morocco in june/july

[jeffers]

Well bugger me,

i eventually get swmbo and our touring pals pished enough to agree on a trip next year down into Morocco and possibly down to the western sahara the dates were already booked and fixed due to work constraints being the last week in june first 2 in july.

saturday morning comes around, and with a thick head start looking through all the morocco threads and there it is "we don't operate tours in june & july, its too hot".

Obviously i bow to your mucho superior knowledge of area but is it really toooo hot if it is it gets put off until 2010

Where do i go next year

 

[John Armstrong]

Had a look here: http://www.morocco-travel.com/morocco/TemperaturesWeather/

If you're keeping to the coast otherwise

 

[Steptoe]

to the western sahara

but is it really toooo hot

Do you know the western sahara is a desert.

 

[DavidHale]

Do you know the western sahara is a desert.

So is Antarctica.

 

[Steptoe]

So is Antarctica.

Don't you mean Artic roll.

 

[Sir James]

So is Antarctica.

Yip , it just means dead sea

The Gobi Desert only has 3% sand

Don't you mean Artic roll.

Rasberry ...
...............................

 

[jeffers]

Do you know the western sahara is a desert.

i thought it was a bit like southport, i dont plan to ride across the sahara

cheers john, may still be going

 

[peter wallis]

forget going then its way to hot, october best just been and temperature ok

 

[Fanum]

If you were to stick to the main mountain ranges (Atlas, Anti Atlas, High Atlas, Rif and Middle Atlas*) you could avoid the worst of the heat in July.

You could still easily get temps of well over 40 degrees though, possibly nudging towards 50 depending on where you go....it will certainly be 'uncomfortable' in the desert though

This was taken on one of our trips in May last year- it's apparently a fairly accurate thermometer and the needle was stuck hard against the pin

(Photo taken in near Erfoud by Jim Bettley)

*There is a 6th range, the 'Tell Atlas', but trust me, unless you're quite seasoned and/or well hard, you don't want to go there....the hassle factor is through the roof

 

[Tim Cullis]

forget going then its way to hot, october best just been and temperature ok

The weather in Morocco isn't as predictable as you think, just because you had good weather one October doesn't mean it's always like that--my idea of ideal temperature is 28c, but I've experienced October weather as high as 43c and as low as 1c.

Going back to the original post, I've been twice in mid summer and the major problem is the strength of the sun on top of the air temperature. You can deal with it by making adjustments like getting on the road *real* early, though even before dawn it already might be 25c. Then ideally you need to stop early, like 2pm, and get somewhere with a pool.

As Fanum writes, stay at altitude or stick close to the coast. Keep hydrated and make sure you are passing clearish water. Stop often. Find rivers and waterfalls, and so on.

Tim

 

[dodgyken]

When we went a few years ago (October) it was brutally cold in Rabat overnight - and Meknes wasn't much better.

We eventually defrosted in Ourzazate - but even then it was cold overnight.