Rabat - Malaga - the end

We start off a bit early this morning to make sure that we arrive at Tangier in time for the ferry back to Spain.

 

We take a short ride along the coast, its strange to see the Atlantic ocean crashing down onto the rocks on one side, and slums on the other.

 

While in Rabat we visit it´s iconic Hassan tower, then we race along the highway a little above the speed limit of 120 kms to get the ferry which is 90 mins away, we are buffeted by the wind and I kill a thousand bugs on my visor, its not entirely pleasant travelling at high speed along the highways for such a long time, but just as well as once we hit the city the traffic slows us to a crawl, and it takes over 2 hrs.

 

after a rest on the ferry and a brief stop to overlook Tanrifa, then another 90 mins on the high speed Spanish highways bring my Morocco adventure to an end.

 

I must say that its been great, Morocco and its people are beautiful, and the organisation for the tour fantastic, one of the best motorcycle adventures that I've been on.

 

Marrakesh - Rabat

It was still raining as we left Marrakesh, but soon cleared, but was still cold till afternoon, mainly on highways until after lunch when we travel for several hours through some pretty rolling hills and nice winding roads. The country as we near Rabat is much more fertile and is green in comparison to the countryside we have come from, we end our day at a beach side hotel, next to the kings palace, where I walk along the Atlantic coastline of Africa and found the Titanik on the beach.

 

The police here have checkpoints at most towns and major intersections, but as we are obviously tourists (riding big motocycles, and motorcycle riding gear), we are just waved through. roundabouts are sometimes a bit tricky as cars will stop on the roundabout to give way to other vehicles entering the roundabout, but not always, trafic lights have countdown times on them which is good, but there is only 1 set of lights on your side of the road, so its not so easy to see them, and uncontrolled intersections are a bit of a free for all, but most drivers here are very courteous and with a little patience it all works itself out.

 

Its hard to believe that the trip is almost finished with only 1 more day of riding left.

 

Marrekesh

This morning the sun was out, so walked through the streets of the old town, the city's main attraction is the Djemaa el Fna "square of the decapitated", the medieval market, normally a lively place of oriental story tellers, snake charmers and jugglers, but today is relatively quiet as it is now poring down with rain, so a bit of aa miserable day, oh well, I did buy some new boots, and a caught a 3 wheeled motorbike taxi back to the hotel.

 

hopefully better weather tomorrow when we ride on to Rabat

 

 

Taroudant - Marrakesh

Although the weather is fine here in Taroudant, clouds cover the mountains and the forecast is bleak. We decide on a less dangerous route as there is snow falling on the high pass. Even so we still face a ride over a lower pass of 1000 mtrs where we climb up into the clouds and the temperature again drops to below 3 degrees, the rain falls, and we are faced with some difficult riding over the wet slippery gravel strewn twisting roads.

 

Once over the mountains we opt again for a less dangerous highway road which takes us to our lunch stop. after which it brightens for a while and we have a reasonable dry ride until we get to the outskirts of Marrakesh where it pores down, and then rains on an off till we get to the hotel.

 

I was surprised that even near Marrakesh on the north side of the Atlas mountains that the vegetation is still very sparse and desert like, as we near Marrakesh there are some cultivated areas but only because they are irrigated.

 

not many photo's today as we didn't stop too much, my boots are holding up so far, and I am drying my wet riding gear, rest day tomorrow in Marrakesh.

Taroudant - Round trip Anti Atlas

today is a day trip around the Anti Atlas, but the day is overcast and rain threatening, we set off regardless, and are again soon climbing the Anti Atlas mountains, we pass a number of the goat farmers but there is not much feed on the ground for them, so they eat the leaves from the trees.

 

The land on this side of the mountains is sparsely covered with the same shrubby tree that the goats eat, but not much else.

 

as we climb into the mountains the rain showers start, just enough to make us and the roads wet, and this continues on and off all day, but this is not all the temp drops to below 3 deg and I'm sure that some of the rain was hail.

 

We stopped for lunch at Tizourgane Kasbah which is a restored hill top kasbah that you see in the photo's a lot of work has gone into restoring what was once a ruin and is now a tourist draw card and is the centre here for adventure climbers who pit their skills against the local mountains near here.

 

onwards we go back into the cold and rain, but fortunately I have wet weather gear to keep me warm and dry. I taped my boots with some duct tape and they lasted today, and bought some other local tape and have covered both boots, hopefully they will hold up for the next few days then I will throw them away.

 

one of the riders had a puncture on the way back and we limped the last 20 kms back to the hotel pumping it up as we went.

 

Ait Benhaddou - Taroudant

long ride today from Ait Benhaddou to Taroudant 340 kms, riding up into the Anti Atlas mountains, then across a plateau which made the other desert areas to green. I really don't know how people can survive up here on these desert plains, we occasionally pass a small farm, but not much growing there, and small villages, and the occasional goatherd, but that's all. There are also ruins on the hilltops indication that the road we are following is not new but once an ancient trade route.

 

The weather has turned cold today falling to below 10 deg, riding often with a strong headwind which combined with the bike speeding along adds quite a chill factor, but fortunately I did bring some warm riding gear so all is well except for my boots which are slowly deteriorating, the soles are falling apart the 2 photos are both taken today, one in the morning and one at the end of the days ride, so I don't expect them to last too much longer, I will try and get some duct tape and tape them up and may try and buy new boots in Marrakesh.

 

we stopped for a break at a place called the Gas Haven, which apparently was never a petrol station but made as a film set for a zombie film made in the 70's, we were held up there for a shot time to replace the battery on one of the bikes.

Dades - Ait Benhaddou

This morning we rode along the Dades Gorge here the red rock formations rise like long fingers out of the ground, and then deep into the canyon cut up the tightly twisting pass through the mountain, again every patch of land on the edge of the river is farmed by Berbers.

in the afternoon we are back into the deserts beyond the mountains, this is an arid rocky hilly area, where little grows, but, all the way there are remote houses, all have a small farming area growing something, there must be water deep beneath the ground as these people cannot  survive here without water, so must each have their own well.

Also along the side of the road there are many ruins from the time that desert caravans used to travel on the southern side of the Atlas mountains.

We stopped for a short time had lunch of Pigeon Pastilla, a local dish, (which tasted good), and visited the casbah where the Raiders of the lost ark was filmed, didn't recognise anything, it just looked like other mud brick constructions that we had seen all over Morocco, which are like little self contained villages with narrow alleys twisting and turning in every direction like a weird maze, without a guide you would be lost.

Riding has been good, warm days, mid 20's & no rain, we stop tonight at a hotel in Ait Benhaddou which is on the old caravan route between Timbuktu and Marrakesh, in the distance we can see the snow covered Anti Atlas mountains which we will soon visit.