Taouz west to Zagora
This really is getting worse, I lost track of time big time being out in the middle of nowhere. We spend hour in the morning planning our route at the campsite whilst James was looking a little grumpy no doubt because of the issues with the 90. I honestly though that James would have to go home at this point which would have been really sad, there are not many 20 year olds who are prepared to do kind of trip and use their own spanners to fix things so if we lost him and Andy it would have been a real shame.
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| Planning the day |
After the previous day we all checked out our cars, I had a loose bearing on the front which I tightened up. Everyone checked there fluids etc. just in case.
James travelled to Zagora with his 90 with the Adam, Sid and Andy on the main road (laugh) whilst the rest of us took a two day trip cross country off road to meet them. The 90 got to Zegora on its own steam without the need to tow it which was great. So whilst the 90 was being fixed the guys enjoyed a beer or two and a hotel room and a healthy repair and bar bills.
We however picked the slow route cross country with the 110's leaving at about 10am. The route we took was from Taouz West to Zagora. We actually could not find the start of the track; however as usual a local popped up and gave us a hand finding the start, he drew us a map with buildings hills and oasis in it. It worked a treat.
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| We meet our guide, well local who knew where he was going |
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| And he drew us a map |
Our trip that day was fantastic and included lots of technical tracks, some severe dunes, flat soft sand and then more broken rocks etc. Also the odd trip though little villages.
After the initial part of this leg the terrain started to get a little harder and more varied from broken rocks on sand to sand flats and sand dunes and then rocks.
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| Broken rocks and Sand for miles |
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| Time for lunch desert style, notice Mike getting the table out for tiffins |
I got Ken and Rachel to stop and give this perspective on the tracks, you will see Larry purring past.
We were to drive till we got to our overnight camp, which was, well when we decided to stop. We had taken the lead in Larry so we had a big advantage of not being stuck in dust all the time. Also we had the disadvantage of needing to navigate and pick a route at the same time, go team Rachel and Chris.
The driving was all off road it was quite a trip and in places very very difficult, one main problem being the need to go across a dune field to get back on track after a slight wrong turn, 5k wrong, there are two videos below on this part of the trip.
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| Ok, we can see some more sand!!! |
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| Land rover porn |
Having said this we had a lot of fun on the large desert flats, there is nothing quite like tearing across a desert at 60mph until a washout appears. Then all the sudden you are air born, and BANG you hit the ground again. Top tip I would like to say that having a roof box and not putting everything inside boxes in Larry was a stupid idea everything in the roof box was banging around and our tent got a hole in it. Mike had several casualties in his car on this leg of the trip, the bolognese sauce bought it .... as did some orange juice and also other stuff.
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| High speed crossing |
When we thought we had got over most of the difficult parts of the trip we then went across an amazing lunar landscape followed by a 100 foot drop back down to the tracks, this was another great part of the day.
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| Lunar scape |
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| Ended in a nice big drop |
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| Err where are we? |
After a long day we decided to camp before it got to dark west of Qum-Drane a mining town. The initial campsite I picked was about a mile from a track. As soon as we set-up some traffic went past and being Morocco they spotted us which meant soon the local beggars would be about. So we decided to move on before we got hassle. We did not move quickly enough, Larry grew a tree out of his head.
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| Larry tree head |
At the second attempt we managed to find a great place, we headed cross country to what looked like a broken peak and setup in the middle of it secluded from all sides, it was a fab place to wild camp. Very sheltered and well protected.
So off to our new home it was...
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| Wild camping in a dune and rock bowel |
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| 110 in the sunset |
We all got setup and Mike and Jerry were planning the now usual three course meal, typically they did 9 courses in a day, excluding snacks. Now if there is ever a definition of being British Mike and Jerry are it, no matter where they were or what was happening they always had time for a dam good meal, it reminded me of the carry on movie Up the Kyber.
Rachel and I had a mix of stuff warmed up, Rachel even managed to throw some on her foot. Ken had soup.
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| Om nom desert style |
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| Ah moon |
Early start the following day to get to meet the rest of the chaps.
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| View over the landies from the nearest dune |
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| Mike's roof tent |
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| Sunrise, err somewhere |
I really enjoyed this part of the trip, the crossing was what I expected before leaving, a part of me was sad that Adam, Andy, Sid and James had not been there, but when we meet up the next day and they told us of the cold beer they had had that though was long lost.
The following day we headed over some fast (50mph+) deserts and also tracks to Zegora, also a bonkers 60+ on a corrugated road to the main part of town.
The road to Zegora.
We did not meet the guys there but much further south in a place called Tagounite. We refuelled waited for Adam, Sid, Andy and James then headed out into the desert for our best afternoon playing about in the dunes.
On corrugated roads, you need to go fast enough to bounce off the top of them to make your journey comfortable. This also means you do not have a lot of grip, so do not go fast on them on corners or you will increase the probability of a good old fashion 180.
Anyway, we meet up with the guys which was great (except the comments about the cold beer) and the next day proved to be an epic.
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