Morocco by Mog, a few months overlanding

[mervifwdc]

The wide angle lens sure does help the dramatics, but it still was not too wide in spots. And in other places, 2 40 foot trucks could have passed with ease.

Sarah has written up a blog post about the trip across, it pretty much stuck with MH6 route from Chris Scott's book of overland routes in Morocco. Much of that route is simply stunning!

MERV0901.jpg

[mervifwdc]

In Morocco, you are certainly not short on getting fresh veggies and fruit. Just it's not like shopping as it was at home. The best bet is the large markets, known as Souks where it's all on display, and you can wander between different stalls to pick what you like. It's usually around that time that we decide what's for Dinner!

MERV0988.jpg
MERV1023.jpg

Sarah wrote up a description of what it's like on the moglander blog, And I put in a few photos.

[mervifwdc]

Well, we have had an eventful few weeks. We got some modifications made to our truck, in the form of a large step that attaches outside the door, then a new ladder that goes up to that. Our old ladder has been creaking and groaning for a while, and it was a matter of time before it died. We got the work done locally, and it cost us 300 dirhams, which is about $40 (rough guess). The quality of the work is fine, but when you look at the facilities they have, then I have to give them 10 out of 10 for their "make it work" attitide! This blog post shows the step being made.

BUT: While I had disconnected all the batteries (truck and domestic), I did'nt disconnect the solar panels, and the welding fried the solar controller. Ouch. This meant we could'nt stay parked idle for more than 1 night outside of a camp site with electic hookup, so we decided to get a new one as soon as we could. Now you might think that Morocco is not the place to have problems with electronic gear, but it is the perfect place to look for solar stuff! We went to a little shop, about 6 feet by 8 feet in size, and 20 minutes later we had a replacement solar controller, which is the exact same size of wiring configuration as the old one. 20 minutes later, we were done!

Anyway, a few photos of stuff we've seen:



MERV1214.jpg
Huge blue rocks painted by a Belgium artist, near Tafaroute.

MERV1392.jpg
Shipwreck on the beach, not far from Sidi Ifni

IMG_1255.jpg
Enduro time! When staying in FBJ, a multi-day bike race stayed over as they stay in different places each night. The following morning they had a taped off special test where it's the fastest man wins. There were some pretty quick guys there!

[mervifwdc]

Sarah was asked on facebook what was the food like. So, she wrote a post about what we've been eating. I've also been playing with a plugin that displays our tracks on the blog, so there is a post there about that too.

As to our progress, we're now heading back up north, our time in Morocco is coming to an end in a few weeks, so we don't want to be at the wrong end of the country.

MERV0537.jpg

[mervifwdc]

Hi folks,

We've posted up a bunch of photos of overland trucks that we've met along the way. And some local rigs.

As a sample...

IMG_0698.jpg

More photos here.

[BajaBus]

Very, very interesting! What an amazing place to be. Please keep the updates coming! Checking the blog out now...

[mervifwdc]

I know loads of folk love their toys, and none more than me. I love to have a decent gps and a good stereo in whatever vehicle I drive. However, my navigator is in charge of all things navigational, so has decided on maps.

MERV2727.jpg

And I dont blame her. You just cannot beat the look of a well used map.

MERV2789.jpg

And while we're at it, this blogging lark may not catch on, we may be sticking with the Journals:

MERV2768.jpg


So, on to my question. How many folks have gone back over journals of trips they have been on? And how much detail do you record? We've posted up a couple of days worth of the Journal, it looks like this: I'm interested to know because we dont want to finish off 2 year travelling, then figure out we've not recorded some info we're interested in.

We have a separate simple log of daily mileage, fuel usage and service records.

Merv.

[mervifwdc]

Hi,

Well, our Moroccan adventure is almost at and end. We've spent a pretty quiet couple of weeks travelling up the west coast to be ready to sail for Spain before out Visa's run out. We did take a detour to Marrakech which was well worth it. I'm not a very keen city person, but thought this was fun. The night market has to be experienced to be believed!

MERV3144.jpg

And the Souk (Markets) are like a maze, with just about anything you care to look for available somewhere. And most things delivered by Donkey or bicycle.

MERV3101.jpg

Somewhere in this tiny shop is my wife...
MERV3019.jpg

We've met some other overlanders, some with different priorities on what you might like to bring with you in your truck...
MERV2724.jpg

The local transport is almost always overloaded, even the rowing boats used as ferries.
IMG_6679.jpg

The next step in our trip is to spend a few months in Spain to learn Spanish. Then the big step - South America or Bust!

[mervifwdc]

We are back in Spain now, and have spent a few days looking back on our Moroccan Adventure. We've listed the highs and lows on our blog, but a few things are of specific interest to any 4x4 folks thinking of spending some time there.

1. Heavy duty 4x4 gear is only required on some routes, which can be bypassed. 80% of the places we went could be done in a 2wd vehicle, and 95% could be done in a stock 4x4. Some stuff pushed us a little, meaning we had to let the tyres down and engage all the lockers. We were paranoid about not getting stuck as we travelled alone, and unless we met another heavy truck, most vehicles were not going to be able to pull us out. Anyway, my point is, you can visit this country easily in any vehicle. Our photos are naturally going to be of the more extreme stuff, pics of flat roads are not that interesting!

2. Diesel is cheap, oil changes are possible, but bring your own filters. We changed the oil quite often (every 3000km). our average distance per day of driving was 110km. The max distance we did on any day was about 230km, but we had very few days we did over 200km. We were on the smaller roads and pistes as much as we could as they were prettier, but that meant driving slowly. Watch this in your planning!

3. Diesel is availble just about everywhere. The furthest we went without buying fuel was about 500km, and 5 days. For most vehicles, that's probably possible. With a bit of planning, you could have a shorter maximum distance without fuel.

4. Navigation can be tricky, be sure to have your maps and gps points all set up before you go.

5. wifi is hard to come by, and it's never all that fast. Buy a maroc telecom usb stick when you arrive, and for €20 or so, you'll have the web for a month.

More stuff on the blog post, but I'll just wrap up by saying it's an amazing country, with super people. Just go!

[HumphreyBear]

Hi Merv,

That photo with the reflection in the mirror is fantastic, and all I could think of seeing the piano were two things: I hope it is well secured(!) and how on earth do they keep it tuned considering how much bouncing around it must do, even if always on roads! Good on them for focussing on obvious passions: surfing and music.

Regarding the journaling, I've been transcribing some of mine from a few years ago and whilst I love rereading them I am universally disappointed with myself for the lack of detail that I included. Lots of thoughts on local politics and emotions and adventures and the odd liaison, but startlingly little on the minutiae. I guess I never anticipated the degree with which the details would fade, so now I find myself looking at photos of people I travelled with or places I went and I struggle to recall the names and stories behind some of them. Obviously there is a limit to how much you can spend scrawling in a journal but for my next long travels I am definitely planning to be more diligent with the details even though it can become wearisome at the time.

A blog is for friends and family (and travel-starved adventure-voyeurs) to follow what you've been up to and that you are safe, the journal is what you will treasure in 20-30 years.

Cheers,
Humphrey