1974 FJ40 through the Sahara and sand dunes! (2 Viewers)

[flx]

I've never been in a situation where I was looking for camel tracks to stay on coarse. You have a great adventurous soul, keep at it!

It's more a reinsurance of not yet be alone than a trace to follow! Particularly that camels can follow path that you really can't with a car.

I want to make the sound of your FJ40 pushing through desert sand, my ringtone.

Haha I find the transmission noise of my H41 way too high compared to the engine when recorded

 

[flx]

Finally crossing the Draa!
After the actual crossing there is a big area of bull dust (fechfech as it's called here), can't be seen on the video but the things was completely surrounding he vehicle and I was trying to keep up the speed to not have the cab full of dust.

 

[flx]

What is Fech Fech

 

[flx]

A little bit after crossing the Draa I start to feel some raini falling. I'm a little worried at this sight because if it is seriously raining I should really not be where I am.
In case of heavy rain all wadi and river like the Draa may be impassible and lake Iriki is known to be a muddy trap swallowing vehicles under a dry crust if it rained in the 2 previous weeks (and so why you should always look at past and forecast weather before).
But after just a few drops it stops and I can't see any dark cloud in sight so I continue...



It's a fast driving section but from time to time there is a ridge of soft sand across. Probably too confident I see one a little bigger than usual, driving in 3rd I'm a bit lazy and don't want to downshift in 2nd, I decide that the FJ40 will just power through no problem....
The FJ40 powered through no problem... But also went airborn, and the integrity of my cargo also went airborn (while being strapped) and everything is now all messed up. So I stop in the middle of the track to check that everything is ok and putting everything back to its place (Jerrycans had climbed on the jack handles, wolf pack was on the barn door latch, etc.).
While stopped here a German Hilux with a Alu-Cab Canopy appears the other way around and goes off piste to create a parallel track to avoid me. Time for me to notice and look up the guy was already passing me and just did a quick hand salute while zipping by.
This is the only car I will encounter this all journey and he is coming from what I'm heading to... So I feel a bit weird about the fact that he did not even stop to check everything was ok (I was stopped in the middle of the track) and warn me of track condition ahead of me.

I continue driving and now the wind is really blowing strong. Track is covered by soft sand everywhere. The only trace I can follow is the one from the Hilux I encountered, but wind is against me so many of those mini-dunes are created in the opposite direction to my travel path. Climbing the vertical side is a lot harder if not impossible.

 

[flx]

As I progress the sand becomes wet... and then muddy... and a few patches of water appear on the side of the track. Clearly it rained a lot more here.


And suddenly...

 

[FJ40Savvy]

Amazing adventure. I admire the trust you have in your FJ40 to be in the middle of nowhere. I know I don't have the confidence in Louie or my abilities to make this type of trip. Living vicariously through your adventure. How do you have your camera mounted. Is it stabilized somehow?

 

[flx]

Amazing adventure. I admire the trust you have in your FJ40 to be in the middle of nowhere. I know I don't have the confidence in Louie or my abilities to make this type of trip. Living vicariously through your adventure. How do you have your camera mounted. Is it stabilized somehow?

Thanks! Confidence come with multiplying trips and increasing the distance each time. Also a good way to debug all the problems...

For the camera it's a DJI pocket2 that has an integrated Gimbal.... The idea was to be able to use it for tracking the car externally as can be seen in a few videos but I did not used it that much because it means stopping, setting the tripod, connecting to the camera with the phone, etc. etc.
The stabilization effect from inside is kinda cool because it shows how the vehicle is moving but because of the height of the camera and the moving head it sometime hit the windshield (as can be heard in some videos) even with the almost vertical windshield of the 40...

 

[flx]

My problem now is to find somewhere to camp.... everywhere is flooded or muddy... not very appealing to put my tent.
I tried multiple places where it looked good on the distance but not once on the spot.

I ends up following a trace siding toward the north inside Erg Chegaga taking a little elevation by sand...
This is the first time I had to reverse and take some momentum to pass, but I arrived sideway with really no momentum so it was lost cause.


I find a spot in the dunes not too bad, sand is wet but at least I don't wade in a puddle.
And I'm covered between the dunes, which should provide me some cover from the wind which is still very strong.

Car is a mess...

My brand new exhaust

 

[flx]

First time I'm cooking for myself since I'm in Morocco!

As soon as the sun set off the wind completely disappeared and then it was complete silence.
Not a single sound of vegetation moving, animals, or anything. The real total silence as I had never experienced, alone and peaceful.


Tomorrow I still need to cross a "dry" lake, I need to try to get some info and plan for this.

 

[Green Bean]

I'm entering Erg Zahar and can immediately see the Lion's dune in the distance.


The sand in this Erg does not look like any other. The color and texture are unique, it's so soft it almost look like it's flat paint in the background.
View attachment 3498835

For no particular good reason I decided I wanted to try to get as close as possible of Lion's dune by car. Here I am way of tracks playing the labyrinth game.


View attachment 3498848

View attachment 3498836

I can almost hear your gps navigation saying "Take the next legal U-Turn" Did they fix your leaky steering box?

 

[flx]

I can almost hear your gps navigation saying "Take the next legal U-Turn" Did they fix your leaky steering box?

Hahaha nope it's lost cause, haven't asked them to.
But it's true that the brother of the boss inspected my car and it looked and asked directly for the right things, he knew well the 40 series. He clearly saw the leaky steering box and decided to ignore it

Mark, the pizza event organizer and who do tour groups brings all his groups here before to go remote in the desert. A few months prior he had someone with a FJ40, a freshly restored (in the EU) Saudi import.
They found the chassis cracked on both side near the front leaves rear hangers... I already imagine what this thing was used for in Saudi...
Seams that the thing was so poorly tuned that it was barely able to keep up on road at some point.

 

[flx]

People on the north side of Erg Chegaga shared some of their pictures.
They did not see the rain either but had flash floods running at them on the track and had to backtrack.

 

[Green Bean]

By the way, this may have been asked/answered before (if so, I apologize). What are you using to have the ability to get internet, down load and up load video in remote areas? Also, what device / mounting are you using to shoot video while driving? Thanks and have fun!

 

[Greek Cruiserhead]

People on the north side of Erg Chegaga shared some of their pictures.
They did not see the rain either but had flash floods running at them on the track and had to backtrack.

View attachment 3499183

View attachment 3499184

View attachment 3499185




View attachment 3499189

Awesome (if not artistic) photos, thanks for sharing Flx!

 

[flx]

By the way, this may have been asked/answered before (if so, I apologize). What are you using to have the ability to get internet, down load and up load video in remote areas? Also, what device / mounting are you using to shoot video while driving? Thanks and have fun!

First point is I'm not posting in realtime live even if I write in present tense.
Otherwise WiFi in hotels is good, in campings they are ok-ish (often you have to be close to the reception).
And I have a Maroc Telecom SIM card, data is quite cheap 10DH/GB (0.9€) so I got plenty of it and don't hesitate to post pictures and videos on social networks when I'm in an area with good cell coverage. In remote area like last post I'm barely succeeding to send/receive text messages so not uploading any media. Generally my Instagram/Polarstep are updated every 2 days.


For filming I use a DJI Pocket2.

 

[Boss Hog]

As soon as the sun set off the wind completely disappeared and then it was complete silence.
Not a single sound of vegetation moving, animals, or anything. The real total silence as I had never experienced, alone and peaceful.

This is, to me, is the most alluring part of desert travel. This and the night sky. It feels like I can see every star in the sky. Realizing that the light from those stars is from light years away and in fact the stars may have already died reminds me of my own insignificance in the cosmos. I love these posts. Thanks for sharing your journey!

 

[Travis Kinney]

Any nighttime photos? That would be cool.

 

[ryanwk628]

Wow, I just found this thread, what an awesome trip!

In 2021 my wife and I went to some of the same places in Morocco. We were thinking the vaccine was out and everything was going back to normal... Then were in country as the Delta variant took off in Europe and moved to Morocco.

One one hand it was incredible as we literally had the place to ourselves in a lot of spots that would normally be busy. Amazing restaurants, riads, and the tours we did... often we were the only people there it was like a private experience. There were so many people in the tourism industry who had been locked down without much income for almost a year and a half who were so grateful at having business starting back up, it was often really moving (sadly a false dawn.) We had a few days before and after, but from Fez, over the mountains to the desert, back over and ending in Marrakesh we had a Berber guide for a few days who drove a Prado. He was a big help with all the checkpoints.

It is one place we both agree we want to go back to, but we definitely need to work on our French first!

 

[Greek Cruiserhead]

Where are you now FLX?
...in Timbouktou with the Touaregs, perhaps?

 

[South Texas 97]

One of the signs in an earlier post said it was a 52 day trip by camel….so he has probably not made it yet.