How much is too much- Morocco on a motorbike
 

Hello all,

Going to Morocco from the 8th to the 18th of April, entering via Nador.
It's 3 bikes dessert readish... one of them 2 up. Minimal to none off road experience. First timers in Morocco

I find myself organising the route at the moment wanting to see as much as possible. Now my question is, would it be too much to aim for 350km a day? I'd like to do them through a mix of tarmac and well kept pistes. I do not want to do an endurance race, but rather something more relaxed and enjoyable. With as many stops for pictures as needed.

Your advice will be most welcomed.

Thanks!

PS: And on that note I'm a spanish rider, based in London with the bike currently in Alicante. Cheers all! I ride a vstrom- 650 DL K7

" would it be too much to aim for 350km a day?"


I see this come up so often and the answer is No and Yes. On a dl650 350km in a day is not too much on good roads. On bad "off roads" it could make for a very very long day. 350km on the occasional good road on a few days of your trip would be not too bad. 350km every day would make for a miserable dusty hot panic race in my view. Wanting to "see as much as possible" sometimes means you perhaps do 20km days?

I would suggest you really need to think more down the lines of: How many hours do I want to spend riding per day. How long do I stop to visit that old ruin, explore the souks etc..... If it's hot, what is the best time to ride and rest. If you are using hotels what time do you start looking for a bed for the night, you could be nowhere near one. If your camping it's different again.

Of course to some it's all about the riding and nothing else matters.

My advise would be to forget about trying to do big km, take your time each day and perhaps look at web links here for info if you haven't already.
Morocco Knowledgebase
Morocco, Travellers information | Horizons Unlimited

Cheers Tim,

Yes, I've been looking to around those sites quite a lot. Good point about the hotel planning for the night. I'll try to balance the stages.

Cheers

That sounds like a lot..

Seeing isn't always experiencing...

How much fun will you have sat on the highway watching your Odometer spin around...

:rofl:

You seem to have a romantic perspective on riding Morocco ;-)

Pists come and go. New ones get created, others get flooded. They appear. They disappear. They are not kept. Might be nice for a few kilometers, then sandy as hell for the next 20. Not easy at all riding two up with no experience. My recommendation is that you should stick to tarmac and prepare for next year.

Hello, I was under the understanding that some R roads were made of tarmac and hard packed gravel ? I could be wrong though.. I guess that is what I mean by well kept pistes

Cheers!

Well it dependson how much offroad you are planing and if you just want to ride "offroad" or real offroad and dunes. Then even 50 km can be really tirering but i think 300 km per day is ok if you dont make to many photostops and lunch breaks:

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Well. Tarmac roads are maintained. The rest is as they come and conditions will fluctuate. They are not really "maintained" while the type of surface can vary widely. Riding "dual sport bikes" without experience? Why not. Two-up? It might be more difficult.

But hey. Go for it. If it gets too tough, then just change direction.

BTW Mid April is when it starts getting hot. Gonna drink a liter of water per hour. ;-)

I suggest you watch as many Youtube videos and make-up your mind by yourself.

Bad advice which will lead to hyponatremia and you'll wash the sodium out of your body. There's no good reason to drink more than four litres per day, and in mid April I'd suggest two litres is a good target to aim for.

I tend to drink tap water rather than bottled. If you are drinking bottled water you need to be aware of the contents, for example, Ciel (made by Coca Cola) is basically tap water with loads of chlorine, and Sidi Harazem is good for cleaning dentures (I'm told) due to the minerals.

And make sure to take rehydration salts (and use them!). The thing riding in desert or very hot countries is that:


1 - you do not realise how dehydrated you are. As you get dehydrated, you lose concentration and coordination, increasing the risk of crashing, especially off-road - so as said, make sure you drink regularly;


2 - you sweat a lot and lose lots of salts. Low levels of electrolytes can result in diarrhea, constipation, cramping etc... Hence the rehydration salts.


My two cents based on my experiences... guilty of all.

Cheers guys, really helpful advice.

Like it's been said, if it gets ugly I'll turn around.

Cheers

Well. After losing some water and only having kept 3 litres of it in April 2016, I almost died from dehydration. By noon had already drank 3 liters. And it was when it started getting really hot in the desert, North of Merzouga. After finding a water well in the mountains, I didn't have enough force to lift the pouch. Got saved by nomads, the ones in this tent. It took me two hours to get back on my feet.

Whatever floats anyone else's habits, I would NOT risk my life on only two litres of water per day... Especially in the South ;-)

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How hot does it get mid April in Merzouga region?

I've ridden on 40C crossing Spain in July, that was painful...

April is three months before the hottest part of the year, but it could reach high 30s/low 40s. I've been on Lac Iriki in January when it was 30ºC, and I've experienced 39ºC in June.

In literally 50 or more visits to Morocco the highest genuine temperature I've recorded was 43ºC near Foum Zguid in October. There's temperature displays outside most banks but the numpties have mounted the sensors in the sun and they record 10ºC, even 20ºC higher than the actual shade temperature.

The whole of the area south and east of the High Atlas is a massive semi-arid region due to being in the rain shadow of the mountains. The surface is mainly stones and earth but in a couple of small areas, sand has been brought down by the Ziz, Rheris and Draa rivers. These 'ergs' are not desert. They are even less the 'Sahara Desert' as the locals would like you to believe. The geological term for this area is 'Pre-Saharan Steppes'.

This map shows where the Sahara actually is (basically Algeria and Mali).

The largest town in this area is Ouarzazate. In the summertime this is normally slightly cooler than Marrakech as it's at 1200m, against M'kech's 450m. Merzouga is at 800m, so normally a bit warmer than Ouarzazate.

Hydration is really important and it seems what happened to Massive Lee is an accumulated shortfall rather than the effects of just one morning. I concentrate on staying well hydrated and then always start the next day chüg-a-lugging half a litre before setting off.

Packets of rehydration salts are useful but many years ago I was on a 14-day trek with mules finishing up with an ascent of Jebel Toubkal (4200m) when 12 of the party came down with D+V. Rehydration packs quickly ran out and I made up many bottles with a mix of 6 tsp sugar, 1 tsp salt to 1 litre of water.

What you need most is the sugar and salt which is why when you arrive at hotels you are often served with welcoming refreshments of sweet mint tea and salted peanuts.

Posts #11-12 and #18 on this thread talk a lot about high temperatures and the effects.

i'd agree that you need a hell of a lot of water and added salts/sugar to travel hot pistes especially gnarly sandy ones.

I'd say each pick up of a 650 with lots of luggage would cost about 400mm in water minimum and a little sit down in the shade afterwards. Repeat 20 yards further on and then you start to worry!

After while you get better, but 6 litres over 100km was far to little for me and I had to ask some lovely Berbers for some water. they were ever so kind sat em down for a mint tea, a chat and in the end we all took the piss out of me for being an idiot.

I count it as one of my finest moments! :D