Day 8 29/04/2012 Continued: Come On Mate! Which Way Is Zagora?
Nicely done Grez. One step to the left and you avoided the bullet.
I'm just reporting the facts as I remember them and everybody's bike was on it's side more than once: In fact some of those bikes had both wheels fitted and weren't even moving...
I hope you're mending well.
The trouble with a good lunch is that sometimes you don't feel like getting back onto the bike but would rather hang around for another hour and a snooze but, we have been promised some sand dunes to play in.
It was a short ride back through the town (Foum Zguid rings a bell as the place [especially now that I have my map]) and we're looking for a turn to take us away from the roads and looking for pistes and trails to take us all the way to Zagora. Skygod found a turn but was stopped by a copper emerging from his Police Box. I was right behind and there was an attempted conversation about turning off the helmet cam and after a few seconds of trying to convince him it wasn't turned on the copper had had enough and waved us on.
There appeared to be some sort of industry going on around here but why he was protective of that we may never know because it didn't look too special; maybe they had found gold?
It was only a matter of minutes before we were looking for the piste to take us towards the sand dunes we had been promised. The GPS must have had a waypoint loaded and we were informed "
They're supposed to be over there. Let's go!" and it was time for some more overlanding by faithfully following the arrow on the handlebar mounted display. Soon we found a village and sand, so it's looking promising and we stopped for a minute to gather ourselves. There is a walled sandy track which runs along one side of the village, and we're going to take it on, but there is still a bit of uncertainty that this is the right way to go. Nevertheless we go on and immediately it's difficult and there's stopping and starting as the sand gets softer or deeper but remarkably I get to the front: Now, I've had a go in sand on my GSA (failing miserably) at last years' Boxer Beet but had taken on-board the advice given to me then by the more experience riders and now I could try it out properly on a lighter bike.
I simply stood up on the pegs, leaned back and opened the throttles and allowed the bike to wander and drift until it looked like I was going to hit the walls. Even though I managed quite well for a while I only had one momentary rest when the TTR got out of hand and I had to lean the bike on a sand bank.
Otherwise it was bloody good fun to ride fast and hard without much risk of hitting something hard and even rode across a three foot berm which spanned the whole track which looked liked a barrier made by the villagers.
By now I was oblivious to everyone else and rode on for a few minutes and only when the land opened up did I have a look behind and saw that I was now alone.
I turned around, enjoyed my self again, parked the bike upright in the sand, and was promptly told off for forgetting the rule about stopping at junctions to wait for the following riders.
We were supposed to heading in another direction...
We're back on the piste and should soon be close to finding the dunes but they cannot be seen and we are stopping occassionally to scan the horizon across the plain and are looking for anything obvious...
It's all stone here and we're out of luck.
Well, we must carry on because it's hot, mid-afternoon and most of us only started the day with 3L of water on our backs but the search goes on as we move in the general direction of Zagora. Skygod takes us back on the road and is determined to find somewhere to play because this will be our only chance to find some sand dunes whilst near the edges of the desert before we start heading north again after Zagora. Thankfully his Action Man eagle eyes spotted something in the distance and after a brief stop to verify his thoughts with us it was more overlanding again, and past another random hamlet in the middle of nowhere, to check out target. Our engines took the local children away from whatever they were doing again but we ignored them and rode on...
That's not it; that's where we stopped to discuss our strategy.
Bill was the only one to bother to get his camera out and record the face of our conquest...
Actually, that's a used dune and admittidly it's not that big but it's ours for while.
The plan was to go and have a look and see what's over the other side (that's where the footprints above come from. [The wheel tracks are post
play time].) so Skygod and No Fromage yomp to the top. Steve, Bill and I are watching this and I decide that I'm not walking up there in this heat whilst wearing this kit so I put on my helmet and gloves and decide to go for it...
Matt, being alert, had his camera out...
...for my unannounced run.
I had the intention of running the bike along the crest of the dune and then to work out whether to come back down or carry on but I probably backed off and the front wheel buried itself...
Just step off it like it's a minimoto.
I suppose I had better move my bike but it's not's as easy as you might think until you get the weight off the bike and find a Geezer to give you a push...
Doing this doesn't work.
Matt works hard behind me...
...spreads his legs at the right time...
...and I get some movement...
...and leave him with a smile on his face. Thanks for your help.
Who's next? Steve or Bill. I think it was Steve who rode up and over around and back out again...
...or was it Bill and this is Steve on his second run in the background?
You should pick that up Lads!
Next up was Gaz and straight over and into the middle of the dunes were he found a hard surface to turn around, and then buries the HP2 upto its mudguard in the soft sand...
The easy path.
Stop there, about turn...
...and bury it!
Matt then follows us in and finds the sweet spot to park his bike and I have another go to come and join them.
Sorry, but I wasn't quick enough.
Now we have to dig the HP2 out of the sand...
...and then we three get another chance to stand by our bikes and record another accomplishment for our old age...
No Fromage making the best of his three week license.
Awesome Gaz.
Awesome Yamaha TT600RE: What an excellent piece of kit.
With no time to lose we have to get a move on because it's late afternoon and we still have to get to Zagora but, being last out of the dunes I get lost in the vegetable gardens of the nearby hamlet and hold everyone up. It wasn't the few minutes of delay which I remember most about this episode but the grief and begging I received whilst trying to find my way out of the gardens, and even though I didn't cause any damage I still feel guilty about not stopping and handing over a few dibdabs.
There is a plan to ride a piste all the way to Zagora which should be only a short distance from wherever our current location is.
It isn't long before we pull off the road, onto a track, and get back fullfilling the offroading pursuits we had been promised, and did we get what we'd asked for!
Initially everything seemed to be normal but after short while it became very apparent that this was not piste, trail or track but another gnarly session of overlanding across the plain and presumably following the arrow on the GPS. It went on for ages across sand, rocks, gullies and scrub. We were stopping occasionally for a look around but again, we had dug a hole and we were in too deep to turn around and it was deemed to go on and make the most of our fuel supplies. At the time it was hard work but nevertheless bloody good fun and it included the first time I got
air on the TTR. The gulley's were deep and sometimes had rock in the them and, if you didn't hit them hard there was more chance of bottling it and twisting a slow turning wheel for a certain appointment with the medic's kit. We could do with a break and saw what looked like a graded piste which should or could take us back on track, get some mileage done and get us out of this heat. That piste lastest about three minutes and in less time than it takes me to smoke a cigar we were back to riding over sand, rock and gullies.
We were getting tired and a couple of bikes of had rest on the their crash bars (not mine
) but at one point Gaz, Bill and I had stopped at the front an it was nearly four bikes at once on the deck. Steve had blatted his way over a gulley but had misjudged his braking point (he admitted afterwards) and just managed to ride the gap between Bill and Gary (I was at the back immediately being Gary
) and dumped his bike right in front of us: It was a lucky escape for all. (There's a video of this which I will post soon, when I get it!) It would appear that where we had parked was perhaps too close to the previous obstacle because Matt dropped his bike as well, but behind us all because I seem to remember having to help pick it up again: When will it end?
We rode on, and on, and on, until the Great Leader saw an opportunity to gain some local knowledge in the form of a provincial employee. Skygod had ridden off to the right into a clearing and was parked next to somebdy. He called us over to join him and found the Geezer to be a road builder. He had two pieces of piste grading kit and a tent which contained a 100cc Yamaha next to his bunk for tooing and frowing to his family's home. He was a nice man and one we'd sorted our language differences out, he showed us the way to Zagora.
The Road Builder: A very helpful man and it was pleasure to have met him. He may well have bulit the road we were soon to be riding on. Perhaps we'll meet him again, a few kilometers nearer, later this year on the next ABW Tour.
The Road Builder sent us on our way along the right track and once we had settled in to a graded road we were flying along. We were still on the plain between a pair of mountain ranges, or big hills, on either side and heading to the easterly horizon but also into a sand storm. We could see a brown cloud in the distance blocking out the skyline but we had to face it. Unfortunately my camera's shutter had become jammed at the dunes so I don't have a picture of the storm but I can you that it was like standing under hairdryer (like I'd know
) in a sandblasting cabinet.
A hot, windy and gritty place...
Bill contemplates his navel...
With the shadows getting longer and the need to make good speed away from that place it was a drag race to Zagora along mostly straight graded road. It was possible to get yourself into a wobble or slide but overall it was a simple matter of making dust until the sudden arrival of tarmac and a sign post for Zagora Aeroport. When you arrive here you may be accosted by Zagorian helpers in the form of 4 x 4 driving mechanics looking for a job to repair your bent bike or simply guide you into into town and throw sand into your goggles.
After about 10hrs on and offroad we've done it and found our way to Zagora,
The Gateway to the Desert, as it's described. We arrive at another nice hotel;, and are questioned by MrIFan as to where we've been
and park the bike up and go straight to the bar again for a well deserved cold bottle of fizzy stuff (What would I do for a Real Ale now?).
And later it's time for dinner...
That was another
Man's Day and we are all very proud of ourselves because we have earned another day off tomorrow to do what we want: Shopping, pool or go for a ride...
A picture from the future: What's changed on this F800GS?