Morocco experts! Your help is needed for some routes

[viatormundi]

Hi again,
I was planning to book one night in Ibis Hotel in Fes but it is fully booked

Any accomodation suggestion in Fes which is biker friendly. I guess we should avoid the really center of the city or the old part.

[Tim Cullis]

Hotel Batha (pronounced Bat-ha) at N34 03.621 W4 58.916 is located very close to Bab Boujouloud which is one of the entrances to the medina. Part of the building used to be the British Consulate. Tel +212 55 74 10 77 but beware of double booking, so get confirmation by email.

Tim

[Linzi]

Regards my criticism: I saw an entry on youtube about the Imilchil festival. it showed Amazigh girls being forced to pretend to do a ceremony and have an SLR pushed close to their faces inside a small tent. I have then seen footage of similar girls fleeing, face covered from a village visitor with a camera. This traumatises them and it is this which made me angry, not anything any HUBBER said or does. Apologies, Linzi.

[viatormundi]

Originally Posted by Tim Cullis

Hotel Batha (pronounced Bat-ha) at N34 03.621 W4 58.916 is located very close to Bab Boujouloud which is one of the entrances to the medina. Part of the building used to be the British Consulate. Tel +212 55 74 10 77 but beware of double booking, so get confirmation by email.

Tim

Thx for the tip. I will check it. How is the parking the bikes situation in Fes? Is it safe to park on the street? Or do these hotels have some parking suggestions nearby?

I noticed Hotel Splendid in the new part of Fes, with decent reviews. Anybody stayed there? I thought the new part of the city might be better for parking the bikes etc.

[Tim Cullis]

You park in the street alongside the Batha Hotel where there are all-night parking guardians. The normal rate for a motorbike is 5-10 dirhams (I tend to give 5 if they have lots of vehicles to watch over, or 10 if business is slack).

If you keep in mind that daily wages for labourers is 80-120 dh you quickly get an idea of what's the right amount.

Tim

[viatormundi]

Hotel Batha is booked. Thx for the tip.

Another question. Is international driving license required in Morocco? We are Spanish and Swedish citizens. I though no but I would like to double check.

[kktos]

just read this thread with interest.
The "piste" from Midelt to Agoudal is really beautiful.
But it's a tad difficult, yes.
Did it on my first offroad trip...... Fear meter at the max.
I even manage to break the fork of the bike....
So I think it's a wise decision to avoid it.... for now.
Because when you'll return to Morocco, you'll have to do it.
It's fantastic.
But with some offroad experience and with nearly no luggage.
Have fun !
/thierry

[Jagoil]

We’re planning to visit Morocco next August and will focus on the south. We’re considering to include Midelt – Imilchil in our itinerary.
I would welcome any advice on whether the piste is easy enough for a 4x4 (Defender 110) considering the narrowness of the track or otherwise.
We’ll also want to include Merzouga – Mhamid (although will be hot around that time of year!). Can we expect a lot of traffic around that time/any other advice?

Thanks,
Olaf

[Chris Scott]

I dont think there is a 4x4 track in Mk that cannot be done in a 110!

I can't really relate to kktos' experience (first time on a bike is often a freak out). We did it last May in a car. It was dry. No problems. 4WD not needed. Tarmac from KM73-110 (last May) then at 163, just south of Imilchil. It's a great High Atlas Route and I imagine will be a bit cooler than down south in August.

Ch

[Jagoil]

Thanks Chris, that's reassuring. We'll make sure to include this stretch before heading more south.

Olaf

[viatormundi]

Hi everybody,
thank you very much for all answers and tips. Our preliminary route is the following.



Let's hope it will be an exciting adventure. I will try to post some daily comments and pictures with my mobile phone to my blog Adventures of ViatorMundi. I plan to write a detailed travel report and post it here after wards.

[Griffdowg]

Just a quick comment on the Zagora - Foum Zguid piste. I did this back in October, Exc piste. There seems to be some road building going on to the west at:

N30 03.608 W6 30.312

This is where i hit it from my track log anyway. Think from memory its 80ish Km in. The piste is meant to be ~130Km. The piste ramps up onto a 2 lane (sized) embankment rolled/compacted... time to drop the hammer

You really do pick up on time, we got all the way to Tata that day from Zagora. Just letting you know, incase you can fit more in/travel further.

Ps, that was in a LR 90 not on 2 wheels.

G

[viatormundi]

Thx Griffdowg.

[stef25]

is this morocco map compatible with a GPS like the garmin nuvi 255? ill be on a motorbike mounting this GPS in a see through case on handlebars). this nuvi works with mapsource.



how does it work, i download this map on to a memory card and load it up in the GPS? once the map's on the gps, all the usual functionalities are available?

what about these way points people mention, can you just punch them in to the gps and then tell it to "drive me there"?

ive been using tomtom car gps's for years, just have no experience with these off road maps, nor with mapsource or garmin.

thanks guys
stef

[Tim Cullis]

You can download the map using Mapsource, see nuvi 550...does it work with MapSource??? - ::. UKGSer.com .::

Maroc Topo is a fine mapset, however see the comments in my knowledgebase, "The Marokko Topo map segments don't take up much storage space as they don't include routing information. Consequently, when you come to plan a route using roads, you'll find the GPS will only use the original basemap roads. Which leads to the second point, that GPS navigation in Morocco is best done as 'off-road' straight lines between known waypoints."

There's a series of Mapsource tutorials at Mapsource Software & Maps - Questions and Tips - ::. UKGSer.com .::

Tim