Last May, after a few Tunisia, Libya, Algeria, Sardinia and Albania adventures, even for us it was time to explore Morocco off road!
The recipe was the same as before: a core of good friends who have been travelling together for quite some time along with few more that have joined us just more recently, or for “a one off“ trip.
A completely self organised trip with a provisional itinerary open to change as we go along. Nothing booked…inshallah!
A car with two friends of ours was travelling with us to help out with luggage and food. We all met up in Malaga where we flew from Manchester, Amsterdam and Rome. Our bikes were there waiting for us having been shipped few days before and stored at Hana Ptackova’s warehouse (http://www.motoadventours.com/). Hana and her partner Patrick (a former Dakar pilot), were extremely helpful and nice to us. Erik and Eric actually decided to hire two BMWs GS800 directly at the warehouse rather than shipping their own.
Finally we set off and rode to Tarifa the same day crossing into Tangeri with a plan of over 3000km in 11 days, most of them off road.
…and here are the riders:
Lorenzo
Marco
Giovanni
Alessandro
Kurt
Erik&Eric
Marco (also known as Gianna) and Stefano
Me…Nicola
…and our best and most indispensible friend…Gianna’s tool box
Leaving Tarifa
We arrived in Tangeri in the late afternoon which we left immediately travelling southward to reach Chefchaouen, the town famous for its blue walls, where we spent the first night.
Day 2
...and it wasn't a sponsorised tour, as it can appear from this shot :lol3
Not too far from the town we started our off road trip. The landscape of the Rif’s Mountains was rather similar to a South European one than a more stereotypic North African.
That night, after passing by Volubilis and crossing Meknes, we finished at the rather un-politely ran Hotel Panorama in the mountain resort of Arzou.
Day 3 was spent in one of the most beautiful place ever: The Cidar Forest first and The Cirque de Jaffar later, just before the sunset. A 300 km off road journey that was worth the whole trip! Sadly pictures are not good enough to describe the breathtaking landscape and atmosphere.
As it has often happened on our trips, we want to test the built quality of our bikes. I am afraid to say that for the second year in a row the one that seems not to be up to the job is the GS800! Last year it was the clutch. This year on a different bike it was the chain (at first) that snapped following a fall!
Fortunately, as you can see below, we have some good 24/7 mechanics that, under my thoughtful direction, managed to fix it.
…and whenever the opportunity is there…good Italians won’t miss their lunch…
…and caffe’…
Cirque de Jaffar
We end up in Midelt just after the sunset finding a comfy and charming place to sleep at Hudda’s Riad. A nice Moroccan dinner…however following a tough ride we need to top it up with some of ours…
Day 4: a long transfer along Ziz Gorge to reach Erfoud and continue to Erg Chebbi to camp in the dunes. I was there 10 years ago. Despite it was already a touristic place at the time, I was quite impressed on how things have moved on since. Still, it is a great place to visit. Ziz Valley is an unforgotable spot. My previous trip was in December. During the winter season the contrast of the green lush palmeries along the river contrast even more with the rocky dry terrain of the surrounding mountains.
At times the trip was tiring and sleep inducing
Especially with all the pit-stops that BMWs required…
Arrived in Erfoud the two GSs were doing some consistent whinging as they didn’t want to go ahead. Apparently with intense heat, when the tank is not completely filled up, they tend to form bubbles that block the vacuum of the fuel pump. So no desert for them. We had to drop them at the local BMW garage.
Then we looked into different solution that would have allow Eric&Erik to carry on the trip with us: the first solution was deemed to be too unstable and rather uncomfortable…
…the second way too slow…
…so this seemed to be the most feasible…
There were some 50km of flat easy pist to get to the erg. Still very enjoyable to navigate.
…and finally dunes…
…and yes Gianna we know you and your KDJ are unbeatable on the dunes…
Looking for the perfect camp site…
Obviously the night ended up with some good pasta, beer and loads of questions for the Italians from the Dutch and British on 'why on earth we have Berlusconi and the beautiful Cicciolina', who still keeps company to Eric during the his sleep (Cicciolina that is).…
Day 5: unfortunately as planned, Erik&Eric had to leave us because of work commitments. They went back to Erfoud to take their bikes from the Garage and travel back to Malaga. As for us…obviously we couldn’t help but play with the bikes up and down the dunes…
Sadly though, none of these young sporty lads could catch up with me…because their gearing wasn’t the right one, because the carb was dirty, because the bike was too heavy, because I can’t remember and…
…because someone was trying sao hard to catch up he finally melted his clutch…which needed changing…
…”forcing” the rest of the group to few hours of refreshing stop!
We left Merzouga behind when it was already late…
…heading west, along the Algerian border trying to make a place to sleep as the sun was coming down.
As my view during the night is not the same as the one of a hawk, I ended up dropping the bike on soft sand resulting in (surprisingly) a leaking auxilary tank and radiator…that is not convenient when you are crossing the desert…
We end up sleeping in a nice basic hotel in the middle of nowhere, close to the border and around the oasis of Taouz.
Day 6: Some basic repairs first in the morning…
…and then we left the Hotel aiming for Zagora. It was a long stretch of nearly 300km of hard pist with some passage on fetch-fetch. We entered into Algeria for few kilometres as the border it is no actively patrolled along this pist. It was hard job with the leaking radiator.
As we rode along we came across a small village living from farming a nearby palmaries. We had lunch there under the mosque shadow. People were all friendly and cheerful.
Finally we made Zagora where I could repair my leak and the Toyota a suspension leak. Good old fashion repairs that lasted for ever at the cost of 20 minute labour in UK. Two tanks, radiator and other bits and pieces…
Nice hotel for the night. A swim and a good dinner. Someone also hung out with the owner of the hotel. A sinister but interesting figure…
Day 7: this was a tough, challenging but rewarding one. While Gianna with his Toyota was travelling alone on tarmac for the day, the six bikes took a different route! A 300km desert crossing completely unsupported from Zagora to Foum-Zguid. We didn’t follow any of the two main pists, we made our track using wps. We crossed hard rocky desert, dry salt lakes, wadi, sand dunes and finding wells in the middle of nowhere…it was really good fun!
…you don’t want to be hand pumping a tube after a puncture at 43C under a 2 o’clock sun…
…and that night, we really treated ourselves…
Day 8: agnother glorious day. After some “animated” (Italian) discussion on which way to go, we were convinced by Lorenzo to follow the route indicated by a French guy we meet the night before. It wasn’t on any map obviously and it was the case to find it using few WPS and some navigation skills. It took us through a fantastic rural gorge. The track was appearing and disappearing from a dry wadi ( I am afraid some works were just starting to built a proper street) and slowly rising following the canyon. We end up for lunch in a small mountain oasis. From the local auberg where we had lunch the view on the palmaries was unbelievable…
But what we didn’t know was that the best was yet to come. A steep twisting trail was taking us on the top of the canyon riding through farming rocky terraces and sudden high drops. Behind the summit, a village in the middle of a boundless plateau.
Lorenzo was right to convince us to go for the "French" pist.
That evening, after having the tarmac again, we took a long ride to Ouarzazate where we spent the night.
Day 9: a straight tarmac stretch along the Dades Valley took us to the Gorge du Todra for lunch.
After a quick nap we moved off aiming north first and west soon after to cross at 2800 meters the pass that takes to the pist coming Gorge du dades and then again north. Along the way we meet a family of berber living in the caves, who at first were quite shy to talk. Just before the sunset, we got to Tizi-n-Ouano pass at nearly 3000 meters. Amazing! That night we finished with the dark in the village of Imilchil. We stay at the Auberge Afoud. A lovely, basic and overall welcoming hotel.
Day 10: it was somehow a bad day: it was time to head back north.
Early we went to visit lake Tislit…
…and lake Isli
From there on it was a long winding tarmac road up to Khenifra first and then straight to Meknes. South to Khenifra we stopped for lunch in the rather dirt town of El Khemis where I wouldn’t definitively choose to have my dental practice.
A look to the guide for a place to sleep in Meknes…
…where we end up that evening. Unfortunately the only pics I have are those of the luxury parking where we left the bikes and the car for the night.
The night in Meknes was nice and the Riad we stayed in the Medina was great. Unfortunately when trips are coming to an end the willing and fantasy of taking pictures goes down. From here on there won’t be many more pictures of our fantastic riding or of the time spent together.
Day 11: a long tedious ride from Meknes to Tangeri and from Tarifa to Puerto Jose Banus. A couple of beers on the ferry…
The night in Puerto Jose Banus was surprisingly very good fun. The best way to finish this fantastic trip. Interestingly no one remembered to take some pictures…
Day 12: Back at Hana’s warehouse. Bikes parked and off to the airport to sadly fly home…
While waiting for the aircraft door to close I couldn’t help but keep bringing back to my mind the great time just spent with my friends, while my heart was already inpatient to hug my Lara, Alexander and Elena!
Ciao
Nicola
The recipe was the same as before: a core of good friends who have been travelling together for quite some time along with few more that have joined us just more recently, or for “a one off“ trip.
A completely self organised trip with a provisional itinerary open to change as we go along. Nothing booked…inshallah!
A car with two friends of ours was travelling with us to help out with luggage and food. We all met up in Malaga where we flew from Manchester, Amsterdam and Rome. Our bikes were there waiting for us having been shipped few days before and stored at Hana Ptackova’s warehouse (http://www.motoadventours.com/). Hana and her partner Patrick (a former Dakar pilot), were extremely helpful and nice to us. Erik and Eric actually decided to hire two BMWs GS800 directly at the warehouse rather than shipping their own.
Finally we set off and rode to Tarifa the same day crossing into Tangeri with a plan of over 3000km in 11 days, most of them off road.
…and here are the riders:
Lorenzo
Marco
Giovanni
Alessandro
Kurt
Erik&Eric
Marco (also known as Gianna) and Stefano
Me…Nicola
…and our best and most indispensible friend…Gianna’s tool box
Leaving Tarifa
We arrived in Tangeri in the late afternoon which we left immediately travelling southward to reach Chefchaouen, the town famous for its blue walls, where we spent the first night.
Day 2
...and it wasn't a sponsorised tour, as it can appear from this shot :lol3
Not too far from the town we started our off road trip. The landscape of the Rif’s Mountains was rather similar to a South European one than a more stereotypic North African.
That night, after passing by Volubilis and crossing Meknes, we finished at the rather un-politely ran Hotel Panorama in the mountain resort of Arzou.
Day 3 was spent in one of the most beautiful place ever: The Cidar Forest first and The Cirque de Jaffar later, just before the sunset. A 300 km off road journey that was worth the whole trip! Sadly pictures are not good enough to describe the breathtaking landscape and atmosphere.
As it has often happened on our trips, we want to test the built quality of our bikes. I am afraid to say that for the second year in a row the one that seems not to be up to the job is the GS800! Last year it was the clutch. This year on a different bike it was the chain (at first) that snapped following a fall!
Fortunately, as you can see below, we have some good 24/7 mechanics that, under my thoughtful direction, managed to fix it.
…and whenever the opportunity is there…good Italians won’t miss their lunch…
…and caffe’…
Cirque de Jaffar
We end up in Midelt just after the sunset finding a comfy and charming place to sleep at Hudda’s Riad. A nice Moroccan dinner…however following a tough ride we need to top it up with some of ours…
Day 4: a long transfer along Ziz Gorge to reach Erfoud and continue to Erg Chebbi to camp in the dunes. I was there 10 years ago. Despite it was already a touristic place at the time, I was quite impressed on how things have moved on since. Still, it is a great place to visit. Ziz Valley is an unforgotable spot. My previous trip was in December. During the winter season the contrast of the green lush palmeries along the river contrast even more with the rocky dry terrain of the surrounding mountains.
At times the trip was tiring and sleep inducing
Especially with all the pit-stops that BMWs required…
Arrived in Erfoud the two GSs were doing some consistent whinging as they didn’t want to go ahead. Apparently with intense heat, when the tank is not completely filled up, they tend to form bubbles that block the vacuum of the fuel pump. So no desert for them. We had to drop them at the local BMW garage.
Then we looked into different solution that would have allow Eric&Erik to carry on the trip with us: the first solution was deemed to be too unstable and rather uncomfortable…
…the second way too slow…
…so this seemed to be the most feasible…
There were some 50km of flat easy pist to get to the erg. Still very enjoyable to navigate.
…and finally dunes…
…and yes Gianna we know you and your KDJ are unbeatable on the dunes…
Looking for the perfect camp site…
Obviously the night ended up with some good pasta, beer and loads of questions for the Italians from the Dutch and British on 'why on earth we have Berlusconi and the beautiful Cicciolina', who still keeps company to Eric during the his sleep (Cicciolina that is).…
Day 5: unfortunately as planned, Erik&Eric had to leave us because of work commitments. They went back to Erfoud to take their bikes from the Garage and travel back to Malaga. As for us…obviously we couldn’t help but play with the bikes up and down the dunes…
Sadly though, none of these young sporty lads could catch up with me…because their gearing wasn’t the right one, because the carb was dirty, because the bike was too heavy, because I can’t remember and…
…because someone was trying sao hard to catch up he finally melted his clutch…which needed changing…
…”forcing” the rest of the group to few hours of refreshing stop!
We left Merzouga behind when it was already late…
…heading west, along the Algerian border trying to make a place to sleep as the sun was coming down.
As my view during the night is not the same as the one of a hawk, I ended up dropping the bike on soft sand resulting in (surprisingly) a leaking auxilary tank and radiator…that is not convenient when you are crossing the desert…
We end up sleeping in a nice basic hotel in the middle of nowhere, close to the border and around the oasis of Taouz.
Day 6: Some basic repairs first in the morning…
…and then we left the Hotel aiming for Zagora. It was a long stretch of nearly 300km of hard pist with some passage on fetch-fetch. We entered into Algeria for few kilometres as the border it is no actively patrolled along this pist. It was hard job with the leaking radiator.
As we rode along we came across a small village living from farming a nearby palmaries. We had lunch there under the mosque shadow. People were all friendly and cheerful.
Finally we made Zagora where I could repair my leak and the Toyota a suspension leak. Good old fashion repairs that lasted for ever at the cost of 20 minute labour in UK. Two tanks, radiator and other bits and pieces…
Nice hotel for the night. A swim and a good dinner. Someone also hung out with the owner of the hotel. A sinister but interesting figure…
Day 7: this was a tough, challenging but rewarding one. While Gianna with his Toyota was travelling alone on tarmac for the day, the six bikes took a different route! A 300km desert crossing completely unsupported from Zagora to Foum-Zguid. We didn’t follow any of the two main pists, we made our track using wps. We crossed hard rocky desert, dry salt lakes, wadi, sand dunes and finding wells in the middle of nowhere…it was really good fun!
…you don’t want to be hand pumping a tube after a puncture at 43C under a 2 o’clock sun…
…and that night, we really treated ourselves…
Day 8: agnother glorious day. After some “animated” (Italian) discussion on which way to go, we were convinced by Lorenzo to follow the route indicated by a French guy we meet the night before. It wasn’t on any map obviously and it was the case to find it using few WPS and some navigation skills. It took us through a fantastic rural gorge. The track was appearing and disappearing from a dry wadi ( I am afraid some works were just starting to built a proper street) and slowly rising following the canyon. We end up for lunch in a small mountain oasis. From the local auberg where we had lunch the view on the palmaries was unbelievable…
But what we didn’t know was that the best was yet to come. A steep twisting trail was taking us on the top of the canyon riding through farming rocky terraces and sudden high drops. Behind the summit, a village in the middle of a boundless plateau.
Lorenzo was right to convince us to go for the "French" pist.
That evening, after having the tarmac again, we took a long ride to Ouarzazate where we spent the night.
Day 9: a straight tarmac stretch along the Dades Valley took us to the Gorge du Todra for lunch.
After a quick nap we moved off aiming north first and west soon after to cross at 2800 meters the pass that takes to the pist coming Gorge du dades and then again north. Along the way we meet a family of berber living in the caves, who at first were quite shy to talk. Just before the sunset, we got to Tizi-n-Ouano pass at nearly 3000 meters. Amazing! That night we finished with the dark in the village of Imilchil. We stay at the Auberge Afoud. A lovely, basic and overall welcoming hotel.
Day 10: it was somehow a bad day: it was time to head back north.
Early we went to visit lake Tislit…
…and lake Isli
From there on it was a long winding tarmac road up to Khenifra first and then straight to Meknes. South to Khenifra we stopped for lunch in the rather dirt town of El Khemis where I wouldn’t definitively choose to have my dental practice.
A look to the guide for a place to sleep in Meknes…
…where we end up that evening. Unfortunately the only pics I have are those of the luxury parking where we left the bikes and the car for the night.
The night in Meknes was nice and the Riad we stayed in the Medina was great. Unfortunately when trips are coming to an end the willing and fantasy of taking pictures goes down. From here on there won’t be many more pictures of our fantastic riding or of the time spent together.
Day 11: a long tedious ride from Meknes to Tangeri and from Tarifa to Puerto Jose Banus. A couple of beers on the ferry…
The night in Puerto Jose Banus was surprisingly very good fun. The best way to finish this fantastic trip. Interestingly no one remembered to take some pictures…
Day 12: Back at Hana’s warehouse. Bikes parked and off to the airport to sadly fly home…
While waiting for the aircraft door to close I couldn’t help but keep bringing back to my mind the great time just spent with my friends, while my heart was already inpatient to hug my Lara, Alexander and Elena!
Ciao
Nicola
