EDC 2018 Maroc Africa, Ride Report.

[WIBO]

We get fuel the night before, crew up after paying and head to Taouz to pick up todays piste. It will start off fluid and easy and I factor in a couple of route sections that will tedious.

A 20km road ride will get us to the start of the piste.







https://www.wikiloc.com/outdoor-trails/ ... m-30388793


Start of piste at

N 30 54 593
W 003 59 425



Here I hold a short, very important briefing as to what we will encounter once in this sector of Maroc.....how to ride and how to assist others as we'll all need to be reading off the same page as the piste will be entirely different from not only the going in the North but with the heat and how to manage the exertion and the softer going that we will now encounter.......this section will find any weakness in any bike too......that's why there's a rest day in Zagora scheduled to effect any repairs thereafter.........it will be tedious in places and will test ones resolve.... great!!!!














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[chubbyhooker]

I managed to drop the bike on the way in ........again !!!!!

[Tonibe63]

Great write up as always and bringing back lots of memories.
Me and 2 mates stopped at Hotel Tinit in 2009 and I returned with my Wife in 2012. The owners remembered me from three years previous and invited us to join them for a mid afternoon meal, very hospitable people.
We also stopped at Hotel Palais de dunes in 2012 and took the overnight camel trek. Both places were good and would use again.

[WIBO]

Wild camp after a stretch of fesh-fesh after Ramlia. Download here....

https://www.wikiloc.com/outdoor-trails/ ... m-30389034










We head out along a super fluid trail that services a quarry so be aware of meeting the odd tipper lorry as divulged in the briefing......sure enough we meet two or three.....a wave to the driver always receives a wave back. The going is rock so tyres inflated!!!





Riding on I stop with Bob and Bertin to wait on the others and to regroup. After a good few minutes there's no sign so we know something must be up. We make a U turn and after a few minutes we find that those pesky corrugations have taken their toll.... ( Tips and Tricks on Page One of the invite ) . The rest have stopped on them to have a wee peep at the BMW.

The rear frame has snapped where it joins the frame under the seat.









We all help by taking pictures.......













Chubby is happy.......








One upper frame bolt is missing and the other is very bent......spares are produced...






Make shift repairs are made and luggage shared out to lessen the load on the BMW.


































Steve fettles too after the corrugations.......







Of course within a short while the locals appear as if by magic....this the manager of Auberge Ouzina....we chat and recall our meeting last year especially about his moto and lack of a chain kit and as usual he invites us for tea.....I explain we'll have no time to stop.

I give him an oil top up and Pete gives him some fuel.....it's always needed in these remote places.


















Repaired enough to ride on and we'll source an alloy welder later in Zagora at a garage know.





We'll head on to Ouzina after repairs are effected......one rider signals that his GPS is telling him to go the most direct route and for me to follow him .......veer left at a metal sign and go to Ouzina.....go straight on if you want to hit some tedious fesh-fesh and long trails in silt. The GPS can't tell you that.


You will hit fesh-fesh and some silt via Ouzina but certainly not as much.

We approach the dried out river bed to cross at Ouzina...I usually fall off here every year.

I did notice that it was easier to cross this year compared to last as quite a lot of the softer going had gone probably due to the odd flash flood since.



We stop after the crossing and we'll hand out pens and sweets to the kids as they arrive, some barefoot as usual..... I only wish I could give out some shoes but I never have any room to bring any. Every goofy European teenager should have to see this




















As usual one rides through the softer going then drops it on the harder going...if it wasn't going to be Bob it was going to be me

Of course, before helping a picture was taken.......





We'll ride on through the village where there'll be a soft narrow dried up river bed to cross, on to the main piste which will be silty here and there and with auberges dotted along same.

.......and on along in the direction of Ramlia





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[chunky butt]

Great report and photos keith, keep it coming

[WIBO]

On approach to Ramlia we see other travellers .......we'll be heading to a dried up lake for a break.




We stop for a chat and a drink.....




A hat is an added bonus in the dry heat here....









Steve on the AT scorches by fully lit


We'll head the short ride up out of the lake bed......when you come off the one piste to your extreme right, take the piste to the right again....it's hard pack and the other is soft silt ....learn to look each side of any piste when it gets silty.....the 4X4's take these so don't need to worry about the depth....normally the route to the left or right will be more solid.
















Just up and out the going will return to rock with the plenty of pointy edges.....keep tyres inflated.


















There was a delay that I forget ( some one else can chime in if they can be bothered ) but here it's only a short ride to Ramlia....the others ride on to where they get a cold dink and fed if they wish. If you look to your right hand side you can ride the smoother scooter trail about six inches wide as it meanders through the rock parallel with the main route...your call...... When you get to a metal sign hang left for the village.

[WIBO]

At this point and well before it the locals will give you the standard line of that there's been a rally a few days before and the fesh-fesh and the river bed have been chewed up.....it's impossible to pass, but.......... they can guide you through for a fee. My usual response is to thank them and tell them, that if it's too bad I'll simply turn around and go back to Merzouga and go to Zagora by road.

At Ramlia you have a choice of going north out of the village on a longer and very soft and sandy going or going via the shorter stretch of fesh-fesh west. Both routes will bring you to arrive at Tafraoute. I prefer the western route and the fesh-fesh.

This is a challenge and when you leave it behind you know you've done well to do so, but you will get through it. All of us are there to take pictures then help. You have no choice but to continue as you're beyond the point of no return as it were.


We stop and meet Spanish and Eastern Bloc riders......










The kids are handed out pens and sweets and Print their portraits out using an HP Sprocket pocket printer...



















Shoes...if only I had enough space for shoes!!!






.

[micksea]

good stuff keith,the fesh fesh was hard work on the 750,if I go again it will be on a lighter bike with a bigger front wheel

[Whippet]

Great ride report keith, as usual, looks like you had a great trip
Hope all's well in la belle France
Regards
Sean

[chubbyhooker]

59CD2C86-AD88-4BD2-B50D-2D84373ED29F.jpeg (170.22 KiB) Viewed 886 times

Here’s one to keep Bob company .......... sorry can’t turn it around it’s the right way up on the iPad