Morocco advice

[ROB 110 HICAP]

I haven't been offroading to Morocco/Atlas mountains since 1994 & 1996 on dirtbikes. The plan is to take a Landrover crewcab with my dirtbike on the back. Once I get to the 'dirty bits' I'll ride the bike and my wife and friend will share driving the vehicle.

Has anyone got any recent experience regarding the mountain passes like the Cathedral Rock loop or north of Todra Gorge around Lake Taslit. Also has there been more tarmac laid between Rissani/Erg Chebbi-Tazzarine-Zagora-Akka-Tata, or on any of the other southern pistes?

How long did it take for you to get to the Straights of Gibraltar from the UK in your Landrover? Did you go Portsmouth-Bilbao or Dover-Calais?

Any ideas, current/recent info or web links will be greatly received.

[Lighting90]

Worth visiting the Michelin web site for route planning. I found it to be very good, including avoiding places where hold ups might be, like road works etc.

http://www.viamichelin.com/

Haven't been that way myself, hope you will post a pic or two on your return... :p

[andyb]

Rob I was there April last year; so use that as a guide to how upto date this info is.

Getting there 'we' went from Portsmouth to Bilbao and then drove thru Spain in about a day and a half. The ferry trip was a dy and a half too; OIOW expect to spend one night on the ferry and one night on the road in Spain. If you drove all day you could do Spain in a day, but we where in a D90 with two teenage lads......I guess I don't have to paint a picture :)

As for the tarmac situation in Morocco they where laying a road south into Erg Chebbi; sorry can't for the lift of me remember the town that the road starts in....I'll check my Michelin map if you want.

AFAIR the road north of Todra Gorge are pretty good, altho' the roads into the gorge are a little hairy.

You could pop over to the LROi forum (http://threads.lro.com/cgi-bin/wwwthreads/wwwthreads.pl?Cat=) and post a question in the LRO Adventure Club bit; they run regular trips to Morroco thru the magazine so probably have more recent knowledge.

BTW, if you need a second vehicle I love to go back ;) before it gets too tourist-y; it certainly is a lovely country.

HTH

[ROB 110 HICAP]

Thanks AndyB and Lighting90.

I shall follow up the leads. I can't wait to get back there, its been too long. Fantastic people, scenery and offroading. I have to say that come the dirty bits I shall be straight onto the enduro bike and leave the 'bump and grind' to my wife and friend in the Landy.

I appreciate the advice on Portsmouth and Spain travel time. The couple of trips I did were much easier. I flew to Gibraltar with 10 other bikers and met my friend who had towed the bikes on an Ifor trailer behind a Bedford MK or Nissan doublecab. They allowed themselves around 5 days for the haul down there, heavy trailer and all, so its good to know it can be done quicker.

My problem is that we plan to go next Easter doing the round trip in 15 days! As teachers we get a lot of time off in August (too hot) and only 2 weeks at Easter. I reckon 5 days down to the Atlas, 4 or 5 days offroad on the mountain pistes (probably won't even make Erg Chebbi/Zagora/etc), then 5 days back. Any comments?

[Stu-Westcountry]

Hi went on Trailmasters' April 2003 Atlas-Sahara Safari, it was excellent. Both Todra and Dades gorges are now 'tarmac' route via High Atlas Pass into top of Todra - not tarmac but good (stunning scenery, pass is 8300ft)

We did 3 days off road into Sahara, ending up back at Erg Chebbi, then new tarmac road from Midelt up the Ziz valley.

We went Plymouth - Santander (24Hrs) Sant to Gib was 3 days (but we took it easy - just fitting in with ferry sailings and rendeszous at Algiceras)

Roads in Spain MUCH better than 10 yrs ago. Dual carriage all the way on NON toll roads. 65-70 no problem.

Hope this helps

stuart.
(2001 Defender 90 Td5)