on to Foum Zguid and to your desert camp. I would go down the white line on p161 map - FZ to to orange checkpoints line (MS8 no checkpoints any more) then at 29.75051, -6.59195 (MS8KMI71?) go NE across the lake bed past small dunes. The track is on wikilocs or OSM or somewhere (I found it; it worked). I am told it's already baking down south. This may constrain your desert ambitions.

Day 6: Erg Chegaga - Nkob - Ikniouen - Dades
Presuming you go out via Tagounite gap (slow in a car) so I would aim for Nekob instead (via Tafechna plain- all road now).
Nek-Ik-Dad is a great drive but all road now. I would next day do something in amazing Saghro instead, like MZ1 (or whatever I call it now), or MH14/15.

Day 7: Climb out of Dades either via Dades gorge or via MH19 + MH18, don't know where to spend the night.
Places to stay along the reservoir west of Ouaouazeght.


Day 8: Drive to Fes
Will be loads, but see easy access Z hotel I used in Accom section above, the other week. Can do old town by foot/bus from there if you want.

How reasonable is any of this? Do I need to add more days, and if so where? I have absolutely no idea how accurate Google Maps driving times are in Morocco.
I never use but down south roads are empty. Any piste much slower, obviously. I would import a proper OSM map for the pistes. https://sahara-overland.com/2014/12/27/morocco-maps/


I would like to drive out to Erg Chebbi, but I crossed it off the list in favor of more time in mountains.
Good decision. Leave Chebbi to everyone else.


Overall, is this a good itinerary? Would you add other detours, or maybe even simply go somewhere else? Looking at pictures, I think I'm quite interested in the Anti-Atlas and the deserts / valleys / gorges there, but I obviously haven't been in any of these places so I have no idea.
Anti-Atlas and the deserts / valleys / gorges are the right places to explore in the FJ. MA7 is looking up, MA6 dead slow but amazing (not sure if FJ has axle clearance). Loads more in this Jebel. Assaragh cliff/oasis well worth a visit. I am hoping your car has a/c.
Post us some pics of the FJ in action, especially if it's yellow ;-)

42 degrees in Chegaga on Thursday! And temperatures rising over the next week. The sandy track on the north side of erg is straight forward with care. Over the last month I’ve taken 2 Porsche 911’s an awd transit and 5tonne Sprinter along the same track

I would not fancy that track today in an old air-cooled, rear-engined car then!

Snowy mountain episodes apart, I do wonder of southern Morocco travel is becoming like Namibia - one continuous winter season from November to March. That's how it felt this winter.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68665166

Thank you for the suggestions!

What I mean was drive to Igherm, pick up the MA14 until the crossroads with the MA3, then pick up the MA3 until Tizerkine and on to Tafraoute. Or just go along the MA3 until Tafraoute via Ait Mansour.

Then the question is how to scenically best get out of Tafraoute until the desert.

Would love to do this, but not sure if the missus would approve of this route. Purely for psychological reasons. This is basically why we are sticking to easy routes. The heat and open country is not something we have ever done and honestly I should have probably joined other people on this trip to make it easier psychologically.

I have replaced my radio with a tablet and have these maps

Would have loved to have a yellow FJ! But yellow is a 2007 only special edition (they had one color each year), and its getting a bit old. Mine's from 2012.

In that case I would suggest from Igherm carry on south past MA14 and do the good bit of MA3 and follow the rest of it all the way to Tafraoute via AM gorge.

Then next day come back to Afella region (say, via Tiz gorge) and take the Akka gold mine piste towards Imitek and Tata. Dead easy, fast and fun.

You're right to be wary of the desert alone and first time in unproven car.
So if you still want a desert dune camp, the nearest access would be out of Mhamid - loads of camps all near, afaik.

FJ is basically a 120 series landcruiser underneath so even in stock form is capable enough for the majority of the pistes. I run a 120 now and average around 35k km a year on the tracks in Morocco.

I'd offer my services but I'm all booked up until the 3rd May now

IMO, this sounds like a good plan. I think that a night in Taroudant, then a night in Tafraoute, and then 2 days to drive to dune camp. I think we are going to go ahead with this.

Eh, I really should have arranged these things beforehand. But this trip was all very last minute. We just had winter blues, packed our stuff and got in the car and drove off.

The FJ feels more like a 125 series landcruiser, it is quite short and has little space for baggage. Even stock it comes with some meaningful upgrades, it always has the most powerful 4.0L V6 engine, it sits quite high and has a soft suspension. I drive it around mostly in snow and autumn/spring mud, so I have AT tyres, skid plates & winch installed, mats and a shovel. However, any offroading I do is within a 2 mile radius of either my or my dad's house. Driving 100+ km into an open desert at 40 degree heat makes me pause a bit.

We have done days 1, 2 and 3 as planned! It is going great, I will post pics and an update when I have better internet.

Over the last few days we have gained some confidence, and we’ll ride around fringes of Erg Chegaga tomorrow without doing anything stupid and see how it goes.

We are now in Zagora, and wife says she still definitely wants to go to Erg Chebbi, due to awesome colour of the dunes. any ideas how is the MS3? Is it passable and how hard is the crossingto Ramlia?

Temperatures don’t seem extreme at all at the moment. Today was only +27C max.

Good to hear it's going well and has cooled down a lot. Only difficulty on MS3 is Remlia crossing afaik, but I've not done it for years. Maybe a recent tracklog on wikilocs. A mate did it last year but paid for a guy on a moto to lead him across somewhere to the north of Remlia where it's less wide.
In Feb we crossed about 25km north of Remlia where it's < half a km of small dunes. (We popped down to Remlia village then went back north to Chebbi).

Lost City is worth a look once you get on the east side: 30.82567, -4.45364

https://saharaoverland.files.wordpre...4/lostcity.jpg

Trip Report

FJ Cruiser - definitely THE car for a Morocco road trip. The locals were basically salivating over it. The only disadvantage is the lack of luggage space, but since camping is optional in Morocco as perfectly fine hotels appear to be in all kinds of middle of nowhere, I don't think this is a problem. The short wheelbase makes it easy to maneuver, it doesn't catch crests, it has great entry and exit angles stock without modifications, is light, has the spare wheel on the back stock, and the 4.0l V6 gives it LOTS of power for its weight.

The weather was awesome, and quite frankly it was just barely there and a part of me wished we had come later in the season. Had plenty of hotels with a pool and it was too cold to get in. The other side of that coin is it was never too hot.

Day 1: Drive from Marrakesh to Taroudant via Tizi n'Test. This road is definitely falling apart, and given the earthquake damage, flood damage, bad condition and the amount of traffic (plenty) this actually felt like on of the worst roads of the whole trip. Felty plenty adeventurous for day 1.

https://fourthirdsphoto.com/images/morocco/DSC05339.jpg

Day 2: Taroudant to Igherm, then MA14 until MA3, then the MA3 until Tizerkine gorge, on to Tafraoute.

A fantastic drive, not sure if I can pick out the highlight. The MA3 part was all sealed, and only the Tizerkine gorge was unsealed, but good condition. The sealed roads were very scenic though.

https://fourthirdsphoto.com/images/morocco/DSC05529.jpg

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Day 3: Ait Mansour gorge, drove the piste past the gold mine until R109, then a long, but scenic desert road drive until Zagora.

Ait Mansour felt like the most interesting gorge we visited, I would put it above Dades or Todra.

https://fourthirdsphoto.com/images/morocco/DSC05667.jpg

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Day 4: Slow day. Drove down to Mhamid and then drove in the direction of Erg Chegaga. Car performed flawlessly and we definitely gained some confidence.

Also after the super quiet Anti-Atlas roads where we were basically alone, we realized just how many people are here in Morocco driving these routes. A lot, basically, and breaking down may not be quite the issue, as there are a lot of people around.

https://fourthirdsphoto.com/images/morocco/DSC05861.jpg

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Day 5: We decided that while offroading is awesome, it is not so awesome for the passangers in the car, so we drove to Merzouga via tarmac, but we did make a scenic stop at Gara Medouar, which was one of the top viewpoints of the whole trip.

https://fourthirdsphoto.com/images/morocco/DSC05898.jpg

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Erg Chebbi is in a league of its own when it comes to the scenic beauty and the color of the sand. Not a desert wilderness though.

Definitely wanted to do the MS3, and the car could have easily, and I mean easily done the MS6. How do I know? Because...

Day 6: We got a guy to guide us in his own LC120 and we crossed Erg Chebbi. Just blasted through the sand dunes, with huge drop offs, screaming passengers, sweaty palms and a massive grin on my face. Also had my first experience digging the car out of sand and using the mats. Definitely the top day in Morocco. Later in the evening drove to Boulmane Dades.

Unfortunately, this day is almost entirely on video which I am not able to post right now.

https://fourthirdsphoto.com/images/morocco/DSC06356.jpg

https://fourthirdsphoto.com/images/morocco/DSC06400.jpg

Day 7: Day off, didn't do anything.

Day 8: Drove Dades Gorge up to Agoudal, and then down back via Todra gorge. What another fantastic drive! The road is still unsealed in Dades gorge and a fun, fast drive in the FJ. They are working on it though, and I guess it will be a sealed road soon.

https://fourthirdsphoto.com/images/morocco/DSC06448.jpg

https://fourthirdsphoto.com/images/morocco/DSC06450.jpg

Day 9: We crossed the Atlas mountains via Tizi n'Ait Hmed, 3005m alt. We did the detour via the gorge in Amejgag, which was quite frankly a highlight of the drive. Don't get me wrong, still loved the drive over the Atlas, but the long V shaped valleys with lack of cliff dropoffs means it won't make my top list of mountain ranges.

Drove to Cascade d'Ouzoud

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Day 10: Drove to Fes via locals roads

What I would do differently

Honestly, I think this is the max we could have done given that I'm here with my wife and my 6 year old daughter. Driving off road is not easy on the passengers and there's bugger all to do for kids sitting in the car all day.

Knowing what I know now, I would have dropped the day with Dades/Todra gorges, not done the Atlas crossing, skipped Ouzoud Falls, and spent more time around Erg Chegaga, Erg Chebbi and possibly driven MS3/MS6 in between. This area seemed the most exotic - Anti-Atlas and deserts is where it is at. It is like a whole world removed from Europe.

Given that we are European road trippers since our daughter was born, we had completely forgotten our 3rd world skills and thus didn't have any cooking equipment. Unlike camping equipment, which is I think is very optional, being able to cook a basic midday meal, like pasta or something, is something I really missed - especially for those scenic spots. Those roadside cafes landed me on anti-diarrhea drugs for 4-5 days, and quite frankly at the end I was tired of tajines and couscous. Also, cooking a mid-day meal gives you a nice break from driving.

Also, since this was part of a longer trip, I would have also dropped days in Spain in favor of more days in Morocco (we had a total of 18 including Marrakesh, Fes and Chefchaouen). We are in Spain now, and everything just feels so... sterile, LOL.

Thanks for a great report.
Looks like you got loads done.