NEW HORIZONS dec2024
Morocco
DROMEDARIS & GORGES
Gorge du Dades, Gorge dur Todra, this area is filled with mountains, gorge and little villages. During the tourist season it's busy with loads of tourists buses and small vans. But in the beginning of December the area is for 2 Dutch cyclists. Most of the roads we cycled where not tarred at all in 1993. They were dusty tracks. But not where racing on smooth tarmac and enjoy a bit of a holiday ride in the middle of the Atlas mountains. And of course we see a lot of dromedaris. Number 724 is a funny one.
MERZOUGA
Everybody goes to Merzouga. It's one of the highlights of Morocco. It's a playground for adults. A big place full of sand and people playing in it like it's a kindergarten. And yes, we did it too. It's the best place to test our truck in the sand. And that was very successful. It ploughs through the sand like it's his natural habitat. We never felt uncomfortable. Just get the right flow and hit the gas. From our basecamp in the desert we had a great time. Resting, eating driving, testing. The team (Tanja, Erik, Thilo, Jutta, Lisette and Marco) is ready for the next stage.
MERZOUGA TO ZAGORRA
Off course you can drive it yourself. But in about 6 minutes we show you how the route from Marzouga to Zagora is. So you don't need to drive it yourself....or you get so much motivated you start your engine right away. It's a classical route. Done by many but this year was a bigger challenge because of the rain and the muddy sections. In out movie you can see how we drive around and have a great journey. The landscape is changes every time. And with the rain a lot of parts are beautiful green. We've never seen that before. Great thanks to Tanja and Erik and to Thilo and Jutta for their great company.
TAMEGROUTE
It seems such a quit place. Tamegroute, a religious village in the Draa valley Small streets and little shops. But behind the walls there’s a lot going on. Thick smoke fills the air and in small factories beautiful ceramics is produced. And even we have a big truck we unfortunately have no place to take it with us. Such a pity. It would not survive our next offroad stretch.
FOUM ZGUID
In the south of Morocco you can find the small village of Four Zguid. Nothing special but if you have the time and the right vehicle you van explore the desert and de oases south of Foum Zguid. You should. Beautiful area where it's easy to drive around for a couple of days.
AIT BEN HADDOU
You can visit Ait Ben Haddou because of the beautiful town. You can visit it because of the beautiful setting. You properly going to visit it to walk around the kashbah where all the great movies like Gladiator and Game of Thrones where shot. But after you've done all that, get on your bike and explore the area. So we did.
CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR EVE
We're in a hurry. On our way to Ouarzazate. The year is ending and Christmas and new year are coming. For the first in a couple of months we have fixed appointments. 24th in Ourzazate and the 31th in Tafraoute. Celebrating these days with friends is a precious moment so to be on time is now important.
But to do so we have to conquer big mountain passes and parts of desert. And of course do a lot of shopping. So we visit markets, collect enough wood for the campfires, do some cycling, running, climbing and hit the gas.
Through the snowy Anti Atlas Mountains to Ait Mansour on our way to Tafraoute.
Again a beautiful ride through an impressive landscape.
FINDING OUR WAY
How to find our way in the mountains, the desert? Lots of people asks us all the time how we do that, what do we use. On social media you van find many different answers. Some worth to look at, some are rubbish. So how do we do it?
First of all, there is no holy grail. But there is a workable way to not get lost and not to end up in dangerous situations. We use a paper map for the overview. Yes, we know, little bit old fashion but it works great for big 1000 km steps.
If we want to go quick from A to B in a domestic environment we use a combination of Google Maps and Sygic Truck Navigation. For the real work, the day to day routes we use the best app there is, MapOut. We use the app for driving, cycling, walking. You can find all the little tracks and is very easy to use. We wrote a small TechnoTip bout it.
And to find the best routes we use several options. Of course our own imagination. Look at the map and make the best combination. But we also use tracks from WikiLoc, Pistenkuh, Vibraction and the tracks from our friend all over te world.
THE ROUTE, DECEMBER 2024
