Morocco trip report

Oct 10th we left plymouth for santander with the 110 Drove down through spain in a day and a half got the ferry from Algerciras to the new port at tangier med straight through no hassles at all On the road spent our first night at camping rift noisy but clean showers ,Drove on down to Midelt camped at Timnay an ok site Next morning thought we would attempt the Jebel Ayachi MH1 in chris scotts book it started off ok tracks not to bad went through several wash outs and dried up river beds ,the track started to climb and got very rough loose surface and lts of rocs washed down by heavy rains ,We crawled our way to 6000ft stunning scenery at the top of a pass got flagged down by a young lad who tried to tell me not to go any further so i ignored him and kept going with a very steep drop on my side and steep bank on the wifes side .the track got narrower with areas washed away .turning a bend i was confronted with a boulder the size of a mini blocking the track and what looked like just enough room to squeeze past if you were brave enough ,i got out to take a closer look only to see a 110 landy that had tried and failed 500ft down the ravine and totally destroyed I dont know if the people in the truck survived but if they did they were very lucky indeed !! then came the tricky bit reversing 1k to turn around very hairy !!! we then drove the 25k back along the track to midelt ,We bumped in to some bikers who had done the track and they said that they only just got through on bikes SO DONT TRY THIS ONE YOU MIGHT END UP DEAD !!! after that did Zagora route to oum jrane Erg Chebbi and a few more tracks Had a front wheel bearing go in the middle of the stoney desert miles from anywhere so camped the night and fitted new ones in the morning The bearings were all new before we left next time i will only fit gen parts not ****part!!! We had a fab time and met protrax guys on the ferry at santander Nice guys will post some pics inc the 110 down the ravine !! Bob

I want some of that!!!!

wickford90 said:

I want some of that!!!!

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So do I................

Me too...apart from the 500ft roll of death, obviously.

storm99 said:

Me too...apart from the 500ft roll of death, obviously.

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On holiday in morocco a few years back and was in a cab going up the mountains to Imlil where we were staying, I have never been so scared in all my life they drive inches from shear drops round blind bends and dont give a **** for anything else. squeaky bum time don't come even come close. spent all my holiday worrying about the journey down.
Apart from that i had a jolly nice time.

Drove the Tizi n test pass out of Marrakesh a few years back and came across a bloke winching a destroyed mini-bus up through a hole in the 6inch high wall protecting a 2-300ft drop, Lets just say there was an unholy smell and there ain't no way anyone was gonna walk away from the state of what we could see.:faint2:

those were my reasons for the cage before we left especially as we were driving on our own.

well done on the wheel bearing, that may have skupper'd most folk. leasson learn't, only Timken bearings from now on

G

Glad you made it, sounds like you had a good adventure.

MH1 is where I got stuck after ignoring the Ninja telling me not to go on Wonder if it was the same spot

Griffdowg said:

those were my reasons for the cage before we left especially as we were driving on our own.

well done on the wheel bearing, that may have skupper'd most folk. leasson learn't, only Timken bearings from now on

G

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Yep the bearing was a right bastard the inner race had siezed itself on to the stubb shaft it too 2hrs of pursuading to move it had to get it hot with a coleman single gas burner that i carry as aspare then as i only had one set of bearings and seal i made the decision to fit a new inner and seal as the outer was still servicable and keep the second bearing as a spare just incase the other side went !!! Having worked as an ag engineer for 20yrs it was like working in the middle of a field so not a problem ,next time im taking a spare stub axle and two sets of bearings Bob

Booger said:

Glad you made it, sounds like you had a good adventure.

MH1 is where I got stuck after ignoring the Ninja telling me not to go on Wonder if it was the same spot

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yes it prob was ,the top of the pass where chis scott describes a large boulder that has slipped down on to the track used to be passable but apparentley hasnt been for some time as the edge of the track is badly eroded which is why the 110 was down in the valley ,challenge trucks were using it last year but even they gave up ,like i said in my report please DONT try it even if you were lucky enough to get past the rock which i doubt the valley is blocked with washouts for miles after

Wuz it this one ???









If so it was pretty tame when we did it. But it takes just one rain storm to totally change the landscape there, up ahead was more fun.

We did use the hight lift on MH8 to jack some big rocks off the mountain that were blocking the path... that was fun... and yes I know I said we jacked some rocks off....

Booger said:

Wuz it this one ???

If so it was pretty tame when we did it. But it takes just one rain storm to totally change the landscape there, up ahead was more fun.

We did use the hight lift on MH8 to jack some big rocks off the mountain that were blocking the path... that was fun... and yes I know I said we jacked some rocks off....

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Not sure it was to big to try jacking and as we were solo thought better of it I know they had huge rain storms earlier in the year and that had changed the track totally and if you slipped there was no way back up that ravine !!!

diggermanbob said:

Not sure it was to big to try jacking and as we were solo thought better of it I know they had huge rain storms earlier in the year and that had changed the track totally and if you slipped there was no way back up that ravine !!!

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Yea that rock in the pic was way too big to move... I've been trolling the net to try and find out more about that 110 you saw in the valley. You would think if it was a tourist, there would be some ref to it somewhere, but I can't find anything! Maybe it was a local ? Or some non english european ?

Booger said:

Yea that rock in the pic was way too big to move... I've been trolling the net to try and find out more about that 110 you saw in the valley. You would think if it was a tourist, there would be some ref to it somewhere, but I can't find anything! Maybe it was a local ? Or some non english european ?

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Yes from what we learned over there it was a tourist part of a group so we were told not sure if thats right or not it looked like a fairly new truck and it had not been there long ile try to load the photo it looks like a dinky toy you have to zoom the camera in to see it

Good effort on the repairs. Those pistes sure work the wheels and suspension.

It's worth keeping an eye on THE HUBB overland forum for updates on those pistes. The fellas normally give you a heads up on such problems. Might be worth putting your experience on there in order that others can avoid.

Looking forward to the photos.

Do you have a blog or website.

Mac

muddyfox said:

Good effort on the repairs. Those pistes sure work the wheels and suspension.

It's worth keeping an eye on THE HUBB overland forum for updates on those pistes. The fellas normally give you a heads up on such problems. Might be worth putting your experience on there in order that others can avoid.

Looking forward to the photos.

Do you have a blog or website.

Mac

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Hi Mac yes ive posted on the Hubb sorry no blog ile get the photos up soon Bob

Herewith the rolled landy....

What happened to the pics Bob??

Sorry jason i will get the boy on to it this week :doh:

Here is Bob's pic...




and cropped...




and Patriks (from the Hubb) pic...





Ouch...