We traveled in Feb/March 2014 in a Defender 110.

MA1 - Tiserkine Gorge was lovely. It was tricky to find the track out of Afella along the oued at km 52. Just very faint tracks in the oued and we kept losing it. Just go on direction. Some road building going on in the area around the engravings. We planned to go south on MA1 and then back north on MA2 turning at km 89. As it turned out MA1 would have been a much better place to camp due to road building on MA2 (see below).

MA2- We started at km 17 having come down MA1. We had hoped to camp around km 26 as per Chris's suggestion but there is a big new road passing through the valley. It is up high and even if you can get off the road to the argan trees you would be completely visible. The road goes past Igmir and climbs up out of the valley.

MA3- The piste off the main road at the start is now tar and this continues for the first 8-10 km. This makes the directions at the start of the route a little redundant - no more crossing in and out of oueds etc. Tagahirt seems to now be a lot bigger. We also couldn't find the turn to the engravings.

There is a lot of work going on on the R109 they are building three big new bridges.

The track through the gorge is the bed of the oued. I don't know if the stones have compacted with use but it was a good and fairly smooth driving surface. We were also expecting the track to be a lot narrower than it was. We passed a few small trucks coming the other way. The climb out is indeed steep! Once up on the plateau there is a big wide new road with the odd quarrying truck barreling by at 80kmph.

The steep loose descent into Aouklid is also no longer. Actually I think it is still there as a turn off from the road but there is a brand new wide graded road which switchbacks down the other side of the drop. It is still a stunning descent. I have a great little video if I can ever work out how to post it.

When you approach Tamegroute the road to the left is a kind of bypass around the village. Right if you want to visit the shop.

We took a wrong turn after Afella. There was a sign right to Tafroute which we took which took us back via Ait Mansour.

MA4 - a nice drive but if you are doing in reverse remember to carry on along the N12 until the waypoint Chris gives. If you take the earlier turn to Taghhjit you can't get through.

MA5 - we started from Tafraoute. At km 30 don't bother turning SE onto the piste. it is now just 100m of very rough track that joins the new tar road. The tar doesn't last long and the road down through the gorge was lovely. We camped at Amtoudi along with half the population of France, and "enjoyed"an evening of accordion playing and dog howling. There is a very nice place to stay at the other end of town which I wish we'd found. You can also eat there if you give some notice.

Herewith a quick review on MH10 (Alnif Dades) and MH1 (Dades Imilchil), ridden in one day, April this year.

Loaded bikes(tyres) were: Africa Twin (TKC80), Multistrada (TKC80) and R1200GSA (E07).

MH10 - Alnif-Dades, reverse order as featured on Morocco Overland
Overall an easy piste, gravel all the way until Iknioun. No sand at all, some loose gravel requiring a bit of attention when you go through Oued Tazlaft dry bed.
Nice rocky formations as landscape.
From navigation the crucial points are:
- N31 8 0.72 W5 26 25.98, km81 from Morocco Overland route, where you should turn North to avoid the MH5 part
- N31 10 41.3 W5 25 23.3, not featured in Morocco Overland. Here the direction to take is North, the GPS is pointing to W so can be misleading
Duration 3h30m including two relaxing stops. Then tagine in Dadés for lunch.
Pictures can be found here https://www.flickr.com/photos/148874...57675345912122



MH1 – Dades Imilchil, reverse order and second half of MH1 as featured on Morocco Overland
Most of it is sealed.
Gravel can be divided in two parts:
- going up to Tizi n Ouano, 2900m, the progress is slow on the sequence of hairpins. But the landscape is worth it!
- after descending the piste is flatter, easier and faster until Agoudal. Oncoming traffic were big groups of 4x4.
No troubles with navigation, in some villages just roughly follow your GPS bearing and you’ll find your way.
Duration was 5h30m with several stops. Then tagine (again?!) for dinner at Malika’s, near Lac Tislite.
Pictures can be found here https://www.flickr.com/photos/148874...57676976823835



MS6 we did in Nov2011, reported in the HUBB here http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...9-2#post356122


Regards and all the Best,
Luís

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Luis Cabrita, Honda XRV 750 Africa Twin '97
Flickr & PolarSteps

As above....

MS5; still about 40kms either graded or stony/sandy, a few diverts off road.

Attached Files

Me MS6 north ramila.gpx (604.0 KB, 506 views)

What is the conditions piste MA2, for motorbike with road tires?

As it's usually bone dry and stony, I would say the weight of the machine is more relevant than the tyre tread. It's a great route and may be largely sealed by now

Merc 190 on the steep ascent out of Igmir (10 years ago)

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Motorcycle is a gs 1200, I drove from Tarfrouta against Igmir.

We traveled MA2 earlier this year. There's a big new road through the Igmir valley. I can't see from my notes if it was tarred but am pretty sure it was. I recall Chris's book mentioned a couple of nice places to camp along this route. Unfortunately you can't get off the new road in a car and even if you could do it on a bike you would be visible from the road just about everywhere. MA1 had some better options for camping.