There are hard packed areas and there are soft areas. I can imagine the cars would have done OK, but bikers on heavy Bavarian tractors with "minimal off road experience" and zero sand experience would find it a nightmare.

I am reminded of the three Portuguese riders who got into trouble near Erg Chebbi. One guy went for help and when he returned the other two, who were brothers, were dead. That was June.

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"For sheer delight there is nothing like altitude; it gives one the thrill of adventure
and enlarges the world in which you live," Irving Mather (1892-1966)

Any soft bits could be ridden around on the smooth hard packed bits. Then there’s one soft Oued before the Sacred Oasis. From there you can carry on to lac Iriki and Foum Zguid avoiding any sand.

It was 41 when we were there and the overnight rain caused some mud closer to Mhamid for the rally the next day

Thanks for the advice.
After riding the R704 from north to south, to Boumaine Dades, N'kob and Agdz for the night, we headed west to the coast and found some more amazing roads.
What a trip.
Biking heaven.

52C on ext temp gauge here a couple of days ago. Whatever the real temperature was, it was HOT!!! Glad I was driving not riding.

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We drove Mhamid to FZ today. Not done this since the last millennium in a 60 series boneshaker along the corrugated/stony northernmost track and was put off forever. Never actually ridden it.
Today, just followed our noses out of Mhamid in an auto TX; a deep-sand roller-coaster for a few km with the added risk of meeting others belting in from the camps. Even in a car there are places you'd not want to stop and try and start again.

That was my conclusion. Must be something less testing to the north? but if there is a sand-free way out of Mh, I'd be interested in seeing a tracklog.

We turned south at the Oasis then skirted the Erg's north edge along miles of soft sand ruts to Iriki. Driven this before but would't fancy riding that on a travel bike, either.
But from there we went diagonally SW across the lake (a track on OSM/free Gaia) which, even in poor viz, was great fun, threading past isolated dunes. Came in at the Control (fort, no one in) carried on west via Dakar mounds and loads of other signs/mileposts etc, then turned north via Nsour Pass (Control; pic below) which I recognise from Tim's video 4 thumbnail. All up a great route and just about the smoothest way to link FZ with Mh in a car. Who knew! Loads more enjoyable than Kem Kem to Tagounite, for example (looking forward to not doing that for another 25 years).

For 'MS7' and variants, westbound on a regular travel bike up to GS12 etc, I'd come in/exit via the Tagounite/Jebel Bani gap and sit it out to the north until you can cut across to the Rimal cafe on the Lac (on Google Maps), then ride as above, going low, across then up to FZ for an OJ at Ibrahim's.

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Adventure Motorcycling Handbook 8 • Morocco Overland 3 • Overlanders Handbook 2 • Twit

Hi Chris,

To avoid the all the small dunes W of Mhamid, there's a piste a few km north of town. Begins at N29°53.6 W5° 37.2. on a bend on the N9. It heads generally W for 30km before joining the rough hamada pistes from Mhamid. I'll dig out the track log.

Back out next week.

Happy trails,

Peter

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Atlas Overland - Specialist adventure tour company providing off-road holidays for 4x4 enthusiasts in Europe and North Africa.
Tours to Morocco, Iceland, Arctic Circle, Portugal, Alps, Pyrenees, Eastern Europe, Corsica, and UK weekend tours.

Thanks Peter. I see it on the OSM Topo, about 16km before Mhamid.
.gpx copied off the map.
Good to know.

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Attached Files

Dune-free to Sacree.GPX (18.3 KB, 8 views)

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Adventure Motorcycling Handbook 8 • Morocco Overland 3 • Overlanders Handbook 2 • Twit

Pretty much it. Looks like there’s a NW piste out of Mhamid centre that intersects.

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Atlas Overland - Specialist adventure tour company providing off-road holidays for 4x4 enthusiasts in Europe and North Africa.
Tours to Morocco, Iceland, Arctic Circle, Portugal, Alps, Pyrenees, Eastern Europe, Corsica, and UK weekend tours.