Part 2
Day 05 – Ceuta into Morocco and on to Ifrane
Thursday 2nd October 2008
Africa, offroad, definitely different and good
Africa proper at last. I haven’t put mileages up across the Spanish section of the journey because it was done as on an independent basis with people travelling in smaller groups, not one big party. From here on I will give you the daily mileages I showed on my GPS when available. Just for background; Santander to Salamanca was about 225 miles, Carmona was a further 300 odd miles and it was about half (160 miles) that from Carmona to Algeciras/Ceuta. So we covered near 700 miles over three days.
Border clearances went smoothly and we hooked up with the support vehicle, a Land Cruiser pick-up, which would take the luggage while we in Morocco. Our destination for the day was Ifrane. That meant we were travelling over the Rif mountains into the real Morocco passing through Fes en route to Ifrane. Ifrane (nicknamed Little Switzerland) is a town and ski resort in the Middle Atlas region, population 12,000+. Ifrane is 1,650 m in altitude – more stuff
here.
or
With a last look at Ceuta, it was off into the Rif mountains heading for the Barrage de Al Wahda, a dam with a large lake behind it.
That was some distance away and we were still getting used to the pace of the place, road surfaces, traffic, local hazards etc. A morning coffee stop was the original intention but Ramadan was just finishing and the planned stop was not open - we pressed on and as usual something turned up. Before we reached the barrage, Roy recognised a little roadside cafe/store where he had stopped the previous year. I don't think the shopkeeper quite believed what was happening at first - 15 vultures disguised as bikers descended on his food and drink stocks!
Roy remembered he had had a puncture fixed by a lad here in previous years. He asked the shop keeper if he remembered and the boy said yes he did remember it.
Refreshed, it was on to the barrage. No pictures of the dam - it is forbidden. So we moved down the lake a distance before stopping for a break. This is where we had our first off tarmac session of the tour as we took a graded but unsurfaced road past the lake behind the dam. Not challenging compared with later runs but a good place to start for me with little experience since the Level 1 course in South Wales the summer before. Don't know what it will be like next year as the grading looked very much like a precursor to sealing the road in the near future - progress
Onwards and inwards. Through the Rif and on to Fez.
Our first experience of Moroccan city traffic. No time to take pictures. We survived.
In the evening we arrived in Ifrane at the hotel.
The first challenge was a bit more off roading - up two steps onto the patio area where they wanted us to park the bikes!
Then there was the usual chaos sorting out baggage and rooms
Once that was sorted we could pause for breath. I was glad to be finding things pretty easy to get use to so far. The hotel was a nice place but seemed to be running on an off-season basis and appeared undermanned. The bar was shut. They said it was because of Ramadan but I believe Ramadan was over by then. Perhaps it was some local variation. Anyway, a bar in town was open so we got a drink. They said the hotel bar reopened on Sunday. We would see on the way back. Looking forward to tomorrow and some proper tarmac free riding...
More to follow - whether you like or not
TP
- oh yeah, we did 402 km (250 miles) climbing from sea level to 1636m.
