While the High Atlas Mountains with some passes over 3000 metres on some of the back roads that catch the headlines there is a lot more to the Atlas Mountains. The Middle Atlas to the north and the Anti Atlas to the south also offer some amazing riding.
Along the Atlantic Coast just north of Agadir the roads ride there wind up into the middle Atlas through Paradise Valley to the Cascades at Imouzzer des Ita Outanane.
Unfortunately because of the drought the Cascade was dry but the ride is worth the trip in itself. As is the beautiful Cascades Hotel
While most of the roads are bitumanised and pretty well maintained some of the dirt roads were more challenging on a big road bike.
Heading south east from Chefchouan through the middle Atlas there was warning of the hot dry run ahead.
Morocco has been in a drought for the last three years and the signs were there to tell getting drier every kilometre travelled south.
The mighty rivers were streams, streams were dry and in the dust of dry oasis the date palms struggled for survival.
Heading through the towns of Zaida, a bustling highway town, and Midelt, with its big apple, the trucks full of hay and the produce in the roadside stalls added colour to the scene but the air was dry and dusty.
But I guess it was coming down the Ziz Gorge and seeing the Ziz river just flowing bought home to me the extent of the drought.
Droughts are something we are used to in Australia.
Along the Ziz the date palm plantations still looked green
By Rissani 600 km further south and Zegora, futher on, the green had faded.
But this far south it’s the edge of the desert and that has its own charms.
And the hotels which are largely good and well priced offer there own little oasis.
M’hamad is the end of the road leading to the desert. The wonderful sand sea of Chegaga (see a couple of blogs back.)
The M’hamad oasis was bone dry scorched by the sun even as it set.
With Adventurers setting out into the desert in search of their dream in this nomadic life.
It’s a quick ferry ride from Tarifa to Tanger and a long trek through customs into Morocco.
Many stories proceed a trip to Morocco- tourist touts, poor roads, mad drivers mint tea and the physical beauty of the country.
Tanger being the sea gateway to Morocco one both arrives and departs from Tager. So maybe coming in and out of Tanger is a good time to compare my cautious and naive thoughts on entering Morocco and the utter thankfulness that I had had a month travelling in Morocco ( I could have spent 3).
So after some sickingly sweet mint tea, some haggling with money changers and a very greasy omelette it was into the seemingly crazy traffic and on the road to Tetuan.
Coming up the the Atlantic Coast back to Tanger and the Ferry back to Spain. Asilah is one of the first towns in Tanger province with a small Medinain the old Portuguese fort right on the ocean.
Rubbish on the Moroccan Beaches and in the country side is a sad scare on the landscape and if you read the guides Asilah is about the worst. But Tanger province has made a big effort to clean up its beaches and as you can see in the photos
Cape Spatel is the most north western point of the African continent. The lighthouse is called the Hercules Lighthouse. The Greek legend is that here and across the Strait in Gibralter is where Hercules tore the African and European continents apart and let the Atlantic ocean flood in to form the Mediterranean Sea.
A little south of Cape Spatel is the Grote de Hercules where legend has it the strong man slept while undertaking the slightly daunting task of ripping two continents apart.
While I had been warned about Moroccan drivers I found it the safest place to ride but you need to understand the codes.
Let me share an anecdote.
I use a GPS it’s my guide but it’s not infallible. Coming into Tanger the GPS went to send me down a road the was blocked by roadworks.
As I was readjusting a scooter zipped past slowed down and gave me the slow down and follow me sign. A little way along the rider pointed to the road on the left. Gave a wave and zipped off. The road led straight to the port.
I’m sorry I didn’t see more of Tanger. Maybe next trip!!!!
It’s my last day in Melbourne before I fly out to the Northern Hemisphere
First time in a couple of years, 2020 when I was locked down in Spain and the UK
I took the mighty Breva for a little ride to warm up the oil before it went into hibernation.
I have to admit late April and almost summer weather in Melbourne
Almost made my question my decision to leave ALMOST
But I did get a last swim in for the season
There is an method to storing motorbikes
Both bikes got a good wash, petrol stabiliser in the tanks to ensure the fuel doesn’t go off and over inflating the tyres to ensure no flat spots. Then there is hooking the batteries up to chargers so they are not dead when I return in 6 months or so.
My dear biker friends if you haven’t got a lift table to work on your bike do!!!
No more laying on the concrete to get to the sump plug or trying to get the oild tray around the centre stand. Agh Bliss.
So my Melbourne bike fleet is all packed away and my Northern Hemisphere Breva is serviced and ready for its next adventure.
There is always something quirky in a blokes garage.
Mine is a clinker rowing boat I built back in my sailing days.
The bow seat makes a great hanging space for my riding gear.
It’s a long haul flight from Melbourne to London.
And by the time I got to London the full planes on the flight left me in no doubt that long distance air travel was back following the pandemic.
It is two years to the day that I left London at the first of the covid 19 onslaught on a repatriation flight back to Australia.
It’s time to recommence the journey I was on then when I was locked down in Spain on my way to Morocco.
It’s spring here and the flowers in the local park add colour to the day.
And the familiar sites of London, the old Red telephone boxes and the red double decker buses are there.
In a couple of days I pick up the mighty Breva ii and make make final preparations to catch the ferry to Spain late next week.
So yes cautiously international adventures are back.
So let’s raise our glasses and have a drink to that.
