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Thread: Hidden Morocco routes

  1. #1
    Scotland lover Tim Cullis's Avatar
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    Hidden Morocco routes

    HIDDEN MOROCCO - NORTHERN ROUTES
    I've been promising this for several people for ages, so apologies for the extremely late delivery. It comes from a talk I did last year at Horizons Unlimited on 'Hidden Morocco'. My objective in giving the talk was to encourage people to get off the main red 'N' roads and try the less-travelled roads. Often these end up faster than the red route.

    I'm one of the many contributors to Olaf's Maroc Topo project, and to increase the coverage of the map I tend to deliberately ride roads that are not on the GPS map (and often not on Michelin 742 either) and log not just the route but the road numbers, names of towns, fuel stations in remote areas, and so forth. Sometimes this exploration ends with a U-turn, but generally it results in excellent roads with no traffic and great scenery.

    Olaf has been tied up completing his doctorate so hasn't updated Maroc Topo for a while, so consider this a mini-update covering the north of the country (down as far as Khénifra). It's about one-third of my northern area update logs but a lot of them are city roads and less interesting than the ones I've chosen to include.

    The file is in .gpx format. RIGHT CLICK and save target as to save on your PC. After the download make sure the suffix is .gpx, then open it in Mapsource.

    I'll post notes below as I get round to them.

    Tim

    EDIT: updated with a couple of more routes 17Mar09

  2. #2
    Scotland lover Tim Cullis's Avatar
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    Some preliminary notes. Roads are mostly dark yellow in colour, pistes are normally cyan.

    To locate these routes on the map, activate the 'tracks' tab in Mapsource and double click on the route name to open the route up, then click on 'show on map'.

    A1 motorway. I've included the new section of the A1 motorway (coloured dark blue) linking Tanger to Ksar Seghir. This then joins up with a four-lane highway to Fnediq/Ceuta. So it's an easy way to link the two main entry ports into Morocco.

    R410. This is a pretty route through a mix of scenery. The western end of this road follows the northern bank of the Oued Loukos that was once the border between Spanish Morocco and French Morocco. The eastern end steadily climbs towards the Rif near Chefchaouen.

    R419. The R419 is a great alternative to the N13 main road heading south. Beni Ahmed is a friendly little town and there are two petrol stations on the route. The area south of the reservoir is scenic with many choices of minor roads leading to Fes.

    UPDATED 17Mar09 - P4103. Another great alternative to the N13. The Michelin map shows this as a difficult or dangerous section of road, but it was resurfaced a couple of years ago. Ride through Mokrisset to Zouni, continue on through Teroual, then take the R408/R501 into Fes. Whilst the R419 is a good route heading south, the P4103 can be a great farewell route on the way back north rather than sticking to the N roads.

    R504. Leaving Fes towards Sefrou, take the R504 to the Gorge of El Menzel. Continue on the R504 with its stunning views as far as the R507 which is coming in from the north east. (The final couple of miles on the R504 is an easy track.)

    P5109. Heading north from Ifkern, when I travelled the route in May08 it turned into a track (marked cyan) but this was being surfaced and is likely to be a good riding route now. You could link this through Tazouta, then take the P5106 piste all the way through to Immouzer du Khandar.

    Forest of Maamora. From Kenitra on the coast, take the N4 to Sidi-Yahya-du-Rharb where you turn south on a narrow road that you are sure will be a mistake. But carry on as the R411 turns east through the forest as far as the R409. Turn south here to Khemisset at which point you could either head south west into the Jbel Mouchchene mountains, or take the R402 to El Hajeb and on to Azrou.

    P7307. This part of the Middle Atlas is a limestone scenery with Cedar, Holm Oak and Cork Oak forests. Turn off the N8 between Azrou and Khénifra at Mrirt heading east towards Sources Oued Oum Er Rbia. It's great scenery though the road surface sometimes isn't brilliant. The Sources (springs) are the start of the Oum Er Rbia river and it's worthwhile parking up and walking to the springs. From there you can head north towards Lac Ouiouane and then on to Ain Leuh and Azrou.

    UPDATED 17Mar09 - Middle Atlas pistes. Three routes are included in this file. The green route heading east out of Khénifra starts off as tarmac then becomes a lovely beaten earth road. Green is my colour code for absolute novice, and as long as it hasn't rained in a while you should be able to do this route on any bike, any tyres. The other two cyan routes don't require any technical offroad skills though you may wonder in a couple of places.

    Tim

  3. #3
    Toubab Click here to find out how to Subscribe Fanum's Avatar
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    Nice work Tim....look forwards to seeing your notes on them as there are a good few I haven't done there

    What are you using to produce the file? I've got many tracks from around the Tafraoute, Tata and the area from there south that aren't on the topo, as well as a whole bunch of odd ones from all over that would be good to get to Olaf in the best form possible....

    I sent him a fairly large file of tracklogs that I cleaned down and labelled up where they overlayed existing ones but I never heard back from him.....was wondering if it wasn't in a format he can use?
    सत्यमेव जयते


  4. #4
    Scotland lover Tim Cullis's Avatar
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    My early work was difficult as the 2610 only had storage for about four hours worth of tracklogs, so I would take my notebook PC with me (on the piste!) and at lunchtime would download and clear the tracks. The Zumo 550 has changed all that!

    Before submitting to Olaf I edit the tracklogs to remove roads/pistes already in Maroc Topo so all I am sending is the new bits. Whilst travelling I save the road numbers as waypoints, then break the tracklogs down into one log per road number and I change the names of the tracklogs to reflect this. I also save a waypoint when the surface changes from tarmac to piste and visa versa as I submit these as separate tracklogs.

    Whenever I come to a junction/crossroad I ride a mile or so down all the various roads and save the numbers of those roads as well, then separate them into individual tracklogs. It can be a bit embarassing when there are people waiting at the crossroads for a taxi as I zoom off down one road, then reappear, then zoom off down another, then reappear, then finally zoom off on the original route. By this time they are normally pissing themselves with laughter!

    I've also submitted replacement tracklogs for roads where the existing route is incorrect or has been done with a low breadcrumb rate.

    The other thing is to record the names of towns and villages that are shown on Michelin 742, or are otherwise useful for orientation and directions.

    I pretty much quartered Fes when I was living there. I've also done several smaller towns. I only bother with fuel stations when they are interesting for directions, or are in remote areas, and I save them with the name so that in future one could write, "turn right after the Ziz station in xyz".

    Olaf said mine were the easiest of all the updates he had to deal with. The problem for me now is that because the earlier submissions haven't been updated on the base map, I'm in danger of remapping routes I've already done.

    Tim

  5. #5
    Scotland lover Tim Cullis's Avatar
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    HIDDEN MOROCCO - SOUTHERN ROUTES
    Consider this a mini-update covering the south of the country (below Khénifra).

    The file is in .gpx format. RIGHT CLICK and save target as to save on your PC. After the download make sure the suffix is .gpx, then open it in Mapsource.

    Notes will follow below.

    Tim

  6. #6
    Scotland lover Tim Cullis's Avatar
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    Some preliminary notes. Roads are mostly dark yellow in colour, pistes are normally cyan.

    To locate these routes on the map, activate the 'tracks' tab in Mapsource and double click on the route name to open the route up, then click on 'show on map'.

    2007-10-05. Better known as Midelt to Imilchil including the Cirque de Jaffar. This is a set of three tracklogs, the first in red is a difficult piste needing offroad skills. The second section in green is gravel roads and some tarmac sections. Then it's back to a red difficult piste with some 60 river crossings (well, actually the same river, 60 times). You end up near the twin lakes of Tislit and Iseli (respectively bride and groom). The Auberge de Jaffar is a good starting point, there are four gites on the way.

    More to come...

    Tim
    .
    "For sheer delight there is nothing like altitude; it gives one the thrill of adventure
    and enlarges the world in which you live,"
    Irving Mather (1892-1966)

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  7. #7
    Scotland lover Tim Cullis's Avatar
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    Per Fanum's post elsewhere, the second section of piste is no more. It's been replaced by tarmac sections. As there will now no longer be vehicular traffic on the piste parts these are likely to deteriorate quite quickly.
    .
    "For sheer delight there is nothing like altitude; it gives one the thrill of adventure
    and enlarges the world in which you live,"
    Irving Mather (1892-1966)

    Access the Morocco GS Knowledgebase

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