Morocco Photos

[the_lone_wolf]

Right all, finally got to bed at 6am or so and woke up at eight, so this might have a few mistakes...

The premise: Five guys, five KTM Adventures, eighteen days in Morocco riding off road down from the north, through the Atlas Mountains to the Sahara desert and the sand dunes at Erg Chebbi...

The Usual Suspects : Me, The other Mark, Gareth, Gordon and Jason

Saturday 10th April : We all flew in last night, except for Mark, who booked his flight 24hrs too early and spent a day in Malaga - up early and off to Red Tread who kindly let us use their place as a storage point for shipping the bikes to Spain:



Amazingly, all the KTMs start up first time and we're off in good time... Oh no wait, actually, Gordon's bike decides the chinese battery he bought it just before leaving wasn't good enough and refuses to start, without even enough charge to keep the FI computer going when it was bumped. Never mind, it gave us a few hours to enjoy the spectacular mountain scenery around Competa:





After much deliberation, battery swapping and head scratching we give it an hour's charge and it seems to fire up OK



Even the dogs where struggling to get excited:



It was too late to head to Morocco that day so we all stayed at the relative's of one of us' house somewhere in Southern Spain



Sunday 11th April : After a good night's sleep we're all up and raring to go, with the exception of Gordo's bike After an hour or two we decide to split into two groups, with Gareth staying behind with Gordon and Jason plus the two Marks heading off to Morocco

The port at Algecieras was about as hectic as you'd expect a Spanish port to an African country to be





And the guys who strapped down the bikes were comfortingly hopeless, with one strapping a tie down to my brand new front brake disc, and another tying Mark's bike down to a movable pallet





But these minor hurdles couldn't stop us and we were off to Africa





We hit the border and bribed our way to the front of the queue with the help of a little Moroccan man in a dress, and we were on our way to our first overnight stop at Chefchaouen





They're a bit fond of the King over in Morocco



Anyway, we found a hotel with a view and settled in for the night:



Monday 12th April : We set off into Chefchaouen in search of the compulsory 3rd party insurance every tourist with a vehicle must buy, only to be told they no longer sell it and we have to go to Fes - d'oh!

After several hours trying to get insurance at Axa, the Moroccan insurance centre who only deal with residents, and finally the Moroccan insurance centre that deals with tourists, we get directions to a little hotel in the crappiest part of the old walled medina, but once you open the front door you find courtyards...



...a fountain...



...mint tea...



...and Sheriff John Bunnell with Arabic subtitles



Not what you expect from the outside view:



Tuesday 13th April : With insurance papers in hand we set off for what had been the previous days goal of Midelt - we had word that Gordon's bike was proper f*cked and so Gareth was doing a blaster down to meet us that night. All that meant we had time to take the scenic route:

















Imagine our surprise then, when both Gareth and Gordon rocked up at the "Ksar Timnay" about an hour after we arrived, they'd pulled a 3am Morocco time start to get there:



but we were back as one group



Wednesday 14th April : We saddle up and head off for our first day off road to Dades



Unaware of quite what lay ahead, in the form of the "Cirque du Jaffar"

It started off nicely, rising and falling



but we were always mindful of the huge mountain on our left that we knew the path crossed over:



Gareth decided to remodel his alu pannier on some rocks:







Then the track suddenly swung left and went up, only to come down the other side on a narrow rocky track with a drop to the left that made you sweat along with the heat:







We all came off that day, me and Jason clipped rocks on the inside track and got pinged off towards the edge, interesting to say the least...

After fighting for an hour or two on this section of track we realised there was no way we were going to make our target of Dades and the gorge, so once we hit the tarmac we aim for Imilchil





Just north of the town we find a beautiful if basic Auberge (hotel cross b&b cross restaurant) and grab a tagine as the thunder and lighting moved in







These were our hosts, the berber on the left slept outside all night with the bikes to keep watch on them, it gets cold at 6000ft in the mountains...



That's it for Part one, stay tuned for tales of crazy Dutch guys, water pump seal failure and wild camping in the desert...♦

epic trip

in one of the pics your bike looks higher than the rest ?

[the_lone_wolf]

Originally Posted by barwel1992

epic trip

in one of the pics your bike looks higher than the rest ?

Is is

The "S" model has two inches more suspension travel than the vanilla Adventure and the seat on mine is an inch taller than stock, giving a 37" seat height

Surprisingly easy to handle off road though, I came off twice but neither time would a shorter bike have made any difference

[gruntygiggles]

Great pics Mark! Can't wait for the next lot

Originally Posted by the_lone_wolf

They're a bit fond of the King over in Morocco

Yeah, but everyone loves Elvis, right?

What?

Not that king?

Sorry.

Looks funky Mark. Nice one.

[the_lone_wolf]

Originally Posted by Scoobs

Yeah, but everyone loves Elvis, right?

I was thinking more of the Burger King King:

]

Looks epic mate. Would love to do something like this.

Unfortunately I'm about as much use as a chocolate fire guard off road.

Originally Posted by MCN_LiamM

Unfortunately I'm about as much use as a chocolate fire guard off road.

You haven't seen Mark ride before have you?

Haha, obviously not

[the_lone_wolf]

Originally Posted by MCN_LiamM

Haha, obviously not

I can get on the bike, which puts me one step ahead of some people...