Update on roads south and east of Ouarzazate

  • Thread starter Thread starter David Whittle
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David Whittle

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Just back from my first bike trip in southern Morocco - great rides, stunning scenery, very friendly people. Not sure if this is already well known, but we found the following new roads south and east of Ouarzazate made the trip even more enjoyable: 1. The Todra Gorge road now goes all the way around to Goulmina, which is approx 175 km of single track bitumen, 2. Going east from the N9 after Agdz on the 6956, the road from Alnif now goes all the way North to the N10 at approx 25 km east of Tinerhir.
 
Outtomunch said:
:augie

I think the 'bitumen' bit :D

Andres
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OK, well I guess that depends on your point of view. If like me you have limited off-road experience (South Africa and northern Vietnam), have the girlfriend as a pillion and the bike loaded with luggage, have rented the shiny new bike in Marrakesh and left an eye watering credit card deposit for any required damage or repairs, then a single lane bitumen road covered with mud, rocks and flowing streams feels less risky than getting onto the trails. But hey, give it time and some basic training in Wales and I’ll be hitting those trails later in the year
 
David Whittle said:
OK, well I guess that depends on your point of view.
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:)
My point of view is many of the 'classic' pistes in Morocco are fast disappearing, there's plenty of great bitumen already established.
Many of us only bother going to Morocco to ride the rougher pistes.......tarmac is so zzzzzzzzzz and can be found anywhere:D
 
Timolgra said:
:)
My point of view is many of the 'classic' pistes in Morocco are fast disappearing, there's plenty of great bitumen already established.
Many of us only bother going to Morocco to ride the rougher pistes.......tarmac is so zzzzzzzzzz and can be found anywhere:D
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+1 :thumb2

I'm rushing off to Mongolia this year before that gets turned into a tarmac hell...
 
I prefer the 'Three Gorges' route (Rheris, Imiter and Oumdrous) going in the other direction from Goulmina to Ait Hani, then south down the Todra. The road was sealed several years ago but is rarely visited--pretty route with four or five fords.

The second phase of the rural roads programme running 2008 - 2012 covers 15,500km of new tarmac. Hopefully after 2012 the pace of change will slow down a bit and the funds focused more on maintenance rather than new tarmac.

In places the new roads cover the old pistes and they are lost forever; in other places a new route is chosen but because only mules and donkeys use the old piste, it's not maintained well enough for typical bikers and become what I class as red (technical) or black (don't try this alone or with luggage) routes.

I've only found a couple of places where new pistes have been constructed. Pity.
 
Ride before you die

If you guys " in the know " could post a top 5 or 10 pistes to ride before they are lost forever I am sure it would be greatly appreciated by the Moroccan neophytes amongst us.
 
srace7 said:
+1 :thumb2

I'm rushing off to Mongolia this year before that gets turned into a tarmac hell...
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Think of all the good things about Morocco, multiply them by 10,000,000 and you'll be a fraction of the way there.:augie

Motorcycling Nirvana;)
 
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