Morocco by Mog, a few months overlanding

mervifwdc

Adventurer
Hi,

My wife and I are overlanding in Morocco, exploring as many nooks and crannies as we can. this is a shakedown trip for later this year when we go to South America with our truck.

We are currently in Zagora, which is the edge of what many might call the Sahara "proper". The people and friendly, the days warm and sunny with clear blue skies, and the nights cool to cold, which is great for sleeping.

To see a bit of the saharan piste driving, we have a few video's on youtube, here is a link to one of them: http://youtu.be/WurRJPhp2J4

and there are many photos on the blog, www.moglander.com
 

mervifwdc

Adventurer
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Morocco is turning out to have some spectacular views. The trick is getting to reach them. So far so good!
 

mervifwdc

Adventurer
Thanks for the comments folks!

Yes, we went through M'Hamid yesterday. We cycled through Mhamid and got a feel for the place, then took the mog through when we were moving on. We've a few nice images from the tracks from M'Hamid to post about shortly.

We did spot a pretty tired old series Landrover when going by a place called "the source". We stuck a small Irish flag on it, and wished it well and drove on. I'd love to know the story behind it though!

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Scott Brady

Founder
There is a fantastic Tuareg camp just east of M'Hamid.

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Images: Nathan Hindman (who I traveled with in this region)
 

mervifwdc

Adventurer
Hi,

This is the piste just coming out of M'Hamid. Every 50 or 100 feet, there is a choice of at least 2 or 3 tracks, some rocky, some nice, and some with deep sand that wants to swallow you whole and seems to have the ability to suck out every horsepower your engine if fit to develop. And at each of these choices you dont even have time to stop and look for the best route as momentum is king, if you are on the soft stuff, you cannot afford to stop.

GPS tracks are only of so much value to follow. The wind moves the sand so fast that what was a great track one month, could be the track from hell the next. Each driver has to decide for himself what track to take. I guess that's what makes it so much fun!

 

mervifwdc

Adventurer
We've traveled a bit more North, and are following some trails in the Atlas mountains. These are a stunning range of mountains, with many tracks that can bring you all over the place. Some of these tracks can be pretty narrow as we learned today!

We decided to wild camp on the trail we took, and it was nice and sunny the day before, and we had a very mild evening, then we woke up to this:
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It wasn't especially cold, just a little below freezing, but with the wind chill, it felt pretty cold when I got out to take a few photos. Still, we plan to get to the coast within the next 2 weeks, so that should be a lot warmer, with no surprises!
 

mervifwdc

Adventurer
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!

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mervifwdc

Adventurer
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!

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

mervifwdc

Adventurer
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:



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

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Shipwreck on the beach, not far from Sidi Ifni

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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

Adventurer
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.

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mervifwdc

Adventurer
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...

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More photos here.
 

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