To celebrate Andrew Dalton’s BIG FIVE 0 birthday all the crew at White Dalton had generously chipped in and got him a adventure Motorbiking trip in Morocco.
What could possibly go wrong with Gavin and me “chaperoning” him…
After just a 3 hour flight from Gatwick we arrived to a warm beautiful evening in Marrakesh. The three of us dumped the bags, pulled on shorts, grabbed a beer and pondered over the maps. Despite leaving only a few hours before, the White Dalton Motorcycle Solicitors office nestled in the chilly Chilterns seemed a world away.
Motorbiking around Marrakesh
Without doubt the highlight was swerving round a rogue donkey and then being overtaken by a mother wearing a Djellaba (a long, loose-fitting outer robe with full sleeves worn by the North Africans) on a scooter with her toddler stood on the foot plate smiling and waving. This was a far cry from the M25.
We eventually twisted and turned through a market filled with goats and out of a gap in the red city wall. Instantly the path cleared. An hour later and the snow-capped peaks of the Atlas Mountains grew larger out of the horizon. We headed south down the N9 and for the next few hours it snaked up down and round the mountains.
Tizi N’Tichka Pass by motorbike
There was no “need for speed” here. Whilst for the most part the road was good “black top” tarmac, there were a lot of “deviations” with gravel sections. Mix that with 600 hundred foot drops, no barriers and you realise this is not the place for sports bikes with low slung belly pans, but exactly what we were on i.e. plodding single cylinder “adventure” bikes with bash plates.
This route took us over the magnificent Tizi N’Tichka Pass. If you do any research on riding in Morocco, this pass will pop up over and over again, and for good reason. The road snakes for miles connecting the south-east of Marrakesh to the city of Ouarzazate through the High Atlas Mountains. The pass lies above the Marrakech Plains and is a gateway to the Sahara Desert, so all in all the views are amazing.
Biking into Aït Benhaddou
As we rolled into our hotel, the sun was just setting over a lake and landscape that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a Star Wars film. Our host Idris was second to none and welcomed us with drinks on the terrace that took in the whole panoramic spectacle of Mother Nature. A truly beautiful place.
Our plan had been to go off road and get to Zagora. However, day one had taught us that when riding in Morocco it’s all about hours in the saddle and a “mountain mile” took a lot longer than we had anticipated. So Idris booked us in for 2 nights and we used his hotel as a base.
Atlas Mountains by motorcycle
We sauntered out of town on the P1502 road in the beautiful midday sun. It was winding single track piece of tarmac that lead us through canyons and around the foothills of the Atlas Mountains. The villages were poor in places but the people were so friendly. The kids waved and smiled as we chugged past their houses, schools and mosques and I can safely say I’ve never had a warmer welcome anywhere in the world.
As we didn’t want anyone getting “hangry” on our afternoon jaunt, Gav spotted a hotel and restaurant in one the small villages that hug the river passing through the Oued M’goun valley. After a quick chin wag with the owner we were led up onto the roof for a Moroccan banquet of chicken skewers and fresh salad of finely chopped tomatoes, peppers and cucumber salad washed down with… mint tea!
Regenerated we continued with our afternoon “jaunt.” However, at this point we didn’t realise what the afternoon had in store for us. Fast forward an hour and the tarmac stopped. In its place was a barely visible track intersecting with other barely visible tracks across the expanse of a rock stern valley base about 20 miles wide and with mountains either side. Thankfully we had GPS to guide us as for two and half hours we bashed and bounced along (and occasionally fell off) only encountering one shepherd and his herd of goats. This is not a place to ride solo.
For about 30 minutes we gingerly paddled the Mules down the switchback path before taking a break to take on some water and thank our lucky starts we hadn’t fallen to our deaths. It was fair to say we were all a little shaky. After saddling up again, the second half wasn’t quite as petrifying as the path widened a bit and eventually we crossed a dry riverbed of rocks and got back on to a “black top” road. Despite a combined riding experience of over 60 years, we agreed that was the sketchiest “road” any of us had ever ridden and appeared to have been abandoned by the locals (including the goats!) years before despite the paper map and satnav showing otherwise.
Motorcycling to The Fint Oasis (Ouarzazate) by motorbike
After bumping along the dry, desolate track from Ouarzazate it was still a massive surprise to see a place so green, lush and full of life grow larger and larger out of the landscape. We followed our noses down towards the river and instantly you can see that water sustains life. Whilst the dessert lurks only a short distance away, here there was an abundance of lush green plants and trees, donkeys braying at each other and women washing clothes in the river.
As Andrew Dalton summed it up…
“Morocco is a unique and exquisite country which has it all for any biker, from European style roads in places to miles of off road tracks that take you completely into the wilderness. That combined with the friendliest people you will ever hope to meet, it’s a must do for any biker.”
