Morocco Overland 4x4 tour planning

Morocco overland trip 2014

This is the web page covering the pre-trip planning for the Landyzone unofficial Morocco Overland 4x4 Trip April 2014.

The trip was completed by the end of April so I have added links to the trip report to this preperation page and some notes on what we learned as well.

The People, Landyzone names

This is the list of people  on the trip, should have some fun with this collection of Land Rovers.

SpaceDawg (me) Discovery 1 300tdi
Oldun Defender 110 300 TDI
MikeScuba Defender 110 200 TDI
3extruckers Range Rover P38 TDI :-)
Garside TDI Defender 90

Pre trip planning

We had a good pre trip planning meeting on the 22nd March at Market Harborugh attended by 3extruckers, me and Oldun where we planned out the exact route we will be travelling and confirmed the final numbers 6 cars and 10 peope, 5 cars went and 9 people.  We decided to travelling into the desert regions therefore its more important than before to ensure you have plenty of food and water.

Car and trip preparation

Ensure your car is well serviced and check the steering, suspension, breaks and bearings specifically.  We are not going nuts but we will be off road and on sand a fair bit, its likely if your suspension has issues the trip will find them.

I would suggest we all take at a minimum kit below;

1. Spare fluids (all of them, engine, gearbox, diff, transfer box, coolant and breaks)
2. Spare hoses radiator, inter cooler, heating
3. Spare aux belts, or two depending which engine
4. Spare wheel bearings, these can be a weak spot
5. Spare track rod ends, or second hand ones in good nick
6. Usual bulbs and high viz vest for France and Spain
7. Breathalyser & fire extinguisher
8. Tyre compressor, this is for re-inflating the tyres after a sand trip
9. A tool kit, for general maintenance and a wheel bearing spanner
10. A spade and possibly a high lift jack
11. Tent or roof tent
12. Good sleeping mat or bed
13. Good sleeping bag suitable for cold weather as well as warm (gets nippy in the mountains)
14. Maps & GPS
15. CB Radio please
16. Travel documents
17. Insure yourself
18. Take a wash kit suitable for wild camping
19. Take enough cash for two weeks in Morocco for fuel and food etc (£400-1000) this will depend on your car and eating habits
20. Take a cooker, food and water enough for a minimum of 5 days, we can buy stuff in Morocco, I'll be picking mine up in France and Spain, we will be eating local when we can and trying to find camp sites as well
21. Take your beer or chosen tipple with you, grab it in Spain or France
22. Toilet rolls 
23. Tow or Kinetic ropes for getting out of sand

Ensure you can take enough fuel for 500 miles of off road driving, for my Disco this is about 20-30 gallons, I will be taking 10 gallons of diesel in Jerry cans as well as the 20 gallons the car takes.

For insurance try Worldwide Travel Services (http://www.worldwideinsure.com/ I think) is well worth a look for travel insurance - just let them know your over landing no problem.

Because there are a number of us going we may be able to coordinate tools and spares, but ensure you have enough to keep yourself happy just in case on the way down or back we get split up.

Paperwork

You need all your travel documents, passport, driving license and insurance details etc, as well as log book, insurance and MOT documents.  Before arriving into Morocco you will need to complete a temporary importation document, you can do this on the boat/port or on line at;

http://www.douane.gov.ma/web/guest/mcv#http://www.douane.gov.ma/d16ter/formAT.jsf


The D16 for the car has to be completed on line in triplicate and handed over to customs at the port in Morocco with the V5 - you get one copy back that you must show on exit at the end of the trip otherwise tricky to get out.

Also an identity entry form is completed on the boat and usually there is a policeman on the boat that you hand it to with your passport so your passport can be stamped with an ID number.

There are some good details on paperwork here, http://www.morocco-overland.com/docs/

I set of fiche documents with your details on will be good to hand out at check points or to hotels do you don't have to leave your passport with people etc.

The Route down to Morocco

There are 3 current start routes, these are;

1. Leaving Newhaven – Dieppe on the 11th this approx £220 return
2. Leaving Portsmouth – St Malo on the night of the 10th over night £???
3. Leaving from Lyon are France on the Saturday

We will be meeting up at the campsite below on the night of the 13th at (thanks OLDUN).

Camping Valdevaqueros CN 340 Km 75.5  11380 Tarifa -  about 40 minutes west of Algeciras for night before catching ferry to Morocco - has beer -  can try and reserve in advance if you wish, I believe this is the URL http://www.campingvaldevaqueros.com/

The crossing will be the 10am crossing, the cost for an open return is 195 Euro's.

The Route in Morocco

The current suggested route when we get there is (follow the links for details);

      Port to Kenitra to Meknes

      Azro

      Erfoud

      Erg Chebbi

      Zagora

      Mega drivable sand dunes east of Mhamid

      Tafroute

      Agadir

Then home in time for tea and biscuits

This is the Map Link

This route is south from the port, trip to east for Erg Chebbi then West to the Coast and up, should be warm, we probably do not have time to get to Imlil at this point.

Good forum for current informtion http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/morocco/

The way back

North ish, we will split into the two groups when we get Spain.