VIA MEDITERRA - The journey around the Med with an HP2

[morabo]

I remember your trip from the Touratech catalogue a few years ago (and loving your bike since then). Great ride and beautiful pics! Thanks for posting them.
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[Nemanja]

One of the best ride reports i have ever read! Your pictures are great as well!! Thank You very much for sharing

Cheers!

[JediMaster]

Hey Dirk,

You're making me nervous. I'd really like to finish reading your RR before I hit the road again myself but...

It started in August....its now January. I reckon you've covered 15-20% of your journey which means (at this rate) it'll take you another 2 YEARS to finish!!!

Dude...your killin' us!!!

Happy New Year...may the words flow from your finger tips...

[Dansrc51]

Great RR! thanks so much for sharing. Looking forward to the rest.

[Duke78]

Subscribed

[backdrifter]

Originally Posted by kimangao

... and no, I'm not sponsored by Canon

Well, you sure as hell should be! Absolutely amazing - more, please!

[kimangao]

Good morning everyone,
thank you for your patience and sorry for letting you wait.
@Jedimaster: I'm still waiting for someone to strap me

Next leg of the trip will be there in a few minutes.

Cheers

Dirk

[kimangao]

Proceeding from Tinghir our next destination is the sandsea of the Erg Chebbi. We get some fuel for the bikes at a brickyard ...




... and some morning fuel for ourselves.




Today is an incredible hot day and as we see the next village we're ready for another human-fuel stop. And our good luck is still with us ...




... because Remis rear tyre decides to deflate just in time at our picnic-spot in the heart of the village. At least there's some kind of shadow.




Because 10 hands are to much to work on the puncture I do what I probably can do best in the meantime: Look around and see what others are doing.




Todays heat leads to a misty sky that swallows the horizon.




Our water consumption reaches a first maximum though we're still riding on a tar road. The Sahara breathes straight into our faces.



Who ever has experienced an endless road knows how boring it can be. But there's something beyond boredom. If you don't find it, the road was not endless ;-)



To me after a while on a road like this I come to a state of trance or unmeant meditation. I'm not talking about a delirium, more of a liberation of my mind that was filled with the common daily thoughts. All these thoughts are now all blown away and thoughts, that have never been thought before come up, thoughts that haven't been thought for ages are reborn ...




And all over sudden: There they are! The pink-coloured dunes of the Erg Chebbi on the horizon.




We're trying to avoid the village and seek our way through the Hammada, the plain filled with sharp-edged stones.



Again, what a landscape! A black stony desert that radiates the heat of the day though the sun has already set and the sandy desert that looks so inviting to us.



Aahh. Now this is riding-paradise, hallelujah!



Whatever may happen on my journey: this end of the day was already worth everything.

Cheers

Dirk

[kimangao]

We spend the night in one of the many little pensions along the westside of the Erg Chebbi. A sandstorm made the decision easier not to pitch the tent.




Our host is Youssef, a charming guy who says that there's nothing better than spending a night in the desert with a woman. And there are many women coming to his place




His place has a really nice interieur and we're pleased to stay with Youssef.




Breakfast is served in the atrium. That keeps most of the sand and dust ourside. Benj is not really awake and so it's Remi and me who decide to do a loop around the Erg. Should be something like 150kms.




Before we leave the village we bump into the celebrations of a wedding. It's only women including the bride around. I ask if I may take a picture and I'm allowed to point a the bride because she's the only one wearing a veil. All the others, and they were many, are hiding behind the camera and me giggling.




Look at that masterpiece!




Ok, time to set of! Along the Erg, especially on the west side, there are lots of Ksour, a kind of fortified village. In several of them there are hotels.




The further east we go the more desperate and isolate the area becomes. Tents of bedouins are the only signs of human life.




Seeking shade under a tree we meet this fellow. From our point of view he's pretty far away from everything. We're not surprised that he asks us for a lift ... into the direction we've just come from.




What shall we do? Follow our original intention to circuumnavigate the Erg or help this man? What would you've done?




We're giving him a lift to his friend Nasir. Nasir has been living as a nomad but was forced to settle down. The pasture for his sheep and camels is on both sides of the moroccan-algerian border. Depending of the time of the year people move from one of the rare good place to another crossing the border. Now the algerian army has become very strict about crossing the border illegally, he tells us. If they catch you, your family, yourself and your cattle is imprisoned. Under these circumstances he can't be a shepperd any more and he has built this tiny shop where he sells a few things and his family lives in.




Remi heads back to Youssef and the others. Me I'm riding north to see a special landmark called the stairway to heaven. On the way I pass through Rissani with it's magical city gate.




I'm riding without a GPS so I'm following a description to the stairway which is not connected to a major track or a road. From a distance I spot the characteristic triangle in the plain. How to get there? Straight!




Here we are! This thing was built by an artist called Hannsjoerg Voth. If you look closely to the wall you'll see some holes. These are windows of the rooms inside. Voth lives here for several weeks in the year. The entrance is on top of the stairway. Let's go upstairs!




Heyhey! What a panorama! And: Can you feel the silence?




The entrance on top is of course locked. But I am surprised to find something like an ironsight. What is that for? After I went back down I moved to the opposite side of the stairway and then I saw it: The sun. It went straight through the the little gap that formed the ironsite.



Cheers for today,

I hope you enjoyed.

Dirk

[JediMaster]

Ahhh....

...my morning coffee tastes so much sweeter...

[Don T]

And I'll follow your journey to the end - even if it takes you two years to finish the story

[kimangao]

Originally Posted by Don T

And I'll follow your journey to the end - even if it takes you two years to finish the story

Don, you make my day :-)

[kimangao]

From the stairway to heaven I'm not riding back to Erg Chebbi. Before Remi and me split up we've decided to meet again in Zagora. The French boys will make their way along the Algerian border meanwhile I will have a look at the Road of the Kashbas and another Gorge.




Once you follow the Road of the Kashbas you will immediately feel like being thrown back in time. There's almost no building that reminds you of the 21st century nor do the people. Only mobile phones and vehicles do.



Surprisingly most of these buildings are still inhabited.




I have a little look into the Gorge de Todra again. I'm still amazed of what water can do. Cut's like a knive ...




But then there is another Gorge right beside the Todra. The days when just a track made its precarious way through the Dadès Gorges are history. But even so, the road onwards to Imilchil in the High Atlas shakes off its asphalt after a few kilometres.




As I arrive on the edge of the canyon I see how a craftsman puts out a deal board. Before I realise what he's about to do he has placed the first one outside the tower that is going to be part of a hotel.




I am that scared that it takes me ages to fetch the camera and point it at that fearless worker.




The Road of the Kashbas ends in Ouarzazate. The town is a kind of moroccan Hollywood. A lot of movies that play in ancient times found their settings in the vincinity.




After a short break I'm back in the saddle to meet with Remi and his friends in Zagora. 160kms only. But they will take long time. Very long time ...



Shortly after leaving this track a little incident will confuse my timetable ...

Cheers for today

Dirk

[Viking]

"Shortly after leaving this track a little incident will confuse my timetable ..."

???????

[Angelos]

Boy,you know how to built up saspens...