2012 Solidarity Raid Diary.

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2012 Morocco Solidarity Raid.

Alfred Balban, from the 9th March 2012 to 25th March 2012 with Keller Gibson, Christian Brown and 11 others Visited Merzouga, Tangier, Azrou, Imilchil, Knemis Dades, Ouarzazate, Morocco, Mhamid, Ouarzazate, Morocco, Tata, Sidi Ifni, Tafraoute, Ouzoud, Azilal, Morocco, Riat, Khenifra, Morocco and Zagora, Morocco

10th of March;

We made a start at 11:00 am from Tangier using the highway to Rabat and Meknes then we headed to Boukrane were our 12th vehicle was waiting for us, he had taken a different route the day before to meet us on the way.

Some vehicles are so loaded that we had problems to keep up with each other. The stage to Midelt was not finnished but we managed to reach the Cedar Forest 1750 metres over sea level, where we camped for the night surrounded by snow.

11th of March, Cedar Forrest,Azrou.

The next morning we were visited by the local barbary apes the same ones we have in Gibraltar.

  

We packed up the camp and started back on the road to Midelt were we saw on the way the Gibel Aiachi Mountains covered in snow.

That was our stage of the day, cross the Atlas from North to South but impossible by the amount of snow. We carried on the road to El Rich and went up to 2250 metres to the Tislite Lake in Imilchil. We have stayed at the Tislte Albergue as always and had the typical Berber tortilla and enjoyed their kind hospitality. Still no internet so all this was written at the lake at 3 degrees, 00:31 am.

12th of March.Lac Tislite,Imilchil.

I got up at 7:00 am and got everyone up for breakfast, we had some who slept together in the lounge room and some in diferent rooms, the lounge room became an orchestra in the middle of the night with the snoring of 10 men.

We went to Imilchil to fuel up and got the tracks from Agoudal to Todra Gorge by the Dades. We had some difficulties with the snow even though we were already on the south face of the Atlas, we managed to break the ice to move along but we were stopped on our track by an avalanche that had covered the track completely.

We had to make a detour by dropping our vehicles down the ledge of the mountain and use another alternative,

this took us more time than usual so we did not visit the Todra but drove down to Merzouga to our friend Hassan at Kasbah Le Touareg, arriving late at night.

13th of March.

First day in Merzouga the group had the morning off so to rest from the days past.

At mid-day we went off to get a taste on the dunes and get new comer's aquainted with driving on the sand, we all had some fun with our cars and then we went to Tokojt village, east from Merzouga. Here we did some solidarity work on the way to our friends Albergue Tokojt were the group will have their lunch and meet our old friend Mobarek. We had a marvelous lunch and drove back again doing some solidarity work on our way back to the Kasbah Le Touareg. We arranged to go to see the Gnawa group at khemilia were we had some members participating in their traditional dance with their dressings, later got back to the kasbah for dinner and chill out.

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.

We continued 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 km.

15th of March.Merzouga.

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 on the road to see our mechanic friend Aziz at the Iriki Garage, there we will 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.

Alfred 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 used 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 Mecessi, missing the entrance of the track to refuel and then got an alternative 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 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.

16th of March.On the Tracks.

We got up at 8 am to have our breakfast and Aziz was waiting for us to acompany us to Zagora.

The team enjoyed the views of the area at the M

harech Fguid.

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 sharperner and a writing book, sweets, toys and school trousers for the boys.

We kept on the tracks till we got to the crooss-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.

17th of march. Zagora.

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 carry on 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.

18th of March, Zagora.

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,t he 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 carry on its way and meet him again in Marakesh in a few days.

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.

20th of March.

We got started on the road to Guelmin which was another 200 kms down south.

We reached Guelmin and refuelled our vehicles to do the next 36 kms to Plage Blanche. We got to the egde of the river and we were informed that the tide was going down so we crossed the river and headed into the beach.

All cars were able to drive on the beach over 50 kms.

We reached the first wreck were I have photos with the people on the main mast, today it was only spikes poking out the sand. We met a fisherman on the shore who was collecting his net,we went to sea what kind of fish he had to buy from him but he had only mallets, the goods ones he said were out at sea and he had to wait for the tide to get lower.

We carried on the beach to the second wreck,"about 28 kms from our starting point", the fishing trawler, there was nothing left of it just the coroding hull sank deep into the sand.

We did some photos on the spot and drove back to the Aurorea dunes were we stopped to have our lunch.

After lunch we drove the beach up north another 24 kms up to the cliff were we got up to the tracks to head to Sidi Ifni. We were caught in the tracks by night but did a marvellous nocturnal ride of 15 kms on the track up to the road to Sidi Ifni.

We entered the village and headed straight to the Hostal Suerte Loca, the spanish name comes because this was a spanish colony until the early seventies when spain gave back the north african terroties to the late king Hassan. The spanish legion forttress is still visible although very negleted, the whole village is constracted in the spanish way and the main income in the village are the fishermen and tourism.

We stayed for the night at the Hostal and had a marvelous dinner of octupos speciality of the house,some went out to eat and had a great site viewing of the coastline area. The Hostal had internet wifi connection so I was able to update our event page a bit more.

21st of March.

We got up early as always but did not get to move till 10 o'clock, we drove on the coast line up to Tisnit then started to drive up again to the anti Atlas to Tafraoute.

One of the Mitshibushi had problems with the leaking of a brake rear tube and we had to stop to do some repairs which Bidoui again managed to sort out with what he could get.

We reached Tafraoute at 15:00 hrs and we stopped at our usual restaurant D'or De Agadir to have a late lunch,we all had a great meal and then went into the souk to buy some things from the local craftsmen who are well known for their shoe making.I got the chance and had a hair cut and shave from a local barber.

We all met again at the restaurant and Bidoui finnished the job on Lui Sing's car brakes and headed to the Painted Rocks valley to camp,night caught us again as we entered the valley but we managed to reach our favourite spot to camp.

Everybody prepared their tents and things and built up a camp fire to sit around later.Louisto was sitting down with his telephone when he saw something coming forward to him in black and with a tail, he jumped back then to notice it was just a black cat.

Alfred always busy with our dairy ;)

Wilfred disappeared for a few minutes and then appeared dressed in a skeleton costume in the dark to scare the campers,we all had a great laugh as no one new about it.

So the camp fire is burning and its a lovely clear night were you can see many stars.

The guys had prepared a surprise award for our dear life friend Mohamed Bedoui, mechanic in Gibraltar, club member and a veteran on our Solidarity Raids, always helping out anyone with mechanical issues during our adventures!

22nd of March

We got up at 7 am and prepared breakfast, then I went through the tents to get everyone up as we had a long run to do today.

Everyone got up and started dismantaling the camp. We got the cars ready and drove through the valley to the painted rocks were we grouped up for a photo, then we did a hill climb up the face of the rocky mountain and got back on the road.

We started up to the tracks and we found people working constructing the new road,we had to detour on the tracks and ended back again in Tafraoute,atleats we did about 40 kms of tracks and did some solidarity work in the area.

We reached Tafraoute and refuelled the vehicles and got the road to Agadir then used the highway to Marakesh were we arrived about 8:00 pm and got to the Hotel Imilchil were Tyrone was waiting for us. He had already fixed his car and was ready to move.

We had a shower and all met at the reception of

the Hotel and went together for dinner at the J'mel Efna souk and sat down to eat their traditional dishes, all had a great meal. Some went to the medina and did some shopping whislt others just sat at the cafe's having some mint tea. Later we all met at the meeting place, "we were in contact all the time with our walkie talkies", and got taxis back to the hotel.

23rd of March.Marakesh.

We got up at 8am at got everything back in our vehicles and left them in the Hotel parking whislt we went back to the J'mel Efna market for breakfast and to finnish shopping. I went all over the market looking for a place with wifi so I could connect but with no luck. The only one I found had wifi but no electricity for me to be able to plug in as my battery is down.

At 13:00 hrs we met and ate a shawarma for lunch, then we got into taxis and went back to the hotel to get the cars.

We got onto the Fez road and made our way to the Ouzoud Waterfalls.

We arrived at Ouzoud at 3:45 pm and went straight to the Hotel Le France. We got ourselves our rooms and then some of the group went down to see the waterfalls and some went to the Mexican town to do some solidarity work. On the way we went to the school of the area but the teacher was not in. Some kids informed us were we could find him.

I went to see the main director of the schools in the area and I arranged with him for tomorrow to provide pencils, erasers, sharperners and books for 80 children.

We came back to the hotel and just chilled around narrating each others experiences along the way. We all sat together for dinner and had a great meal that was prepared by our friend Moha, great hospitality and very good food.

After dinner we prepared the school utencils for tomorrow to give to the director.

Now just relaxing for tomorrows run down to Tangier but first passing by Khenifra to see our long friend in the lake with his family.

24th of March.Ouzoud

We all got up early and made a start to the school to see the Director to hand him the school utencels with a note that he had sked for giving exact figures of what we were giving and how much will be delivered per child,I signed it as the president of the Club and Tyrone as chairman in the name of MarocAtlasGib 4x4 Solidarity Group.

Wilfred had gone with louisito to collect 2 fossil tables they had bought the night before and we waited for them. Then we started down through the gorge to the main road, on the way we did some solidarity work and again Im met the same girl I have been seeing for ages now.

We got to the main road and drove all the way to Khenifra were we did a diversion into Agoulman to see our friend and his family at the lake.

We reached the lake and everyone started to prepare their lunch, our friend wanted us to pass the night with them and he would sacrifice a lamb for us to eat. We thanked him but we could not stay as we had to be tonight in Tangier.

We gave this family who are deeply in need everything that was left in the vehicles, more people came so we shared everything around. Wilfred gave school utencils to all the kids and Tyrone who is a first aider saw a woman on a mule who had her knee all swollen, we manage to comunicate with her and Tyrone gave her some antinflamateries pills first explaining to her how to take them with the help of our friend.

We got every thing out of the cars and started back on the road to Boufakraine were we entered the motorway and then the highway from Rabat to Tangier,we arrived at the Hotel at 11:30 and we got ourselves a good rest after done nearly 500 kms in the day.

25th of March.Tangier.

We got up for breakfast and thye director of the Hotel Ahlen was waiting with the boxes containing the Dishes with our logo we had bought in Zagora,it had reached the hotel without any problems,over 800 kms,everyone got their own and we packed up our cars.

We all went to the souk and did our last shopping.There Louis went to see a friend in the Mamounia restaurant and was informed that the port had been closed for the past 3 days because of the bad weather.After we did our shopping we all met and went down to the agency at the port entrance,there I was informed we should go to the Med Port to get the ferry to Algeciras.

We drove up to the new port and we stopped first to refuel our tanks as it would be cheaper than at home.We carried on to the port and went straight to the agencies counter were they told me we could embark but only had 20 minutes,by the time we all past passport control and the customs the ferry had left and the next one we were told would be at 18:30 hrs,it was only 14:00 hrs.

We all went to the cafe in the port and had some lunch,later I went ito the car for a nap.I got up at 6 o'clock and a ferry was coming in,by the time the vehicles had to go in it was past 9 o'clock,we reached the ticket collector and he inform us we are in the wrong quay,the other ferry was still not in and will be there in half an hour.

The ferry arrived but by the time we embarked it was already over 11 o'clock,we did not get to Gibraltar until 3 in the morning and got home by 4 am.

Would like to thank everyone involved in this years Solidarity Raid,none of this could not been done without all your help,hope to see the same interest in the members and public for our next years Raid 2013.

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The FaceBook Dairy!

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Best artisans in town!

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Will be doing a Blog of our IV Family Solidarity raid 2022 showing the works done by the members families.

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Blogs from our raids are always welcomed, great way to show others what goes on during our raids.