Morocco - Mountain Roads

Back at the Atlas Mountains

The guide was "Morocco Overland" by Chris Scott and the route - code MA2.
Aït Herbil - Igmir - Tafraoute
It was said that the hardness of the road was suitable to the ordinary car.

At the beginning the road was very decent, not to mention the dust.

Then the road got narrower and proceeded along a dry river - bed

On the left and right The Anti Atlas in the evening sun

When evening came this time it was that kind of Bush Camp found by the road

But not any road shown by gps and computer

A local

And in the meantime this kind of greenness

But then the road became interesting and cool.
Actually - this very place was the reason to come here.

Now it was the second time that the road ended suddenly
because of the heap of stones in the middle of the road

My first thought was - now I am in a real mess, because driving such a long distance backwards and downhill would be quite problematic.
It is necessary to use gears while decelerating and not to use brakes because the brakes will guickly heat over.
And I had not practised before to decelerate by back gear on such a narrow and craggy fall-off road.
To stop the car properly - fix the handbrake, and engage the gear, then have some bigger stones under the wheels to avoid rolling back.

And then to find out about the situation.

A little further on was a heap of stones of about two metres high.
This stone - heap was not a fall-off which was my first thought, but it was a road-repairment.. And further 400 hundred meters ahead was the road-widening in progress.
And in spite of the fact that higher up caterpillar motor lorries were in progress working and moving, it was impossible to pass through the lower 200 metre distance of the road.
-- Estonian -- Eesti keeles ---------------------------------

Esimene mõte oli selline, et nüüd in küll suur jama majas, sest nii pika maa sõitmine tagurpidi ja allamäge tekitab mõningaid probleeme. Sest pidurdada tuleb käiguga, mitte piduritega, kuna pidurid lähevad kähku kuumaks. Ja tagurpidikäiguga pidurdamist ei ole ma varem nii kitsa ja järsu tee peal katsetanud.

Selliste kallakute peal ette tekkivate probleemide puhul saigi kõigepealt auto korralikult seisma jäetud, s.t. käsipidur peale ja käik sisse, ja paar suuremat kivi rataste alla, et mingil juhul tagasi veeremist ei toimuks. Ning siis olukorda uurima. Eespool oli paarmeetrine kivikuhi, mis ei olnud mitte varing, nagu esimesel hetkel võiks arvata, vaid hoopis teeremont. Ja järgmised 400 m oli käsil tee laiendamine ning ehkki ülalpool töötasid ja liikusid vastavad roomikutega masinad, oli alumise paarisaja meetri tee läbimine võimatu.


While going down backwards I was lucky to find a little wider spot where I managed to turn the bus over.
Gently and softly backward and forward, and again backward and forward and at last the nose of the car was nicely looking downhill.
-----------------------------------------------------
Tagasi minnes oli õnneks 100 m allapoole üks laiem koht, kus õnnestus buss ikkagi ümber keerata. Tasakesi edasi ja tagasi, ja jälle edasi ja tagasi ning lõpuks oligi nina ilusasti allapoole.

This is the picture of turning around..

And nothing else to do but to drive back.

The first two videos are of going uphill. The camera was fixed to the mirrow of the door of the driver`s side

vol.3 is the same road, but downhill, the camera was fixed to the mirrow of the door of the driver's side