Morocco - Marrakech drive times

[Tim O'Neil]

Hi, I'm new to all this.

I will be in Morocco in 2 weeks time and will have a hired 4x4. I want to drive from Marrakech to Mhamid in one day. Is this a viable proposition? I will only have the truck for 5 days and want to do Chris Scott's M6 route amogst other things.

My main questions narrow down to:

How many hours from Marrakech to Mhamid?

How many hours driving from Merzouga to Marrakech?

and

How many hours from Marrakech to Foum-Zguid ?

Any good advice would also be gratefully received.

Many thanks.

Tim

[TT-Kira]

Originally Posted by Tim O'Neil

Hi, I'm new to all this.

I will be in Morocco in 2 weeks time and will have a hired 4x4. I want to drive from Marrakech to Mhamid in one day. Is this a viable proposition? I will only have the truck for 5 days and want to do Chris Scott's M6 route amogst other things.

My main questions narrow down to:

How many hours from Marrakech to Mhamid?

How many hours driving from Merzouga to Marrakech?

and

How many hours from Marrakech to Foum-Zguid ?

Any good advice would also be gratefully received.

Many thanks.

Tim

Be careful, there could be snow on the Tizi'n'Test ... but in 'normal' conditions it should take 9-10hrs from Marra to Merzouga - the road up over that area is interesting driving - be very aware of mad bus/grand taxi & other Moroccan drivers!

Don't drive at night, and be careful coming into Marra - there are a lot of police around usually with speed guns!!!

Kira

[Tim Cullis]

Yes, I suppose it could be done, but I would strongly advise you look at either getting more time, or scaling down your aspirations. Morocco isn't a racetrack and you are sharing the road with slow-moving vehicles with low-skilled drivers and animal traffic. The Tizi 'n Tichka is a major pass, there's another pass between Ouarzazate and Adgz.

There's loads of other pistes to try. You could take the Telouet turn off heading east from the top of the Tichka which turns into an interesting piste. Then just after Ait Benhaddou turn east on more pistes and you come out in the middle of Ouarzazate.

Bikershome in Ouarzazate is a good place to stay. Pick Peter's brains on pistes and enjoy Zineb's cooking.

Then there's a wonderland of pistes running north of, and parallel to the road from Ouarzazate to Boulmane. The area north of Kelaa M'Gouna and west of Ait Youl is particularly stunning.

You could then loop back going north up the Dades, taking the piste east just after Msemir, the south down the Todra, then take the M5 piste south from Tinerhir to Nekob. This is probably too much, but at least you can easily chop bits out.


Tim

[Eric DN]

Hi
fully agree with Tim, be carefull on the road in Morocco, avoid to ride too fast and by night.

We did Foum Zguid Mrkch, first part on track ( F Zguid Tazenak ) second part on road ( tizi n'tichka under rain storm mud flood etc...)

It took us more than 7 hours, you can find the diary there
Two 400 XR in Morocco - Page 3 - ADVrider
( thread 37, pictures no more visible ) I've got the GPS track if you want.

In french
Deux 400XR au MAROC: 28-10 Foum Zguid Marrakech 350Km Oueds en crue

Eric

[mystic]

Hi Tim,

If you end up getting down to M'Hamid, check out this thread (post towards the end):

Morocco GS Knowledgebase - ::. UKGS'er.com .::

I stayed there for a couple of nights earlier this year, strongly recommend this place.

Enjoy your trip

Mike