Western Sahara coast road.....worth doing???
 

Hi,
Off on a 2nd trip to Morocco in October with my husband, both riding F650GS's.
We have a few off and on road routes marked, but both like the idea of riding the coast road from Tan Tan to the Mauritanian border as well, we have almost 3 weeks when in Morocco.
Basically is it worth doing? Is it a boring straight road with not many varying views and scenery? Or is it stunning and worth the trip there and back? Or perhaps only worth going half way down?
Are there hidden deserted beaches?
Cheers
Laura

IMHO, for the time you have, you might want to stay and visit more of Morocco.
Go and have a romantic few days staying in the 'Petit Hotel' if you prefer modern or khaïmas if you fancy a taste of a nomadic bivouac.
Pierre's place (Fort Bou Jerif)
Ask him about the tides, check that you enjoy sand (!) and go and ride Plage Blanche always keeping an eye on the TIDE!
Try the very tasty 'Tagine de chameau aux pruneaux' :thumbup1:
Do more, do less miles !
Plenty of (almost) deserted beaches but just when you think you are alone....:Beach:

depends why you both like the idea of it. If you like the idea 'just because', then do it and enjoy it. You could always do a couple of days in NKT, 'just because'.

I've been up and down there a few times, and I wouldn't do it unless I was going through RIM. Past Dakhla you have the possibility of landmines (though I expect they're all cleared now, but you never know).

Dakhla is a day trip from the Canaries, so might not be full of the people you expect.

Personally, I'd take Tan Tan as the lowest end of the trip.

cheers

The coast road from Layounne south is about the most boring road imaginable. Long, straight, few towns, monotonous scenery. Enough scrubby plants/rocks to make it not unbroken sandy desert. It is usually a bit off the coast, often up on cliffs, so not even good views.

Personally, if I had three weeks I'd stay further north in Morocco and get out into the back blocks.

I did not like the 2000 km strait road through sahara. Had very strong side wind with sand so the paint of my bike was gone at the end but if you want to go to Burkina Faso its worth going:

Ａｄｖｅｎｔ&# xff55;ｒｅｓ motorbike expedition - 2 jears around africa

Thanks for your comments guys, been going through Chris Scott's book and reckon we'll go as far down as Laayoune then head inland to Smara then Assa :thumbup1:
Cheers

Very nice route, fantastic desert scenery from Smara to Assa IMO. bier

We'll be in the WS in about 4 weeks heading from Smara south before ending up in ~Boujdour off road then back north to Laayoune then off road across to Assa :)

Our paths may cross, we will be there around the same time :mchappy:

We'll keep an eye out for you. We leave here on the 4th travel down the coast of Morocco to Plage Blanche getting off road on about the 9th October then dur south via Smara and across the WS before heading back uo north through the Anti Atlas and High Atlas.

We're in a black Landcruiser and a green Trooper

The old entry point into Plage Blanche is now sealed and a military post built on top. They like to turn you away...
Speak to Pierre at FBJ
Check the tides! If you get it wrong, there is no way out with a vehicle...

Planning on staying at FBJ to get tide info although we'll have an idea before we get there if the timings ok

as above, the road through WA is a means to an end, just a way to get somewhere. It's a thousand miles of xxxx all!!

Two ways to do the road. One is at 100-120kph where everything is a blur. The other is to slow down to 80kph and spend time looking at what you're passing, and then pulling in ever so often to check out the view from the cliffs. I've done the road four times and find it not so boring when travelling slower.

Some pics: S10 Carry on Dakar!

.

Thanks for the replies, will definately go as far as Laayoune then across to Smara and north to Assa.
Thanks for the link Tim, some brilliant pictures there :cool4:

we've always done it by the former, well, on the way to somewhere else so then it does seem pretty boring. I guess one day I'll have to try and do it the second way and see what else is there!

Assa - Smara piste is a bit sandy in places and remote, you could do the whole piste without seeing anyone else, which is fantastic.

Pictures to give you an idea of conditions.

I was positively surprised of how much there was to see actually after hearing only negative opinions about the drive before. Whenever we got bored we just took one of the pistes to the cliffs and were amazed time and time again by the breathtaking views. Also the landscape varied a fair bit at least in comparison to what we had expected.
Might be a bit different in a 4x4 with some decent music playing and eating cookies compared to a motorcycle but I enjoyed the drive and certainly took too little photos.

Just a few more pictures for you Gallery Western Sahara

Cheers Fabian

You've travelled with me then:D

Of course everybody sees things differently and the ability to find interesting things varies a lot. According to your photos you are quite a good observer. :thumbup1:

But it's true, while the coastal road could be interesting, its spectacularity surely fades when you compare it with desert landscapes hiding in the inside, often just over the eastern horizon.

True, we did it after doing Tiz n Test on the way south through Morocco, hard to compete with that!bier

I will strongly recommend that you make a information sheet - a "fiche" - where you write down your name, address, home country , place of birth, passport number, occupation etc and make at least 30 copies to bring with you. You will guaranteed meet a lot of police roadblocks on your route. By giving them a copy, you´ll save a lot of time at those roadblocks. If you don´t have that, you´ll have to write down all this info every time. We did this driving through Mauritania and Western Sahara two years ago, and our stops at the roadblock were only a couple of minutes. And I do agree with the others, there is not much to see between Tan Tan and Dakhla.

The pre prepared fiche is probably a good idea but mostly I quite enjoyed stopping and chatting with the people at the roadblocks. Not much of a conversation sometimes I admit but it's a chance to get off the bike and after a couple of sessions you know the drill.