Moto-Morrocco Tour #1

More trouble

Of course now I'm facing the wrong way again and the others have to wade in and pick me up then turn it round. I have to thank them all for only taking the piss for a couple of days :p

Confidence at an all time low and completely exhausted now I drop it again on the next corner :eek: :eek: Luckily Ian and Neil pick me up again. It's the last time I come off thank god, but it's a salutary lesson. Out here you'd struggle on your own :nono
 

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Scary

Back on the trail we wind our way down the valley. Suddenly there's Tim again. He says 'You may want to turn off your ABS for this bit. Take it easy and let the bike run', of course I didn't realise he was the King of Understatement :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:
 

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More by luck than judgement I get to the bottom in one piece and croak one word - 'water'. I've never been so scared in my life :eek
 

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Ian did it with his panniers on carrying the spare water and tools :cool:
 

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After the descent from HELL a ford was taken in our stride. Ian watched Neil do this one and thought he'd taken the wrong line - he hadn't and we all had a laugh at Ian trying to get out :D
 

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By the end of the day stuff that would have had me worried the day before was being ridden like it was the local high street :cool: Here's Rick nonchalantly crossing another river ;)
 

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You're doing a cracking job Howard. Keep it up.

Ripping yarn...... :thumb

Gareth
 
Told you I was scared

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Well actually this is what you get for falling off in a puddle but it added to the piss taking :eek: :D
 
Cool view

At the bottom of the piste is this view which is a really famous town I can't remember the name of but it was used in Gladiator :thumb

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Mutley1150 said:
At the bottom of the piste is this view which is a really famous town I can't remember the name of but it was used in Gladiator :thumb

Ait Benhaddou :thumb

You knew that really :D
 
End of the day

Due to the rain the campsite was under water. A decision was made to wild camp back up the valley. If I'm honest I should have been a wimp and stayed in a hotel where i was but I deided to ride back up through a river to camp:

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But with views like this who wouldn't have? :cool:

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Day 4

It was surprisingly cold overnight and I woke sore and stiff. Wild camping isn't for me and I longed for a warm shower and clean clothes :ymca Instead I put back on the stinking kit from the day before and tried some gentle stretches while Bill made the coffee.

Then it was off to Ouazazate (you'll have to forgive the spelling and geography as it's all from memory) for breakfast. I thought it was a cool place to be as the last episode of Race to Dakar I'd seen before leaving had ended here :bounce1 Refueled in more senses than one we set out - the GS's letting the trailies have a head start whilst we opted for another cup of coffee.

The long roads acroos the desert are great for blasting and the scenery is great. We soon caught up with the Landy:

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After lunch Tim led us up the Valley of the Roses and onto another spectacular piste. here he is posing at the top ;)

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I really enjoyed the afternoon off road. It had been a steep learning curve yesterday but I was keeping up much better now and trusting the tyres a lot more too. After the piste it was back to some spectacular roads:

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and some interesting lines being taken around some of the corners :D

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Clearly some of the rainwater was still around and just riding the roads was an adventure in itself:

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Eventually we found Bill and set up another wild camp. I think in retrospect other tours are going to stay in a hotel at the top of the gorge but it did add to the adventure all the same :confused:
 
Mutley1150 said:
After the descent from HELL a ford was taken in our stride. Ian watched Neil do this one and thought he'd taken the wrong line - he hadn't and we all had a laugh at Ian trying to get out :D

Done that same route on my GS and "hellish" is certainly an acceptable word for it. Well done! Great photo's. Now I want to go back.
 
Day 5

I can't begin to tell you how cold it was overnight :eek: Sat around the camp fire we had heard wild dogs howling and a local guy who had stayed for dinner told us they had been known to attack people so a bad night was had by all. We woke to this scene:

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When I say it was desolate I mean it :eek:

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Oh yes:

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Black humour set in :eek

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:D
 
Splitters

The locals had advised us that the piste between where we camped and Todra gorge was impassable, and this was backed up by the guy who runs the KTM tours in Ouazazate. Deciding discretion was the better part of valour the GS boys decided we'd have a day on the road and see the dunes at Erg Chebbi (?) before meeting up at the hotel in Tinahir.

Tim would lead Gareth and Rick over the impassable pass and Andy would go straight to Tinahir in the Landy as he was suffering with the trots. It seemed like a plan so it was obviously doomed :rolleyes:

The GS's set off down the gorge, through the river again and out onto the desert. We stopped off to look at these mounds. There is a hole on the middle and they go down about 30m where they meet a tunnel that brings water down from the mountains, all dug by hand:

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After about 150 miles we reach the famous dunes and they really are that colour

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On the way back we stopped for one too many mint teas and had to ride in the dark for half an hour. This was quite scary as I nearly had an 80 mph interface with one of these:

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Plus the driving after dark was truly awfull. Neil and I decided we wouldn't ride after dark again as it was just silly.
 
Now it gets interesting

We arrived at the hotel to find that Andy was there all alone. Gareth had drowned the Husaberg in a river and the three big trailies were stuck high up the mountains. By the time we got there it seems they'd found a hostel and had managed to get Gareth and his bike down to it. It had been a close run thing in the dark though and they wouldn't get down that night.

Bill and Steptoe had set off in the Landy to 'rescue' Gareth but Todra gorge was closed and they were having a tough time getting there.

I didn't care, I had the first shower in three days and clean underpants. there was cold beer and a warm restaurant :D
 


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