Hi Tony,

Thanks for the updates. Keep 'em coming, folks.

Happy trails,

Peter

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Atlas Overland - Specialist adventure tour company providing off-road holidays for 4x4 enthusiasts in Europe and North Africa.
Tours to Morocco, Iceland, Arctic Circle, Portugal, Alps, Pyrenees, Eastern Europe, Corsica, and UK weekend tours.

Like Peter says.
Thanks Tony

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Morocco Overland 4 (2025) • Trans Morocco Trail

Just completed M6 & M7.

M6 dune filled oued rheris no surface water now but lots of mud hidden under sand thats been blown across.very sticky and a slow recovery.local farmer making a good living at moment towing tourists out with his tractor.

M7 most of the route still stoney & slow,lake iriqui still very wet best to drive around in anti clockwise direction( as per sahara handbook).

Moodybloo

We've been 2,5 weeks for the change of the year in Morocco. As we had not "the" book with us, I can't follow the numbers.
We went over Tichka/Telouet to Ouarzazate.

Msemrir/Tamtattouchte no problem for a push-bike but some pushing necessary on the western side, where only local motorbikes left traces and 4wd turned back in the oued with lot of blocks. Other side ok, ridiculous good road after some km.

Tinghir-Nekob no probs, very good and smooth ascent, downhill a bit rocky.

Taouz-Tagounite: Oued Rheris was no problem, we took the northern crossing at Rhemlia, locals wanted to send us further 10 km to the north, but our crossing was fine, after crossing you get near a mine. Rest was fine, although very rocky after Hassi Zguilma, 3 checkpoints (Zguilma, 5 km after Zguilma, 5 km before tarmac)

Mhamid- Foum Zguid: When we were on Ikiki, we had no water or mud on the main piste. Last 15 km rocky, but fun on the single tracks formed by lokal motor bikes

MA7: only piste we got infos out of "the" book by chance in Foum Zguid.
road to Amtazguine in very good condition (broad, almost two lane), then very rocky (btw, the "perfectly cleared area" besides the road turned out to be a football field), great camping place on a balconry at the 1635 pass. Description not clear afterwards, the tarmac doesn't start in Issil but later, there are two tarmac roads leading to N10.

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Cycling in Asia: Thailand to Turkey, Siberia and Central Asia

Hi,

Here are some updates on routes taken in december and january, slowly with à 7.5t unimog.

MS6 Bouarfa Figuig
With the new reservoir, much bigger than drawn on the page 104 map, the southern part of the track is not so fun and finding the way not so easy, especially going north-west South-east.

ME4, betweeen Mengoug and Beni Tagite
Slow track due to the numerous small oued crossing in bad condition. Very desolated and a wonderful atmosphere.

ME7,Beni Tagite to Tazouguerte
Also slow and rough from Beni Tagite to Col de Belkassem. Then,also rough and slow for a while but more interesting. The main reason to take this piste is to spend a night at the Col de Belkassem.

MS 11 Aoufous Merzouga
No problems, highly recommended. Always better to arrive in a touristic destination by the quiet back door and to sleep a night on the North East side of the dunes driving around the dunes and arriving in Merzouga by the South East.

MH11-MH13
The loop from Goulmina, Amellago, Ait Hani, Tinerhir is all Tarmac. An easy introduction toHigh Atlas driving. Tomuch snow on MH3.

MH4, Tinerhir - Nkob

A wonderful track. The first part to Iknioun has been renovated and is now very easy with more traffic. The second part is wonderfull, especially driving North-West Sout-East. Not so difficult with a small truck although some hairpins need some "back and forth" A few nice places to camp after the 2 auberges.

MS8, Mhammid to Mrimina
Lake Iriki seemed all dry in mid January. We have crossed it . May be stillwet in the north-west corner.

MA7 FoumZguid to Issil
Was very tight for a Unimog but doable, definitively not possible for anything bigger. Was slow and scary, but wonderful.

MH9 Nekob to km 59

not much tarmac but a nice track to see the people living in villages. Track to Zagmouzere narrow and slow but nice.

MH8 and MH6
Some snow and ice between Askaoun and Sour so took the improved MH7 track to join the MH6 which was all tarmac to Aguim. The small road from Sour to N9 near Amerzgane was a slow track. While the road from Ait Ben Haddou to Telouet is Tarmac and spectacular.

After Tizin Tichka, a small Tarmac road to Arba Talatast is a nice alternative to busy N9 to go to Marrakech.

We are slowly heading South for 2 more months.

Photos and comments in French and German on
Pierre, Ursul (Unimog) & Theresa - UrsulNatour

Pierre

Dear HUBBers,

Planning a trip to Morocco in March I would like to have you feedback/ pics/ recommendations on the following MS routes.
We’ll be riding an Africa Twin and a GSA 1200, I dare to say we have moderate off-road experience (MS6, MH1, MH2, MH10, etc).

MS2 – I assume this route to be easily doable with the above bikes
MS5 – is this route all sealed?
MS7 – is this route doable with the above (loaded) bikes? Any recommendation?
MS9 – same as MS2, I assume this route to be easily doable

Thanks!

Luis

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Luis Cabrita, Honda XRV 750 Africa Twin '97
Flickr & PolarSteps

MS2 - I hear is sealed - or at least the 1st part out of Zagora up to Km41. Look at Google maps.
MS5 - I also heard the FZ end had short unfinished patches (maybe completed?) but I'm sure you'll get through.
MS7 - Riders often get in trouble on this route, I suppose because they veer south from the rough track (by the book) in search of smoother or more open riding but get stuck in sand or lost. Stick it out on the track and the only hard bit is the dunelettes at the Mhamid end. Or - if heading east - split northeast at KM111 for the gap in Jebel Bani to avoid dunes. Never done it but looks fun.
MS9 - Some moments on my Tenere I recall, but north half may be sealed - part of the 'P1507' backroad from Ozt to Tazenakht which may all be sealed. Another one to try for next time.

bonne route

Hi Luis,

MS7 is a slow rocky track. You'd be better further south crossing Lac Iriki itself. Begin by heading south out of Foum Zguid and taking the second of the two tracks on the left signposted to Lac Iriki. There's a small military checkpoint about half a km down the track. If you've not already checked in town, you can ask the guys here if the lake is dry. If it is, carry on SSW following the oued and the track will begin to swing E around 29.52.500N 6.44.578W. Continue heading E from here and you should pick up the major piste across the lake. Continue for a few km and it becomes smooth and heads ENE across the lake - you'll be able to pick up a lot of speed here.
At around 29.57.030N 6.21.500W the stack swings right towards towards Erg Chegaga and there's a very well defined track through the small dunes. In March, the sand should be firm. If you leave FZ about 9am, you'll be here by 1130, before the midday heat - if there is any. The track will lead you towards the big dunes but then swings left to rejoin MS7 at the Oasis Sacree auberge.
If you think it's going to be too heavy going for the GSA, forget this bit and continue heading ENE and you'll pick up the rocky MS7. Here you can continue to Mhamid - bear in mind the small dune field near the end. There are thousands of tracks here but they all lead to Mhamid.
As Chris says, you can turn off at Km111 for Tagounite. we did this in 2011 when the outskirts of Mhamid are flooded. It's a nice easy and well defined track and will bring you out halfway down the main drag in the middle of town.
As ever in this area, keep an eye on the weather. thunderstorms in the mountains can bring flash floods near the lake later.


Crossing Lac Iriki at speed.

MS5 was sealed all the way from Zag to FZ last November but we left just before the major floods. It should be repaired by now and even if it hasn't you'll easily pick your way through. On a good day you can do it in about 2 1/2 hours.

Happy trails,

Peter

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Atlas Overland - Specialist adventure tour company providing off-road holidays for 4x4 enthusiasts in Europe and North Africa.
Tours to Morocco, Iceland, Arctic Circle, Portugal, Alps, Pyrenees, Eastern Europe, Corsica, and UK weekend tours.

Chris,
Peter,

Thanks for the advices.
Planning this trip made me go through the pics and videos of MS6, again!

Two small videos, first is the crucial Oued Rheris crossing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEI5A-Y9mzk

Second one filmed somewhere on the Kem Kem Beds:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq8JooaM-0A

And pictures, going and coming:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/148874...57675142849550

Regards,
Luis

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Luis Cabrita, Honda XRV 750 Africa Twin '97
Flickr & PolarSteps

Completed the MS6 last week from Touz to Tagounite. The desert was amazing, incredible green, full of violet flowers. A lot of water in oued Gheris after Ramlia, so we had to follow the north route option. It's not so easy to found the way before and after the oued. The ford wasn't a problem. I share the map with gpx data. I'm sure it will be usefull to all will have to take the north ford.

Pista Ramlia - Tagoumit | Galileo Offline Maps

To confirm what Peter was saying above, MS5 is sealed all the way from Zagora to Foum. Zguid, drove it today in a camper van and it was in very good condition. That makes the trip between the two towns very quick if you're heading up or down The Desert Highway N12

Anyone any idea about the condition of the roads from Zeid - Imichil - Tinerhir? We're looking at taking the road from Zeid via Boumia, Agoudim and Anefgou to Imichil, then south through Todrha.

The only info I've been able to find is going back to last November when there were chunks of road out at a few places on this route (Agoudim to Anefgou being one, along with half of the rest of the country!), but hoping that they're clear by now. We're on a trike with a small trailer - fun, but not much in the way of off-road capabilities!

Thanks.

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Growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional

Hi, I done the section from Imilchil to Todra about a week ago, two up on a Super Tenere with a load of luggage. The condition of the road is OK but not great, there are sections where the tarmac has been eroded but nothing to worry about. The only potential problem you could face is the water levels on the numerous river crossings, we only had to deal with about 6-8 inches of water but the issue for me was the loose shingle on the river beds which made my front wheel dance all over the place, but I guess your trike will be fine.

In 2 weeks of riding in Morocco, that route was my favourite, it really is a fantastic ride!

That's fab - exactly what we needed to know - thank you! We'll give it a go

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Growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional

The journey from near Midelt to Imilchil turned into our most challenging day ever! There are lots of washed out bits of the road, but where it got really interesting was a few kilometers after Tounfit, not long after the piste from the Cirque de Jaffar joined our "road". I think this is part of MH1. We came into a river valley where a lot of the road had been washed away, but were going well until we ran out of road/track completely and had to go through the river bed. About 1km in an an hour, and 3 very hairy river crossings later things got better, but we did spend some time in there debating whether we'd be able to go on or have to turn back - the challenge is not knowing what it's like further on. River must've been over 40cm deep in places as the water went over the top of Tony's bike boots, with some even deeper potholes to watch out for. The trike was OK, but the trailer has small wheels and nothing like as much ground clearance - we think it may have been floating at one point.

The upside was absolutely stunning scenery and some entertaining encounters with locals on horses and donkeys. At one point we had a couple of lovely Berber ladies on horses laughing away at the sight of us emptying water out of our boots and wringing socks out. We did only meet people on foot or horseback for a fair stretch, which should have given us some clues in hindsight! Wet feet at 2,600m was not ideal...

4WD would have no probs getting through. Decent off-road bikes would be fine but fun. Road bikes or cars would most probably not make it. We always travel a lot slower on the trike than on bikes, but even so it took us about 7 hours from start to finish. That did include stopping in Boumia for fuel, water, and a treat of our first ice creams since leaving the coast for the desert a month ago though!

We later discovered that we had taken the ancient road, which is not maintained. Locals in vehicles use an alternative route which is more navigable, but I'm not sure where that is - apparently we should have taken a different fork in the road at some point.

This is the route we took and where the road first ran out:

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Growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional