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My 'shower' spot |
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Visa queue in Rabat |
Sean, the delicate thistle, passed on washing
as the campsite ‘shower’ was a hose attached to an outside sink. However, the water was running and clean so I
washed my hair ……the water was so cold I lost all feeling in my scalp then sounded
like I was hyperventilating when I tried to ‘shower’ – how can the days be so
hot and the tap water be so mind numbingly cold? Pulling up to the visa office fully kitted up
on the bikes certainly drew the attention of everyone on the street – was
great!! Met Stef and exchanged details -
would be great to meet up and swop stories or to ride together for a bit. Cars here get very bothered if a bike stays
in front of them, they expect you to let them ahead even if they can’t keep up
with you. I really upset a guy on the
highway through Casablanca when I wouldn’t move out of his way, with traffic on
all sides unless I sprouted feathers out of my arse and flew there was nowhere
to go – the obvious, however, wasn’t this guy’s strong point as he spent the
entire time on his horn.
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Nice sleeping spot |
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Tinned Ravioli showed promise but.......... |
Numerous road
sellers here, six or seven of them will be lined up along the road selling the
same thing, how do they make a living? Pulled up a track in a forest to discover a
whole series of abandoned buildings, looked like a scout or military camp. A quick look around revealed that despite
being in fair condition no one was living there so set up for evening. Had tinned ravioli, it was bloody AWFUL but
Twix for dessert so all was good. Beautiful
evening, the sunset was amazing, we amused ourselves by playing Uno, Sean won
most of the games, he must have cheated!
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Early morning start - cool, literally! |
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'Posing' Camels |
Up at sunrise, a man and his sheep arrived,
then a whole bunch of women and a boy with livestock, no one was in the
slightest bit bothered at the sight of two foreigners, two bikes and a tent, all
just saluted and carried on with their business, such a difference to the
up-tight European attitude.
Today people seem even friendlier, we had bus
drivers, truckers, moped guys, bicyclists, postal car drivers all saluting
us. Stopped to take pics of camels and guys
travelling in a huge farm machine pulled up so they didn’t spoil our photo! They then called for me to
snap them as they passed by, which of course I did. Even the camel herder got the camels to stand
up so I could get a better shot.
In the afternoon we grabbed the opportunity
to stop under the shade of big tree at the side of the road and indulge in
water and peanuts. We waved to all and
sundry as they passed - like we were the queen of England. A man and woman on a
donkey and cart approached, stopped and invited us to their house for food -
the gesture staggered us. It was obvious
they had very little but they were still offering food and hospitality to two
strangers who clearly weren’t in need, the kindness defied description. Stupidly though we were focused on the fact
we had another 200km before hitting our planned destination so thanked them but
declined. They were incredibility gracious and suggested
tea, when we declined again the man got down off the cart, shook our hands and then
they waved good bye, we waved as we passed them later on. Refusing their offer was a decision that we
came to regret, one of those moments that you constantly look back on and
always wish you’d done it differently.
Today the landscape changed from woodland to
agricultural, to lunar to desert scape.
At one point we came over a hill and there was a huge valley spread out
in front of us in swirling browns with the road winding through it and over the
huge gorgeous bridge – superb sight.
Stopped for a pee and there was skeletal remains of an animal with a
long pointed lower jaw and HUGE canines, the leg bones were short, about 1 foot,
and really thick about 2-3 inches square, can’t figure out what the fuck it
might have been – a really big boar maybe??
Told Seanie I thought it was some kind of dinosaur which set him off all
afternoon – he’s so easy!!!
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Camels, camels, everywhere.... |
Since we
arrived in Morocco I have repeatedly seen some of the men dressed in
traditional Muslim robes walking around grabbing at their crotch, at first I
thought it was like the rapper thing i.e. they have to hold on to ‘it’ in case
it falls off, however I’ve finally realised that what they’re actually doing is
holding their robes up so that they can walk easier and for relief from the
heat……..duhhh!! Something else we’ve passed time and again is people walking
their various livestock along the roads, I twigged that what they are doing is
grazing the animals as they have no land of their own, gruelling to walk such
distances in this heat every day.
Completely
knackered when we found a campsite called ‘La Calme’, disappointingly it turned
out to be anything but. All through the
night into the morning packs of wild dogs roamed around the site and howled,
yelped and fought – have never experienced anything like it, sleep was a luxury
we certainly weren't afforded that night.
Next
morning as we were going back the track to the main road we saw a small kid
with animals waving like mad, thought he was signalling us to slow down but
turns out he was just waving hello. As I
passed I gave him a high five which delighted him – he was only about 6 but was
caring for a few goats on his own – nuts.
Rode through some amazing twisties and changing scenery, up over the mountains and down
again - think of images you've seen of
the lunar landscape, add bigger hills, dot trees over it and you have the exact
scene in front of you. It’s astounding
that we’re doing this, not watching someone else’s adventure – two months in
and a sense of reality hasn't hit yet.
Headed
towards Agadir and hit the coast, stunning views so stopped for some photos. Whilst
snapping all and sundry I noticed a man, who had been walking along the road,
sitting on the wall watching us. We said
‘Bonjour’, he signalled us to follow him and took us down about 20 feet to show
us that you could see further along the coast to a peninsula and thus get
better pics. We asked if we could take a
photo of him but he declined pointing out that there were holes in his clothes,
it was
obviously important to him - a pity as would have loved to have a photo, he was
such a nice man. He had some food in a
bag which he offered to share with us but again stupidly we declined as we were
in a hurry to get to a camp site – rude, we will not do that again, the man was
so nice, helpful and hospitable, and we couldn’t take 10 minutes to sit with
him, shame on us, bad manners and no excuse for it.
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Been at the happy pills again. |
Got a nice
site 20km north of Agadir and that evening decided to ‘chillax’ by sitting down
with mugs of wine and playing UNO, Seanie trashed me –damn it!. During the night Seanie had to put in ear plugs because “there
was a really weird animal making noise – like a squelch”! The mysterious animal making the ethereal
squelch turned out to be the water hose running through the hedges!!
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Shower room buddy |
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Just hanging around |
The
campsite was nice (had lots of puddy cats!) so we stayed for a couple of
days. Finally set off again and passed
through Tiznit on towards Guelim ‘ the door to the Sahara’. Every so often you are completely overwhelmed
by the smell of rotting fish, we eventually figured out that it must be the trucks
dumping their cargo along the route when they can’t sell it. Very
good looking people the Moroccan’s, very surprised how completely Arabic
everyone is – we’ve seen very few black people which, given that we’re in
Africa, has surprised us. Morocco is
quite well to do and in the big cities all the levels of society you’d find at
home can be seen here also.
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Chilly desert |
We finally
hit the desert, and completely contrary to expectations it was fairly freaking cold
and VERY windy! Tried to take a photo
whilst sitting on the bike but it proved absolutely impossible, the wind was so
strong it kept trying to blow the bike over.
We passed the maddest thing I’ve seen on this trip to date - a sign that
said ‘Attention Sables’ – well bugger me, and here was I thinking that the
Sahara was full of fucking feathers!
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Re-assembly! |
After a
while we pulled over to check our location, suddenly I heard Sean shouting for
help, we’d stopped on a soft verge and his bike had tipped to the right, he’d
slid half way off with his left leg still caught over the seat but his right leg was
sliding down an incline causing him to do an impressive splits! I couldn’t get off my girl as the side stand
wouldn’t go down and she was also tipping, the only way I could have managed
would have been to drop her. Eventually
Seanie just had to let his girl go which knocked off the top box, sent the
tent, panniers, etc. flying. However he
was unhurt, the bike wasn’t damaged and we got everything back together in 10
mins.
Top tip: despite how they look desert
roadsides are usually not solid!
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Ride into Tantan |
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Desert and water?? |
Riding
through Tantan we got pulled over by yet another police check where they
claimed we’d run a stop sign. There was one in the MIDDLE of a roundabout we
slowed but had a clear view of all roads which were completely devoid of traffic
so carried on. The fine was M700 - each
– however the cop said he’d only charge
for one but until we paid we weren’t getting our passports – we didn’t have the
cash so Sean had to go back to town for an ATM.
Oddly though, whilst waiting for Sean to return, not a single local who
went through the stop sign got fined.
While the cop was writing the receipt for the fine numerous scoots passed up and
down, way over the limit, no lids, no lights, no problem = rules only apply to tourists. Finally got to carry on into the stunning
evening and got a campsite in El Quatia, was really run down but cheap and
right on the beach so we got to watch the sun set over the sea.
Always Remember: rules will apply to you, the
stupid tourist, that will never apply to the locals – that’s how it is, don’t
lose sleep over it.
Following
morning headed off down the coast, very windy but the temp was in the low 20s
so it was nice. Rode through some sand dunes like you’d expect from the movies,
but mostly the terrain was hard caked terracotta coloured land covered in scrub
and of course the constant wind.
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Riding through the desert |
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Nothing as far as the eye can see. |
On the
middle of a nowhere got stopped at a check point by very friendly police, got the
feeling they were doing it just to break the boredom as there was nothing
around, they were really interested in
our trip and while they took our details we shared some sweets with
them, it’s great how you get the same reactions from adults and kids alike when
it comes to sweets. At every check point
I’m greeted with a ‘Bonjour Monsieur’ but at one stop when I lifted my lid the
cop was so stunned you’d swear I’d slapped him!
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Every town has goats |
Fuel is
much cheaper here, it’s only M6.97 a litre now.
Stopped in a tiny run down town that had fuck all.
It always strikes me how friendly these places are, they are not tourist
regions but it never seems to bother anyone that we’re there, no ‘guides’, no
begging, just ‘welcome’ and ‘hello’. In
a little general store I’d a great time getting supplies from the lovely old
man running it who showed great patience trying to figure out what I wanted
with terrible French. He seemed greatly
amused by my pronunciation of ‘ouefs’. Crossed
over some fantastic rivers, was strange to see sand dunes surrounded by water,
seemed like a bit of a contradiction. We
passed some shacks that served as houses, very difficult to see that some
people have so absolutely nothing.
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Beware of camels - do they bite? |
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Gorgeous Laayoune |
Entering the town of Laayoune is incredible,
you cross a long bridge over superb green/blue water, there are sand dunes on
the right at the end of the town with lush green grass and palms , very pretty, and a very well-heeled
place with tons of military. Rode on to
see lots of signs warning about camels – is there something we should know?
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Wonderful locals |
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Couldn't be invented...... |
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Survival of the fittest (& prettiest). |
Morning of 28
th took off along the only road which runs
along the cliff edge which was fantastic as the sea was reflecting the most
spectacular colour off of the water all morning. Rode through miles of unchanging dessert
scrub, endless miles of the same thing, hard to believe there is so much of nothing There were isolated Berber tents dotted here
and very occasionally there with several small ‘communities’ of them. A few times we passed lone men walking to
only the Gods know where. We passed one
in the middle of absolute nowhere – it was 70km from the last town and at least
100km to the next and the only sign of life random cars or trucks driving by,
he was obviously a tramp and the lack of life in his eyes was harrowing, all hope was gone – the image of that man stayed with us for a very long
time.
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Long way to nowhere. |
Multiple police checks today, five in the first two hours, lost
count after that. Leaving Boujdour we
were, yet again, stopped. A cop, in plain clothes, struts up, asks where we’re
from and, on hearing London, starts singing Pink Floyd’s ‘We don’t need no
education’. He’d clearly seen far too many cop shows and thought he was Don Johnson out
of Miami Vice. He proceeded to tell us
that we were going to be fined MAD700 for breaking a law, however since the last fine we’d been extra vigilant
so knew he was full of shit. The
‘law’ we’d apparently broken was that we didn't stop dead – (something
we'd attempted at NUMEROUS checkpoints and it drove
the police nuts, they’d wave you through madly, only ever wanting you to stop
when they signalled you over) yet DJ was trying to tell us the
opposite.
At this stage the other two cops were getting uncomfortable and, I
think ,were telling him to leave it go.
Again he demanded the money and I said ‘no, it’s not my money so I need
a receipt’ Sean then takes out an old
security pass and flashed it declaring ‘this is ridiculous I work for the
police, I teach them English’ one of the other guys took the card and examined
it. DJ was back to arguing with Sean
about giving him the money when the cop who’d taken the security card looked at
me and said ‘we forgive you madame’, and made a sign that we could leave so I
slid the money back into my pocket (oohhhhh the pure SATISFACTION!) and
indicated to Sean that we were free to go, thanked the other two cops and left. We have passed or spoken to at least a
hundred cops in the past few weeks and DJ was the first bent one. Ten minutes down the road we stopped for a
giggle about it all when two guys on an old battered moped stopped to say
hello, ask where we were from etc. then offered some of their milk and then some
of their prawns – wonderful country, such a place of extremes.
Rode on to get some miles under us, just can’t believe there’s so
much nothingness – we’re starting to go a bit stir-crazy from the lack of any
change, your brain goes a little do-lally from the absence of any kind of
stimulation – I couldn’t stop signing ‘The Birdie Song’ and I don’t even like
the bloody thing but it just kept playing over and over in my head!
The Moroccans have the craziest road signs on earth – after about
100km of fuck all – not even another human - we say a ‘Beware of Cyclists’ sign
………WTF, I mean are they on fucking drugs….. cyclists????........ the fucking
trucks were having trouble on these roads what kind of cyclist are they
expecting in landscape that is a carbon copy of the moon???? Later, when we came to the peninsula that
Dakhla is on, there was a ‘Beware of Kite Surfers’ sign – about a mile from the
beach, the fuckers must have jet propulsion systems on their boards!
Trying to pee in the desert is a bit of a bother – there are no
trees, it’s flat as far as the eye can see so there isn’t exactly many things
to go behind. We’d ridden for 30 mins
without another vehicle so I stopped near a one foot high pile of rocks – the
highest thing as far as the horizon, no sooner was I baring all to nature when
two trucks and a car all turn up within 30 sec’s of each other – how the fuck
does that work? However, as they used to
say on Mastermind ‘I’ve started so……………
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Chillin' |
In the afternoon the scenery finally changed – lots of chasms,
sort of grand canyon like (on a miniature scale) and it was fabulous. Riding along we saw a guy up ahead waving and
signalling to a guy lying on the ground as if injured, my gut said something
was wrong so held my breath that Sean didn't stop as I’d no intention of doing
so, as we passed I saw that guy on ground was fine, obviously a trick to trap
passing vehicles. Only a hundred yards
up the road there were two signalling they needed water, again it felt wrong,
the movement of 3 or 4 other bodies attempting to hide out of sight behind a
dune confirmed my suspicions - Sean hadn't seen the gits behind the dune but
sensed it wasn't right so had carried on – scary that they try though, it
obviously works on some poor stupid idiots – middle of nowhere, literally no
town either way for a hundred km, no one to help you but obviously some around
who will prey on you. That evening we decided to treat ourselves to a campsite in Dakhla, was a bit over priced but we haggled him down and got to enjoy the pure joy of hot running water - bliss!