MS77: FZ–Tagounite. Any volunteers?
 

I’m out here updating Morocco 3 - full colour edition no less, and a great cover.
Among other things I want to add a more interesting version of MS7 - further south in the sands, avoiding the bone-shaking piste, then out NE via the jebel.
But that will be a a struggle alone on a moto in the current conditions.
Much easier in a fourbie with a/c and a passenger alongside taking notes, or pushing.
I have tracklogged a kml off GE (green line). About 170km, fuel to fuel.

Or better still, the deep south version (red arrows).
Looked it up once, seemed doable with some small dune crossings to unravel in the east.
Haven’t made a tracklog for this one, but may be more cross-country anyway, so you just work it out, ground to map, until you reach the cluster of desert camps around El Gouera and pick up the green route.

Anyone familiar with the style of the book want to do me a detailed route description?
Needs to be a genuine live-logged route, not a recollection of something similar you may have done once.
All you have to do is follow my tracklog (within reason) and take notes with KMs and wpts.
Basically, the sort of info you would wish for were you considering doing this yourself.
Would need it by end of May.
Small fee offered.

PM me if you have questions

thanks

Hi Chris, I'm planning to head that way late April early May although exact timing are still tine determined. Also a slim chance I may be that way around the 7th of April.

Planned to look south of the Erg in 2015 but didn't get the time.

I'm heading out in 2 weeks. I think I may have done that north section in 2015. I'll check my track logs.


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Let me know if and when you might do it.
South looks more interesting.

Sent you a PM Chris,

At the moment its most likely that I'll be that way towards the end of April, we're watching the rally on the 17th and then heading down to Dakhla. Current planning looks like we'll be around Cheggaga for the 27th/28th April.

I leave a week on Wednesday then meet some friends on the 1st to get out across the Rekkam plateau towards Merzuga, the group is preferring the Atlas rather than the desert. I then meet a 2nd lot of friends on the 13th who want to get to the dunes before the end of their trip.

It would be tight to get something to you earlier I think based on current plans

Timing sounds OK for MS77.

I was also hoping to go via inland WS to Dakhla on this trip. Have some fuel buried halfway that's getting old, but way too hot for that now (for me at least). Will you do/have you done MW6 lately?

Hi Chris,

Yes, have got this. It'll take a couple of days to pull it together. The section heading SE from FZ is a real bone shaker. There's a much smoother route that begins a few km further down the Tata road.

Leave it with me,

Peter

yes I think I clocked it today - a light-coloured piste just where the tata road turns west?

Thanks for RD.

We talking southern - or green line?

Green line. Attempted further south a couple of years ago but it's pretty rough with huge sand platelets so very slow going.
The piste I'm suggesting goes SSW from FZ on the N12 and then off onto a piste heading south. (grey track on Rough Guide map is an approximation.) This heads up to a military checkpoint and then south and east around Mdaour Srhir before swinging back to Lac Iriki and re-joining the lower grey track shown. It then swings east straight across the smooth bit of the lake before heading into the Chegaga dunes. There's an established track through the small dunes - easy for moto or 4x4. Options after Chegaga are to swing east to Mhamid or loop round to Tagounite. Should have .gpx files for both.

Peter

Looks like Pete has all the detail needed :thumbup1:


MW6 was my first ever off road route in Morocco :D. Haven't done its entirety since. I don't think we'll do it this year though. We might do MW1 though, when we head back from the WS to Cheggaga.

If you need any other routes checking let me know and we'll have a look at what we can fit in!

Well you want to try under the erg, theres room for MS777.

Bloke at Bab Rimal FZ (they also have a desert camp out there) said the way they go south of the erg is much smoother - 105km vs 85km along the green line

In Assa now - the spout on the teapot sculpture has broken off - a sign of the times...

I have a fairly good idea but if you want to send a list of what you know is outdated - happy to receive that.

I did most of the green route with Peter in 2014 - Mhamid to Foum Zguid - Hi Peter, brilliant route!

I'm going to out there again in a month, we should be leaving Zagora on 20th April and retracing the route I did with Peter as far a El Gouera and then we are going to try the Southern route round the Erg you mark in red. I've got a tracklog for the southern route from one of the Gandini Guides I bought and I've also plotted some WP using GE, hopefully that will be enough to find a nice route round. We're not calling in at FZ but instead we are going to carry on MS8 to Tata.

We will also be trying MW6, Assa to Smara on this trip as well if you need updates. We are back in the UK around 9th May so I can send you my notes from what we gather from our Southern excursion around Chegagga if that would be helpful.

Let me know if you need anything else while we're out and I'll try and make notes.

Cheers

Simon

Might bump into you somewhere Simon :)

Look forward to it, we'll be easy to spot, a 110, a 90 and a Delica decisively going in the wrong direction

Thanks Simon, happy to take your data and maybe even a few pics too (same goes for anyone else - colour edition; more the merrier).

I rode down MW6 last night and camped just before Labouriat.

Fast, built-up corrugated track - bit boring really and Lab wasn't the 'Venice of the Sands' like they promised.

Fyi, no need to go by the book for the turn off.
Carry on over the 3-mast pass and down the Zug road and you'll see the big sign right: 'Lab 80km'. (fyi; one gets turned back @ Zug checkpoint, as expected)

Would be interested to know how MW6 is after Lab, as well as a new point where it meets the N14 before Hawza.

From the Lab track I cut across to meet MW1 around KM180 - there's a big gnarly, flood-gouged oued in between – not Delica country! - but MW1 is a nice winding route back via the defended pass (KM227).

I did a new route the other day: Mseid to the cross pistes on MW6, then on to Smara.
Got into a pickle in the follow-the-oued bit: many gueltas not mentioned in the book and track washed over or discontinuous.
I made a mistake somewhere, but expect it to take longer than you think.
(also, 9km to well from previous wpt, not 4 as written).

At the pass - nice spot.
Not surprised a 101 stripped its gearbox getting up this. More here.

That's not a bad route down if your starting from Tantan. How was the dry lake?

Great cover photo!

Where is that?

EDIT: Gara Medoura!!

It's where part of the James Bond film Spectre was filmed. Apparently the world's biggest special effects explosion. It's a few km west of Rissani. The Meteorite Crater that Wasn’t: Reflections on SPECTRE | True Anomalies

Happy trails,

True to it's name ;-)

Hoping to look at this Saturday providing I can get my brakes fixed. Driving Jebel Sahro with no brakes was. ..........interesting

Never seen so many kids sweeping the piste of stones before though

Done and we needed a lot of beer to recover.

Great, thanks. Just spent a few days plotting every track on My Maps for the map designer - MS77 is the missing link.
I take it it's not too chilly down there right now?

Low thirties daytime in Zagora Foum Zguid. Almost perfect.

I'll get the details over to you this week


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We're in Merzouga at the moment, heading across that way on Monday, we are hoping to give the Southern route a go travelling from Zagora to Tata....... Any pointers or tips?

Hi Simon, if you're up for it and assuming your planned route is as the yellow arrows, I propose:

• Picking up MS8 as low as possible. Unless you see better, that looks like
'Join MS8' which is: N29° 45.17' W06° 35.53' (or perhaps MS8-KM180, a bit more north). It does not look like there are tracks coming east directly from below the erg where you will be - terrain too rough perhaps.

• Consider carrying on along the pistes all the way to Tata from around MS8-KM109. This is 'MS88' (blue-green arrow) on the image. Looked into this before and various tracks are certainly there. I think the only problem here can be border patrols turning you back on occasions.
This westward extension will make MS8 into a proper long piste, like the ever popular MS6.

• Should you have enough by MS8-K148, logging 'MS777' (red) going north towards FZ at that point would be useful.
All tracked and close/parallel to what Peter suggested.
Hand drawn Ms777.kml attached.

Click in new window to get full sized image.

Have a nice drive ;-)

https://saharaoverland.files.wordpre...17/04/msms.jpg

Thanks for the info Chris, IF all goes to plan we will try the yellow and link to MS8 as far as we can get. Going to take 3 days over it to give ourselves plenty of time. Will let you know how we get on and send through any notes and data.


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MS77: FZ–Tagounite. Any volunteers?
 

In Tata now, we managed the Southern route round Chegagga in appalling weather, bad sand storm and quite an adventure. The military were also being very kind so we were able to do the western extension to MS8 linking the Dakar Piste all the way to Tata.

I'll send the data over in the next few days Chris when I have had time to sort.

Well done Simon.

thanks

Hi Chris - looking forward to the new edition!

I just spotted this thread - we did the southern route this time last year (78 Series Camper) - tracklog of the way we picked through and round is on https://share.delorme.com/VeganWithoutFrontiers - if there's any bits you'd still like details for I can reconstruct from the track/photos/video?

Its covered (vaguely descriptively) in the blog section here, https://www.veganwithoutfrontiers.co...ay-to-the-sea/

Jon

(Oh, and for entertainment and landscapes here's Casablanca to Dakhla in 10 minutes: https://vimeo.com/164884637 )

Hi Jon, good going - you managed Mhamid to Tata in a day so can't be that hard.

Will se what Simon sends in as he went all the way on piste.

Interesting to hear they're still hustling at Melilla, as I suspected.
I was tempted to go that way as half the price of Nador.
Do you know the days on the Nador Axa by the border: Mon-Fri or Sat?

Yeah...was on a bit of a mission to get my 'guests' to Dakhla for a flight home or would have liked to spend some more time down there on the pistes - next time! ;)

Looking at the Delorme map now, they've added Open Streetmap to it - there's a track marked aligning to the Southern route round the Erg a bit North of our track (diverging at the point we came across an encampment of French 4x4s). Also, Open Streetmap has the Algerian border in the right place, which the Delorme map has further North. Next time I'll cross-check with the Navmii app which got me through to Cool Camp in Mali :)

Crossed lots of tracks heading WSW on the dry lake, which would have been heading down to MS8 - I was just aiming at your waypoint for the checkpoint at the start of the horrible stony track NW on MS77.

To be honest, no idea about the Axa at the border - my mistake was letting slip I had no insurance when talking to a French overlander (who had cover for Morocco on his usual insurance) within earshot of a 'helper' and after that I was just prey - but everything looked pretty much shuttered up when we got out (which was a Saturday morning). If you find out, I'd be interested as its a nice route in - be nice to have insurance next time!

Cheers,
Jon

I think even Google shows the N10 cutting a corner of Alg. Few maps agree, but on the ground the frontier is clear: men in jeeps with binoculars.

Never used or actually seen it, but I think Tim mentioned once there is an Axa right on the Melillia frontier - (map).
It may be this place, but the map shows a Tangier suburb (other maps show the middle of the sea). 10 route du port sounds right, but it's not the street name in Beni Ensar on Google.