Almost Final Draft
With just over 10 weeks to go we have been drawing up the final GPS coordinates and route maps. Two different versions, three types of software. Daily routes, possible stop overs, mileage and altitude. We don’t want to be regimental about our daily distances but we would like to make the choice of finishing early or pressing on further along the trail an informed one.
We have kept the off road stages deliberately shorter and although 50 miles looks unambitious this can equate to 5 hours of driving time. Throw in a few photography stops, a spot of lunch, maybe retracing our steps to get across a problem section – and thats the day gone.
Morocco is building more paved roads and making sections of the trail better all the time and so some of the trails could turn out to be partially finished roads.
In October the sun rises at just after 7am and sets at about the same time in the evening. We certainly are not planning any night driving. Moving out in the cool of the morning at 8am and pulling into camp mid to late afternoon is the plan. Time to set up, check the vehicles before darkness falls.
We plan to drive for 5 days and then take a rest day to recharge our own batteries, do some laundry, get some mains electric to top up battery packs. We have found some B&B type places close to the trail that we can use that offer either a room and food or simply a place to park up and use the facilities. Not quite campsites more like park outside and use the loo. It adds about 50Km each time we drop off the trail and reroute to a stop over but its worth it.
For me the start of the trip is the ferry at Sete and now this is booked and fixed. Almost 1000 miles of roads and three days of audiobooks is familiar territory for me. The return journey is less certain.
I am hoping to be able to make the shorter crossing from Tangier (Morocco) to Tarifa (Spain) where ferries leave almost hourly and you can turn up and get on board most times of the day. Its still 750 miles from where we finish to the ferry and probably 2 or 3 days of driving depending on our energy levels. Recent unrest with migrants could change this plan and force me back to Nador adding at least another day, 250 miles and a longer ferry to our itinerary.
If all goes to plan (!) somewhen around bonfire night in the UK I will be back on Spanish soil hopefully in Tarifa (the most southerly point of mainland Europe that I visited a few years ago on my tick the boxes Iberian odyssey tour) or Algeciras about 30 miles further up the Spanish coast. At this stage I would take either as a win.
From here the two options are an expensive, Spanish Ferry from Bilbao hostage to the three day a week sailing schedule and the bay of Biscay storms that frequently delay the boat. Or track my way back up through Spain and France on the auto routes, moderating each day to my fatigue or boredom and finding a 40 Euro hotel to camp out in each night.
The previous 30 days or so in Morocco will dictate the final dates and probably my ambition to get home – but it won’t alter the distances that just have to be swallowed up to make this trip work.
