Bye Bye Marocco…

Monkey Business in Marrakech

In the Yves Saint Laurent gardens

view out the window of our Marrakech hotel

Carpets...

The 'friendly' carpet man...

Our carpets ?

Some of prickly plants from YSL Gardens in Marrakech

The market square.

Left Marrakech and rode over the same high Atlas Pass once more. But this day it was light rain we rode in, and with the first snows on the tops of the high mountains.  It was only a few days ago they were snow free.

My beads are the finest in all Morocco...

Cold and damp at the top of the pass

the wining road below

We left Ouarzazate and headed south into the western edge of the Sahara Desert, over some small mountain ranges, following along a river and in beside a gorge system, with many date palms.   Then out onto flatter land, and more and more sand drifts beside the road. With the towns getting more and more interesting! We reached Mhamid where the tarmac ended and the desert sand roads spread out. This town used to be the last town before the camel trains would head out across the Sahara sands to Timbuktu at the other end. I imagined hundreds (sometimes as big as 5000 camels we were told) all loaded up with spices, silks (from China’s silk roads), teas and assorted other trading items, trekking out for the 50 plus days into a harsh desert.

But alas we were presented with a now more simple town, with many Touts all trying to get us to sign up for ‘their’ better desert tours… We got some photos at the ‘sign’ for Timbuktu.

We sat and spoke to a guy (tout) while enjoying a mint tea (Stephen, Deb had Lemon Fanta, like a Solo) and decided to look for the hotel we had read about. We had had enough of touts by that stage, in the end the touts won, and we left and headed to Zagora, and found a cheap (210Dh about 21euro) room with the bike parked in the foyer. We enjoyed another two tagines, beef and chicken with vegies and cous cous. Retiring to bed early, ready for our planned early start and long ride the next morning. We were up by 05:00, we beat the alarm with some help from a close mosque and Imam’s early call to prayer.

On the road before 6am!! Wow our best ever record, today I had hoped to get to Ojaba about 900kms and close (140kms or so) from the border town of Nador, close to the Spanish enclave of Melilla. We had a good days traveling across the middle deserts of Morocco. Always with big mountains in view, as we rode across dry and dusty big valleys or flood plains. At a town out east, close to the border with Algeria we were stopped for the 1st time in our trip at one of the police road blocks. Very pleasantly we were asked where we were going, and were then sent on our way. Leaving this town we headed up onto a high plain at 1400 – 1300M it was cool and we buttoned up our jackets, we even thought to get out our jacket liners, but didn’t need to in the end.

Peaceful driving in Morocco!! Yes it can be.

Heading into Oujda was a bit crazier than Moroccan drivers on display. It was Sunday arvo and folks must have been in a real rush to get home. We just backed off and let the loony’s go for it. Giving them heaps of room to try to kill themselves in front of us, and give us enough room to (hopefully) avoid them. We thought we’d find several Hotels along the main road as we passed by the airport. But none appeared we rode on into the dusk of night. It was the scariest of our drives in Moroc.  We searched for a hotel and finally found one, but I was unhappy with the garage arrangements (this would bite later on…). So on we went, riding into the town of Nador about 20:45 Moroc time. Stopping and asking for hotel directions at the police road blocks we headed to the two they suggested. Alas one was hosting a wedding reception, and would have loud music until late, and it was also a bit pricy (950 Dh about 95 Euro). So over to the next one, cheaper but with the parking as an extra cost, it was about 80euro. We decided to ride about to see if a cheaper hotel would appear. One did, and Deb negotiated a good 210 Dh rate. But the night guard would not let me park the bike inside the foyer. We have had no problems with this in our travels until this stage. It was not due to lack of space or a ‘special’ floor!! He tried to usher me to park the bike outside and next to the Hotel, I tried again to get the bike inside. But No.

So I pulled the tarp off the bike and settled into camp on the pavement, next to my bike. Following several of our traveler’s recommendations to NOT leave the bike unattended in any Moroccan towns.  Anyhow, Deb went upstairs and used the room, no need for both of us to be uncomfy. It was an interesting night; I did get a few hours lite sleeping. Also watching the comings and goings of a ‘shop’ a few doors down from where I was ‘camping’ was interesting. I reckon it was a ‘Mens’ club, with possibly strip club and bar.  I was watching the young men coming out all excited and jabbering on.  Then watching about 5-6 ladies getting into cars (their pimps?) and leave at 03:30 was also interesting.

Anyhow about 08:30 Deb got down and we left for the Spanish border, this time I did good and pushed and bumped the bike to the front of the queue.  Whilst Deb, got a registered ‘helper’ to assist with our passports etc, in about 1 hour we were through.  Rode to the port, bought a ticket for the next ferry crossing to the Spanish port of Almeria, which would be 13:00 the next day. Then off to find a cheap hotel, which we did (eventually).

Our room rate included breakfast, great we thought…

They had bread rolls toasted with jams, tea, coffee or juice.  I guess our expectations were a little high!  Also, very hard when you cannot speak the language!!  Yes, I know…we can learn it with Werner & Claudia.

Now sitting in the saloon section of the ferry.  We got to the port early and were first in line to board.  Ready for our 4 hour (we think) crossing for the Med. We have a few bike tasks to take care of: engine oil, filter and I think the counter shaft sprocket sounds worn (making that ‘clicking’ sound as the chain slips on worn teeth), so we have two Honda dealers to try, and hope they have a sprocket in stock.

Our 'camp' for rthe next 6 hours of so.

Bye Bye for now Africa...

Motoring North.

Due to some financial mismanagement we have had to change some of our plans.  Moto GP, since Casey Stoner is now the World Champion for next year, we decided the race was all done & dusted.  Whilst in Marrakech we were taken to the government supervised carpet / rug store….The sales guy showed us the four different styles of carpets the women make in Morocco.  It was very interesting listening to the history of how they are made and how they make the dyes for the assorted wools they use.  It’s a bit of a scam too if you’re not careful!!  He showed us the 4 styles, then he showed us many sizes….Then he went through the stack of carpets we looked at and he asked us to choose the ones we liked!!!! Well you guessed it!  We liked one of each style!!  He showed Steve the figures and Steve was most impressed.  He said “you’ve done such a great job, I won’t even barter with you”.  Narrdine (sales guy), was then very quick to have Steve sign on the dotted line….What I did not realise was that Steve had miscalculated the figure and instead of calculating 10 Dirhams to 1, he figured 100 Dirhams to 1!!!!  Makes a big difference when it is corrected.  Once, we were back at the hotel looking at the on line banking…. we understood why he was having problems with the credit card – it was actually over 6,500.00 Euros (approx $8,000.00).  BUGGER, the rest of our spending money, we had a very sleepless night.  As soon as the sun rose we rode back to the store, like puppies with their tails between their legs!  We profusely apologised to Narrdine about the misunderstanding….we did try and explain our situation…which he partly understood, but he still wanted a SALE and I guess his commission.  In the end we agreed to take 3! YES 3, and we got a much better price in the end….but we are still waiting for our credit approx 2,000.00 Euros.  Another lesson learnt, DON’T TRUST ANYONE!

So as we are heading to mainland Spain, we will be travelling thriftier and looking for value for money options (good luck in Europe).  We plan to visit Mark, Natalie & the kids in Switzerland and other friends, Esther & Guido, whom we met a few years ago at a Horizons Unlimited Meeting.  Hopefully, we’ll even get to see my cousin, Jodi and her family in Austria.  Then we’ll travel to some friends in the Eifel Region, Germany.


Cheers,
Stephen and Deb.