Where did you ride, Chris?

I'm hoping to sneak out of London for a long weekend. LoC, Atlantic Moto and Palm Road all look good.

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expro.smugmug.com

In a long w/end with let's say 3 days riding I would go:

Marra > Test > overnight Taliouine
Tali > MH7 > overnight Ozt (snows on Sirwa permitting)
Last day Ozt > Tichka back to Marra (~4hrs) for the 5pm plane

All up a great little ride

Thanks, Chris - I'll get the map out and do some plotting. If I was to extend it for another day, where would you suggest?

Also, how long would the days in the saddle be? I'm content with long days, but the pillion girlfriend might not be! Also, the same applies to the road conditions - would this be Tarmac, or off-road too? Must admit I'd prefer some of the latter... I miss being off-road in South America. I may need to do 2 trips - one that's girlfriend friendly and one that's solo overland biker friendly!

Edit - I might just buy your book, Chris!

Edit edit - having watching a video of someone riding MH7, it looks perfect for me, perhaps not for the girlfriend riding pillion...!

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expro.smugmug.com

Well pillion changes things a bit. The pistes want to be easy.
MH7 is piste from Askaoun (KM65) to junction at KM104 or maybe sooner. It's all doable in a normal car with care but right now may be snowy (2500m) or slushy. She'd have to walk some bits and maybe push.

Extra day I would start slow and ride to the hotel 110km up the Test (30-odd km before the pass).
Gives time to faff about with rental business in Marrakech and generally acclimatise without big miles.

Then early start, over pass, lunch in Tali and then 200+ km to Foum Zguid.
All tarmac but a great ride on empty desert roads
http://goo.gl/maps/olTM9

Piste version starting from Akka Ighern halfway is easy enough
http://goo.gl/maps/o7pCo
- a couple of damaged fords, but prob a bit much for an afternoon.
Better to tick off if you stay in Tali. In that case head up to Tazenacht (not down to FZ) - another great ride and nicer hotels.

Then TAZ / FZ to OZT:
1. From FZ nip across east to Zagora along MS5 (nearly all sealed I believe) then north - brilliant Valley of the Kasbahs road
or
2. TAZ or FZ take the Adgz road east then north, more brill riding (some hardback) and a stonking pass just before Ozt.
3. or the newish back road from just before Tazenacht to Ozt - looks fun if they've filled in the missing bits.

Then Ozt to Marra. Job done √

(November ride report)

I think this week's new Bike magazine may have a feature on riding an MT-07 in Morocco. That would be a great road bike and an even better XT700Z.

Attached Thumbnails

 

Cheers for the guidance! Having shown the girlfriend some more footage, she's quite content for me to ride alone and her to forgo the trip, citing that it all looks "a bit barren". Inexplicably she doesn't like the wilderness mountainy/desert elements! I'll keep the route in reserve for the future though.

So it looks I'll revert back to your original plan:-

Marra > Test > overnight Taliouine
Tali > MH7 > overnight Ozt (snows on Sirwa permitting)
Last day Ozt > Tichka back to Marra (~4hrs) for the 5pm plane

Any suggestions for extending it by 1 day now it's just one-up, albeit ridden by a very average off-road rider?

Really appreciate the help - your book is winging its way in the post to me right now!

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expro.smugmug.com

In that case I'd rent an XR250 - great on road and track.

Marra - Tali is actually 240km with as many mountain bends so will be too long a long day once you have to factor in rental office business, filling up and getting out of town.

There are auberges on or around the test pass. Maybe aim for those. Or Aoulouz has a Hotel Sahara.

Then head up to Askaoun along the whole of MH7 (description by the book) and down to Tazenacht - that will be a full day out. If it all takes longer (as it can do) come down from Askaoun down to Tali - another great ride.

From Tali or Tazenacht you could take your pick of the MA routes and roads to the south while recognising that MA6 beyond KM51 will be hard work and possible a but risky alone. Still, the ride up to the Timouka Pass at KM48 is well worth it and easy.

Realistically though, fitting in another full dirt day is a bit of a gamble if you don't know the area so well. Better just to enjoy the rides in the earlier post to get you to OZT for the ride back next day.

Excellent -thank you for your help. I can't wait to kick the 3 year old Brazilian mud from my off-road boots and get back out there!

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expro.smugmug.com

Last year's plan was shelved due to family commitments. A new trip with a couple of mates has been scheduled; 5 days at the end of March - 3x Honda XR 250s have been rented. Now for the route planning...!


We have 5 clear days for the trip (arriving the night before our rental period starts and leaving late on the final day).


We're all experienced bikers with off-road experience. We're keen to tackle the best routes that Morocco has to offer, preferably avoiding busy roads and sticking to the stunning back roads and high mountainous routes and perhaps getting a touch, or at least a glimpse, of the Sahara.


I'm pouring through Chris Scott's book now, but if there's any route that is a must ride, then please let me know!


Cheers

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expro.smugmug.com

Tim Cullis is a good source of info for Morocco.
He will probably see this but check out his data base site anyway
Morocco Knowledgebase

Wayne

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The Balkans
https://new.horizonsunlimited.com/poi_entity/8417

One suggestion (hoteled):

D1 - Marra - Tizi Test - Taliouine (all road, long day)
D2 - Tali - Aguinan - Jebel Timouka - Tazenacht (mostly piste - could get gnarly)
D3 - Taz - Jebel Timouka (east crossing - less bad)- F Zguid-ish - Zagora
D4 - Zagora - Jebel Sarhro (one of three ways - piste) Ouarzazate (long day)
D5 - Ozt back to Marra, either via the main road (~ 4 hrs) or via Telouet from Aït Ben' near Ozt (comes in near the Tichka pass.)

Or similar but doing MS7 on D3 after overnighting in FZ, not Taz.

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Morocco Overland 4 pre-order for Xmas • Trans Morocco Trail

Outstanding - I'll piece together with your book, but sounds good!

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expro.smugmug.com

I just realised that I never thanked Chris for his help in suggesting routes for our trip earlier this year. We had a spectacular time and will certainly be back soon.


Over our 5 days of riding, in total we had:-

• 1,305km of riding
• 6 tumbles/drops,
• 3 punctures
• 3 dropped helmets
• 1 broken indicator
• 1 leaky drive shaft

Here a few snaps we took along our way:-


Leaving MK, we headed towards the mountains and took a diversion up to where the road stopped and snow began:-



A few hours later, and an epic road in between, we were met with our first glimpse of the beautiful desert to come:-



Leaving tarmac and civilisation behind - bliss:-



A long day riding towards Foum Zguid:-



Matt had a habit of dropping his bike during the trip....



Savouring the sheer scale of the Lac Iriki dry lake bed:-



Phil discovering why riding in dunes on our bikes wasn't a good idea...



When riding on a dry lake bed, you can momentarily take your eyes off the road...



Trying to find a route through the dunes, before skirting back to the lake's edge and rejoining the trail:-



Thinking that we were almost done for the day, we were met with a seemingly endless trail of deep sand - every biker's favourite!



Leaving the desert behind, he returned to the lush green valleys amongst the mountains.



...before crossing more desolate but beautiful passes...



Hitting the road to the last pass of the trip, before hitting the main road into MK:-



Back up and amongst the snow:-



Returning our beloved Honda 250 Tornados to the excellent Loc2Roues:

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expro.smugmug.com

Great pix Peter. i see you had '89' the oil burner and 88 which isn't.
I am staggered how those 6-year-old bikes keep going - one with 90,000km!
Next year they will probably have CRFs - less suited to Mk rentals IMO.
Just got back today after 3 laps. Cut it a day short to miss the forecast snow on Tichka yesterday.
Some pix here. Husky impression here. Strange graffiti here.

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Morocco Overland 4 pre-order for Xmas • Trans Morocco Trail

Nice. Thanks for sharing. How much was the bike renting if I may ask? ;-)

edit. Je viens de trouver.

http://www.loc2roues.com/fr/parc