Nothing at all Niva, but remember I´m pera for friends, Jose only at job...

Trying to find my friend pics I found this others. These people pass with an HDJ100 on july,2009 but they must come back because they couldn´t pass down in they bottom of the circus.

Sorry pera, i missunderstood, i'll take the friend option!

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I'll write small as its off topic and we'll get moderated.

... when I nearly bought your Yam XS750...

Was that the bored-out nitrous-oxide one or one I had before?
Can't remember what happened to the NO2, but I loved the non-nitrox XS650 and nearly bought one last year but he wanted 900 quid!
Nitrous could scare the horses, tho'...

Funnily enough a bloke has cropped up elsewhere on HU today with my original Garmin which I used to log Sahara O. It's a small world.

Back OT. Enjoy MH4 & MH5. MH5 cost me a lot, one way or the other so good to see people are giving it a bash (or in my case - no bash = cracked case). Jb Sarhro is a nice spot.

Ch

Attached Thumbnails

 

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I also hear the Oued Draa is temporarily blocking the far end of MW3 28km from Tan Tan (and possibly MW2 then).

Ch

Morocco Overland ~ Updates

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This is the current state of the pistes/roads in the area as of about a week ago. Starting from Midelt in top right corner there's 52km of sometimes quite technical piste (marked in red). Part way along you can see another cyan (easy) then black (really hard) track coming in. The black bit I named the 'Jaws of Jaffar' and you can see a video of it at YouTube - Jaws of Death. My classifications are based on motorbikes and in some ways the 'jaws' might be easier than the cirque for 4x4s.

The middle section that used to be a mix of good gravel roads and tarmac is now completely tarmac (dark yellow) and at the southern end you can see the new bit of tarmac road that bypasses the other section of technical (red) piste with all its river crossings. In all this section is 71km.

Below Anfgou is a 32km stretch of non-technical (cyan) piste that ends at tarmac just south of Imilchil.

My recommendation for a hotel in the area is the Auberge Tislite situated on the shores of Lake Tisli to the north of Imilchil. It's basic but the kindly lady who runs the place is a great cook. Video here: YouTube - Tislite Bride

Tim

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"For sheer delight there is nothing like altitude; it gives one the thrill of adventure
and enlarges the world in which you live," Irving Mather (1892-1966)

Also, in Feb, MH7 was blocked by a boulder at N30 46.998 W7 36.627.
I reckon with a couple of hours work we could have got round it (on the bank to the left), but it was just the excuse i needed to check out a camp spot a couple of km back down the track towards Anezal (it was stunning by the way, highly recomended).
I don't know how much traffic the route gets, it may well be fine by now, but this is what we found



Would need a bit more muscle than i'm carrying to shift that one!

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It's certainly a great location. 3 of us stayed there about 3 weeks ago. Bit early in the season, and freezing until they fired up the whacky stove in the main room, and the dorm felt a bit mothballed. We got the feeling they weren't really open yet, but they wouldn't budge on 240 Dh half board per person. (It was late and they knew we weren't riding any further having come from a desert bivvy south of Fezzou that day.) Good food though, and hot water, so overall I'd recommend it too.

Hi all,

The guys at the port have splashed out on a new X-ray scanner to check vehicles prior to embarkation.

At present, they're checking 4x4s, camper vans and trucks. Cars get a poke with a screwdriver and bikers get a nod and a wave!

Seriously, though, expect a 2 to 3 hour delay. We missed our ferry and were forced onto the slow boat - 3 hour crossing and then an hour bobbing in Algeciras harbour wairting for a berth. Not happy bunnies!

Other news, the free campsite in Larache has closed down, don't know why. The one down the road only takes camper vans. No sanitaires , I think. They were pretty unfriendly too.

The Cirque is still piste and Chris is correct the wooded gorge route has been blocked off. Tim, it's the short red section on your map,. We couldn't drive it, do you know different? The new route is a real feat of road building but let's see the effect of a few Atlas winters

Any one know if the Motorway reaches all the way to Marrakesh yet? I need a fast drive to Tanger next week.

Back in Tinerhir tonight and it's quarter to o'clock!

Happy trails,

Jojo

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Hi Jojo,

Thanks for the updates, we are heading to the south beginning of May, can't wait. Unfortunately only 2 weeks to spare.
Sad to hear Larache is closed, it was an easy first stop entering Morocco.
The scanner at Tanger port was there in July already, friends of our had to put their 130 camper conversion through, 3 batteries confused them a bit and it took a long time convincing them it actually were batteries.
According to Peter (Bikershome) the highway (toll) goes all the way from Tanger to Marrakesh (and back I guess but it's Morocco so you'll never know).

Question for the group:
We would like to take the fast ferry Tarifa - Tanger again, arriving in South Spain on a Sunday in the afternoon.
Does anybody know if Carlos' Ticket Office is open on Sunday? Or is it just as expensive buying the tickets at the port in Tarifa?

Kind regards,

Daan

You gonna moderate yourself Chris? It was the early non nitrous bike. Back on topic...MH4 & 5 should prove interesting as this will be my first big ride since operation on my thumb to repair a snapped ligament, i've cheated and fitted a steering damper for a bit of help.

Thanks Tim (Cullis) for the recent track log of the Jaffer, very helpful.

We'll be in Morocco on Saturday.

Hi Daan,

They're on their second scanner. The first one is parked up in a compound looking pretty sorry for itself. The New one is based around a shiny Mercedes truck. It's hooked up to mains power by an umbilical.

But in a typically Moroccan way, the power plug is bound to the mains socket with 3 metres of brown packaging tape that was gradually unravelling with each scan!

Current deal from Carlos - 170 euro for Algeciras Tanger on an open return.

Thanks for the autoroute info. The weather in Erfoud today is perfect, sand is firming up following a very hot March, everyone's very chilled after the Easter madness.

Come on down!

Jojo

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Tours to Morocco, Iceland, Arctic Circle, Portugal, Alps, Pyrenees, Eastern Europe, Corsica, and UK weekend tours.

Hi Jojo,
So it's waiting for fireworks at the port when it really starts raining.
Algeciras-Tanger, that's the slow boat . I only have got two weeks to spare this time, from which 6 days are gone travelling to and back from Holland to South Spain already. Can't blast southwards with two kids in the back, and miss that day's ferry, time isn't on our side. So I am planning to take the FRS which has a more frequent timetable.

Can't wait to see Morocco in spring, hopefully some water running through the rivers, more green and lower temperatures than July / August.
Just 16 days to go.

Daan

Our bikes are in Malaga, somebody lets off a volcano in Iceland, UK airports all closed, time for Plan B.

Neither end is blocked off, I was there a couple of days ago and rode about 1km in on the western end and about 3km in on the eastern end (it's 19km in total). It was late, there were black clouds and I was riding solo with luggage otherwise I would have tried the whole lot.

The eastern end has extensive traffic tracks but these are mainly trucks extracting rock and gravel. In places the side piste has crumbled and you have to resort to the river bed, plus ca change.

Tim

__________________
"For sheer delight there is nothing like altitude; it gives one the thrill of adventure
and enlarges the world in which you live," Irving Mather (1892-1966)

Hi all,

Thanks for that Tim. Yes I saw the side track had collapsed. wasn't sure how far I'd get in the Land Cruiser.

Back home for a bit. The journey home was interesting in the midst of the volcano trouble. Hats off to P&O for getting an extra 500 folk on the Pride of Bilbao and still managing to keep things normal on board.

A right mess at Tanger port again. 8 hours on the dockside this time due to queues at the scanner which caused us to miss our ferry. (We thought we were smart turning up 2 hours early. Ha!) Then the next one had technical problems, and so on.
Still, it gave us time to chat to various folk about the current situation. A Spanish ferry officer thinks the port is on a go-slow trying to extract as much cash as possible from unwary tourists while they can. The new Tanger Port Mediterranee witha new Port Authority will be up and running soon, so the lovely chaps at Tanger Ville Port may be out of work soon.

The new port's pretty impressive with lots of container handling capacity and new road and rail links that have been driven through the mountains.

Other news; the piste from Ait Benhaddou to Telouet has now been completely graded apart from in a couple of villages. They were just finishing the last section bypassing the treacherous hairpin & overhang where the fossil sellers hang out. A main route now for the Marrakech misery wagons!

They're building a new bridge in Midelt so there's a diversion around the west side of town which avoids the hassle at the petrol stations in the centre.

There's a new campsite at the Cascades d'Ouzoud. Hurrah! Camping Zebra is a few hundred metres out of town (Azilal side). Proper facilities, friendly staff Wifi maybe soon. Where will it end?

Back through Ceuta next month and into the Rif. Anyone know how it is in Ketama at present?

Happy trails,

Jojo

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Atlas Overland - Specialist adventure tour company providing off-road holidays for 4x4 enthusiasts in Europe and North Africa.
Tours to Morocco, Iceland, Arctic Circle, Portugal, Alps, Pyrenees, Eastern Europe, Corsica, and UK weekend tours.