Morocco / Travel Route 1

Trail Info

Distance: 1843 km 

Difficulty: Moderate - Difficult (sometimes only)

Description:

This Travel route is a 7 day travel route starting in Melilla and ends after 1843 km in Ifrane.

DAY 1: On the first day after arriving in Morocco by ferry the group started in Melilla (Beni-Enzar border crossing) and drove 191km to Houara Oulad Raho.

DAY 2: Be careful, only 120 km are offroad, the rest road. Low difficulty, as long as there is no clear mud. Suitable for maxitrails and 4x4s.

The intention of this day was to move as far south as possible, crossing part of the Rekkam plateau, but not the entire plateau, we included a road in between and a stop in Outat El Haj, so as not to have intermediate problems with gasoline.

The next gas station is in Talsint, and from there there are no more gasoline problems, since there is also gasoline in Bni Tajite and Boudnib.

The most interesting points were a beautiful landscape of the Badlands, marked as a Waypoint, the Belkassem Col, and the old Fort of the French Foreign Legion.

To sleep in Boudnib, we stayed in a campsite/hostel, called Rekkam Boudnib, run by some French people. Good atmosphere, but be careful it is usually very popular, I think we got the last two stores, so it is a good option to reserve.

DAY 3: NOTE: it is important to do this route in the indicated direction (from Boudenib to Erg Chebbi), the other way around it has a very complicated slope.

This day is quite powerful, with sandy boulevards at the beginning and then the area called "RocaPark", which although in general is not a complicated area, it does have a descent, which I have called "the slide" which is complicated to go down, at less mounted. And going up is almost impossible, at least on a motorcycle, because it is a very steep hill with a final step.

The rest of the route is of moderate level, with some sandbanks, easily overcome.

Without a doubt the two most spectacular areas are "Rocapark" and the "Portuguese Prison".

DAY 4: We started the day doing dunes in Erg Chebbi, with the bikes unloaded and the pressures lowered. Afterwards we loaded up and raised the pressure and after adding gas we took the road towards the Ouzina track.

In Ouzina there are also dunes, but there we only pass along the main track that takes us to the small town of Ramlia.

Just after this is the so-called "Ramlia Pass" (Oued Gueris), it is a fairly easy pass if the Gueris River does not carry water, but if the bottom is wet or the river carries water, things can get very complicated.

We had a very good lunch at midday at the Kasbah Marabout. From there you can continue towards Zagora, but we turned back to head north through the Mharech pass (gateway to Bethlehem), but we could not get there due to Antonio's breakdown.

The idea was to sleep in Campo El Mharech, which is why the route ends there. When we got there we would have gone about 154 km without gasoline. Be careful, fill up with gas the next day, 220 km from the previous gas station where we filled up, which was Merzouga.

DAY 5: In the videos the beginning differs because we had a breakdown and had to leave from Merzouga again.

To the first Gas Station, there are 220 km taking into account that the previous gas station was in Merzouga and when we left today we would have already traveled 150 km from the previous stage.

Easy stage with plenty of road.

DAY 6: In those 310 km there are no gas stations. But there are towns where I'm sure you can get bottled gasoline. We solved it by carrying two 5 and 3 liter drums. Everything will depend on the autonomy of your motorcycle.

In general, an easy route to do, with quite a bit of road, because nowadays many tracks in the Atlas are already paved, but even so, those stretches of road are fun for the views.

The most complicated point is perhaps the fording of the M'Goun River, which although we did it easily, during times of river flooding it must be more complicated.

To highlight the beautiful Amejgag Gorges and the incredible Assif Melloul Canyon.

DAY 7: Very long stage with 320km, that's why we entered the road to be able to advance.
This stage has a very fun and at the same time complicated section between Anfgou and Anemzi, where you have to drive for 10 kilometers within a river bed, where only motorcycles can fit, 4x4s cannot. In that valley there is no coverage, you have to be careful, especially at times when the river carries a lot of water. For that section I put the route as difficult.

The rest of the stage is easy and passes through two national parks full of cedars, Khenifra and Ifrane.

We stayed to sleep in a hotel in Ifrán, which although it was not centrally located, did the trick for us.

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