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

Sent from my Windows Mobile® phone.

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

Sent from my Windows Mobile® phone.

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.