Hi, I came back from a weekend trip to Morocco with a couple of friends on Monday night 17-11-08, we crossed over at Ceuta early morning Friday spent the rest of the day and night in Chefchaouen then made our way to Fes after checking out Volubillis, using main roads (not motorway). We spent two fantastic nights in Fes then travelled back using the toll motorway via Rabat right up to Tangier then across to ceuta. Catching a 21.00 ferry back to Algeciras.
My advice is read the forum there's loads of very useful info on it. Stick to the speed limits there are literally police checkpoints on every roundabout, and handheld Radars everywhere (especially on the motorway) so be warned !!
On the way back through the frontier at Ceuta Bikes don't cue with the cars, ride up to near the barrier, go to the window with your passport and yellow exit form prefilled in, copper stamps your passport, re filter into the cue show stamped passport to the next set of police then park up at the next window about twenty feet from previous checkpoint to hand in your green form or D16TER (very important) remember this temporary vehicle importation form can be filled in over the Internet on the forum (except were it says type you only need to put BMW 1200GS and were it says Genre click on motorcycle)
we used a tout to get through originally as we were getting f**+ed about from portacabin to portacabin, but there's really no need on the way back or at all if you know what to do and don't mind the wait.
In Chaouen and fes we used official guides and it was well worth it you get a lot less hassle in the streets plus they show you places you probably would not have visited.
Don't forget to take some Imodium, they do a new one that melts in your mouth, I only drank bottled water and still managed to get a dose of the runs!!
The roads are generally pretty good, there was a stretch on the way down to Fes/ Meknes which was under repair and mostly had been broken up, and only had tarmac in the middle, but was absolutely no problem. Tangiers is scary! and will be the last time I ride through there! My friends had bags strapped to there bikes and stated that they could see a lot of people staring at the bags, to the point where they were expecting them to be ripped off. Ride carefully but defensively, and try to expect the unexpected especially when overtaking, they don't always use their mirrors. Enjoy the ride and the fantastic scenery, stopping occaisonally to take a photo.
Regards GibGSA
