Morocco - How much kit do you really need

I'd be interested in seeing this list, is it too long to type out?

Regards. Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.)

I have afriend who goes into North Africa about once a year and he has now cut down on the amount of kit considersably from his first trips - gone are the shower heads fitted to his car and out comes the bucket and sponge!

Are you coming to the British Indoor 4x4 Show at Donington Park race track on Sunday 13th Feb? Trailmasters. Atlas Overland, Croatia Offroad and other tour operators are all exhibiting so you could ask them direct and compare their info / prices in the comfort of one centrally heated exhibition hall! Any kit they suggest will also be available at the Show as there is several expedition type equipment retailers ther!

Hope to see you there and hope you find the answers - but if my mate is right what you actually need is very different to what an 'expedition' LR is weighed down with!!!

David LLAMa 4x4

[snip]

Some of us can remember when "Blue Peter" did a Land Rover expedition to Morocco....

There's several overlapping objects in such lists. Basic spares, camping, rough going, and outright survival.

Some parts of the USA, the gas stations are a hundred miles apart, and survival is worth considering with any vehicle. And that's on good roads. And you don't have to be getting into heavy off-road driving to make puncture repair an issue. A spare tube, patches, pump, and tools to fix a puncture don't take enough space to worry about.

Reading reports in the mags, there's a big difference between being stuck in a village, waiting for spares to be delivered to the local mechanic, and being in the middle of nowhere. But it depends a bit what sort of person you are.

It's in the LH sidebar of the above page. It doesn't look an overly large list to me - I carry close to that much when heading away to remote areas for any period of time (and a decent toolkit that adds about 20kg of weight but much peace of mind).

A Renualt 19

Very interesting. This is exactly what I was thinking....I am pretty sure that most of these trips could be done in a Micra with a dome tent in the boot if you really wanted to.

The problem is, at the moment I am staring at what I call "The Land Rover Paradox", lol. I cannot afford to buy all the kit you are expected to take, so I have to wait, but as I wait, my Landy gets older, does more mileage, and is therefore getting more likely to fail, requiring that I carry more kit......LOL

Oh well, thanks for the info, it is really appreciated. Think I will need to go to the 4x4 show (thanks for the info David) and chat with all the operators there to see what the deal is.

Robert

You'll see plenty of 4x4's when you go to Morocco (mainly tourists). The locals use 2x4's- you'll get to the end of long trail in the mountains thinking what a severe track it has been- only to find a bunch of Renault

5's parked up at the other end! It really does make one wonder about our urban 4x4's........ The deep sand in the South, on the hand, really is 4x4 country.

Desert or mountains though- I think Morocco is a 'must see'.

Nevillef

That list looks fair to me, not over-the-top. The first aid kit is beyond what I carry though, but I expect to be within dashing distance of medical help 90% of the time.

I saw no mention of a snorkel which I'd fit for a trip to such a place to help keep the dust out of the air filter. fit a cyclone hat on it.

Regards. Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.)

Considering border crossings. maybe ibuprofen is a problem. These days, the pre-packed sterile syringes come with the needle in the pack. Multivits seem a bit OTT, could be counted as insurance. Maybe it's a spell of +2 against lawyers.

This sort of stuff is probably more useful than dedicated actual spares. Obviously bare lengths of brake pipe would also need a flaring tool and maybe a few jointy bits but you could then bodge up any bit that got mangled.

Is Morroco part of the EU? There are pan-european approvals for CB these days, though of course countries can opt out or be slow in implementing the legislation. Do you get so spread out that you need a vehicle mounted rig though? A few PMR446 hand helds might be good enough, easier to hide.

B-) Very common, always worth doing a bit of background research before you go to find out what is worth having tucked away "just in case". Can sometimes be very simple things like biros or jeans, though neither of those is likely to be relevant to Morroco. Tabbaco products might be though, of the right sort. Find out what isn't available...

Flying solo, another company or where trailmasters that bad? The website seems to indicate that the trips are fairly leisurely, rather than a whistle stop tour. I've had the "travel" bug since spending 3 months backpacking around the world, 6 weeks of that in China. This sort of thing appeals...

Maybe but it's a very common no precription pain killer. Nurofen etc...

But, but the choice of needle is down to what you are doing and not really related to quantity of the injection. No canulas either, OK they take skill to put in but surely the idea of having ones own known sterile syringes, needles etc is so you don't have to use the possibly iffy local stuff.

So Dave Liquorice was, like

Last I heard, Morocco was still in Africa. :-)

Turkey is in Asia, but a good point... B-)

PMR446 wouldn't really be suitable for more than a mile and thats not very far when the vehicles are not in convoy...

I thought I'd mentioned the lack of any tools in the Trailmasters list earlier. B-)

Per head! Doesn't seem particularly good value as you are doing the shopping and cooking. Now if they had that all sorted and done for you it would be better. Travelling isn't hard, just takes a bit of thought and preparation then go with the flow and not get into a tizz when today is Tuesday and your carefully planned itinerary says you should have been in Azkabhan yesterday...

If there is one thing I learnt from China is that no matter where you are the basic human requirements of water, food and shelter are universal and getting them with only sign langauge in common is not that hard. Smiles and laughter are also universal.