hi all
i have just started reading Chris's books - Morocco Overland and Sahara Overland in anticipation of my trip to Morocco Sep/October 2018
seems like there is so much to see there so i am still trying to get my head round it. so far, i my draft road plan is to take the ferry from Almeria to

- Melilla > Taourirt > Outat el Haj > Missour > Beni Tajjite > via ME7 to Tazouguerte > Aoufous > Erfoud > Erg Chebbi (for some dune time) and then onto Erg Chegaga and take the Lac Iriki

I am not sure if this route is any good keeping in mind I will be on my own so do not want to make it too challenging and I still am not sure whether I shall

a. take MS12 (Black Rock Desert) after Erg Chebbi
b. take Lac Iriki after Erg Chegaga ?

Has anyone done the above (or similar to it) route recently?

My plan is to frive up north via Marrakesh and Casablanca (maybe add Rabat too) to take the ferry back to Europe.

From your profile name i am guessing your are driving a 4x4? But if so the route you have chosen is fine. You will have good tar roads available for most of it but can head off on dirt anytime really. So you can be as adventurous as you feel comfortable with. The time year you are going is the best for Morocco...not too hot but before the winter rains. I haven't done the Almeria-Melilla ferry...i usually go Algeciras-Cueta. We will be heading down again about the same time so if you have any specific questions fire away.

Lac Iriki is a great drive provided you don't follow the awful stony route near the hills. Set N29 56.896 W6 21.973 as a waypoint and from there head west-south-west. After about 8km, head south-west to N29 44.776 W6 35.546 and from there head due west.

Take sand ladders.

__________________
"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)

Hi Tembo, yes, its a disco 3 that I will be driving in.
Re routes, I am very useless when it comes to route planning so not sure how I am going to find the dirt tracks!?
I own a Garmin sat nav which I am gonna install Olaf maps and Michelin paper map is on the way, believe paper map is a better option (at least for me)

Tim, thank you for the heads up, just curious if I can add coordinates as way points to Garmin or you recommend another device?

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Hi,
Good advice from Tembo and Tim.

Looks a nice route, probably looking at about 2wks in Morocco comfortably, don't try and do to much though, you'll be suprised how long it takes to drive relatively short distances, even on sealed roads.

I've done parts of MS12 and MS6 from Erg Chebbi solo, realitively easy, just make sure you and your vehicle are prepared. And don't get into the hype, you needing all the gear and prepping your D3 like it's the Paris-Dakar. I've met bog standard D2's and Series doing quite well, though most vehicles are carrying the basics; spares, sand ladders, extra fuel/water, first aid kit etc etc.

A Garmin is more than good enough depending on the model, if it allows you to add maps etc. Most people will have an outdoor model, eTrex, Montana, Oregon, GpsMap 64 etc, they have a dual power supply, in case one fails.

Olaf maps are good, though out of date, so with those and Chris's books you'll be ok. I do humbly suggest you spend time on google/Youtube and get to know your Garmin, adding maps, waypoints, POI's etc, it's far easier at home, then in 50C in the middle of nowwhere. Paper maps are great if they're a big enough scale and you can use a compass, that said Michelin is one of the better ones out there, and is good enough as a guide.

There's a lot of info on here, do a search. And hopefully others will be along.

And enjoy it! Safe travels.

UKNomad has it right around tracks and navigation. You can't really overplan it really. There are some 'major' tracks like Chris Scott's routes, but pretty much everywhere is crisscrossed with little tracks. These change annually after the rains, so no point in trying to follow a specific route. I usually do a google earth study and pick out a series of lat/longs i use as nav points. Then just follow tracks headed in the right direction. If no tracks, I just set a compass bearing and make my own. I also check trip reports to find decent auberge campsites and fuel stations. I generally plan on hitting a town every 3 days to resupply, so they make good nav points s well.

And definitely don't overpack. All the guys i went with on the first trip in 2012 all brought way too much gear and ended up stuck and damaging their suspension. Each subsequent trip they stripped out more and more crap the traders tell you that you can't go without. As UkNomad say, just bring the basics...your D3 will do fine.

I'd add going to Nador port (Mk) not adjacent Melilia (Sp) - it will be less (no) border hassle. See other recent post about getting insurance here.

Paper I find great for planning, on the roads and the big picture; not so useful for actual nav on the piste at the scales available because, as said, there are so many tracks out there.
Once you get the hang of Olaf (or similar) you will not look back. I've done Morocco with a £50 used Nuvi (with Olaf) but now i've got the hang of it, I love my do-it-all Montana. The bigger screen the better in a car (or anything, tbh).

The ME routes will be a nice way of acclimatising to it all and MS12 is a much under-rated route but you'll probably see no one (unlike MS6). Before that, MS11 is a great way of arriving Chebbi, too, with a tiny bit of soft sand to get you in the mood.

Depending on how brave you feel (easy at home; less so with a desolate desert track before you ;-), before the the river at MS12 KM82 (or with less exposure at KM114), you can turn south to pick up the less busy end of MS6 and follow it all the way to Tagounite.

We did MS77 in a Pajero after the book came out and I must say it was initially less rough than described and then really quite pleasantly sand rutty down to the tent camps @ KM74 - and carried on that way round the north side of the erg to Lac Iriki. Easy fun in a fourbie; never got close to getting stuck. Then stony again coming back in to FZ. All depends on your suspension and/or tyre pressures.

From FZ if heading back north I'd recommend MA7 - a great drive.

Make sure you visit the book's updates page.

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

Your Garmin should be fine. The first coord I gave is one of a line of 'tea houses' in the middle of the lake. There's another four or five strung along the west-south-west track. Then nothing (grin).

__________________
"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)

Chris,

Your book is great help!! Thank you for spending the time to publish such book again and many thanks to all for your input, it makes my planning a lot easier.

I was thinking of leaving Erg Chebbi on MS12 and as you suggested take Southernly route towards Hassi Remila and join MS6 onto Tafraoute and then onto MS4 to finish at Zagora.

This route seems quite easy while I am sitting home as you suggested ) but is it actually a difficult one and do you think above route can be achieved in a day and on my own?

I have been offroading and greenlaning for almost ten years now including mud, sand, rock etc in various 4x4s so have a bit of driving experience but being alone and thousands of miles away from home I wouldn't like to get stranded and turn what is meant to be a smooth trip into a nightmare, though breakdown could happen even in a motorway I know....My plan is to keep the disco almost stock but with sump guard protection, usual service and few spare parts, I also hate overprepping like I am going on a mission to drive to Far East in 1 month...


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I seem to have lost my Garmin sat nav grrr!

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I swapped from Garmin to Smartphone with openstreet maps. No regrets at all.

We did the northern route round lac iriki. Good advice to go south instead!

We took a DeLorme for emergencies, but locals and other travellers will not be far away.

Openstreet maps work a bit slow on my phone so guess I will get anotger Garmin to install Olaf maps + paper maps for route planning.

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You can load OSM maps onto a garmin, the maps are much more upto date than olaf's are now

i have searched the forum but not able to find the correct thread..anyone know how to send maps from Pc to Garmin device

Mapsource.

__________________
"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)