Morocco and back in 16 days, with a dash of Spain
There have to be more silly things to do out there, but this might be one of them…
In 16 days from April 9th to April 24th I drove 7.676km just for the sake of doing so.
Day 1 -- 305km (Rotterdam to Calais)
Meeting up with the guys
Day 2 -- 1514km (Calais to Spain, somewhere between San Sebastian and Bilbao)
Rain, rain and even more rain
Day 3 -- 2623km (From hummm, to Algeciras)
I’ve never been this cold before in my life (that is my thinking), and if that Spanish friend whom I “used” to have, would be here I would smack her bottom. It was -0.5c in the mountains, and I was still in moist cloth from yesterday, my gloves are not moist, they are wet!!!
We lost Andy in Madrid… awesome roads (when it’s warm)
Dom came off on A92 at exit 182… I got off the bike, made sure that he was alive (scary), called 112 who put me on hold!!, luckily there was a Spanish truck driver who stopped, and he was kind enough to deal with emergency service (he left when the police came, and I never got his name to thank him). The other bunch came after us and stopped. Funny thing is that Jeremy more than once asked me if I was ok, which I was not -- but was able to write witness report. After more than an hour they finally flew Dom to Malaga.
We continued towards Algeciras, and I was having this discussion with myself regarding riding a bike…. keeping it
Day 4 -- 2654km (Algecira to Fes(Morocco))
We are in Morocco!!, cool, that is Border was interesting, got a photo, which could have landed me in jail (no good). Roads are either crap or grate depending one whom you are -- I would not do this on anything but enduro bikes, but there are people here on HD’s (silly sods).
Just for the record, driving in Fes is not fun!
Day 5 -- 3442km (Fes to Marrakesh)
Intersting, lack of Gas! -- someone decided that they would go on strike, and now there is no gas to be found. Got to Marrakesh, where is a lot easier to drive than in in Fes.
Day 6 -- 3668km (Marrakesh to Quarzazate)
Crossed the Atlas, cool!! in some way like the Alpes, but not really. Still looking for fuel, meet Tim Cullis who was at Bikershome, Peter the owner is also nice (Dutch), would liked to have stayed there.
Found a hotel (maroc -- www.hotellavalleemaroc.com) which was nice and cheap (lack of beer).
Day 7 -- 3894km (Quarzazate to Marrakesh)
Due to lack of fuel we have to turn around -- I was really low, and was not happy about the whole thing, would have preferred to stay a couple of days until fuel would arrive -- but noooo, everyone had to go on. Got gas from Scuba-Sparky, and when we found a gas station which had gas, I only had to fill in 17 liters, I really hate that onboard computer which does not know what it’s talking about.
We are now officially Souk Riders, went through the Souk of Marrakesh (tracklog), don’t think I want to do that again….
A small video which shows that it actually can be done:
Day 8 -- 4546km (Marrakesh to Algeciras)
Motorway, motorway…. someone went right instead of left, and we then took the ferry from Ceuta, back in Europe/Spain, warm water, nice food, tomorrow is farewell day.
Day 9 -- 4688km (Algeciras to Malaga)
Breakup day, followed the cost to Malaga, lots of concrete, so this is the “sun coast” everyone is talking about, well you can have it.
Saw Dom at the hospital, meet his wife (Janet) who is a nice and unhappy about the whole thing.
I don’t like Ibis hotels, and this is one is not any better or any worse than the rest.
Day 10 -- 4724km (Malaga)
Had a low speed off, arrrghhhh…..
Meet some nice people coming back from Morocco, nice evening….
Day 11 -- 4866 (Malaga to Gibraltar)
Hummm, it’s a rock…
Oil is coming out of the shaft…. called BMW they arrange for a pick up, which will deliver it to BMW in Algeciras tomorrow (great… not!)
Hotel stinks (Bristol), nice people, but it’s run down, and someone should paint and clean it.
Day 12 -- 5010km (Algeciras to Malaga)
First estimate 3 -- 5 days, after an hour or two I was told that I could pick it up at 6pm (in Spain that is 6.45pm). It was a seal at the end of the gearbox, happy that it was fixed.
Back in Malaga, at the Ibis…
Day 13 -- 5284 (Malaga to Granada)
Offroad, “should have turned left … ” thing, tough and scary as most of the time I had a drop of a few hundred feet (if not more) less than 2 meter from me, riding on boulders, etc. Belly pan on the bike go a smacking…
Arrived in Granada, 2 nights at ‘Hostal Nuevas Naciones’… pew, they have hot water….
Day 14 -- 0km (Granada)
Playing tourist, saw the Jewish quarter, Alhambra, nice food, etc….
Day 15 -- 6352km (Granada to north of the French/Spanish border)
Long day, first cold, then hot, then even hotter -- the air around Barcelona was killing me, talking about air pollution….
Day 16 -- 7676km (north of the French/Spanish border -- Rotterdam)
Even longer day, passed Millau Viaduct, nice, but too tired to appreciate it. Did lane splitting around Paris, with panniers on -- silly me.
Arrived home, and I can still sit down…..
If you want to see photos of this then here they are
technorati tags: Morocco, Fes, Quarzazate, Marrakesh, Spain