Seeing the pictures of the leaning mosque and the route above Chefchaouen, I have a horrible suspicion that I am the one who is about to be named and shamed. So I went back to look at the email correspondence.
Mark said of the the group's experience, "we're all good for blue pistes with maybe a touch of red?" Which is what they got. My definition of red is some degree of off road training required.
I described the route to the
Crooked Mosque, "This is a nice and easy work-out to give everyone confidence riding off-road."
As far as '
Through the Horns' route, I wrote, "Keep momentum especially on the uphill bits. You can of course turn back at any time. From the waypoint above, turn left heading north and then west and eventually you will reach tarmac."
At the top the group had a choice. Either carry on and do a loop as suggested, or turn back as the web write-up describes. The group had SatNav, I provided key waypoints and any of them could have calculated a rough idea of the distances. Not enough water? Yup, typical error.
Edit: just looked some more at the email correspondence and I had included a link to a June 2012 write-up of the 'Through the Horns' route on post #6 at
http://www.morocco-knowledgebase.net/forum/showthread.php?t=304
As the photos show and captions show, there's a climb of over 1000m, hence my comment about maintaining momentum. I've had a look at one of the videos posted and I'd say lack of momentum is definitely a problem with the group, also too bunched up, so when one person slows the whole group has to do the same.
At another point in that report I write that I was more than 30km from the nearest tarmac. I've just had a look at my tracklogs of June 2012 and including tarmac sections the route was 96km. I'm not a fast rider and although I'm experienced I wouldn't regard myself as particularly good off road. I like to stop often, look at the scenery and take photos, and I took just over five hours for the 96km (4:10 on the piste) but this included stopping a couple of times for tea with the locals, paddling in the river, and generally faffing about.
The other point is that pistes change according to the weather the previous winter and how much local traffic has been around to maintain the track. If in doubt, always turn back.
Don't know who told you that, but it certainly wasn't me!