SEGMENT 3
Sunday, October 12:
A tip from an online forum collegue was to drive the track (called piste in Morocco) from Taouz to Zagora, so we made our way to the starting point in the south-east corner of Morocco. Finding the piste was not easy and we hooked up with two other German vehicles to get a start. We were followed by the usual annoying local guy on a motorcycle who wanted to be our guide and asked 50 Dirham ($8) per kilometer, and had a hard time getting rid off him. After following us for about five kilometers he gave up...
Eventually, we found the start of the track and soon had a bit of water and mud (pic 01) to deal with. A few miles into the trail we came to a little hut where we met some Swiss people with their two Land Rovers (pic 02) - we had seen them on a campground a few days earlier. They had already been further into the trail and had turned around because they found the next river impassable. We decided to turn around as well and ended up joining the Swiss couples. On our return to Taouz we headed north on the main road and then started on a different route which would eventually join us with the desired track. Here, too, many areas were flooded and soft and we got stuck in the mud. It took us a while to free the vehicles (pic 03) and we pushed on. We had looked for waypoints to store on our GPS but the map we had was a bit rough. It was supposed to show the pistes but they didn't transfer to the GPS :-(. So we winged it, followed a track and finally lost it. But we kept going following the direction (as the crow flies) and actually made it to the village we wanted to get to.
The next couple of days we basically navigated this way, finding our way to our next waypoint. The scenery was awesome and made for nice photos and picnic spots (pic 04). Most people associate desert with ondulating sand dunes - however, there is a lot of variety in this landscape. We had to cross a mountain range and on the second try found a good spot to cross. Not following any established tracks made it just more interesting (pic 05). We passed a few small villages and were greeted by the local children with curiousity and eagerness. When we finally reached asphalt again, it felt like a great adventure was over.

Heading north, we reached a flooded bridge guarded by police which only let four-wheel-drive vehicles pass. We noticed with surprise that the local police has been driving Jeep Wranglers for many years (pic 06). A large group of Spanish crosscountry motorcycles and quads, apparently on some kind of official ralley, passed us. Then, way too soon, it was time to part from our Swiss friends as they needed to head north to drop off one member of their group at the Marrakesh airport, whereas we intended to explore some of the nearby gorges. We said our good-byes in a gathering sandstorm and went different ways.

 

 

pic 01

pic 02

pic 03

pic 04

pic 05

pic 06


for more pics click here