Last days of freedom and pleasure

The trips nearly over - a last few days of pleasure and freedom in Gibraltar, Spain, Portugal and then the trip is over.

From Morocco I did the short 2 hour crossing to Spain and immediately headed towards Gibraltar, only an hour or so's ride away.  My original intent was to stay in Gibraltar for the night but when I found the cheapest hotel there was the equivalent of $160 a night whilst it was $30 on the Spanish side of the border an economic decision was quickly made.

It did come with an unexpected extra cost - whilst I was in the hotel lobby checking in some local louts decided to push my bike over; another mirror needed!  However there was a big consolation available - my first beer for nearly a month (and some lovely Tapa's to go with it).

Gibraltar was a funny place to visit, a traffic jam of a border as all the Spanish day workers tried to get in, followed by emerging on to the exit road that ran straight across the airport runway (obviously not a huge number of flights a week) to deposit you in a tropical version of a English country town.

Felt very much like the last gasp of colonialism, especially as I rather bemusedly watched from a cafe seat the changing of the guard (all 2 of him) at the Government House.

From Gibraltar I took a quick trip across the bottom of Spain to get to Lisbon, Portugal where I was meeting my son Duncan again. On the way I saw this warning sign which appealed to me:

It was really great seeing Duncan again - hes very easy to travel around with, sharing similar interests and a similar pace to my own.  We both enjoyed Lisbon, it was an interesting city - a nice mix of restored classic buildings, modern stuff and a bit of urban grunge to show real people live there.

We also bought Duncan a bike helmet so we could go away and tour the coast and surrounding towns for a few days. A lovely way to travel together - and also confirmation that Duncan has been infected by the motorcycle bug as badly as jack and myself.

Unfortunately the days with Duncan were quickly over and then it was time to head back to Swansea to leave my bike in Swansea (again many thanks to my dad) followed by a quick trip back to London and the flight back to Australia - how quickly 7 weeks had passed.

A quick ride north

Merzouga unfortunately meant the end of my saunter around Morocco. I'd arranged to meet Duncan in Lisbon and so I now had three days to do the approximately 1000k north to the ferry back to Spain.

One pleasant unhurried day was spent riding north back over the Tizi pass and finishing near Marrakesh where I said goodbye to Craig and Jenni.

The next day was a hard slog up Morocco's main (only) freeway - just like being in Europe except locals sometimes decide the verge is a good place to graze sheep or goats, the center reservation is a good place to harvest something (never worked out what it was, but it was very popular activity) and at all times assume that if the freeway divides you from where you want to be then you just cross it like a normal road (which means without any real concern for what cars might be coming at a given moment, they'll go around you). I quickly decided riding it at night would be a risk too far. Local car drivers can also over estimate their skills, this happened just ahead of me with fortunately no one badly hurt.

The day ended with my last night in Morocco at the fishing port of Larach only a 100k or so short of the ferry port. Turned out to be a lucky choice for a final night. A small town where at night it seemed everyone promenaded on the sea front or the town square and most unusually totally ignored the tourist in their midst. I had a great night just wandering around and grazing at the food stalls. The snails in broth sold at the cart in the photo below were probably the most memorable food I had in the whole country.

The next day it's all over, a quick jaunt up the coast, a short ferry trip and suddenly I'm in Spain.

Roadside assistance- Moroccan style

We're in Merzouga a bustling, dusty, town famous for being the start of the ancient camel trains to Timbuktoo in Mali - 52 days each way. (Now there's a place I want to visit on another trip).

Now Mergouza has quite a strong tourist focus meaning the famous Moroccan hustle is quite strong here, someone is always trying to sell you something, persuade you to stay at their friends hotel, go on a tour, ride a camel etc, but after being here a while this now all much easier to deal with. A polite no thanks, keep walking and no one takes offense. You do feel sorry for people it's off-season, tourists are few and because of the European recession business has apparently been tough for a few years - the Spanish and the French who are the main stay of the trade have been coming a lot less. There is of course a plus side to a tourist town in a quiet time - good accommodation at a good price. This is where we stayed for two days post desert R&R. Not bad for the equivalent of 30euro/$45, room, dinner and breakfast.

The bike had been running really well all trip with only minor electrical niggles needing a few minutes attention. And despite all the abuse I had given it riding up mountains I should have sense to stay off and bouncing down desert tracks the only thing that had broken was one mirror mounting. Whilst wandering the market I came across a local bike shop which seemed to sell everything so I tried to get a new mount there.

No joy, nothing that would fit my bike. But this is Morocco no one let's a customer get away if they can help it, if you can't help you pass him on to some one else who may be able to. So a phone call is made and suddenly alongside me is this four wheel drive.

Turns out this guy runs a small business maintaining tourist bikes, so quick as a flash all three of us were piled into the back and of we drove to inspect my bike. Yes he has the part, so can I bring it up the workshop. Oh, and being masters of up-selling whilst I'm there, they may as well wash and polish it until it shines like it has never before in my ownership, sell me a litre of oil adjust the chain. All this was done with wonderful panache and whilst feeding me tea - three hours all told for a cost of $30.

A slow caravan across the desert

All three of us, Craig, Jenni and I wanted to do a ride on what's known as "piste", the rough unmade tasks that cross cross southern Morocco. After or days riding together Eduardo have us a GPS track for a route from where we were at Mergouza try edge of the Sahara to another small town named M'hemid - 260k not to much sand he said. Sounded perfect so we decided to do it, splitting it over two days and camping out in the middle. Turned out Eduardo's view of "not much sand " and ours were a bit different; there was plenty and on big will loaded bikes we worked hard in it. We only ended up doing half the track covering only 170k in 4 days (although admittedly the two end ones were short days). On toughest and slowest day we managed 38k in a fun days riding. But what fun and the camping out was superb - totally isolated and clear full moon skies.

It really was tougher than it looks in the pictures -b in the really sandy bits where weand bikes were struggling the camera tended to stay packed away. This last photo, taken on th 38k day, summed things up nicely (you may need to zoom to read the shirt)

Towards the desert

All motorcyclists with any sort of dirt riding pretensions visiting Morocco want to see and ride the desert and the sands of the south and I'm no different.

After the Dade's Gorge incident I took the safer sealed road option around to Todra Gorge (a bit of a disappointment, not nearly as nice and only more popular as it is much easier to access by tour bus) before heading cross country to Merzouga which lies at the edge of the "Erg Chebbi" dunes of the Sahara. 

The riding and the scenery there was superb, and we (having now met up again with my two friends Craig and Jenny) were lucky enough to meet up with another motorcyclist an expat Spaniard, Eduardo, living in the area, who took us in hand and showed us some of the best sights.  I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Having an "off" moment

Lots been happening since I last posted. On Australia day I headed east over the Tizi-n-Ticha pass which at 2300m is slightly higher than the top of Mount Kosciusko which on the way up and down gave me some spectacular views - and at the top more experience of snow.

Once over the pass I headed to the city of Ouarzazate  as I approached was flagged down a man  whose car had supposedly broken and asking me to take a message to his cousin. It turned out to be a scam to get "the tourist" to his carpet shop. Whilst I managed to avoid purchasing anything I did get this fetching photo as part of the softening up process.

Ouarzazate was alovely little town, and apart from the above, nicely free of get the tourist hassle. So enjoyed it I stayed a second unplanned night there.

From Ouarzazate I went to Gorge du'Dades which is famed for the beauty of its rock formations. It didn't dissapoint and as ever my photos dont do the place justice.

 Whilst there I found out my two Australian friends met earlier in the trip were in Todra Gorge, the next gorge over and another of the recommended must sees. On the map I found there was a linking dirt road between the head of the gorges and thought it had to be worth a go as a route over to them. The only issue was it went over a pass at 2900m well above the snow line - but local advice assured me it should be clear.

 

It waslookn't - and all the melting snow somewhat below the pass had turned the road to a sticky, horrible mess. The consequence was predictable.

Getting the bike upright from here took me two hours because what you can't see in the photo is it's lying wheels up / seat downwards a steep slope. To be able to make it light enough to lift from that position I had, whilst it was on its side, to remove all the luggage plus fuel tank, a particularly awkward and muddy job.  Ah the joys of motorcycling!

Running in a circle - Marrakesh style

From Azrou I headed for Marrakesh. Originally the idea was to simply had straight there on highway - about 400k's - initially that went well, quiet and scenic roads, but as I got closer to Marrakesh the traffic built up and the riding got less fun. So on the spur of the moment I turned off to a side road that was marked on my map as scenic. Well that was an understatement, it now rates as one of my to two roads in the world, some thirty or forty kilometers of winding, often single track, tarmac cutting its way dramatically up and down the sides of steep gorges inhabited by only the occasional village. What an antidote to the highway. As dusk was approaching I chose to stop at the first place big enough to have an hotel that I came too, not expecting there to be much there, but luck was running with me I had happened upon ( completely by chance) one of the most famous tourist sites of the region, the Cascades D'Ouzard. These are a set of waterfalls that are the second tallest in Africa - not quite Victoria falls standard but pretty impressive.

I stopped two nights in Marrakesh after making it there the next day. Quite enjoyed it and the sights of the famous Djemaa el-fna square; snake charmers, belly dancers, jugglers and other strange entertainers plus the myriad of food stalls was definitely worth seeing. However at the end of it, it was a big city and I definitely prefer the smaller less hectic places. (As an aside, look closely at the palm trees photo - they are really mobile phone towers)

By the way the running around in a circle in the post title refers to the fact I did the Marrakesh half marathon whilst I was there. A much bigger event than I was expecting, there were many thousands of runners. I managed to just achieve the time of two hours I was aiming for so came away happy if foot sore.