Off Road in Morocco 2017

Same place, here's Paul D dealing with a local trying to bum a fag. After about 5 mins, in his best Arabic I heard him say "fuck off" .
Wow I never knew I could understand Arabic.

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The plan was to not have a day off but to have an easier ride, stay at a friends B&B over night then head to Figuig, we'd already agreed as a group not to go East so we are heading South to Zagora !! : )

I was really looking forward to the guys meeting my friend from Beni Tadjit, but as it turns out he wasn't there (I later found out he now does political work in Europe for the Moroccan government).

We got to his house and we were expected, his caretaker and his wive were there to meet us, they were polite enough but said that Mustafa was away, whoever we were made very welcome.

I'd stayed with Mustafa before in 2014 and I had a fantastic time, he made me feel so welcome, so I was very disappointed that he wasn't there, this was made worse by the fact that I'd been planning our stay with him for a while.

In all, this wasn't the worst place we stayed on the trip but the most disappointing (for me), cost was 500 MAD each, not the most expensive on the trip but about £39, but not the cheapest.
 
I didn't take many pics. We took a walk out and it was clear that this town is very poor, there was a market on and it was bleak, we bought a few cans of cola and headed back for our food:

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DAY 5

We were all up about 7:30, we had breakfast about 8:30, we hit the road about 9:30, weather was cool and bright, but it got warmer, it got a lot warmer !!!

10:30am, we stop for a rest, looks like Paul D is pissing against his back wheel but I don't think he is.

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We left Beni Tadjit heading towards the hills, as we approched the first climb it looks like a quite and gentle ride, then the route goes steep, very steep. Half way up Paul R has a fall, not a bad fall but a bit unlucky, Mr B stops to help and I climb to the top, Paul D on the Africa Twin is already there !! The AT just sucked it up.
I got to the top and look behind, no Paul R, no Mr B. As I walked back down I could see that Paul R has a problem, it turns out that Paul had come off but as his bike dropped it hit a large rock and snapped his clutch lever, when we looked at it it hadn't just snapped it at the manufactured weak point it had crumbled, we had to push it up to the top, once at the top Paul R got to work swapping the break lever to the clutch leaver: "Who needs a front brake anyway" he shouted.

If the way up was hard ? The way down gives you the shits !

The way down starts scary and stays that way, it's like large steps, that at first look it seems easy but as you drop down you soon realise that you have to carefully pick your way though. I wanted to be first down so I could take a couple of pics. We all got down safe.

Not a good pic, but Paul D and Mr B coming down:

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After the climb and the descent, we soon finished the trail and we go through a small town and then we hit tarmac, we run along the Desert Highway for I guess 20-30 mins, then it's off road again, the pictures I'm about to post don't really show the terrain as it truly is, it's hard and stoney, not small stones but not massive so that you have to pick your way through, way are medium bastard hard fuckers, that rattle through the bike wheels, up to the bars, then through your bones and rattle your top set !!
Some pics:

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We ride on, I'm the lucky one as I've got a Scott steering damper fitted, it's doing it's job well, the big AF does what it does very well and glides along, but Paul D did say that he could feel the ride, we all could.

We stop for a rest and Mr B needs to borrow some tools, I can't remember what was up, but judging by the terrain bits start to work loose and drop off.

Somewhere in that vast expanse of nothing is Paul R's new gloves and water proofs, they literally rattled off his bike !!

Mr B grabbing tools while we stop:

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We ride on a bit more, Paul D and I are blasting ahead, we see a nice spot to stop for a rest, there's a tree there so Paul R can get off his bike (you can see it propped against the tree)!!!

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Here's me. No it's not Ali G :

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We were just about to set off again, when as I'm talking to Mr B, a small gust of wind blows his bike over ! If I hadn't have seen it I wouldn't have believed it, the bike must have been ever so precariously on it's stand anyway.

Mr B had his helmet and Go-Pro under the bike, don't know about the Go-pro, but his Klim helmet was fucked ! He could wear it but it was proper broken. No pictures of that I didn't think it appropriate.


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All rested, and ready to go, much of the same, all stones, we cross a number of dried up Oued's we cross them easily enough, then we come to the big one. A large river bed, that is full of deep sand.

And camels:

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