North East Morocco?

Me Sir! Essential piece of kit, we will all require one. I'm certain Tuggy will have one too.

Friend of mine runs UK 4x4 Centre / London 4x4 CB Centre 11 Green More Link, Winchmore Hill, London N21 2NN Tel: 020 8360 6176 / 07985170973. Noticed his website's down for maintenence at the mo, so give him a bell.

His name's Jan, a Dutch Scouser! ... but we won't hold that against him!! Say Tom McGuigan put you in touch, he'll see you right. Started up business on the back of the fact he's a ham radio operator, so knows far more than the usual CB sellers who often have limited knowledge as they're more sellers than enthusiasts.

Thanks Tom,

I already figured I would buy from him. I was poking around his stall at Billing and the Overland show as well. I will look him up when my wonky foreign travel schedule subsides in May.

Good stuff.

I agree with Tom a CB is essential
I have one

On a more serious note, since the French stormed into Mali, been hearing more and more stories about North Africa. This is the latest I just spied on another forum:-

Bloke at work just got back...

Anti Western-ism is rising, his wife was verbally and physically abused, he was threatened with a blade. Old bill had just beaten up a group of English (after they were attacked by locals) as the locals just said they started it (while laughing with plod), one still in hospital.

I personally wouldn't go anywhere near North Africa at the moment. Go to Gib instead and spit at it from a distance.

Strong views! Okay, well OTT but as I say, not the first I've heard.

What part of North Africa was that mate??

Just fitted my CB in the discovery for this weekend off roading with the Normandy 4x4 club, trouble is when I get home I need to refit it in my frontera for a weekend in the lake district with the frontera owners club

Easy, simply wire it up to a male cigarette lighter plug to use in any motor + use a magnetic aerial. Installation in under a minute; sorted!

colley2.8 wrote:

What part of North Africa was that mate??

Not sure if it was Morocco or Tunisia as both were mentioned in the thread, but it was definitely one or the other. Worrying as both are deemed moderate Muslim countries.

I have been following events pretty closely...mainly because I get paid to. In the past six months police in Morocco have busted up a couple of small AQIM-linked cells and arrested Moroccans trying to head to Mali to fight. Tension is definitely higher but one of the facts not often mentioned is that the local populations rarely support...and often actively resist jihadists becoming active in their neighborhoods. Mainly because they are the ones who suffer through increased violence, reduced economic opportunities and higher crime levels (jihadists and criminal gangs go hand in hand). So while there may be small groups of troublemakers around, the majority won't be involved...kind of like alot of British neighborhoods after a football match...

So, as we get closer to our trip I will continue to monitor what is going on. On the plus side, we will be travelling in the least populated area of Morocco and well away from the normal tourist routes. On the down side, we will be travelling reasonably close to the Algerian border. But The Algerians are seriously ramping up their security in the south, so that should be in the plus column.

But for all of us, I would say it would be prudent to plan their routes so that we camp away from towns, and the more remote the better. Also that when we do hit towns to fuel up and buy supplies, we keep those visits relatively short and do not advertise our route outbound to anyone. Finally, I spend a big part of my time training people to work safely in high risk areas so we could do some briefings before we set off for the group. Hopefully Tuggy can give us some info when he comes back from the rally through that area.

So, while something to keep in mind, I wouldnt put too much into it at the moment.

Makes perfect sense, all bases covered then!

Guys got back yesterday afternoon had a good trip some highs and some lows....and one of the low points was the boarder crossing in mellila..3.5 hours to cross and nearly ended in fistycuffs and other guys in our group taking 6 hours so now i have done all the crossings into morocco and i would NOT RECEMEND MELLILA AS A CROSSING POINT...... and down in merzouga i met a pal of mine and he confirmend not to use that crossing so be warned ...on the way back i used ceuta and we were thru in 20-25 mins........one of the first stages we did was guercif to the east we did a big off road route about 150k its very barren and not a lot there.

mozzies got me....little tinkers......

Reckon you got that eye from the thought of the "fistycuffs!"

Well done Tuggy! Nice eye...hope the rally was a success though and you had a good trip.

Also well done on the advance recce and the info on Melilla. I was going by Chris Scott's recommendation but I guess times have changed. That is good to know. Cueta looking like a better option I guess.

Interesting report on the terrain near Guercif as well. That is west of where we are planning to head but probably part of the eastern plateau. From the sat images it looks like a big flat bowl sandwiched in between various ranges of mountains/hills. It is up to Steve who is planning that section but no doubt we will have to cross some of that before we hit the mountains and more challenging terrain to the south.

Maybe there is another interesting leg to plan then between Cueta and Tauorirt through the main Atlas range for someone....

Hello,
Hope this is some use to anyone planning on using the border crossing Melilla / Beni-Enzar.
It's the only border I ever use, I always stay east of the Atlas during the winter
months, east Morocco works for me,.
I shipped Melilla / Malaga around the 20th march
The frontier is currently like a demolition site for all sorts of reasons, outbound every day except monday theres a sailing from Almaria at 23.30 lands Melilla 08.00, unless theres a female 4 berth cabins are shared with others for the 8 hour crossing.
Mondays always my choice, sailings at 16.30 arrives 22.30 i'm in bed on the secure port parking by 23.00 then up at daylight and on the frontier well befor the 08.00 boat arrives half hour and the frontier's done.
NEVER GET OF THE BOAT AND ATTEMPT THE FRONTIER wait untill the rush has gone,

Thanks for the heads up marjal, all very useful information.

Tembo wrote:

Well done Tuggy! Nice eye...hope the rally was a success though and you had a good trip.

Also well done on the advance recce and the info on Melilla. I was going by Chris Scott's recommendation but I guess times have changed. That is good to know. Cueta looking like a better option I guess.

Interesting report on the terrain near Guercif as well. That is west of where we are planning to head but probably part of the eastern plateau. From the sat images it looks like a big flat bowl sandwiched in between various ranges of mountains/hills. It is up to Steve who is planning that section but no doubt we will have to cross some of that before we hit the mountains and more challenging terrain to the south.

Maybe there is another interesting leg to plan then between Cueta and Tauorirt through the main Atlas range for someone....

upto the ceder forest then upto lake tislet then drop thru to the gorges.........just a thought its a great couple of days...

tuggy wrote:

Tembo wrote:

Well done Tuggy! Nice eye...hope the rally was a success though and you had a good trip.

Also well done on the advance recce and the info on Melilla. I was going by Chris Scott's recommendation but I guess times have changed. That is good to know. Cueta looking like a better option I guess.

Interesting report on the terrain near Guercif as well. That is west of where we are planning to head but probably part of the eastern plateau. From the sat images it looks like a big flat bowl sandwiched in between various ranges of mountains/hills. It is up to Steve who is planning that section but no doubt we will have to cross some of that before we hit the mountains and more challenging terrain to the south.

Maybe there is another interesting leg to plan then between Cueta and Tauorirt through the main Atlas range for someone....

upto the ceder forest then upto lake tislet then drop thru to the gorges.........just a thought its a great couple of days...

Do you want to take the first leg then tuggy???

Just out of interest what spare parts are people planning on taking??
And is one spare wheel ok or should I consider taking two??

Just a thought, may be of interest, ticket bought at Almaria Port same day monday shipping to Melilla 112 euro.
Return bought at the port in Malilla (ignore the touts) 94 euro for the crossing to Malaga, no cabins but quick as you can from the car decks get up to deck 8 and excelent rows of seats in 3's make a cracking bed, boots make a good pillow
and take a cover to chuck over yourself, dont hang about on the car decks the Moroccon's have got it of to a tee.
Price is for solo land rover and 1 person.

Just back from 2 weeks off roading in Normandy, took the Disco to give it a test as I was not completely impressed with it.

After getting stuck in some rather average mud on the first day I thought it had to go, but with some advice from another Disco 2 owner on driving technique (really needs a different type of driver input than the Frontera) I was blown away with its performance.
So it's a deal I'm taking it to Morocco instead of the Frontera.

On the preparation front what mods should I do, I've fitted diff guards back and front I'm also going to replace the front springs and shocks with heavier duty but standard height equipment, I'm happy with the performance of the Insa Turbo Dakar tyres (just fitted before France). I've looked at raised air intakes and steering guards but that's as far as I've got I think the cars other stuff seems ok for the trip.

As Steve said in his post the only other thing I was thinking was one spare or two ?

You got any pics Garry of the new disco??

There's a couple on my Face Book page, can't seem to add them on here might well be a setting on my iPad not sure

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