Nador to Nouakchott in 10 days??

[george t]

deal all,

planning a road only trip (16/dec to 6/Jan) from Nador to Nouakchott and allow 10 days (and back another 10 days).

I make it 2000 mls approx. which means 200 miles a day..

I only been south up to Agadir so not sure if my plan is feasible.. any ideas / advice will be welcome..

(two riders / two bikes a bmw_12GS and a TTR 600)

g t

[andybee]

Hi - If you are sticking to the roads, you should be able to do Nador to Nkt in 10 days - I've done it in that on a Honda XR (no BMW GS mile eater, I assure you!) and I met someone who did it in half that time (but was in a car, driving at night sometimes and all that jazz). I don't know if you've worked out your route for Morocco, but you might consider doing one direction South of the Atlas (Boudnib/Er Rachida/Draa Valley/Ouarzazate etc) and the other North of them if you want to take in Marrakech and whatnot.

Hope you have fun anyway.

Atb, Andy

[Theo_]

Hi George,

Last January I did Nouackchott-Tanger in 5 days on my KTM LC4 Adventure. I was at the end of my journey and was pushing it. The roads are good and I could have gone faster, but I didn't want the engine to run at too much rpm. Nouackchott-Tanger was 2.500 kilometer. So, 10 days for Nador Nouackchott should be fine without getting into stress.

The roads are very good. In Western Sahara there are hardly peoply living at the road (there are hardly people living there at all ;-) ) and so you don't have to be afraid of animals running on the road out of bushes. There are no bushes either ;-) This means you can go at full speed, if you want to.

Between Nouadhibou and Nouackchott there is a brand new road which is smooth and fast.

Cheers and have fun
Theo

[javierCarrion]

HI !!
well , I ve done Madrid -> Banjul in 4 and a half days . Nothing to be really proud , and mostly a stupid thing .

Vehicle was a 200 quid Ford Mondeo , 115HP.

Madrid->Marrakech 24 h.
Marrakech ->Layounne 24h
Layounne->Nouadibou 24h
Nouadibou->Dakar 24 hours (Including Diama's bourocratic hell for the car being older than 5 years old ).
Dakar ->Banjul a few hours.

(Passport stamps scans available if some call this bullsthit )


Tricks :

Obviously use the trans=moroccan toll hightway (Tanger->Sale , near Marrakech)
Obviously drive fast at roads , and very slow at cities .
Most of the Atlantic route (south of Tarfaya) can be done safely at 150Ks/h
From Nouadibou to Nouatchott you can blast at 200ks /hour quite safely

Pls note that in Sahara , winds blow constantly southwards , reducing the air-drag noticeably. As an experiment , I drive up to 80 k/h and that's where I felt zero relative air speed . So the wind actually helps you a lot . *(remember however that as you are drivnig in a "pocket" of air , very little air enters from the radiator ! , and this has caused lots of troubles on motorcycles , which got no cooling fan at all. (more on that in another topic)

Speed controls in Morocco !! A pain in the a*rse. But so far I have never paid , a bit of courtesy , offering them cigarrete , and thanking them for keeping the road safe , will do most of the time .


Notorious Black (dangerous) Spots :

All Area around Kenitra/Larache . People there drive like crazy
The 30km in and out of Marrakech are absolutely horrendous . People there drive like if drunk or worse . People overtaking in corners , then another car overtakes an incoming car , 4 vehicles in paralell in a 2 lane road , then a Donkey appears out of the blue in the middle , .. well , Its *that* bad.

The last Antiatlas mountain , arriving to Tiznit , That's serious - Its the one with all these curves , really step slopes , and so narrow that most cars can not cross an incoming (ussually slow) berlietz. Take your time.

But once past Tarfaya... basically you can drive at whichever speed you want.

Beware arriving Nouatchott . Lots of military controls in what looks like a highway . there are unexpected runabouts (near the MauritanianTV Offices ) and you can simply smash into one of those.



Bon Route ! .