Mo-rockin the Atlas and the Sahara, Morocco part 1

[DeeGee]

Fantastic report and great pictures!

I was originally planning to ride into Eastern Europe with my wife for our trip next year, but looking at your posts I'm thinking of Morocco.

Do you reckon the trails you rode you'd be ok with a pillion??

[DominicDomingo]

Originally Posted by ONYERBIKE

Has the man with the camera got an eye for a picture or what, now that is art.

I will definitely pass that on to them! Most of the "bike" pictures are by Jesse and Matt, I was busy navigating, chain-smoking and milking locals for information when we stopped on the road.
The Marrakech and Essaouira pictures are by Matt and me, in more or less equal parts.
I'm really quite pleased with how my pictures of Moroccan girls and women turned out, I was trying to capture the many ways a woman can be within this Muslim society.
I don't dislike the men but I can definitely say that the best kind of Moroccan is the female kind. They are kind, funny, patient, beautiful (often exceptionally so) and have a quiet grace and dignity. They are not afraid to flirt with men and will ogle you right back if they want to, which surprised me a great deal.

[Papa Pete]

DD as they like to say in Oregon,



"YOU ROCK DUDE"

[DominicDomingo]

That's a tough call, and I'm inclined to say it would be difficult, especially 2up with luggage. Of course if you reduce your speed and your pillion is willing to jump off and run in sections, then anything becomes possible. One thing we really enjoyed on this trip was having the right kind of bikes and minimal equipment, so that instead of being a chore the pistes were a delight.

The mountain pistes would be the more doable ones for 2up, they were also our group's favourite.

Hope this helps please feel free to PM me or ask here for any more infos.

DD

Originally Posted by DeeGee

Fantastic report and great pictures!

I was originally planning to ride into Eastern Europe with my wife for our trip next year, but looking at your posts I'm thinking of Morocco.

Do you reckon the trails you rode you'd be ok with a pillion??

[MarkN]

Great Report,

I recognise a lot of the piste and the Auberge in Agoudal at the top of the Dades Valley.

We started in Midelt and rode to Agoudal for the night and then rode down the Dades Valley to Boumaine and then on Tinerhir.

[SpitfireTriple]

Originally Posted by DominicDomingo

We stop for a tajine lunch on the main freeway, the first of many.


We never did figure out what the hell those signs meant.

A potentially life-saving bit of arabic

The red octagon is the internationally agreed shape for a stop sign.

Stunning images. Fantastic adventure. Morocco was already on my "Where To Go Next" list . I reckon it has just leap-frogged to first place. Could you make the images bigger? I discovered I could adjust my image-links by going into the HTML code and changing the size/ number to 800. In landscape format, this filled the width of a typical screen. I'm only a novice at fiddling with images though, so for all I know I may have distorted the image by changing its size. You however, unlike me, sound/look like you know what you're doing.

Originally Posted by DominicDomingo

Hey thanks man, I would never have figured I'd have so much fun making a RR but here I am enjoying...

I know what you mean. Reckon we'll appreciate our efforts and be glad we took the trouble all the more when we are old men.

I buy into your "Less is More" philosophy. Though it's always a struggle; like most bikers I *Love*My*Kit*. Part of me though takes a perverse pleasure in taking my Aprilia Futura sports-touring barge off road.

Morocco looks so good in your photos, so good.

[DominicDomingo]

Actually we got that about red octagonal signs, I guess it must just a case of "sarchasm", as in the rift between between the speaker of the wit and he who didn't get it....
My attempts at dryness and deadpan often fail, try as I might, alas, I am not British...
My only go at modifying the size of the pictures resulted in one going to thumbnail size, which I now can't change back. I 'm glad I fooled you into thinking I know what I'm doing, you have o idea how close I was to giving up on this RR because of my own incompetence!

Dominic

Originally Posted by SpitfireTriple

A potentially life-saving bit of arabic

The red octagon is the internationally agreed shape for a stop sign.

Stunning images. Fantastic adventure. Morocco was already on my "Where To Go Next" list . I reckon it has just leap-frogged to first place. Could you make the images bigger? I discovered I could adjust my image-links by going into the HTML code and changing the size/ number to 800. In landscape format, this filled the width of a typical screen. I'm only a novice at fiddling with images though, so for all I know I may have distorted the image by changing its size. You however, unlike me, sound/look like you know what you're doing.

I know what you mean. Reckon we'll appreciate our efforts and be glad we took the trouble all the more when we are old men.

I buy into your "Less is More" philosophy. Though it's always a struggle; like most bikers I *Love*My*Kit*. Part of me though takes a perverse pleasure in taking my Aprilia Futura sports-touring barge off road.

Morocco looks so good in your photos, so good.

[SpitfireTriple]

Shame on me for not spotting your sarcasm!

Maybe the info will help someone else though. It certainly helped me - I myself didn't know until I researched it what the arabic was for "Stop". One day the knowledge might save my life.

I notice that photobucket has now voided all your photos!

Ulp...hope my suggestion wasn't anything to do with this. I see many threads where photobucket photos have disappeared for one reason or another. I did some research the other day and found that this is a common problem. The discussion sites I found eg http://chrisnoble.wordpress.com/2007...ckr-vs-picasa/ tended to agree that flickr and picasa are the best free sites. Flickr is apparently better if you love photography and want to discuss photos with other photography enthusiasts, Picasa is better for everyone else.

I'm not saying this to support any claim for my own "wisdom" in using Picasa; I came across Piccasa purely by accident, and used it because it was part of Google.

PS Since companies change their systems all the time, some of the info I found may be out of date and I'm not nearly knowledgeable to proclaim the current state of play.

[DominicDomingo]

It seems that I exceeded the free bandwidth allowance on Photobucket, so these pics have been offline for a few weeks.

I am enjoying the feedback!

[aurel]

Dude, you have some talent for photography

[DominicDomingo]

Originally Posted by aurel

Dude, you have some talent for photography

I wish it was all my work. Or even mostly my work. My excuse remains "I was navigating" Almost all the riding pics are by my two friends, both of whom have talent. A lot of the city stuff is mine, though not all.

[DominicDomingo]

[LukasM]

Great report!

I am currently living in Madrid and with these kind of pictures I am thinking about skipping the family Xmas reunion in Austria this year...

How long does it take to get over there on the ferry? Do reckon 2 weeks is enough time to see most of the country? I would probably be going solo, on a nicely farkled DR650 with soft luggage, so similar to what you guys had. Definitely prefer off-road pistes.

Cheers,
Lukas

[DominicDomingo]

I took the ferry from Tarifa, and it only took about 1.5 hours to arrive in Tangiers, there is even a 45 minute ferry which costs a bit more.

Two weeks is enough time to see a good, representative portion of Morocco.

Be warned though: wherever you go, mountains are mountains. I rode through snow and froze my ass off for hours on end during a trip in November 2006.

If you go in December you will have to go over the Atlas to get to the south, which in my opinion is the best.

I doubt if any of the mountain pistes we did in the Atlas would be much fun to do in December, though I may be wrong.

Your machine is totally the right tool for the job. I rode the XTZ 660 and just loved it.

Originally Posted by LukasM

Great report!

I am currently living in Madrid and with these kind of pictures I am thinking about skipping the family Xmas reunion in Austria this year...

How long does it take to get over there on the ferry? Do reckon 2 weeks is enough time to see most of the country? I would probably be going solo, on a nicely farkled DR650 with soft luggage, so similar to what you guys had. Definitely prefer off-road pistes.

Cheers,
Lukas

[LukasM]

Thanks for the feedback.

Great to hear that the ferry is so close, that makes getting there much easier and quicker than I thought. I'll heed your advice regarding the mountain passes, I realize that it's going to be quite cold. Luckily (or not) I have done quite a bit of winter riding (even across the Alps) and have figured out a clothing/equipment combo that works well in that kind of weather.





Once the date comes closer and I know for sure that I can get enough time off work I might contact you again. The route you guys chose with that much offroad looked awesome, so I would appreciate some more tips.

Cheers,
Lukas