Returned frm Morocco

[Astbury]

What a fantastic time!! 9700kms in 3 weeks! Broke down in Mhamid! loads of hasstle but it was wicked time!

Going again next year!

Willpost some pics as soon as I get them off the other laptop

C

[Pete H]

Lookin forward to the pics mate,sounds like you had a good time, :yay: :yay:
(apart from the breakdown that is) :(

[red]

welcome back ;)

we want pics we want pics :D

[Skyline]

Well done,
Did you travel in agroup or alone.How about a Reportage?

Kev

[AJC]

Welcome back.

Looking forward to our trip there 2 weeks today.

What was the reason for your breakdown? Was it a 'self fix' or was outside help required?

AJ

[AJC]

Astbury,

Disregard my last. Just seen your other thread.

AJ

[ROB 110 HICAP]

Glad you enjoyed it. Lets have piccies of dune bashing! How much of the old pistes are surfaced now?

[Astbury]

Ok here is some more info (no pics yet sorry)



The drive down from Zurich to south Spain was hell 2000k’s is a long way even with the new Q—gears fitted though they made a huge difference both on speed and fuel



We crossed over on the 2 am ferry from Malaga to Melilla, this is an 8 hour crossing cost around 180 euro (parked around the corner and told them we were in a normal small car). We arrived in the port at about 8 am so this gave us enough time to get out of town into the country and get our bearings.



At the boarder with Morocco all I can say it was quite a frightening experience, many old women trying to “run the boarder” to take all manner of goods to the other side without getting stopped, this meant that they simply try to run all the way through!! To prevent this the boarder control first try to catch them and turn them back, if they get through this then the next line of guards simply whack them over the back of the neck with a 1m baton!



This is followed by getting the passport stamp and temporary import documents for the Landy all took approx 1.5h before we are on open road again.



We passed many police check points that expect you to either slow down to a crawl as you are waved on to pass or you may be requested to stop, if stopped they will ask for your vehicle documents (log book) and passports, we also had to provide our parents names and occupations in some cases. Often a colour photo copy was accepted rather than the originals though most of the guards wanted to keep the copies to save writing all the details down. Just about all the police we saw were driving jeep wranglers in a very very poor state.



More to come later including….



Being chased by the military (yep we got away), the burning bush on a 3000 mtr track at 5 am!!, breaking down in Mazouga, the visit to Smeia Land Rover in Casablanca, things that broke later on the tracks, more on the hassle, wild camping or camp sites?? The sheep that was pushed in front of the Landy as we passed at 80kph (sheep dead and loads of it all over the landy for the following few days!)

[Astbury]

two links to photos of the trip.....

http://homepage.mac.com/caastbury/PhotoAlbum14.html

http://homepage.mac.com/caastbury/PhotoAlbum15.html

[ROB 110 HICAP]

Sounds like proper adventure! I couldn't open your links, but I'm not on my usual pc so may be my end. Look forward to seeing the pics. Bet the sheep was gutted! We had a soldeier level his rifle at us, no magazine in it and his mate was smiling! I love it when they spend ages copying down useless info off you passport/docs on a scrappy bit of paper as if its a national database and vitally important! 1.5 hours is quick for customs, first trip took us 6 hours!

[oRGie]

Sounds fantastic and the photo's are fabulous, thanks for sharing :)

[d3f3nd3r]

Wow, good pics Astbury! Your obviously a keen photographer as well. Can I ask which camera your using? Looks like a Sony digital from the picture names 'DSCxxx'? I'm in the market for a new one so thought I'd ask.

[ROB 110 HICAP]

Good photos! Brings back memories of similar views/same places when I went. Were you looking for a 'pose' photo of the 110 on the oued cliff, or looking for the right route? Good photo either way. Did you find the cliff you were looking for from that photo on your old thread?

[dynamited]

WOW ! Nice trip there... really nice photos too.

Really nice desert scenes... the silence broken by the engine... impressive!