More Morroco Questions

(RIP) willstatt

(RIP) willstatt

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A few more questions for those of you with Morocco experience:

1. Do we need Carnets in Morocco
2. Did you all use Knobblies, and if so which ones, and would you say they were essential?
3. Spare Petrol capacity. I seem to remember a picture of Paul G’s bike with a gallon petrol can on the back. My bike is standard non-big-Adv tank too. Is it essential to take the extra can if venturing far off the main roads?
4. We intend to do a bit of off roading… probably some of the routes from Chris Scott’s books.. Did any of you do them? If so which ones and how difficult/easy did you find them.
5. Did you camp or stay in hotels/auberges?
6. If in hotels etc, did you pre-book
7. Any recommendations of places you stayed that were outstanding?
8. Any other tips?

Many thanks

Will
 
1. Do we need Carnets in Morocco
No
2. Did you all use Knobblies, and if so which ones, and would you say they were essential?
The roads from the Middle Atlas down are great for scratching, I used Scorpion road tyres which where also fine on the piste, I didn't even bother to lower the pressure. I'm sure knobblies would have been better but just how serious do you intend to be off road. I've got a Jeep but I've never been off road anywhere I'd not have got in my Golf.
3. Spare Petrol capacity. I seem to remember a picture of Paul G’s bike with a gallon petrol can on the back. My bike is standard non-big-Adv tank too. Is it essential to take the extra can if venturing far off the main roads?
I carried a 5 Litre can and never used it... I got close though but that as the idea. If you've got spare fuel you'll be happy to push the tank range to the last drop which helps keep the pace up. I had two fill ups that took 21.7lt and 22.3 lt
4. We intend to do a bit of off roading… probably some of the routes from Chris Scott’s books.. Did any of you do them? If so which ones and how difficult/easy did you find them.
No
5. Did you camp or stay in hotels/auberges?
Hotel in Erfoud
6. If in hotels etc, did you pre-book
Yes... Greg did it
7. Any recommendations of places you stayed that were outstanding?
Erfoud is a great place to explore from
8. Any other tips?
Just do it
 
willstatt said:
A few more questions for those of you with Morocco experience:

1. Do we need Carnets in Morocco

No, you get a green and white paper at the border. DO NOT LOOSE THAT !!

2. Did you all use Knobblies, and if so which ones, and would you say they were essential?

Not essential if sticking to normal roads (although even the best of roads at times suddenly disappear...)

I used TKC80s that were mounted in Spain. Only had to ride back with the normal street tyres. But again, not 100% needed, but a wise man is always prepared.

3. Spare Petrol capacity. I seem to remember a picture of Paul G’s bike with a gallon petrol can on the back. My bike is standard non-big-Adv tank too. Is it essential to take the extra can if venturing far off the main roads?

There are a lot of gas stations everywhere. But not all of them have unleaded. Got caught once, but I used a y-piece so no problem, but my mate didn't !!

Again, a wise man comes prepared....

4. We intend to do a bit of off roading… probably some of the routes from Chris Scott’s books.. Did any of you do them? If so which ones and how difficult/easy did you find them.

Depends on your skill level. If you're really Cyril Despres, than you'll find them easy...

5. Did you camp or stay in hotels/auberges?

We had camping gear with us, but used hotels. They're cheap and always there.

6. If in hotels etc, did you pre-book

Nope, but we just came back 3 days ago, so it's low season.

7. Any recommendations of places you stayed that were outstanding?

Rule of thumb, the lower the star rating of the hotel, the nicer they are to bikers. We got turned away from 4 and 5 star hotels, while 1 and 2 star hotels went out of their way to accomodate our bikes. One even put them in their conference room....

8. Any other tips?

Patience and keep a close eye out of the trucks. They're lethal!

I'll be writing up an article later (when the photo server from Wandoo is finally back up). Will cover many of these topics.

Food is cheap, petrol is cheap, hotels are cheap, woman are cheap....:D

Many thanks

Will
Click to expand...
 
Routes from Chris Scotts's book

M3 - Did this a couple of years back. Brilliant, not too difficult. Aim to camp out halfway as it's so beutiful there, but easily doable in one day. Watch your navigation though. Some of it may have been tarmaced.

M5 -- Hoping to do this one in a couple of months, and will be with someone who has travelled it before. Very doable on GS, may take two days so great chance to camp in the middle of nowhere, few bits of soft sand. Take plenty of water and use a GPS for Waypoints.

M6 --
Easy peasy apart for a er moment involving a gravelly river bed and a big rock:o , navigation out of Alnif a bit confusing but use your route description ( photocopied pages from the guide).

Take your time off road, it's a long way from home.

Fuel. I used std tank but also carried small jerry (not Gerry!) which was never used. This time will be using big tank.

Tyres. TKC 80's not strictly neccesary but best.

And like the others say, just do it

Tim
 
I think all your questions have been answered above. I haven't done any of Sotty's routes but can recommend the Todra Gorge and the area to the North. Also Tafraoute and the area to the South towards Aguerd.

I would recommend camping well away from any road as you may suffer from being hassled or petty theft.

Stayed in some good cheap and suprisingly clean hotels, no need to book.

TKC 80's seem to be the only tyre with any off-road ability that fit the GS. Their good on/off road although wear out pretty quickly.
 
Will, if you're interested have a look at our trip HERE

There's another Morocco report HERE to.

Most questions have been answered here but I can't stress enough to take a small (5 litre) Jerry can on the back for piece of mind. Knowing I had mine was a huge releif... One of the days I got 256 mile out of my standard 1100 tank and still didn't run out, I would of been sweating buckets if I hadn't got the reserve to fall back on ;)
 
The above BHT recommended to me that the ideal Jerry can is a 5L metal one which has a flat bottom(!) is filled with explosafe (Mesh) can be bought in Halfords and if using a real GS ie one where the rear seat comes off, fits there perfectly.
 
I`m off again soon , and I won`t be listening to anything you lot say again thats for sure.

9 hours riding and wer`e not even halfway there yet, bollox to that.
 

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Don't worry Bakes there'll be none of that

Don't forget your sheepskin though

Tim
 
Given the cost of Chris Scott's book I was a little disappointed with the relatively small choice of pistes, especially as they don't meld particularly well with routes that I would want to take.

Instead you might want to take a look at http://www.voyages4x4.com/roadbook_maroc.htm especially 'Ouarzazate - Marrakech'. The southern part of this from Ouarzazate to croisement (crossing) is an interesting 50 mile detour through Ait Benhaddou and then north on piste to Telouet.

Other pistes that look interesting on that site are
• Beni Mellal - Imilchil
• Imilchil - Demnate
• Midelt - Imilchil
• Imilchil - Tinerhir

The Czech GSers did the last two on the afternoon of their day 6/morning day 7. We're planning to do that route in reverse in May. For photos of the piste see http://www.cruisers.cz/Foto-Maroko-04/ipage00061.htm and on to photo 80. Photos 171-187 are of the Ouarzazate-Ait Benhaddou piste.

Tim
 
Brill!

Thanks everyone for all the advice and links... Extremely useful, and will give me a lot of reading of the next few weeks.

Any more essential tips or routes that anyone thinks of, will all be much appreciated.

Will
 
Zmeagol said:
Nice write-up, Mike. St Exupery Relais sounds good. My personal target for Ceuta/Fnediq is to get through without paying anything to the touts. But we'll see...

Tim
Click to expand...

I think Tangiers is the worst (I used to live there). But it's worth the hassle, since many of these touts are relatives of the customs officers, so you don't really want to get them pissed at you...

See if you can bump into Gilles at Ouarzazate. Real interesting guy with lots of stories about the movie stars....If he has any chance at all, he'll stop what he's doing and go with you into the desert. He bike mad....
 
Zmeagol said:
Nice write-up, Mike. St Exupery Relais sounds good. My personal target for Ceuta/Fnediq is to get through without paying anything to the touts. But we'll see...

Tim
Click to expand...

Great links Tim.
We got through without paying, I think that getting to there first thing in the morning may have helped. Friendly chat to the cops may also have helped although on the way back the very same cop wanted some money and tried to steal my sunglasses.

Beware of who asks you for your passports, on the way back through 'customs' this one legged and very ragged guy comes up to me "passports please", I told him to f*ck off, the policeman just smiled.

Tim
 
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