Where do the pistes begin - Morrocco
 

Hi, my question is like Richard's SV650 question in reverse. I plan to trailer my XR400 to the south of spain then ride onto the ferry for a week or so exploring the Atlas and seeing some dunes. I want to avoid the tarmac as much as possible but it seems the pistes begin a fairly long way South-East of Cetua. Although the bike is registered and road legal I don't want to destroy my knobblies getting to the dirt, do I have to trailer it into Africa? Any help much appreciated.

We did the same things with our Africa Twins. Plan to spend an easy day on Tarmac before hitting the pistes. You could possibly do it in a half day, depending on your route.

You might like to look at crossing into Melilla rather than Ceuta, and then head towards piste M1 in Sahara Overland.

You will be out on the piste quite quickly then within a few hours of getting across the border, and you will then be able to head down the Plateau du Rekkem where there are various pistesto either Bouarfa or Beni Tajjite.

It's fairly remote out on the plateau, and cold and windy if in winter, but the quickest way to forget that you were just in Europe.

I have quite a few web pages on this starting here:
http://www.roamingyak.org/morocco/di...y2melilla.html



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Cheers, Darrin
NEW Moroccan Desert Pistes DVD out now:
http://www.roamingyak.org/video/

Thanks for the advive Gibbo and DJ. Excellent site too. I need to look into the relevant extra expense of the Melill crossing against the extra road riding from Ceuta to the Pistes. Something to think about. Cheers.

No worries Dave, just saw that your Portugal, so maybe Ceuta is the better option - also check the ferry times. My ferry into Melilla got in at 8:30pm so you would need to overnight somewhere near the border in a hotel etc

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Cheers, Darrin
NEW Moroccan Desert Pistes DVD out now:
http://www.roamingyak.org/video/

Slightly off topic but can someone please explain this term Piste. There I was thinking it was a ski slope; but I am clearly misaken.

Coming from Southern Africa we talk about "The Bush" or "Veld". Anything higher than a mole hill is a "Koppie" and anything higher then that is a "Mountain" and a steep winding road going up a mountain would be a "Pass". That pretty much covers it all.

Piste is a French word for off-road track, or unsealed track or such like. All of the French speaking north African countries use the term.

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Cheers, Darrin
NEW Moroccan Desert Pistes DVD out now:
http://www.roamingyak.org/video/

That makes sense.

Thanks