Post by Jim Franklin on Dec 18, 2012 15:50:46 GMT -5
Hi everyone, if your reading this then your interested in joining us for a trip to Morocco in October 2013 to enjoy the beautiful scenery and the glorious night sky vista's.
The trip will be a combination of Land Rover/4X4 travel by day to see the countryside and explore and at night when we camp..yes folks, no hotels on this trip...we will be using our eyes, camera's and telescopes to explore the Glories in the heavens to really be a star party with a difference.
Initially the plan is to set off from the UK around the 2nd of October and return to the UK on or about the 21st, but these dates are not cast in stone and flexibility to match all can be talked about and debated to reach a consensus.
I have been doing some preliminary investigations and so far, Price wise, we are currently looking in the region of £1500 per vehicles all in, fuel, ferries and Insurance (vehicle). This is a little bit of a moving target due to fuel costs etc, but I very much doubt this budget would get seriously breached. Clearly some of this will be "user" money in Morocco and that is up to the individual, but so far the break down of costs per vehicle is approximately as follows....and bear in mind these costs assume two people per vehicle and so the costs per person is halved.
Food costs etc are personal and should not be ridiculous as we can take much with us in tins and dried food for self cooking.
I want to try to pin down the exact number of vehicles and people going so that I can then negotiate with both ferry companies involved and get a group discount as this would help, not sure how much, but if we have say 10 vehicles and 20 people then I am sure we can get at least a 10% discount from past experience, perhaps better.
Fuel is another issue, and once I have a clear idea of the numbers involved I want to speak to a couple of fuel suppliers that operate in the UK, Spain and Morocco to see if we can get a discount by paying up front as a group and getting cards/vouchers to use in these locations, even a 10% saving here will be significant for all.
I know that many in the astronomical community do not possess Land Rovers or perhaps 4x4's, but I am sure that we can get enough vehicles going that passengers can be had and thus share costs to make the trip more viable for many in these tough times.
All suggestions and ideas welcome, this is an open discussion so not question is daft and nor is it trivial, we work as a team here, we travel as a team and we return as a team, safe and sound.
Charlie has provided a link to a very useful book that I highly recommend everyone have a read of.
www.morocco-overland.com/index.html
For those without a tablet or Kindle, free Kindle for PC software cab be downloaded from Amazon using the link below.
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000423913
Lets have at em Guys and Gals and sort this trip out.
The trip will be a combination of Land Rover/4X4 travel by day to see the countryside and explore and at night when we camp..yes folks, no hotels on this trip...we will be using our eyes, camera's and telescopes to explore the Glories in the heavens to really be a star party with a difference.
Initially the plan is to set off from the UK around the 2nd of October and return to the UK on or about the 21st, but these dates are not cast in stone and flexibility to match all can be talked about and debated to reach a consensus.
I have been doing some preliminary investigations and so far, Price wise, we are currently looking in the region of £1500 per vehicles all in, fuel, ferries and Insurance (vehicle). This is a little bit of a moving target due to fuel costs etc, but I very much doubt this budget would get seriously breached. Clearly some of this will be "user" money in Morocco and that is up to the individual, but so far the break down of costs per vehicle is approximately as follows....and bear in mind these costs assume two people per vehicle and so the costs per person is halved.
- Ferries : - Portsmouth-Bilbao & Gib to Morocco ~ £750 return
- Fuel :- (based on Swindon to Portsmouth then Bilbao to Marrakesh for guidance only with a lea-way for travel in country) £650
- Vehicle Insurance: £100
Food costs etc are personal and should not be ridiculous as we can take much with us in tins and dried food for self cooking.
I want to try to pin down the exact number of vehicles and people going so that I can then negotiate with both ferry companies involved and get a group discount as this would help, not sure how much, but if we have say 10 vehicles and 20 people then I am sure we can get at least a 10% discount from past experience, perhaps better.
Fuel is another issue, and once I have a clear idea of the numbers involved I want to speak to a couple of fuel suppliers that operate in the UK, Spain and Morocco to see if we can get a discount by paying up front as a group and getting cards/vouchers to use in these locations, even a 10% saving here will be significant for all.
I know that many in the astronomical community do not possess Land Rovers or perhaps 4x4's, but I am sure that we can get enough vehicles going that passengers can be had and thus share costs to make the trip more viable for many in these tough times.
All suggestions and ideas welcome, this is an open discussion so not question is daft and nor is it trivial, we work as a team here, we travel as a team and we return as a team, safe and sound.
Charlie has provided a link to a very useful book that I highly recommend everyone have a read of.
www.morocco-overland.com/index.html
For those without a tablet or Kindle, free Kindle for PC software cab be downloaded from Amazon using the link below.
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000423913
Lets have at em Guys and Gals and sort this trip out.
