Morocco : Setting off 24th June 2010

A couple of pics from the album...these were taken with my cheapo Sony camera and are quick pics if you like, rather than staged ones with the proper camera. I will give links to the full albums later when I have sorted through them













Guys we bumped into while we were deciding the best route (or rather, direction) to take. They offered us food, drink and smoke - how could we decline. The Landie, not really equipped for carrying passengers, so they clung onto the hi-lift and the jerry can on the back. Superb day





Camping on Plage Blanche...superb

Met this nomad while we were bumbling about on the mountain tops on no particular track. He gave us some excellent directions, did not want anything in return but he seemed to have a keen eye on the hat, couldn't say no really!





This was a superb desert crossing...reached temps of 46c here...before we started I was told that I would not survive it by the check point officers at the beginning of the crossing (who incidentally we shared tea with for a few hours, while they were trying to convince us that starting the crossing at 3PM was a bad bad idea).





Looking rather sorry for itself:



Erg Chebi:





And the flamingo lake which those who were following the blog would know that while trying to avoid some chancers on motorbikes, in the haste we ended up in what seemed like a bog made of 50% mud and 50% flamingo poo. Damn that stunk and so did we after a few minutes! Recovery was quite difficult as when you lift one side/corner of the car the other sinks! Watching the landie sink onto it's chassis was not funny at the time but at least we got out of there in the end! 2 Hilifts and 6 boards would have been handy!







And erm, yeah, while trying to abort mission as we realised the tide was already in round the corner, we got stuck. After spending some considerable time trying to get the car up the slope, in the idea that we could then drive on the path, we realised by the time we actually got up there, the tide would be in, and the sand was just as soft as where we got stuck anyway. So instead we dug out and cained it backwards into the sea and bombed it out of there.

Awesome.... waiting for the rest fellas!

Damage/repairs to Red:

Clutch slave cylinder died - found a seal that looked similar, fitted that, fixed.

A few wheel bearings went near to the end of the trip...2 replaced, the other wasnt so bad so ignored (one of which the Fairey FWH seal had fell inside so had to bash it off).
The points were a bit annoying, had to adjust according to temperature...but apart from that, engine run cool considering the temperatures. Cabin was damn hot though, touch the metal inside in the footwell area and you literally burn yourself!

The chassis snap (pics to follow) - not quite sure when or how it happened, was probably a combination of lots of miles over rocks and lift-off a few times. Knew something was not right as could hear a knocking noise from the front end. Thought it might be a leaf spring...but yeah, after looking round the car, found both front chassis legs snapped - it did not go quite all the way round - leaving the top part of the leg still attached. Was not pleasant to drive as you could hear the chassis moving, expanding and then, thud, closing again, particularly as it meant we had to do the next 30 miles of off-road at about 3/4MPH, until we hit the dunes at night, and we couldn't go slow over those or we would be stuck. Cringworthy! Got it plated and welded in the next town and seems like a decent job, will inspect at some point.

The distributor decided to mash the rotar arm to bits, which I thought I had a spare of, but had the wrong one, so limped the last 1500 miles home with a missfire. Going to change the distributor and go electronic ignition.

Lost a fog light at some point, not sure how.

Bashed a wing mirror on a tree. Tree won the fight.

Keeps on jumping out of 2nd gear. Will rebuild the box at some point.

Apart from those trivial things, very happy with our landie once again and it will see more countries in the not-so-distant future

And very impressed with the Insa Turbo tyres - in some places we doubted if we could climb and descend, but they just grip rock superbly. More power would have been nice...but 1st gear (or ascent/desent control as we started to call it ), low box, sorted!

electronic ignition it the way to go, i hated adjusting points all the time! but as before if you want a hand you have my number

Yup, my family already have it lined up as a birthday present hehe.

Thanks for the offer

cool family, whens your birthday?

They are Landie nuts themselves so not too suprising that I get Landie bits for such occasions. Can't complain

28th July

hey rusty good ta see your back sounds like you had a good trip, send us a link for ya fotos whent you sorted em, did you take any vids?. an let us no when you wanna go for drink ive got many a questions for ya.

Was superb. yeah will sort out a proper gallery soon - it will be on the main website. Yup, took video

I am up for a drink . Let me know a time and place and I will get over

Fantastic that mate!

Stunning scenery, friendly locals, reliable motor ... what more could you want ..

Indeed, can't beat it

Well done looks familiar

G

Yup I am sure some of it does. Would like to go back again, there is lots to explore and you certainly don't need to research routes before you go - they are scattered about everywhere, even better if you get lost as then you start finding stuff you would never find otherwise! Take the Sahara Overland book for instance - most of the tracks/paths/etc that we took were not documented at all in there.

The chassis break:

Brilliant You guys are definately not girls

Hehe, thanks

but i bet they did LOOK like girls recovering a series from the mud in their flip flops or thongs as the yanks call them *snigger *

G

Haha, thanks for that Griff

Full set of pics in logical order now uploaded to The Rusty Rhinos - Moroccan Road Trip 2010 - photos