Friday, 14 June 2024

Moroccan Rally 2024 Final Route

Our final route from London through to Morocco and the Sahara saw us travel 5,061 miles (8,098km) over 13 days. The tracker captured over 1800 waypoints during our journey. There are some interesting deviations from our route through the Sahara, perhaps we were lost on occasion!



You can explore a dynamic version of recorded route here.



Wednesday, 12 June 2024

Moroccan Rally 2024 Completes in 13 Days

We've arrived at our finish point, in Epping Forest which in a way is where it all started for us with mountain biking 30 years ago.

We averaged 389 miles (622 km) per day, largely attributed to the European section of the rally. While Morocco is familiar to us, we took on new segments of off-road, faced different challenges and met some incredible people who helped us throughout our entire journey. This has always been a theme across all our rallies.

Thank you for all your support, both with the generous donations to Crisis as well as the messages of encouragement. 

It's been a fantastic adventure and more photos and videos will be posted later.

Team Rusty Rhinos 
Red, Adam & Alex





Moroccan Rally 2024 concludes in Epping Forest

After 13 days and with 5,061 miles (8,098 km) driven, the Moroccan Rally 2024 comes to a close. It's been a fantastic journey! More to follow.




Towards the Finish Line!

Heading to the ferry to the UK on day 13 of the Moroccan Rally 2024!



Tuesday, 11 June 2024

Spanish Services

As we drove through Spain last night, we decided around 2am that it was time for a late supper.

The Spanish services always impress with their homely community feeling, excellent food and coffee. We got this spread of Tapas before continuing on with our drive.




Monday, 10 June 2024

Monday 10th June: Morocco to Spain

We made it to Asilah last night, covering over 400 miles from the peaks of the Atlas to Asilah just south of Tangiers. 


After some quick repairs to Red this morning we continued on to the Moroccan - Spanish border.



We have just crossed into Spain at the port of Ceuta awaiting our ferry to cross back to the European continent.





Sunday, 9 June 2024

Sunday 9th June: Atlas, Marrakesh and Beyond

We set off through the Atlas mountains this morning and arrived in Marrakesh for a delicious lunch of Tajine, Pastilla and salad.

After wandering through the meandering alleys of the old Medina, we left Marrakesh heading North towards Casablanca and Rabat.














Saturday, 8 June 2024

Saturday 8th June: 9th Rally Day in the Atlas

Saturday 8th June: Day 9 of our rally was a combination of a stunning drive through the dramatic Atlas landscape as well as more car repairs. 

The latter part of our drive took us through parts of the Atlas severely affected by the earthquake. Sections of mountain road had disappeared and are being reconstructed. We have stopped in Talat N'Yaaqoub for some rest and good Tagine.










Atlas Night Drive

After making it to Foum-Zguid, we decided to press on and drove to Tata, then Akka before heading North to the Atlas. We drove through the night at times navigating the precarious mountain roads before pulling up at the side of a mountain at 3.15am for a short car sleep under the incredible starlit sky.





Friday, 7 June 2024

Thursday 6th to Friday 7th June: Zagora to Foum-Zguid

Thursday 6th June: We spent most of the day in Zagora with car repairs from 9am to 5pm. Repairs included replacing our rear suspension, cleaning out our filters to resolve our fuelling issue and carrying out a number of other repairs.

We then headed out to Tagounite and started the off-road trail to Foum-Zguid then camped out for the night. 




Friday 7th June: We spent the entire day navigating the rocky off-road trails and sand dunes, going via Iriki across stunning scenery. The trail was hard and slow but we got there in the end!

We got lost a couple of times and briefly were stuck on a sand dune. By 6pm we made it to Foum-Zguid.




Thursday, 6 June 2024

Wednesday 5th June: Merzouga to Zagora

We drove from Merzouga to Zagora, mostly off-road through temperatures reaching 42c and a sand storm at the start of the day.




In our eagerness to set out, we didn't refuel in Merzouga when we left at 8am. Some 15 miles later we turned back to Merzouga, refuelled and Sahara proofed the car to deal with the high temperatures and sand.


We proceeded towards Ramlia, although we did find ourselves within a few miles of the Algerian border. The Moroccan military intercepted us and were extremely nice and helpful, escorting us out of the controlled zone to the correct track.



Once back at Ramlia, we struggled to cross the sand dunes as soft sand spread across the Ramlia area for around 5 miles. With the help of one of the locals in Ramlia, he showed us a good route through the dunes.


As we continued to Zagora, we stopped a couple of times dealing with a fuelling issue. After the sun had fully set, we were navigating the off-road terrain through the night. Fortunately the last 30 miles to Zagora were paved. We arrived just before 10pm, met Chez Ali Nassir who carried out a minor repair on the car and we're booked in tomorrow morning to resolve the fuelling issue.

Big day of off-road with over 220 rally miles driven, lots of fun action and adventure, finished off with a late dinner in Zagora.