Location

N 30 28.146 W008 53.039

Taroudant to Essaoaria

Note to self - don't EVER stay in the 1* Hotel Taroiudant again. Not sure what we expected for 20eur a night but it failed miserably! Anyway, it's an interesting town, we took a horse & cart ride round the city walls and managed to avoid eating in "my brother's restaurant". Funny how ALL moroccans have a relative who has a shop or cafe or restaurant somewhere nearby...

Mooched around the berber and arabic souks, but didn't buy anything except some biscuits. We're all fed up with moroccan food so figured they couln't cock up a margarita pizza TOO badly... How wrong we were... Can't wait to camp and cook ourselves again. Hotel in Essaoaria hgad better be good else we're camping on the beach!

This morning a brief visit to a tannery (which smelled better than the hotel and carpark), i succumbed to a shoulder bag and haggled for the fist time!!

Current location, filling up for the drive to the coast, 46 litres of diesel for £25...!
N 30.27.767
W 008.52.466

Keep

Taroudant

Unfortunately we missed out on tata and a night in the wilderness because we lost a full day due to the clutch going on the landy.

Instead we headed out of zagora yesterday but only got about 30 mins out before someone else had a proble. They left most of us and went back to the garage again. It takes moroccan children about 5 seconds to sniff out a tourist, and not much longer to cover 1/2 mile agross burning sands, barefoot, to "demande stilo" (gimme a pen). We battled bravely for a while but they did wear us down and eventually Baz cracked first - he did insist though that they queued up like the english first! Followed up with making a rope swing, origami, writing and dancing lessons. We were quite glad to get aeway when the others returned 2.5hrs after they left!

Meant we had a long days drive to get back on track. Got to campsite at about 6pm, and pitched tents. TJ has been quite poorly with a tummy bug & nausea, but is much better after a good night's sleep. Attached pic is of our hotel room here in Taroudant, I hope it's more comfortable than it looks!

A 2hr drive this morning brings us to Taroudant, which is apparently like Marrakech used to be 30 years ago. We're here for the day and tonight, so will do some exploring after lunch. Tomorrow we leave for Essoauria (sp?) and then i guess we're on the home stretch up the coast.

Weather today is clear and sunny (hot, infact) so am looking forward to a mooch around the Berber and Arabic souks. And a dinner that is not tagine, brochettes or bloody couscous!

K

location

n30 31.403 w 007 53.613

Attempt #2 to leave Zagora

Yesterday we were due to leave zagora for 2 days in the wilderness. Unfortunately we didn't get more than 10k before our clutch started playing up and we had to return to the garage for repairs. Means we've lost a full day's off-road driving and have a long day ahead to get back on track.

TJ's haggling skills were put to the test and passed with flying colours at the garage, negotiating a 60% reduction in the cost to 400euro from 1000! Twice now he had been called a Berber, by a Berber - we think it's a compliment on his haggling technique...!

We feel bad for the rest of the group, and had offered to catch them up, but they all agreed to stay another night and wait with us. We'd have done the same for anyone else, but it's hard when you're the cause of the delay, specially somewhere you've been for 2 days already... Still, could have been worse, we could have been 200k away in the desert at the time!

Anyhow, fingers crossed for a smooth sailing today. Should be in Tata for 4ish.

K

Noon on 25th

It's been a difficult morning. Had a long days drive ahead, but we were forced to stop at 1100 to change the viscous fan coupling on our vehicle as we were overheating, having to do 30mph all the time.

It was quickly fixed, as we had a spare, and got under way again. Only 30 mins later one of the others had to stop with a major electrical failure. We're currently stuck in the desert wirth a fierce wind. We have to get to the garage tonight. The cars have all had a major battering and they're starting to show signs of wear and tear.

Confident though that we'll make it, just not sure when... !

N 30.12.623
W 005.08.210

Ps we're off agaon now!

Can't seeeee!

Today, it have mostly been like this! The dust is incredible. We're all filthy and the car that hd the problem earlier is now on a tow bar but we're still hacking through the dust to zagora,Tj is in his element.

Cannot wait for a shower and a cold beer or 10..!

N 30. 38.193
W. 004. 48.232

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Result.

So gearbox dropped out and its just contaminated clutch plate with engine oil as the gearbox breather was blocked. So a remove and clean, then refit. Will be ready later.

IN BITS!

Leaving zagora

We're on our way out of zagora, a town which the guidebooks say "continually disppoints tourists" and they're not far off. Hotel was comfortable enough and we were glad of it in last nighr's rain!

Journey today into the wilderness, we just stocked up on 3 days of supplies as we don't really know what the weather will bring.

K

Change of plan. MERDE!

So just got about 10 kilometers from Zagorra and the clutch slave cylinder has let go and contaminated the clutch plate so another day in Zagorra while Ali's garage fixes it. Very disappointed as the clutch system is only 3 months old, but better here than in the middle of the desert. Hopefully will not cost too much to change, either way I will haggle on the price.
I think a large Pernod is calling me from the bar.Tj

Location

N 31 12.559 W 004 01.411
Spent the night here and woke to the sunrising over the dunes. Amazing!
Now off to dune bash!

view

Paris-dakar

Today we took the cars on a 6-mile "race" on a part of the paris-dakar route. I can confirm it is possible to get a fully loaded 90 airborne at 70mph if you hit the right combination of dips and crests... We can also get more stuff in now as it's all compacted itself!

Good job the garage is tomorrow.

Auberge Oasis Mharech

N 30.45.587, W 004.33.807

We just spent a very pleasant evening here, under palm trees (which are a lot more spiky than they look, like needles) by a river bed. The river is currently dry but last week the whole area was under 4 feet of water, you can clearly see where it scoured down to bedrock. Also, quicksand is interesting...

Off to Zagora now for 2 days in a hotel (yay!) and to get thee car into the garage for a once-over. I have to say it's done brilliantly well so far.

K

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Erg chebbi

Just got signal for first time in 3 days. ?ave been camping in the desert at Erg Chebbi, utterly beautiful, waking up to sunrise over the dunes. Now off to an oasis camp for another couple of days, and we'll get the car checked over too.

Current location (fuel stop) n 31.17.302, w 004. 17.456.

K.

A night in teneghir

Spent at N 31.30.871, W 005.32.285

Mostly, we will be tooting our horns from 0215 to 0315 at which point the dogs will take over for their morning chorus. Then the call to prayer at 0445. Birds start at 0530 accompanied by the dogs again as backing "singers".

Not the most restful night, but today we head off to the Erg Chebbi for 2 days offroad in the desert. Weather currently good, all well.

Location update

So stopped for lunch at N31 29.251 W004 12.837 and found some wifi!!
We are heading off to the Erg Chebbi this afternoon for the next few days. Sights we have seen are amazing and Kate has already filled one 2GB memory card on her camera.
There are more updates stuck in my Q as data coverage non-exsistant in most areas, GSM coverage very good everywhere though.

Just lowered the tyre pressures for the dune bashing in a few minutes time and am looking forward to getting my first sight of the Erg Chebbi, most of the dessert so far ahs been hard black rock, so some soft sand will make a change.

More updates when we can connect.

Location

So heading towards the Anti Atlas mountains. Stunning landscapes and amazing examples of appualling local driving!
Location N 32 11.231 W 004 22.000

Halfway to tinerhir

Still crossing the mountains, there are little dwellings dotted around in the middle of nowhere; small families with a few cows and donkeys and chickens but very few obvious means of survival. I guess the men are loggers, who drive these tracks all day with a full load. We're out of the woods now and it's a bare landcape, no trees, just a few small huts.

Network coverage still patchy :-)

K.

Another day!

Arrived at the wilderness camp at about 3.00 yesterday, after a 2hr offroad drive across the plains.

It gets dark very quickly, and by the time we'd set up and cooked, it was pitch black. Fortunately, being in cedar woods, there was plenty of firewood and our campfires were ablaze. We all thought it was much later than it was, and i think all were in ved by 9.00!

Bloody cold in the night but today dawns clear and beautiful. Off to Tinhir today, Sahara tomorrow!

N. 33.08.057
W 005.15.195

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Location.

N33 26.484 W005 13.552
Stopped to get insurance and change some money. Got food for lunch and supper as we are now heading upto 7500 feet in the Atlas mountains for camping. Weather about 22 degrees so nice and comfortabe but am sure Federico would be wearing a scarf!

Morning!

Well after pitching in a thunderstorm last night, it stopped raining soon after so we could eat and go to bed in the relative dry...

Woken at 0215 and 0415 by the cockerel, 0445 by the call to prayer, but a good night's sleep.

Off to Azrou for suipplies now, then up to the cedar forest for wilderness camp tonight.

N 34.00.895
W 005.33.724

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We made it!

Finally in moroccom after some interesting formalities at the border. Thank god we're in a group, i wouldn't want to face that alone...!

Only one cat tried to hitch a ride while we were waiting to go through.

Immediately feels, looks and smells arabic, we thought there may be some french or spanish influence, but none to be seen.

Weather warm but very cloudy, not sure if it'll rain though.

Off to raid cash machines, diesel pumps and then lunch! We're 1hr BEHIND the UK now.

K.

Ferry to ceuta

On the ferry to ceuta, glad to leave the roads in Spain, they're not good!

Location N 36.07.806 W 005.26.259

The landscape is amazing. Every last inch of aailable land is given over to olive groves. It beats me how they harvest some of these, as they are on precipitous slopes on rocky outcrops. It'd be fascinating to watch. As far as you can see, it's all dotted with olive trees, giving an odd texture to the hills.

Final leg to the coast today, where we meet up with the rest of the group before travelling to Ceuta tomorrow!

K.

location

N 37.23.732
W 003.34.361

Tj cleans the windscreen of the 10,000,000 bugs we collected yesterday.

location

N 39 52.152'
W 003 28.666'

Pausing after 350 miles to cool down!

Ahhh, Madrid.

Traffic and lane discipline leave a little (!) to be desired, but we are making good progress. Plan is to stop in another 100km or so bit we'll see how it's going. Some proper sunshine as well, hurray!

Update.

So sunglasses go on for the first time on the trip.
We have spent most of the journey in cloud or fog so far, its nice to see the sun!
There have been a lot of lorries on the road as expected. Some have been called Leci-trailers some Voltrailers so Kate reckons there is an Ampervan somewhre!

Location...

Elev 2109ft
N42.51.470, W 002.53.592
Up in the clouds. And it's raining...

Day 1 in the BFG... Location:

N 42.53.090, W 002.53.635
In the clouds. And it's raining...

Spain!

So after the most boring ferry crossing we have finally made it to Spain.
Did manage to sleep for about 22 hours of the 36!
Now just waiting to off load from the ship. Onwards to southern Spain.

At the docks!

So we have arrived at the docks and met a couple of the other vehicles on the trip.
Now the long wait for the ferry boarding.
Time for a coffee.

Packed!

The start of the journey.

So after much planning and thought and of course the odd spanner in the works we are ready for the off.
The Landy is packed and ready to go. Are we ready? I think so but we will have the couple of days drive through spain to work out what we have forgotten to pack and hopefully buy on route.

Thank you to all who have wished us well on our little adventure. I will try and blog as often as I can get signal and will also post some Lat and Long point for you all to do a search on google maps!

See you in a month!

Transfer box.

HURRAH!
The new transfer box is installed and working great.
Quick oil change tomorrow and all done ready for the off on wednesday.

Final preparations.

So saturday was an eventful day. I went over to a friends garage to sort out the front kingpins as they were a bit "used" and put on some protective covers to the swivel housings.
All went well and we stripped down the wheel stations regreased and sorted the kingpins out.

The small fly in the ointment was the discovery that the transfer box had eaten one of its bushes. this was the bigger clonk that I had noticed a few days before. So drained the oil and removed the inspection panel and found teeth and glitter! Never a nice thing to find inside a gearbox.

So onto the internet and a posting in on www.lr4x4.com and quite a few offers of T boxes came in. I opted for a defender one but it was in Felixstowe. So a fast drive over in the golf on sunday afternoon and I collected a Discovery 300tdi t-box. yeah well we thought it was a defender one but on inspection of the numbers it wasnt. Never mind it should be better for the long drive through Spain.

The vehicle has now had its errant tbox removed and I am going over to the garage this afternoon to deliver the replacement so fingers crossed!

Test blog from mobile

Test from mobile with picture.

Test blog before trip.

Ok so this is a test blog before we go away in two weeks time. Lets see if the attachments upload from the email.