MAROCATLASGIB 4X4 SOLIDARITY RAID 2013 DIARY!

[Marocatlasgib4x4 Club]

LAST YEAR LOUIS STARTED A DIARY FOR ALL PARTICIPATING MEMBERS TO UPDATE AS THE RAID WENT ALONG,I THINK IT WENT REALLY WELL SO WE WILL START THIS ONE FOR THIS YEARS RAID AND HOPE IT GETS AS MUCH INTEREST AS THE LAST ONE,SO EVERY ONE MAKE USE OF THIS THREAD TO POST YOUR EXPERIENCES WITH PHOTOS,VIDEOS AND POSTS.

[Alfred Balban]

I'am on my last preparations and I will go to collect my copilt Darren Dale who will be coming with me,we have to load the roof rack with the bycicles and we will head to the meeting place to see our fellow Raiders.

[Marocatlasgib4x4 Club]

We finally made it to the Hotel in Tangier,too many people travelling in this date.

[albert albi martinez]

oh yes m8 we are finally here :) 

[Alfred Balban]

Long day today to get to the hotel Ahlen in Tangier,we started at 2 o'clock this afternoon were we were caught in the frontier cue for over an hour,well at least we did not have any hassle with the customs.We then went up to Tarifa to get the ferry,we arrived on time to get the 5 o'clock as was arranged.The journey was ok but there was so many people that we had to be on cue for the passport stamp for over 2 hours,we then arrived to the customs were again we were delayed for over an hour cause the load of traffic that came on the ferry.

Now we are relaxing at the hotel inthe lounge discussing tomorrow stage fromTangier to Taza,over 500 kms.

[albert albi martinez]

pics from yesterday where we had to camp due to not reaching our destination :)

[Alfred Balban]

Great pictures of our night camp.

[Sean Cawood]

Brilliant! wish I was there!!!! next time maybe...

[Louis Balban]

26th March. Its now 0:52 am. we are in merzouga relaxing.tomorrow we do our Solidarity part.will post todays pics tomorrow.

[Alfred Balban]

23rd March
7:30 am,woke up and went to see breakfast will be ready for the group for 8:00 am,today we will make our way to Chefchawen,there we will stop for lunch and sure do some shopping then start our way through the Rif mountains to taza.
We got the Tetuan road which took us up to Chawen were we had a great lunch at the restuarant DarCom,which means"Your House".We then hit the road to get to Fez and then Taza,we got to Bab Baret were it started to snow,at 1450 m
the road was completely covered of snow,we found on the way trucks,buses and cars blocking the road side ways as they could not carry on,when we reached the crossing to Fez I decided not to carry on as the snow was going to be worse as
we went up,we decided to carry on to Al Hoceima as the next days stage l Hoceimaand stayed in the Hotel Armin for the night.There I got myself to prepare the next days route which we will have to do as an alternative.

[Alfred Balban]

24th March

We got up early and had our breakfast at the hotel,we then visited a small beach in the area which was really nice,then we be heading to Guercif by the tracks,we got to the tracks and after doing 20 kms we found a truck the driver told us the track was closed by an earth landslide.Again I had to get an alternative to procede to Guercif,the man showed us a track that would put us some kms SE but we would then carry on South to Guercif.We had a great day on quick tracks and some rocky mountain climbs,then we got to a secondary road that took us to the main road to Guercif and then to Touarit to get the tracks through the Platue Recam to Erfoud.All this diversion cost us a lot of time,
we reached Debdou by night,we asked around for a hotel and was told there was none but there was a house that could be rented,we had to drive a zig zag narrow path up about 200 m to a dead end,they wanted us to leave the cars parked and then walk another 50 m up to the house,we thought it was not a good idea and decided to carry on as we had seen a sign saying there was a hotel at about 7 kms so we headed up more into the mountain.When we reached the place it was pitch black and raining,the place was closed down but I managed to talk to the man guarding the place to let us camp in inside their walls which he kindly said it would be no problem,you can always count with thier hospitality.We organised ourselves and put up our tents and then Justin and Roy made us a nice burger with the fresh minced meat we had bought in the day for the ocation.Luckily the rain stopped and we had a great night but very cold indeed.

[Alfred Balban]

25th March.

Morning came and with the sound of the first birds I woke up,I put the kettle to boil for everyone and started waking them up.We had a long way to go this day as our aim was to reach Merzouga in the daylight.We started on the road from Debdou to Tijjite were the tracks begins to take us to Boudenb,some of them are really quick to drive on,I got to a crossing were I had been before and turned right which was the one I had never used,we got to a point were a ditch had been destroyed by the rain,I did cross but got myself hanging from both ends of the car,Justin with his Mitsh looked for another crossing but got stuck on some loose sand,Louis had to pull him out with his Mitsh,Roy with his Toyoya Hilux tried to pull me out from the rear but my rear bumper was ploughing the earth.Louis had pulled out Justins car so I got in and used another crossing and managed to put the
car on the other side.We then got my car out and we proceeded to Boudenb.

We reached the main road to Errachidia,127 kms to Erfoud were we will again hit the tracks to Merzouga,our destination and base for 4 days.From Erfoud to Merzouga there are 53 kms of tracks but I decided we will visit the tracks of the fossils and pass the Roman bridge and then get the Rissani road to Merzouga,in the 4 days we will be in the area we will do the tracks to do solidarity work.
We reached our Hotel Le Touareg and our friend Hassan was waiting for us with a nice mint tea to clear the dust of our mouths,everyone got their rooms and we went to have dinner which was really a lovely meal,later we just chilled out in the lounge were we have wifi connection.

[Alfred Balban]

26th of March.

Today will be a relaxing day,participating members are able to sleep and get their energies back,some of them got up at 2 o'clock in the afternoon,I went to my car and found out that I had a punctured tyre,I would sought it out later at Brahim the mechanic in town.I talked with Hassan the owner to let us a store to keep the stuff as we cannot carry all the stuff through the sand for our solidarity works.This we will do later when the sunsets down and we have some shade,24 degrees in the shade.I went to visit our friend Mobarek in the village of Takojt.I wanted to arrange to have lunch with the group the next day,but he was not at home,he will be back in the night as he was
travelling from Fez,on my way there I met with Jinson and Mark who are participating in the Maroc Challenge Spring Edition,they were doing good in the race and we give them our support and best of luck.

Everyone chilled around and even some used the pool to refresh,later between all we unloaded the cars and left some stuff in them for tomorrows solidarity works we will do in the area.I had to take my tyre to the mechanic and we decided we could do a nocturnal run and visit the lake of the flamingoes us the moon was full and it was a spectacular sight,we found some kids on the tracks and we gave them sweets as we went on,then we did some sand driving back to
the hotel to have dinner which again surprised the new comers.