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Comment by Alfred Balban on March 21, 2012 at 9:42

We managed to do the whole tracks but took us more time than usaul,we got onto the road and headed west until dark,we reached Tata were we stayed at the Hotel Tata,haven't used the Hotel since 1995 and its still in the same condition.We could not carryon driving in the night because one vehicle had problems with electricals and could not use his head lights.

Comment by Alfred Balban on March 21, 2012 at 0:55

19th of March.

We got up early in the morning and by 8:30 am the tow-track was waiting for Tyrone to take him to Marakesh were we would meet him in a few days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Group got ready and we entered the town of Mhamid and bought fresh bread for our lunch.We entered the tracks and went on up to the Sacred Oasis were we stopped for lunch,all had their own choice and prepared their own.

After lunch we carried on and drove over the sea of dunes to get us to the Lac Iriki,prehistoric lake well known for finding arrow heads from the stone age.Some cars had problems with over heating,wilfreds was one who the people at the garage left the radiator cap ;loose and we lost some water,we topped it up and carried on without any problems.

Comment by Alfred Balban on March 18, 2012 at 22:10

We all met again for breakfast and Tyrone later left to see how things were with his car,he came back all exited and annoyed cause he was told that the master cylinder they had received was not the one we needed,they had done their job on the clucth and thats it,we wanted to get the car to our friend Aziz just next door so we asked what price we needed to pay for their service,they had already made a qoute for the 4 jobs they were supposed to have done,they came up with the said qoute and won't argue about it,ofcourse Tyrone was not happy with that so we all got a bit exited until Aziz and Bidoui managed to sort things out and he will only pay for the clucth.

Aziz took the car to his garage and started working on it,the only problem again was to wait till next day again to receive the master cylinder from Casa Blanca.Again we stayed in the same Hotel who were catering us like sultans,their hospitality is unbelivebale,all the group had all they needed.

We have had internet by wifi in the hotel but I have never seen anything so slow,I was 5 hours to be able to load a video on YouTube,well atleast we have been able to update our event page and get you all to follow us as we go ;-)

Tyrones Car was ready for 12 noon so we got ready to go on the road to mhamid to get the tracks to Forum Zguid.About 40 kms away from Zagora Tyrone started having elctrical problems on his Discovery again.The engine would just stall.

We had to call again Aziz and he was with as again in minutes,he went through the car and then we carried on to reach an Albergue in Mhamid were we will pass the night.Aziz says that we need an analytics computer to fix the reseting of the motherboard in the car and the nearest city to do it would be Marakesh.

I had a talk with Tyrone that his best shot was to get a tow track to Marakesh and fix his car,the group would carryon its way and meet him again in Marakesh in a few days.

Comment by Alfred Balban on March 18, 2012 at 20:03

17th of march.

Everyone had the day free to move around but we all met for breakfast to hear what Tyrone had to say.He had broken his clutch into 4 pieces,never seen that before in my 20 years of off-roading,they were sorting that out without problems,the problem was the master brake cylinder was coming from Casa Blanca the next morning.

People moved as they pleased and we just took it as a resting day off,we still have lots of kms to do up to Plage Blanche as this mishaps has shorten our Raid,we have to cancel the tracks from Assa to Esmara and Layounne,we will carryon to Mhamid and then to Assa were we will head on the tracks west to Guelmin and then hit the Atlantic Coast to Plage Blanche.

Comment by Alfred Balban on March 18, 2012 at 14:00

16th of March.

We got up at 8 am to have our breakfast and Aziz was waiting for us to acompany us to Zagora.We did 147 kms in 3 hrs,a record for the group which I would like to congratulate for their cooperation on the tracks.

We did a few stops on the way to do some solidarity work and also visited a school in the area,we were lucky we got the kids at their break time and we entered their class rooms and prepared the school utencils for them at their tables,all kids were provided with a colouring book,colouring pencils,a pencil,rubber and sharpener and a writing book,sweets,toys and school trousers for the boys.

We kept on the tracks till we got to the cross-road to Tazzariine were works were being done to construct a new road to link Zagora to Tazzarine,another track that will be lost in a near future.

We entered Zagora from the south and went to the garage were Tyrone was waiting.He had already made arrangements but with a different mechanic,he was waiting for the brake master cylinder which will arrive the next day.He also needed some other things sorted which he was told would be done too.Other vehicles went into Aziz garage and were checked and some did a highlift to their vehicles.

We got a hotel just opposite the garage and everyone went to have a shower and chillout in the hotel.Wilfred appeared with a handcraft painted dish with the clubs Raids logo on it,done by one of the local craftman of the area,nearly all the group has purchased one and we have sent it by a van to Tangier at the Ahlen Hotel for us to pick up on our way back,that way they won't break on the tracks.

Comment by Alfred Balban on March 18, 2012 at 11:01

Gracias Rafa,si que te hechamos de menos.

Comment by rafa_millan on March 18, 2012 at 9:45

Hola Alfred buenos dias.

No sabes la envidia sana que tengo por no poder estar alli con todos vosotros

Veo que vais bien y que lo estais disfrutando. Me alegro mucho.

Os sigo por aqui.

Un abrazo a todos

Rafa

Comment by Alfred Balban on March 17, 2012 at 21:06

We left the car in the middle of nowhere and got to the Albergue and had a shock to see the man get on top of an old bed and on a stick he had a plastic box and inside the box he had the Telephone,we called Aziz and he would be on his way to see us,140 kms away of tracks from Zagora

The group got to rest and Aziz appeared two hours and a half later with the spare parts Adam needed for his toyota,he couldn't belive we had sorted out the problem in such a short time but here it shows MarocAtlasGib4x4 Solidarity Group is well known in the area and has lots of friends to whom attend to.Aziz got to work on the spot were it had happened and 20 minutes later Adam was driving his vehicle to the Albergue with a big smile on his face.

The group prepared their own food late at night and had a great relaxing evening to get ready for next days stage that would take us to Zagora to meet with Tyrone who we also called with the satelite telephone and got to know he had still more problems,Tuggy had to pull him some kms to the nearest town,Alnif,he had stayed without clutch.He saw a tow track that passed by and arranged to take him to Zagora.

Comment by Alfred Balban on March 17, 2012 at 20:37

15th of March.

We got up to have breakfast at 8:00 am to get an early start,Tyrone went to pick up his car to find that the problem was not fully done,he only had brakes on his left wheel so he decided to go down to Zagora to see our mechanic friend Aziz at the Iriki Garage,here we would meet again.Tuggy stayed with him so as not to leave him alone on the way,375 kms.

The group continued the itinary and hit the road to Rissani were we stopped to provide ourselves with food for the days journey.I got a telephone call from our friend Hassan from the Kasbah Le Touareg that he was in the bank in Rissani and had problems to change the 20 sterling pounds notes we had give as payment for our stay.I had to meet him at the banks directors office to explain that the notes were in course of getting renewed but not yet done,they had a notice saying there were new notes already but did not know the old ones are still being used,well we sorted the issue and carried on our way to the croosroad to Alnif and Erfoud,we got into the petrol station we always use before going to the tracks but found ourselves in a ghost station,even the pumps handles had spider webs on them.

We carried on the road to Misisi,missing the entrance of the track, to refuel and then got an artenative track to liasson to the Legendary Dakar tracks.We did about 43 kms on the tracks doing some solidarity work on the way and had something quick for lunch under the shades of some acacia trees in the hamada.We then carried on another few kms on the fast tracks and some members got a bit exited on the speed tracks and started getting out of the caravan with the misadventure of Adam hitting wrongly on his left wheel on the tracks and breaking his toyota ball joint"rotula".Bidoui our mechanic took a look and saw that it was impossible to fix,he needed a new ball joint.We tried to call our mechanic friend Aziz from Zagora with no avail as there was no coverage on our mobiles.We could see at about 600 metres a set off local houses and I thought the group could camp there whislt me and Wilfred drove to a place were we could use the telephone but we saw an orange land rover all battered up approaching,the driver got out and told us we could go to his place which was an Albergue and that he had a satelite telephone we could use :-)

We left the car in the middle of nowhere and got to the Albergue and had a shock to see the man get on top of an old bed and on a stick he had a plastic box and inside the box he had the Telephone,we c

Comment by Alfred Balban on March 17, 2012 at 3:06

14th of March.

Second day at Merzouga we went and picked up Mobarek from his house and he took us to a new site near Algeria,members were able to pick up fossils from the ground from a prehistoric river side on our way to a secret oasis lost in the desert mountain.All the way we met nomads living in jaimas"tents" in the middle of nowhere,we provided them with clothes for the children and many other things.Tyrone had a problem with his Discovery's brakes,the calipper got stuck and we had to change the pads,kindly Tuggy did a good job and we were able to carry on.The group stopped at the oasis and had a quick lunch,some had a refreshing swim in the crystal nearly salt water.Then we had a bit of dune driving and entered the old Dakar tracks on the sand surrounding the sea of dunes of Erg cherbi getting to the village of Khemilia were we visited our special friends Aicha and Brahim,to our surprise and sorrow to receive the news that Aicha a 14 year old girl had passed away 5 days ago from her degenerating illness,may Allah have her by His side.

We got back for dinner at the Touareg and Tyrone took his car to the mechanic,it will be fixed for next days stage,Misisi to Tagounite legendary Dakar Rally tracks,180 kms.

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