New guys looking for Morocco Advice

[Boyscout]

Four of us are off to Morocco for the first time in May and any advice would be welcome. We will be taking big KTM/BMW Adventure type bikes, we are all experienced tourers, but only in Europe. We also all have a fair bit of off-road experience.
We have 18 days in Morocco and our proposed route looks like this:

1. (Ferry: Algeciras - Ceuta) - Tetouan - Chefchauen - Oezzane - Fes - Azrou
2. Azrou - Midelt - Er Rachidia - Erfoud
3. Erfoud - Merzouga - Hassi n Tafenna - Tagounite
4. Tagounite - Zagora - Ouarzazate
5. Ouarzazate - Gorges du Todra - (Tantattouche - Zaouia Sidi Moha ou Ayachi is this possible?)- Gorges du Dades - Ouarzazate
6. Ouarzazate - Ait Benhaddou - Tizi n Tichka - Marrakech
7. Rest Day
8. Marrakech - Asni - Tizi n Test - Igherm - Tafraoute
9. Tafraoute - Igherm - Tizi Touzlimt - Tata - Foum Zguid
10. Foum Zguid - Zagora - Ouarzazate
11. Ouarzazate - Agadir
12. Agadir - Essaouira
13. Essaouira - Marrakech - Demnate - Cascades d'Ouzoud
14. Cascades d'Ouzoud - Azilal - Bin el Ouidine - Khenifra - Sources l'Oum er Rbia - Ain Leuh - Azrou - Fes
15. Rest day
16. Fes - Meknes - Khemisset - Rommani - Mohammeda - Casablanca
17. Casablanca - Rabat - Larache
18. Larache - (Ferry:Ceuta - Algeciras)

Any thoughts about the route would be especially welcome.
Thanks.

[Eric DN]

Hi

The journey describes mainly paved roads. It depends on what is your goal, ( riding only or riding and visiting ) but to my opinion your stages are quite long in terme of km. When I planned my trip, I tried to plan stages less than 300 km long and mainly off road.
A puncture or something to fix on the side of the tracks, and you spend one hour.
In Morocco avoid to ride during night and especially on the road, you can find bicycles, moped, dogs, donkeys, carts etc.... without light. I think paved roads are more dangerous than tracks.

Eric
Two 400 XR in Morocco - ADVrider
Deux 400XR au MAROC
Picasa Albums Web - Eric

[Boyscout]

Thanks for the reply Eric.

I was aiming for no more than 20% off-road and had based the route (and maximum daily distances) on posts I'd read on here - particularly from Tim's earlier suggestions for a newbie tour. - Perhaps I need to think again?

Anyone else have a view?

Steve

[Lisa Thomas]

We crossed from Algeciras - Ceuta a few years back...

have a read of this - it may help....then any questions you can mail me.
2ridetheworld.com : diary

We were in Africa for a little while and whilst in Morocco we thouroughly enjoyed our time. We also have our GPS route availalbe on our index page.

try not to miss out on some sand riding.....

cheers
Lisa

[roamingyak.org]

My 2p!

Other than the sexy Tangier/Casa (& Marrakesh now?) toll road, you will struggle to average more than 70km p/h on most roads. They are clogged up and there are plenty of Policemen with Radar guns (400 dirham fine - just be polite and 20 mins may get you set free if your away from a town)

Your route is a driving tour where you will experience very little of the places on your list. Either limit yourself to the north or the south with a big city on the way down and back. It looks good to see all of the places on paper but you want to experience more than just Moroccan roads and roadside cafes.

"Erfoud - Merzouga - Hassi n Tafenna - Tagounite" is a huge days drive, especially if the piste has any problems - flooding or flood damage is common. Allow 2 days for this at least and camp out in the desert.

etc etc ;-)

[Boyscout]

Darrin,

That's useful thanks. 70kph! I hadn't banked on that... I had suspected that the Erfoud- Tagounite stretch was a bit ambititious though - thanks for the confirmation.

Eric,

I have now ordered Sahara Overland in the hope that I can get more information on the road / track surfaces - as between the various comments I've read on here I'm no longer sure which are sealed roads and which are unsealed tracks ?


Steve

[roamingyak.org]

Yip, lots to see and places to stop for photos, narrow windy roads, overloaded non-turbo trucks everywhere etc etc. You can do Tangier to Marrakech in one long day, but away from the highways it's much slower: 70km p/h is a average - sometimes slower, sometimes faster.

Slower is always best. And after a mammoth day you usually have a slower day (at least thats my experience in the comfort for a landy ;-)

Imho Meknes/Fes and Marrakech are worth going to. From Marrakech take one of the two mountain routes, do a big half circle in the desert and take the other mountain route back to Marrakech. Tafroute is lovely, Tata is relaxed with no hassle, Tagounite to Merzouga is a great route, Zagora, Merzouga/Erfoud/Rissani suck.

Watch my video trailer and you will see a few shots of the various piste driving conditions. Morocco is all rock, very little sand.
http://www.roamingyak.org/video/index.html

In a nutshell, slow down, go to less and see more.