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Morocco Topics specific to Morocco, including Western Sahara west of the berm
Photo by George Guille, It's going to be a long 300km... Bolivian Amazon

I haven't been everywhere...
but it's on my list!


Photo by George Guille
It's going to be a long 300km...
Bolivian Amazon



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  #1  
Old 21 Jan 2018
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Wild camping and GPS
We plan a month biking in Morocco in May travelling light. We plan to do some wild camping and intend to take only sleeping bags and thermarests, ie no tent. Is that a mistake ?

Re GPS I plan to use paper maps and Chris's book, as I'm GPS illiterate. As a back up is my iphone good enough and if so should I download an app like Waze or something.Or should one of us buy something more sophisticated (not really my preference as I have a dislike of technology like this)

many thanks in advance
Alex
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  #2  
Old 21 Jan 2018
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You can pick up a cheap gamin zumo and load the olaf mapping as per Chris s book
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  #3  
Old 21 Jan 2018
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Or you may be able to pick up a gamin maroc sd card on ebay or similar, I got one off this site for £20
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  #4  
Old 21 Jan 2018
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Thanks for the response Chris.

Whats a cheap Garmin. I have had a quick look and new ones seem to be many hundreds but I found a near new one for £70.

Will they all do the job or do I need to have a minimum spec ?
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  #5  
Old 21 Jan 2018
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Use a smart phone and osmand or mapsme or Sygic apps or get a garmin and load Open Street maps on it

Few other apps that have free and regular campgrounds for morocco that will be useful
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  #6  
Old 22 Jan 2018
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Quote:
Originally Posted by alexhs View Post
We plan to do some wild camping and intend to take only sleeping bags and thermarests, ie no tent. Is that a mistake ?
I've experimented in the same way, taking a lightweight groundsheet and laying out the sleeping mat/bag on one half, then as I go to bed fold the other half over me to keep off the dew.

But if there's the slightest breeze it can affect the perceived temperature dramatically and Morocco is a mountainous country with large swathes over 1,000 metres, so night time temperatures can be quite low. So now I use a Hubba Hubba HP (warmer than NX version) which has a small pack size and less than 2kg weight. At a pinch you could share this between two people.

Another option which is slightly heavier is the Exped Mira II, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx2PGeHuP8g

Both these tents are freestanding which means you can pitch them in sandy or rocky ground without pegs so long as it's not blowing a gale.
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Old 22 Jan 2018
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Quote:
Originally Posted by alexhs View Post
I'm GPS illiterate. As a back up is my iphone good enough and if so should I download an app like Waze or something.
Yes do put an app (or 3) on your iphone - with off line maps.
Some apps are - Mapout, mapme ...
Do play with these locally so you know how they look and work. And then chose 1 or 2 and download the maps for Spain/Morocco.

Even if you get a GPS I'd still have your phone as backup.

Once you get GPS literate you may not go back.
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  #8  
Old 22 Jan 2018
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I have been in Morocco in April/May and as the tail end of the rainy season you can still get the occasional storm come thru. I would definitely bring a tarp or bivy.
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Old 22 Jan 2018
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GPS
I was highly GPS-resistant but Morocco has made me a GPS fan in fairly short order - at least for the mapping function. Any directions and routings should be taken with a spoonful of salt.

Google Maps works nicely as long as you have coverage - you can get a local SIM for 30MAD at any Maroc Telecom store and then load it up with cheap data from any convenience store (50MAD / 5 gig). You can get enough coverage to be useful over a surprisingly wide swathe of mountain and desert. But you will eventually run out of coverage and want something offline - which isn't possible with Google Maps in Morocco.

I don't know much about any other offline apps, but Maps.Me has served reasonably well (better than Google Maps for little roads / pistes) all around the country. It handles waypoints more clearly than a couple of other apps I tried - I've got Morocco Overland routes organized in folders that allow me to pop up this or that route as a series of flags.
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  #10  
Old 22 Jan 2018
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Hi again, nothing too techy a basic gamin zumo will do the job although u may need to pop an sd card into it, Tim will know more about olaf maps then me, think it's on his database? If not it's definitely in Chris s latest book. I use a zumo 50 and I would guess second hand it would b worth thirty pounds, it was only sixty pounds new from halfords
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Old 22 Jan 2018
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As a back up I have a small experia tablet with the navigator app loaded, it's GPS based and works well in maroc.
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  #12  
Old 22 Jan 2018
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Thank you all for this very useful info, it is much appreciated.
I will take up the challenge to get more GPS able..........and buy a small tent Tim, sounds sensible.
thanks

Alex
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  #13  
Old 22 Jan 2018
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May 2017 we had temperatures between 30 and 44 degrees, with over night temps not dropping below 30. Met 3 Spanish bikers in Imichil who were just sleeping out with sleeping bags.

Olaf maps are great but hugely out of date now, you much better off using navigation based on Open Street Maps, its more upto date and more accurate. Personally i still haven't found a smartphone/app combo as reliable as a dedicated unit. iPhones get very hot and use lot of power when using them for navigation in my experience. Whether you use an app or a dedicated gps your going to want the ability to input the waypoints from Chris' book.

This thread ad a good summary of apps listed http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...-tablets-92868 but doesn't seem to have been updated.

As mentioned get a Moroccan sim, I didn't pay for mine but get a maroc telecom one the coverage is better in remote areas than the other providers.
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  #14  
Old 22 Jan 2018
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Thank you Warden and All.
So, some kind of dedicated GPS thingy (garmin zumo) with OSM download and local SIM card for phone. I'll get the garmin and practice before departure.
Re sleep bags, are one season down bags suitable or should we go for something a bit better (mindful of future trips to Balkans etc I want to get something reasonably flexible).
I appreciate "it all depends on weather" but your feedback is brilliant.
thanks again
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  #15  
Old 22 Jan 2018
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I use Here maps you can download it for Android (not sure about Apple)
you can download them onto an SD card on the phone and use them offline.

they have maps for most of the world.
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