The plan is simple, leave the UK winter behind and ride to Morocco to watch some of the Dakar Rally stages. I’ve done this before (in 2006 and 2007) but this year I’m planning to continue south through Western Sahara and Mauritania to Senegal and watch the finish of the Rally in Dakar.
Martin Clark has booked five weeks off work so we will be loading our two lardy BMW 1200GS Adventures on the Portsmouth-Bilbao ferry on 2 Jan, and returning early Feb. In between we should be covering 7500 or so miles.
The Rally route has already been published on the www.dakar.com site and it looks like we can intercept it on 7-8 Jan near Er Rachidia and again on 8-9 Jan near Zagora. There’s also the possibility of a third intercept in Morocco on 10 Jan at Plage Blanche near Goulimim. The Rally then heads through the sand berm into Mauritania where we can’t follow, but there’s a chance of an intercept at Nouadhibou on 14-15 Jan. The final stage on 20 Jan finishes at Lac Rose near Dakar.
The initial preparations are quite simple–no carnets are needed and the only visa required is Mauritania which can be obtained on the border. Senegal insists on a Yellow Fever injection but I have this already.
So dust off the packing list from previous trips and start crossing things off (I am a packing failure and am notorious for taking too much stuff). The pic below shows my bike setting off on last year’s trip–little wonder it failed to float over the sand!
Tim Cullis
PS: my previous Moroccan trip reports are on AdvRider
May 2007 – Stairway to Heaven
Jan 2007 – Sleeping beside the Bike in a Moroccan Riverbed
Apr 2006 – A Piste too Far
Jan 2006 – Carry on Dakar
May 2005 – Marrakech Express
There and Back Again 
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