Appreciate the response Michael.

I plan on resetting the clocks to zero for all maintenance jobs on the klr before my trip; valves, tires, the things you mentioned and other small bits and bobs. In terms of spare parts i've checked out a list on this forum and will modify it to fit my bike. Budget and route planning have been my biggest challenges thus fur. I plan to wild camp so camping grounds or hotels can be checked off the list. Without fuel, how much can i expect to spend a day on food and water? I've budgeted €1/litre (conservative estimate) for water but food is where i'm unable to find an answer. It would be a mix of buying ingredients and "eating out". Is €15/day sufficient or would you bump that up to €20? I'm guessing maroc will be more expensive.

Apart from that i've got the other costs covered, but can you think of any hidden costs a first timer for a trip like this could of forgotten.

Oh yeah, and insurance. Can you share any details you have.

Stay blessed,
Leo.

Hello again Leo:

You will need to purchase the obligatory liability insurance for Morocco when you get off the ferry at Tanger Med port, before you even leave the port area. There are several insurance kiosks there just about 100 feet after customs & immigration, they all sell the same product for the same price. I can't recall exactly what I paid for it but I think it was about €100 for one month. If you look through the Morocco sub-forum here on the HUBB and also the Trip Paperwork sub-forum you will find all the information about insurance that you could ever want, along with current pricing.

Last time I was in Morocco (2019), Google Maps didn't work there, it was blocked (for security reasons) in all of Morocco & Western Sahara. So perhaps consider getting some kind of stand-alone mapping program that can run on your smartphone using map data that is stored on your smartphone. Sygic is one such program, I use it and it is very useful.

I don't know what the rules are concerning wild camping in Morocco or WS, I suggest you read through posts in the Morocco sub-forum to research that. I'm also not too sure whether wild camping would be a good idea in a desert environment. You encounter enormous swings in the temperature in deserts. When I worked in central Algeria as an aircraft pilot, I would have to clear frost off the wings of the aircraft before takeoff at 7:00 in the morning, but at 3 in the afternoon the same day the temperature would be greater than 40°C. Hotels are not expensive in Morocco & WS if you stay in the same places that the locals stay in.

Morocco & WS are "cash" countries - credit & debit cards are only accepted at places that cater to tourists. There are ATMs everywhere, you can use your home ATM card to withdraw local cash provided you make prior arrangements with your home bank to ensure that you can make international ATM withdrawals.

Keep in mind that as TheWarden mentioned, it's 2,400 km from Tanger Med port to the Mauritania border. That's about the same distance as Paris to the Greek border. I don't know where you plan to start from, but as an example, it's 2,000 km from Paris to the ferry embarkation point at Algeciras. Those are seriously big distances.

One other thing you need to think about - and be financially prepared for - is "What is it going to cost to repatriate my motorcycle (and yourself) if you get into an accident, or drop the bike, or you have a serious mechanical failure of the bike, or if you get sick or injured and can't ride home?" Don't overlook this, and don't underestimate the what it might cost.

By way of example: Today, I was riding from Switzerland to Vienna, to drop my motorcycle with a friend in Vienna before flying home to Canada next Wednesday. At noon hour today, a coolant hose deep within the engine blew out on my moto (a ST 1100) just as I was crossing the Swiss border, the first time I have had an on-the-road failure with this motorcycle in 20 years & 235,000 km of riding. It is going to cost me CHF 1,200 (about €1,200) to get the motorcycle trucked to Vienna on Sunday, plus another CHF/€ 400 for unplanned hotel & food between now & Sunday... in other words, a total of CHF/€ 1,600 that I had not expected to spend. Although that is a painful sum, at least I can afford it - could you? Do you have that kind of money in your bank account to draw on if things go terribly wrong enroute?

Along the same line of thinking, have you investigated health insurance coverage for yourself when you are outside of Europe? If you were to have just a 'minor' accident that resulted in a broken bone, you would be royally screwed if you didn't have insurance to cover the medical & hospital bills.

I don't mean to discourage you from your trip, but you really do need to think of these things if you plan to go riding outside of Europe.

Michael

What a response!

Concerning your first point, is the liability insurance still obligatory if i have maroc on my bikes green card? As to western sahara and mauritania how does insurance work there? Whilst entering into ws, and considering it's not recognised by the un, is there a boarder of some sort or not at all? For mauritania i'm assuming from what i've read i can just pull up and get the visas at the boarder.

The wild camping hotel debate had me torn in half for a couple days; ultimately i went with the wild camping option for two reasons: the first being funds; i could save a couple hundred euros which would allow me to travel more, the second being the experience and finally the third is bike safety/maintenance; i have a tent with a "centre compartment" used to shelter my klr. It gives me peace of mind and regular bike maintenance is a breeze when you're sheltered from all sides.

Health insurance is on my list but i've yet to dive into it; considering the vast amounts of information on this forum i guess it won't be a problem.

For reference, i'm based near Marseille and will take a ferry from there.

3rd party vehicle insurance is the minimum required for Morocco and the WS, either green card or locally purchased insurance will cover you. Morocco and the WS is one insurance doc.

Don’t be tempted not to bother with insurance, if you get caught they will confiscate your bike and if you are involved in an accident the it’s straight to prison for no insurance.

Wildcamping is fine outside of National Parks and not permitted on beaches. If it’s private property you need the owners permission. Recently they haven’t tightened up on camping along the coast in the WS for security issues.

Repatriation options is worth considering. I was involved in repatriating a seriously injured biker earlier in the year and we will need to deal with getting his bike out of the country over the next month.

Thanks for your help; i'll make sure to get health insurance and repatriation!

If Maroc is listed on the green card provided by your home insurance company, then that is sufficient. You won't need to purchase additional insurance when you arrive in Morocco.

The entry for 'Morocco' on your green card also covers your insurance needs in WS. There is no physical border between Morocco and WS, because Morocco (the de facto government of WS) considers WS to be part of Morocco. I think there is a road sign of some kind, that is all.

Don't discount the effect of brilliant sunshine when the outside air temperature is in the 30s and possibly 40s. Your tent will become an oven. I have no experience with camping, so I can't give you any better advice, but I strongly recommend you get advice from others who have travelled in the regions you want to visit during the months you want to visit.

Morocco (& WS) are quite heavily policed and therefore reasonably safe places to visit, but once you get into Mauritania, you are truly in the third world. Again, best to get some advice about the personal security aspects of wild camping in Mauritania from someone who has been there recently and camped there recently.

What you want to get is personal insurance coverage that covers hospitalization and, if necessary, repatriation back to your home country. It should not be difficult for you to find and purchase such insurance in France, but pay attention to the details, especially the details about repatriation. Be aware that most "out of country" travel insurance policies have a 30 day 'out of country' time limit... pay attention to this also when you are shopping for insurance.

Unless there is a ferry that operates from Marseille to Tanger Med port, it might be easier for you to ride to Barcelona and take the ferry from there to Tanger Med.

Michael

Heat is going to be challenging. I plan on travelling in the morning to avoid quite literally burning. What about connection? How much are the sim cars and how often do you get good connection. I'm adamant to document this trip so it's pretty important for me.

SIM cards a free of charge but some chancers may charge you a bit for setting them up. Data is €1 per GB and the network is generally good. Maroc Telecom is better in remote areas, the organ fe and INWI having the least coverage. In the WS signal is pretty good along the coast road and very patchy inland.

If your from Marseille you will know there’s direct ferries from GNV and Le Meridionale. Although personally I would drive to Algeciras over taking a GNV ferry again.

Leo:

One thing that you need to be aware of, in other words, to fully understand, are the rules concerning temporary importation of your moto into Morocco and the obligation you have to remove the motorcycle from Morocco when you leave the country. I'm not sure that you are familiar with what is involved, so I will try to explain it. Forgive me if you already know about this.

In lesser developed countries (e.g. Ukraine, Turkey, all the North African countries), tourist vehicles are temporarily admitted into the country free of duty and tax, but records are kept of the temporary importation of the vehicle and the owner is obliged by law to remove the vehicle from the country when they leave themselves - otherwise, there are significant financial penalties imposed. The reason for this is that in these countries, there are quite heavy duties and taxes imposed when residents import vehicles, and the countries want to make sure that a tourist does not sell or otherwise leave their vehicle behind when they leave the country.

If all goes well on your trip, there is nothing to worry about: you ride in, customs makes a note in your passport that you came with a vehicle, and when you ride out, customs checks to make sure you are taking your vehicle with you. Where problems arise is when for one reason or another (sickness, injury, accident, pandemic, mechanical breakdown, urgent need to return home due to family emergency) you want or need to leave the country without taking your vehicle with you.

In such cases, you will not be allowed to leave the country without paying substantial fees for import duties, taxes, and fines. Although there are some circumstances in which you may be allowed out without your vehicle (e.g. emergency medical repatriation), you will still be obliged to eventually either get the vehicle out of the country or pay the associated import duties, taxes, and fines.

Do be sure that you understand what your obligations are in this regard, and do be sure that you have a fairly large emergency supply of cash available to you in your home bank account that you can draw on via local ATMs in case things go wrong and you have to get your moto shipped out of the country by truck or other means.

To give you a perspective on what can go wrong, have a look at this post I made about problems I had in Tunisia after I evacuated from the country early in the COVID pandemic and had to leave my moto behind because all the ferry services were shut down: Tunisia - repatriating my moto after the COVID pandemic.

Michael

I'm interested in hearing the reasoning behind driving through spain instead of taking a ferry?