Gael warning on the Ivory Coast

[Edventure]

Here we have another beautiful scene, and Simon!

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Love the wild Atlantic coast down there!

 

[Drumacoon Lad.]

A bit behind in the updates, due in part, to a rather inconvenient birthday in our party yesterday. We've also now arrived in the desert(Sahara) and accommodation is limited, and finding places to stay takes some planning, thanks Simon. The planning has to work out how far it's practical to travel on these little bikes that takes us to a place which has accomodation and moves us onwards as much as possible.

One thing that has helped us is that the roads have improved since we were here last, 8 years ago. From Guelmim, the start of the Sahara, a new dual carriage is in place. It doesn't make the bikes go any quicker but it's easier to maintain a steady speed. The other aspect that's changed is the attitude of the police. When we were last here we were stopped regularly in Morocco and more so in Western(Moroccan) Sahara. They would want passport details, bike reg, when and where we arrived etc. In fact we carried small 'fiches' with all this info to speed up the journey. It seems a policy change for tourists, which we welcomed. So far we have only had our passports examined once.

All these changes seem quite positive, however, we are not so sure. It used to be you had to endure, bad roads, regular police checks, long stretches without fuel stations, camels and goats wandering across the road, if you wanted to ride through the desert. We wonder if these changes will make riding through the desert too easy and cause it to diminish as an adventure. We'll see

After making hard work of leaving Agadir we rode thorough quite a built up area down to Tisnit and then took, a new road over to the coast and down to Sidi Ifni. This coast road suited us well with a good surface and great corners.

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[Drumacoon Lad.]

AT Guelmim we rejoined the new road and made good time. As seen below the little bikes, covered the ground very well. One of them recorded a speed well in excess of the 100km/h speed limit, probably due to a following wind. Our destination was a new hotel The Courbine D'argent, close to Akhfennir, run by a French couple. The room price included evening meal and breakfast and for one of a desert with a candle

I'm making this update in a room in a campsite, with no WiFi, so uploading photos is a challenge. These below are Simon enjoying the new road and and later taking in the view and fresh air in The Courbine D'argent.

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[richardbd]

The roads seem to be a considerable improvement on the dirt tracks that pass for A-roads in Surrey these days Jim

 

[Drumacoon Lad.]

Today we left the French hotel and rode straight onto the dual carriageway. See, I said it was too easy. Breakfast was disappointing, so there was little chat on the intercom for a while. We have a Sena Bluetooth system which works up to 600 meters, so we can keep in touch, when we want to. The sanitised new road with its armco, doesn't provide many distractions as you ride along. It's important to remind yourself though, that you're riding through a large desert and to fully take in the experience. We were not allowed to take the desert for granted for too long, as in places the sand was invading the new road and diggers had to used to clear the road. As you can see here, the sand is up to the edge of the carriageway.

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[Drumacoon Lad.]

The roads seem to be a considerable improvement on the dirt tracks that pass for A-roads in Surrey these days Jim

We hit one pothole today, Richard, and we said that it was the first since we left Hampshire, in UK

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[Drumacoon Lad.]

Our destination today, was a place where no traveller wants to spend the night. However, we had little choice and Boujdour it was. It has no hotels that you'd want to stay in, which was the case 11 years ago when I first passed along this way. Then I had to sleep in a cabin on a campsite, and that campsite is where we are staying tonight, with no wifi and for the last few hours no electricity.

These are a few scenes from our walk around the town this evening. Note the contents of the Toyota pickup!

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[Northern jock]

Richard it’s interesting to note that birkies now seem very popular with young locals (sans socks, of course, that’s a fashion reserved for us vintage bikers ). I enjoyed a couple of the finest oysters I have had in years at that little stall.

Jim enjoying monkfish tagineView attachment 454472

Catching up with this and it’s a great read. Were the oysters farmed locally?

 

[Northern jock]

For the tennis elbow a strap round your arm just below the elbow helps a lot, snug when your arm is relaxed, tighter when you tense the forearm. A spare strap or a length of tape should do it.
I get it from too much log chopping and have a Velcro band with a bit of padding on the muscle side, obviously easier to play with the tension with Velcro.

Edit to add, plenty guides online about strapping

How to Fit a Tennis Elbow Strap: A Guide for Pain Relief - North 49 Physical Therapy, Balance & Dizziness Centre in Saskatoon

Sizing a tennis elbow strap is simple. Let's review how to size the strap to see if it will work for your elbow pain.

www.north49therapy.com

 

[simondippenhall]

Thanks Alistair for the advice…I do have n elbow strap in the medical store but so far the elbow is holding up and the clear roads mean few gear changes . Don’t know the source of the oysters but they were delicious and equally important didn’t resurface later.

A few snaps from Jim’s big birthday…one big French/Irish family that evening, and I regretted my second pastis aperitif the next morning!

 

[Jockser]

Happy Birthday Jim

It's nice to see some blue skies while we listen to the wind & rain outside.
Keep up the good work lads

 

[simondippenhall]

Happy Birthday Jim

It's nice to see some blue skies while we listen to the wind & rain outside.
Keep up the good work lads

sunny it is indeed, Jochen. Our morning coffee nuss nuss and omelette break…

 

[Flintlock]

As mentioned, a great read & photos. Enjoy following your travels on Google maps.

 

[Drumacoon Lad.]

In Boujdour camping wed splashed the cash and upgraded from a 2 bed cabin to a 'bungalow'. The main reason was the internal bathroom and not having to go to the campsite toilet block, maybe in the middle of the night. We had something to eat in town, went for a stroll and the photos are above.

Getting back to the campsite, we had a few things to check on the bikes. This gets slightly technical again, but I'll be brief. Simon was having difficulty mounting his phone on the Quad Lock, which we sorted. I wanted to check my tyre pressures as mine were low and can't have been right when leaving Casablanca. I pumped them up, as we decided against electric pumps. It seemed wise to check Simon's and his front was low. Then Simon noticed that the rear was incorrectly fitted, and not up against the adjuster on one side. A look along the alignment of the wheels confirmed the error and was corrected. So we felt quite satisfied with ourselves.

The rest of our evening didn't go as planned as we had long mains power drops and went to bed in the dark. It's a tough life on the road. Helpfully, the power returned around midnight and woke us up.

Breakfast was a yoghurt and a banana, bought the previous evening, I said it was tough! We got an early start and after a fill-up, hit the road south. This part of the journey felt like the real Sahara. A single carriageway road, minimal armco, a desert that looks stoney and barren, this felt more authentic. Sadly few camels!

I'm sorry about the pictures of Simon, but it's in my contract. He and his bike do take a good photo though. These photos were taken with my Aoocci C6, now that I have the power issues resolved.

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[Drumacoon Lad.]

This section of the trip was not overendowed with petrol stations, which is of interest when your bike has a 10 litre tank. This was also disappointing for Simon as one of his superpowers is spotting petrol stations, as well as camels. To tie in with the authentic look and feel of the Sahara, we had our first visit to one of the rare fuel stations, where we were turned away as there was no petrol. You've not lived the full Sahara experience if you've not been refused petrol when youare low on fuel. Is that right, Edventure? We had been prudent at the previous station and felt confident we could make it to the next one in 40km, but it's not easy riding a bike with your fingers crossed, believe me. We got petrol, and an omelet and were soon on our way again.

We were heading for Dakhla, and were ahead of schedule, so for a while flirted with the idea of going closer to the Mauritania border. The problem was accomodation. It was either Dakhla or 300km more to the next hotel. Before starting, we resolved not to get caught into long rides and exhausting ourselves, so Dakhla it had to be. The town isn't great but we found a new cheap hotel called the Hotel Rias, where we can park the bikes outside.

Some other views of the ride today plus a camels, which was surprised by the sudden arrival of a Honda motorbike, or maybe he's just camera shy.

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[simondippenhall]

When we arrived at our hotel in Dakhla this cat was keen to inspect my bikewhen I went out later to get something from the bike I had to lift up the all encompassing bike cover….and who should be sat in my nice sheepskin seat?
A couple of bricks and bags to cover the seat will, I hope, put paid to that problem .

Sadly I also left my old cap behind in Agadir so had to do a bit of cap shopping in Dakhla market the second cap (Capricorn) was my choice even though it’s the other Tropic we will cross tomorrow

 

[gspod]

I feel like the trip is truly on it’s way now that you have been hat shopping Simon

 

[richardbd]

Yep. It’s only a proper expedition if you go on a ferry and buy a new hat…

 

[Posh Pete]

Great stuff lads. You're making me quite nostalgic!

 

[Edventure]

This section of the trip was not overendowed with petrol stations, which is of interest when your bike has a 10 litre tank. This was also disappointing for Simon as one of his superpowers is spotting petrol stations, as well as camels. To tie in with the authentic look and feel of the Sahara, we had our first visit to one of the rare fuel stations, where we were turned away as there was no petrol. You've not lived the full Sahara experience if you've not been refused petrol when youare low on fuel. Is that right, Edventure? We had been prudent at the previous station and felt confident we could make it to the next one in 40km, but it's not easy riding a bike with your fingers crossed, believe me. We got petrol, and an omelet and were soon on our way again.

We were heading for Dakhla, and were ahead of schedule, so for a while flirted with the idea of going closer to the Mauritania border. The problem was accomodation. It was either Dakhla or 300km more to the next hotel. Before starting, we resolved not to get caught into long rides and exhausting ourselves, so Dakhla it had to be. The town isn't great but we found a new cheap hotel called the Hotel Rias, where we can park the bikes outside.

Some other views of the ride today plus a camels, which was surprised by the sudden arrival of a Honda motorbike, or maybe he's just camera shy.

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Jim, I still have vivid memories of being very low on fuel on the road between Nouadhibou and Nouakchott........