Trip to Morocco - Christmas 2022
 

Dear HUBB people, :mchappy:
myself and three other friends are looking forward to our first trip to morocco next month and we’re looking at some of the exciting routes from Chris Scott’s excellent Morocco Overland book.

Among others we’re quite interested in following the classic MS6 route from Taouz to Zagora and I wanted to ask the experts here about a potential alternative way around the Rheris river crossing from Ramlia. 

I’ve seen quite a lot of videos and forum posts about the fesh-fesh there being particularly nasty (or unpassable if the river is flowing) and as we’re on heavy dual sport bikes (BMW GS 850 Adv, Africa Twin 750 and Tenere 700) and not exactly enduro experts (we do have some decent offroad experience but not too confortable on fine sand with such heavy bikes) I can’t hide the fact that we’re a bit nervous about that 5km stretch. :helpsmilie:

So I thought I’d ask here for some advice on potential detours and alternative ways across. I know there’s an easier way over tarmac via Rissani on the N12 but we would love to do the pistes and experience that great feeling of open space around us that the desert can give, whilst doing some fun and manageable offroading. Especially since the route past the Rheris crossing is said to be much more manageable.

Also how much time would you normally allow for this route? Should we split this in two days and try to sleep in some auberge around half-way through?

One more thing: I saw this post from @TheWarden from around 2 weeks ago, mentioning roadworks around Ouzina. So perhaps there are better ways to reach zagora nowadays?

Thanks so much for the advice! this forum is an incredible resource.

The only real way to avoid Oued Rheris is to take the main road from Rissani towards Zagora until you pass over the river then drop down to MS6. Or cut west from Merzouga and cross further north where there can be less feche feche.

The road works I posted about are only just staring so it will be quite a while before the asphalt gets past Rheris

Bike specific expert experience will,I am sure,be advised soon

I have done this trip twice in 4x4.Imho the terrain to the East of Rheris can be very bleak and time consuming due to quarrying and potential rain that will turn it into a quagmire.
If you are not hooked on doing the route to the bitter end,my advice would be to give consideration to The Wardens suggestion. :scooter:

Hi Mayaman,

I was quite nervous to cross the Oued Rheris on my own also a few years ago.

After turning down their offers, I finally accepted to pay 200 MAD in Remlia for a local guy on a motorcycle to show me how to cross the oued Rheris:
we went up North and the crossing was easy.

Also it was quite a humbling experience to see him riding on sand with a road bike with flip flops on while I was riding a XR 250 :laugh:

If I was with 2 mates I believe I would try to find some GPS tracks that avoid the most hardcore fech fech and then just do it as you can help each other and this could be a memorable experience, but this is just my personal point of view here :)

The problem with the Rheris crossing is that it changes, often dramatically, each year. Twice I've tried the crossing and twice reluctantly turned back. I'm normally up for most things, but was riding solo and with luggage for a six week trip.

So the route I've taken in the past is to head west from Rissani on the RN17 (erroneously labelled N12 on Google) until N31° 16.201' W4° 21.940' where you can see Gara Medour (The Mummy) in the distance on the right, see attached map.

Turn south here on a well-defined track per video below.



I didn't have any route advice but I remembered watching this track being used as a special stage in the 2006 Dakar Rally, so I assumed it led somewhere!

Quite a bit further on there was some bad sand at N31° 04.109' W4° 32.729' but I just rode round the worst of it. You then come onto a vast flat where you can close your eyes and open the throttle as there's absolutely nothing in any direction.



Towards the end of the video clip above, I could make out a building which turned out to be Auberge Petit Dunes at N30° 53.290' W4° 37.195'

I could have stopped for tea, but carried on south and came to the only waypoint I had worked out in advance which was Foum Mharech where in times of flash floods there's a river through a gorge (foum means mouth).

I stayed at Auberge Oasis Mharech which I can recommend at N30° 45.587' W4° 33.807'

You are now almost level with the Rheris crossing, so carry on south then west to Sidi Ali Tafraoute where there's fuel in cans, then west to Oumjrane and on to Zagora.

The red track on the second attachment shows Petit Dunes and Oasis Mharech auberges and the onward route. The blue track shows Ramlia and the dotted-line crossing by Hasi Ba Hallou might be the one @Vincent Trautmann refers to. There are also some other crossings not so far north that are shown on OpenStreetMap.

The crossing at Ba Hallou was worse than the Ramlia crossing a few weeks ago. Feche Feche on top of dunes made it hard going

For standard Ramlia crossing you will find a cartracklog here from last month.
Looks pretty straightforward – or straight at least.
You will see they came down from the north (partly MS12) - an interesting way of getting down to Ramlia compared to MS6.

If you don't fancy it, stick to MS12 which I did alone on an F650GS (twin) and had few problems. But with a group of you the best thing is the recce the Remlia track ahead on foot where needed, and help push the bikes, also if needed.

It could be done in a day if you carry on directly west at KM125 onto MS3/MS4 (below Tissemoumine); it's fast gravel to the tarmac, 58km from Zagora. It's a good bail-out option if you are having a hard time on the bikes; otherwise, enjoy a desert auberge and carry on next day SW along MS6 to Tagounite.

That’s Rafaels track log. The reason for the slightly unusual approach was to get to the Pizzas On the Piste Overland Gathering we ran in October.

Attendees got a gps location on the day and had to find their way to get pizzas, beer and meet other overlander. We will be running the event again next year

The tarmac now goes almost to Ouzina from Taouz, and from Ouzina on they’re starting work on making a piste as a basis for tarmac later on. I went almost to Ramlia on my R1200GSA and enjoyed it.

I would say it’s going to be substantially different in a year or two as tarmac won’t take long. I quite enjoyed the ride to Ramlia.

Hello all,

For anyone interested, I just made the Oued Rheris crossing the other day. I'm in a 127 ambulance (300tdi), probably pushing the 3500kg limit. So it's not the most nimble. I have twin shocks and a limited slip diff at the rear which no doubt helped. I had to throw the vehicle around a lot, weaving through the small dunes.

We were going to stay at the big auberge the other side of Ramlia, but it was closed. I wouldn't normally choose to do so much sand late in the afternoon, but we needed to find a room for my passenger (I sleep in the vehicle) so we pushed on towards Sidi Ali / Fougani.
Fortunately a local pick-up passed infront and offered to lead the way. Without him I think it would have been a long afternoon! The real benefit was that I didn't have to make those split second decisions between tracks while trying to maintain momentum, and avoiding sudden changes of direction.
The downside was I had follow his dust, and literally couldn't see where I was going at times.
The man said I didnt need to drop the tyre pressures which I would have liked to have done, but thought at least I can save that option. Twice at the beginning I came to a stop, and had to reverse to gain some momentum. Once I had found the best gear combination (diff lock, low second), I just plowed on behind him and got through no probs.
It was a great experience, and probably would have been better fun on my own with dropped pressures, as I could have seen where I was going, but I was glad he turned up. He stopped the other side and gave us further directions, not seemingly wanting anything in return. He was happy to accept some dirhams.

Got to Sidi Ali no probs and found a nice auberge just before the town.

On to the MS77 tomorrow, but starting at Mhamid.
Cheers