andylod
Tea Drinker :-)
Hi all
Just a quick note about our 3 week Moroccan trip.
After leaving home in uk Friday evening and arriving at the Tunnel at 22.00 hrs we were planning to camp over in the carpark ready to catch the 6.30 train, they offered us an earlier 24.20 crossing.... this was delayed 2 hrs and we finally arrived on french soil Saturday 4.30am. We pressed on and after a brief snooze stop found ourselves at the Spanish border at around 18.00hrs. We camped over and set off again 7.00am arriving to visit relatives at 15.30hrs Sunday. Monday saw a 4.30am start to get us down to Algeciras for 11.30 ish .... perfect for the 13.00hrs ferry.... So we landed in Cueta 14.00hrs local time, a very smooth 30 minute border crossing saw us in Morocco 15.30 ish Monday afternoon.
We visited all the sights and had a fantastic time. As first time Overlanders we decided to try one of the 2004 2wd routes in the Chris Scott Overland book. This route runs west from Zagora for approx 130 kms. Its marked on the map as N12 and some of the route is prepared for tarmac but badly corrugated. We found that reducing tyre pressure to 40psi made a much more comfortable ride although we didn't go faster than 45kph on smooth bits. There is still about 50 kms of stoney piste which includes some dry river crossings and some softer sandy bits. I'm sure it is nothing for experienced 4x4ers but it was testing enough for us
The van behaved fantastically and the only minor niggles were living space issues such as our posh internal lightswitch with a circuit card etc... this very quickly filled with sand and was replaced with a good old fashoined moroccan rocker switch. The esiki 12volt compressor fridge found it hard to keep up with the 38 degree ambient temperature in the van .... this will need to be addressed with exterior venting, but fixed it self once we headed slightly north to slightly cooler climate. Last but not least Sand ... sand storms... it finds its way into everywhere so better sealing of grommets to the outside world into the areas were we keep battery chargers, inverters, heaters etc, and back door seals as vans seem to suck it into that area.
Anyway we had an absolutely fab time, met new friends, 5300 miles in 3 weeks and are even hungrier to go on again to more out the way places.
Andy
Just a quick note about our 3 week Moroccan trip.
After leaving home in uk Friday evening and arriving at the Tunnel at 22.00 hrs we were planning to camp over in the carpark ready to catch the 6.30 train, they offered us an earlier 24.20 crossing.... this was delayed 2 hrs and we finally arrived on french soil Saturday 4.30am. We pressed on and after a brief snooze stop found ourselves at the Spanish border at around 18.00hrs. We camped over and set off again 7.00am arriving to visit relatives at 15.30hrs Sunday. Monday saw a 4.30am start to get us down to Algeciras for 11.30 ish .... perfect for the 13.00hrs ferry.... So we landed in Cueta 14.00hrs local time, a very smooth 30 minute border crossing saw us in Morocco 15.30 ish Monday afternoon.
We visited all the sights and had a fantastic time. As first time Overlanders we decided to try one of the 2004 2wd routes in the Chris Scott Overland book. This route runs west from Zagora for approx 130 kms. Its marked on the map as N12 and some of the route is prepared for tarmac but badly corrugated. We found that reducing tyre pressure to 40psi made a much more comfortable ride although we didn't go faster than 45kph on smooth bits. There is still about 50 kms of stoney piste which includes some dry river crossings and some softer sandy bits. I'm sure it is nothing for experienced 4x4ers but it was testing enough for us
The van behaved fantastically and the only minor niggles were living space issues such as our posh internal lightswitch with a circuit card etc... this very quickly filled with sand and was replaced with a good old fashoined moroccan rocker switch. The esiki 12volt compressor fridge found it hard to keep up with the 38 degree ambient temperature in the van .... this will need to be addressed with exterior venting, but fixed it self once we headed slightly north to slightly cooler climate. Last but not least Sand ... sand storms... it finds its way into everywhere so better sealing of grommets to the outside world into the areas were we keep battery chargers, inverters, heaters etc, and back door seals as vans seem to suck it into that area.
Anyway we had an absolutely fab time, met new friends, 5300 miles in 3 weeks and are even hungrier to go on again to more out the way places.
Andy