Morocco March 2016

[David Davies]

You really do have some amazing replies and there is not a lot I can add. Cost can be as low as £1,500 door to door. Keep the vehicle standard. All you need is underbody protection and a snorkel. You need a fridge and again no aircon. You can easily be ready for March. I live close some miles east so you are welcome to look at my 110 - but it is a basic 300tdi hard top to keep it simple.

Great people on here your right great replies.
I'm taking the kids to Florida in March so this year will be out of question for me I'm sorry to say.
However not sure if you guys do any day trips I could tag along in?
Be great to find out what these things are able to do before taking it across Europe lol!
Hopefully there will be another trip you guys are running next year?
I had a look at the blog you posted and really looked like a great trip. Nice images and loads of info on there, fantastic job!!
Many many thanks for your help guys
Dai

My Defender is a 1990, 110, 200 TDI off the shelf basic Defender. The only thing I had changed was the front axle as the original was bent. I fitted a Salisbury front axle which are supposed to be stronger.
Before going I had changed the wheel bearings, steering ball joints and shocks. Otherwise a Defender is good to go as it is. That's what they were designed for. I didn't kit out the back as some people do. I just threw everything in the back which resulted in jars of tomato soup and a few other jars of sauce ending up of the inside of the windscreen as soon as we went off road. Next time round I will make sure things are strapped down. If your Defender is in good working order and serviced it's good to go. Forget about high lift springs etc. That only puts stress on other components which will lead to failures. Keep it standard. My springs are the original 1990 ones. If you do have a breakdown standard parts are much easier to get hold of out there and easier to get repairs done. One person in our group fitted higher lift suspension, they said next time round they wouldn't bother. We went everywhere they went with standard height springs. The only difference was when they got stuck in the sand they just went down a couple of inches deeper.
Oh, just thought, I have a sump guard, snorkel and bull bars on mine also. The sump guard gives piece of mind. Bull bars look butch but not many Bulls in the desert, The snorkel does help keep the air clearer for your engine as it takes the air from higher up rather than almost next to your front wheels. But the sand and dust gets everywhere. One year on I'm still finding sand in it.

Chris did a blog of our trip which you might be interested in: http://land-rover-discovery-1.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/day-2-morocco-trip.html
We had a great time. We are not out there to see if we can destroy our vehicles. If you take it steady the stock Defender will take it all in it's stride.
Cost wise, between my friend and I we spent about a grand each. The only other expense you will have is the crossing from the UK. That included a couple of nights in hotels, fuel, eating out. a couple of times. To get ****ed, you have to take your own beers etc.

Many thanks
Great blog

 

[MrNasty]

Well, I fired up the petrol stove, and, well, no issues yet, powerful little thing.

 

[mikescuba]

Well, I fired up the petrol stove, and, well, no issues yet, powerful little thing.

Pleased to hear it. But I will still set up my pitch abut a hundred meters away from you and have a fire extinguisher to hand.

 

[OLDUN]

A few yards from our house today. Silly council put the depth recently in feet and inches.
Need to go somewhere dry.

 

[mikescuba]

View attachment 95532
A few yards from our house today. Silly council put the depth recently in feet and inches.
Need to go somewhere dry.

He looks like a good candidate for the next Morocco trip, Quick sign him up Ken.

 

[MrNasty]

It's only little Mike, heh, not sure of what you were thinking it would be like lol, cooked some beans and sausages and had a couple of coffees off it just now in the barn. Still have my eyebrows.

 

[MrIFan]

It's only little Mike, heh, not sure of what you were thinking it would be like lol, cooked some beans and sausages and had a couple of coffees off it just now in the barn. Still have my eyebrows.

If you are going to be using petrol from the pumps, rather than the tins of Colemans white fuel, get a couple of spare generator tubes to take with you. They can quickly clog up, especially if the fuel is not perfectly clean, and then soon go from a rough burn to bloody useless! It's possible to clean them out but not easy. It's the main reason I replaced mine with an MSR, it still clogs up but takes longer to do so and is much easier to clean.

 

[mikescuba]

Does anyone know of any other sites where you can find recent trips across Morocco. There used to be a 4x4Morocco.com but that appeaser to have folded up. Or is everyone giving Morocco a miss these days?

Just found the answer to my own question: http://www.4x4overlandtravel.com/

 

[MrNasty]

I flick through the Horizons site once in a while, Morocco doesn't seem to be any different than reports from last year, apart from that stuff about invading Ceuta, which is improbable.

Home office site highlights in red which parts of the Western Sahara are dodgy, I haven't come across anything that indicates the security issue has worsened.

Biggest risk is coming across people and weapon smugglers, some annoyed group of people that live over the border from the Western Sahara in Algeria that hate Morocco running the place, odd ISIS individuals around the same area again, and random Brits roaming about in old 4x4's that have run out of beer.

 

[MrNasty]

If you are going to be using petrol from the pumps, rather than the tins of Colemans white fuel, get a couple of spare generator tubes to take with you. They can quickly clog up, especially if the fuel is not perfectly clean, and then soon go from a rough burn to bloody useless! It's possible to clean them out but not easy. It's the main reason I replaced mine with an MSR, it still clogs up but takes longer to do so and is much easier to clean.

I've had a play with some pipe cleaners and brake cleaner to clean out the generator tube, brake cleaner seems to clean the tube quite well.

 

[MrNasty]

So the wife was asking me about a hotel to stay at in Marrakesh on the first day in Morocco, I suggested somewhere near the airport, as she flies back to the UK the next day, are you two, ken and Mike going to stay with us? Or have I got to come find you after I drop my wife off at the airport or you come and meet me? Hotels are stupidly cheap, saw some at £10-13 per night with secure parking, lol

Made the plan when Chris was going to collect his wife, but flight is booked and my wife is coming down.

 

[OLDUN]

Always a little reluctant to go near Marrakesh but there is a hotel/camp site/restaurant (where I have even had a meal) and will look for its location - don't think it's too far from the airport. What date would this be James.
I hope we can go into part of WS - it's very much the empty quarter with amazing landscapes.

 

[mikescuba]

I have posted a thread on 4x4 overland travel site. I recieved a couple of replies. One said a group went April last year with no problems. I would have thought more groups would have gone in normal circumstances.
Plus I also received the message below.

Hi Mike,

Myself and my business partner are actually based in Spain - roughly midway between Andorra and Barcelona. The village is called Sant Boi de Lluçanès 08589 in Catalunya.

Your group is welcome to drop in here for the night en route. We have space for your vehicles, no problem. Open house here with like-minded folk!

My email signature says it all ...

Tom McGuigan
Off Road UK / Europe Events Ltd.
8 Carrer Maragall
Sant Boi de Lluçanès 08589
Catalunya
Spain

Mobile: 07958 216266
Landline (freephone UK only): 0800 180 4286
Landline in Spain (international): 0034 938 527 988
Email: [email protected]

www.4x4calendar.co.uk
www.4x4overlandtravel.co.uk
www.adventure-northside.com
www.adventure-southside.com
www.adventureoverlandshow.net
www.europe4x4mag.com (website active from 01-02-16)

Proprietor of 4x4Calendar resource
UK Representative – World 4x4 Council
Editor of Europe 4x4 Mag online magazine
Administrator of 4x4 Overland Travel forum
UK Representative – Rainforest Off-Road Challenge of Malaysia
Accredited NUJ (National Union of Journalists) Freelance Motoring Journalist
Organiser of Adventure Overland Show (England)
Organiser of Adventure Northside, Adventure Southside and Off Road West (all three Germany)

 

[MrNasty]

The date of staying somewhere near the Marrakesh airport is 21st and my wife flies out on the 22nd back to the UK, the 21st is the first day we arrive in Morocco..

 

[mikescuba]

 

[ogb]

That's an outstanding video - thanks for posting it. We met James and his sawn-off truck at the Stratford show in 2014, and his illustrated talk was one of the inspirations for our trip last year. This year we'll be going onto the Rekkam plateau as he's done, and following a network of pistes down to - we hope- Dakhla. A combination of Wikiloc, Chris Scott and Google Earth has provided what we hope will be an almost non-stop off-road journey from Chefchaouen, and the only tarmac will be around and through the refuel/replen points. That's assuming the road building programme hasn't got too much advanced - the most recent map we have, July 2014, seems to suggest that our route is dirt/sand for 1500 miles. Maybe we'll bump into you somewhere.

 

[MrNasty]

OGB, were on the same ferry, we'll have a chat then

 

[mikescuba]

http://www.4x4overlandtravel.com/privmsg?folder=inbox&mode=read&p=4999

Inbox Sentbox Outbox Savebox


Inbox :: Message
From: Tembo

To: mikescuba
Posted: Today at 10:44 am
Subject: Re: Morocco 2016
Happy to help. Actually, the guys I went on the last trip with and I are planning another Morocco trip from mid-Sept to mid-October this year. I know most of the 4x4 tour companies are still offering Morocco trips. I would also check out the Horizons Unlimited (HUBB UK) which is primarily motorcycle based but they usually have lots of people planning trips. Unfortunately there are very few people posting anything on this forum anymore, let along trip plans. We have not posted this time because we get way too many people wanting to join us who either have crappy, unprepared vehicles or never show up.

As to security in Morocco, we use a five-level risk rating system where '1' would be Switzerland and '5' Syria. We base the rating on the number of security incidents per year, types of incidents, who they target and the severity. Morocco is rated as a '2.' The major risks in Morocco are petty crime in the urban areas, harassment by drug elements in the Fez region and land mines around the 'Berm' in the far south and into Western Sahara areas along the Algerian border.

In terms of terrorism there were a couple of attacks on cafe's in previous years. The Moroccan security forces have a great success rate at breaking any terrorist cells that form. Al Qaeda and ISIS have ever formed cells in Morocco to attack westerners, but have set up recruiting operations. A fairly large number of youth have gone off to join IS in Syria in recent years but there have been no reports of any coming back and committing any terror acts in Morocco. That may be due to the fact that Morocco's version of Islam is different from the Saudi/Iran led version is the Middle East. There are a number of Islamic sects in Morocco that would be considered heretical to IS/Al Qaeda. So the locals always inform on anyone preaching extremist views. You have probably see the guys walking around in their pointed hatted robes. Finally, there has never been a recorded kidnapping of a westener in Morocco that I am aware of.

I have heard that comment about not travelling to Muslim countries before from various people. My opinion is that this is giving in to fear, which is what terrorists want. To isolate their victim populations from the 'West.' There is a strong difference between 'perceived' fear and real threats. I travel to many Muslim countries every year and so do thousands of aid workers. I would be more concerned about driving through Detroit or walking the streets of Slough after dark than driving through Morocco.

If you and your buddies do decide to go, maybe we will cross paths at some point.

Cheers,
James

 

[OLDUN]

A really good sensible message from James isn't it Mike - I go along with the sentiments on security 100%.
Are you a definite Mike for the trip and will there be two of you!!.

 

[mikescuba]

A really good sensible message from James isn't it Mike - I go along with the sentiments on security 100%.
Are you a definite Mike for the trip and will there be two of you!!.

Hi Ken,
I'm 50/50 at the moment. Not because of the security issues, I posted that on here for the others to see. My Defender is in the paint shop at the moment, once I get it back I have a couple of problems to sort out. I'm not sure it will be ready in time. I think I will have to get it over to the UK to get it sorted out by someone who knows what they are doing. Just watching the video's makes me want to be there again.