1974 FJ40 through the Sahara and sand dunes!

[flx]

I have been a bit busy those last days but I'm continuing this story soon!

...perhaps in Timbouktou with the Touaregs?

15 years ago I was, and already taking pictures of cool Cruisers

 

[Greek Cruiserhead]

Alhamdulillah*, you're safe!

*Alhamdulillah - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhamdulillah

 

[flx]

And actually soon is now at least for 1 update!

So take back where I was, camping in the dunes of Erg Chegaga, I had no connection from my camping place but getting up a small dune I was getting a little bit of connection which allowed me to send and receives some messages with a lot of patience...
That's how I learnt that north route was also flooded and people were blocked. Locals confirmed that Lake Iriki center was to avoid.

I was worried because from where I was coming I couldn't see any mapped piste to get around lake Iriki, even after succeeding to load publicly shared traces. From north there was plenty of traces to get around...

Mark, which knows very well every single pistes in Morocco, informed me that a track existed that got around by the south along the mountains.
So I used my offline satellite map to look for it and finally found this.

So here is my plan for the day.

And it went fine!

Definitively not going more south though...

Alone

I tried to look at the center of the lake to see if it looked muddy or under water but all I could see in the distance was

Which I'm pretty sure is a mirage...



As I'm back driving on my East-West piste out of lake Iriki I can see a 4x4 in the distance driving parallel to me. It's far away in the North and I can't distinguish the model but it's getting closer to me as we both drive toward the West.

 

[fjwagon]

Ttt, so where are gas stations? I have only seen one in your post. Thanks posting your trek, have enjoyed reading the whole trip so far.

 

[flx]

Ttt, so where are gas stations? I have only seen one in your post. Thanks posting your trek, have enjoyed reading the whole trip so far.

Morocco has quite a dense network of gas station, particularly for Africa, so not too hard to find.
This is my map with only the fuel station I spotted pre-trip.

I planed all my routes from fuel station to fuel station and counted the distance.
They are only 2 parts that can be a little challenging for the fuel range of the FJ40:

• The desert part
  • The yellow track was 300km in the desert and did not know how many were soft sand. I ended up not doing it but it's the reason I carried 2 jerrycans and on the map you can see a fuel station which is actually an auberge that is reported to have drum fuel available (and the plan was to check what had been my fuel consumption up to this point and if needed only refill a jerrycan here).
  • The purple track is 200km (theoretical before the detours, getting lost, and playing labyrinthe in the dunes). Was not sure to be able to do it without the Jerrycans but with it's no issue even at the max fuel consumption I can do with the FJ40.
• The High Atlas mountain
  • Some areas are remote and no fuel station are easy to access if you don't want to do a giant detour out of the area, so may be challenging without a jerrycan but definitively ok with.

A note on fuel as we talking about that.
I noticed that measured on road (on similar driving conditions) my FJ40 use a good 1L/100km less than in Europe. It also completely stopped vapor locking when stopped hot since I'm on Moroccan fuel, and generally start better.
Also I noticed that my Jerrycans "move" a lot less, I never aired them, they went from 0m altitude to 3000m, from 0°C to 40°C, and bulge was moderate.

The reason? My opinion is on the fuel, Morocco still has true unleaded with 0% ethanol. In Europe we can't have less than E5 (max 5% ethanol).
The volatility of the ethanol can clearly be felt and definitively the FJ is not burning it.... I always wondered how it was that it vapor locked that bad and how people did back then to deal with it.... Now I guess I have the answer.

On the other side on E5 my sparkplugs stay very clean and grayish (except n°6 were my valve sterm seal leaks oil) but since I'm on E0 sparkplugs are back getting black and dirty, showing it runs rich.
I think the reason is the ethanol that cleans the sparkplugs... Not sure if it's a better thing to have the sparkplug cleaned all the time or to have them showing the true state of your engine running condition.

 

[fjwagon]

Cool, I'm always curious how we go about tackling this fue issue. I do remember on a road trip as a teenager, we were close to running on empty but all the gas stations in the area ran out so we parked at the last location we checked so we waited in line. Eventually the fuel truck showed up and a couple hours later we were on our way home. The sentiment was disturbed which ended in our gas tank unbeknownst to us until we started limping home. It's something you don't expect to happen but it did. At least you have prepared for this.

 

[flx]

When the 4x4 in the distance got closer I ended up recognizing the Dutch Hilux with AluCab that also participated to the pizza event and the next day drive. Our tracks ended up joining at the western end or Iriki.

Big coincidence to arrive here at the same exact same time. They were blocked by a flooded river the previous day and had to backtrack but this morning the river was dry and they were able to cross.
We decide to do the track up to Foum Zguid together.


Found those donkeys waiting by the well for someone nice enough to pull them some water.


They were not very human friendly and left when we arrived, but after having pulled some water and got away from the well they came back to drink.

 

[flx]

Kept driving through some nice rock formations.

We then arrive to Foum Zguid, I'm on my last fumes which means I burnt close to 60L for 200km (8mpg) and most of it was the on the first day. (still had 2 extra jerrys so nothing critical, just being lazy)

As it is earlier than I thought I would be here I decide to drive back to Zagora (by the road).
Here I first go back to Ali's garage for a quick greasing... 2 days ago they had almost detailed the exterior of the car and I come like that... but only doing the greasing this time.

Oh and yes in the back it's the Belgian KDJ90 that is on the tour with Mark (KDJ120) and the HZJ79.
After backtracking because of the flooding the previous day the 90 got power steering failure so they have been back in Zagora for the day.
At this point they were finalizing to reinstall the complete front end of the car (2 days ago they did the back to fix the chassis) so they could get the car back this night and be back on the road the next day.

I then go meet again with the group at the local camping and spend the evening with them.
Honestly that was 2 intense days, in some way they were epic but clearly I was a bit over my head between getting lost in the moving dunes, the flooding, Iriki not dry.... In those moment you are really happy to find some buddies to share a beer, debrief, and decompress.

 

[scrapdaddy]

Trip of a life time!

 

[CruiserTrash]

@flx Do you have automatic locking hubs in the front? Normally you see manual locking hubs in the front with hub caps that have a hole in the center. I’m curious about your front axle!

 

[flx]

@flx Do you have automatic locking hubs in the front? Normally you see manual locking hubs in the front with hub caps that have a hole in the center. I’m curious about your front axle!

View attachment 3503264

I have non-opening hubs, so I'm always locked.

 

[WarDamnEagle]

@flx Do you have automatic locking hubs in the front? Normally you see manual locking hubs in the front with hub caps that have a hole in the center. I’m curious about your front axle!

Normally in the US yes, but not so much in other parts of the world.

 

[CruiserTrash]

@flx @WarDamnEagle Thanks! So the front hubs are always locked and then you can engage them to engine power by shifting into 4WD?

 

[lcwizard]

@flx Do you have automatic locking hubs in the front? Normally you see manual locking hubs in the front with hub caps that have a hole in the center. I’m curious about your front axle!

View attachment 3503264

You may be too young to remember but Land Cruisers in the US came from Toyota with drive plates ( no locking hubs ). We had to buy aftermarket locking hubs until 1979. You'll notice all the pre 79 40s and pre 78 55s have Warn, Cutlass AVm or some other aftermarket hub.
I bought my '78 40 new. I added Warn hubs about 3 months after I bought it

 

[flx]

@flx @WarDamnEagle Thanks! So the front hubs are always locked and then you can engage them to engine power by shifting into 4WD?

Yes exactly, it is equivalent to never unlocking your hubs. Front diff and driveshaft always turn and can engage 4wd from the cabin directly.

 

[CruiserTrash]

@lcwizard Considering I was born in 1983, you’re correct. I always wondered why some 40s have Warn locking hubs. I figured people ditched the Aisin because Warn was a popular upgrade for the time - like turbine wheels in the 80s & 90s. Thanks for the info.

 

[lcwizard]

@lcwizard Considering I was born in 1983, you’re correct. I always wondered why some 40s have Warn locking hubs. I figured people ditched the Aisin because Warn was a popular upgrade for the time - like turbine wheels in the 80s & 90s. Thanks for the info.

I feel sorry for those born that late. The wheeling in Colorado and Utah was so much better back then. In 1979 I drove the Alpine loop trails for a solid
week and only saw two trucks and a cowboy on horseback leading a couple horses down Stoney Pass

 

[CruiserTrash]

I feel sorry for those born that late. The wheeling in Colorado and Utah was so much better back then. In 1979 I drove the Alpine loop trails for a solid
week and only saw two trucks and a cowboy on horseback leading a couple horses down Stoney Pass

I’m from Ohio, so I feel lucky to have enjoyed the trails in Colorado for the last 20 years at all! Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled program with @flx!

 

[flx]

Now is the end of the desert part. I'm now heading north into the mountains. First destination is Boumalne Dadès.

Instead of going by the main road I'll start with a small mountain track that leads me to the Aït Ouazik.

And near this remote town, scattered all around, can be found ton of rupestrian rock graving.

Elephants, girafes, rhinoceros, antilopes, ostriches... All those animals are completely unheard in North Africa nowadays, actually you would have to go to southern Africa to encounter them. This is a testimony, that can be found in a lot of places in North Africa, that the Sahara was not always a dry desert but used to be a lot more flourishing.

And actually, I did not found them, but it seems that around here can even be found engraving of fish or waves...
(not from me)

 

[flx]

Then continuing for the 2nd part from N'Kob, I start my first real climb of the trip with a pass at 2000m, and then go through a part of the valley of roses.