Saturday 5 Jan (135 miles)
Arranging to take the early morning flight to Spain was a mistake. The only way I can get to Gatwick airport in time for the check-in is to take the last train up the night before. This arrives around midnight and I look for somewhere to kip until check-in opens. I only have about an hour of dozing in total but once on the plane manage to grab a row of three seats and sleep for another 90 minutes.
It is my first flight into Málaga since the days of Franco and the mountains around Málaga have a light dusting of snow. As the aircraft banks over the sea just before landing you can see the Moroccan mountains near Al Hoceima some sixty miles further south. After a short taxi ride from the airport I arrive at the Ibis Hotel to rendevzous with Billy Ward and the Biketruck.
Billy unloading the truck
The odometer on unloading the bike is 29350. Before long Adrian, Simon and I are headed for Algeciras. We arrive just in time to take the 1330 ferry to Tanger and after some ridiculous quotes settle on €52 each for bike and rider from one of the travel agents (not the ferry desks). Passport control is handled on the boat, when we dock Tanger is heaving with a massive queue of cars and motorhomes waiting for customs, not just from our boat but from two or three earlier ones. We ride to the front of the queue (as is the right of all bikers), and find the reason for the tailback is that the customs officers have totally run out of the green temporary importation forms. Someone eventually arrives with some fresh pads of forms but with everyone trying to get their forms signed by the roving officers we are getting nowhere until we move the bikes to the exit area and block one of the lines of traffic. We then have express service and are on our way, leaving the mayhem and hundreds of vehicles behind at the port. We have a short run down the coastal motorway to Asilah where we stop overnight at Hotel Zelis. Our plans are then to spend the next night in Azrou, then head down to Er Rachidia to intercept the Dakar.
Billy’s group were crossing to Ceuta, then heading for Er Rachidia via Chefchaouen and Fes, but we receive a text message from Billy saying he’d been told the eastern section of the Atlas was impassable and that they are heading for Marrakech. There is often a great deal of misinformation in Morocco, and to get an on-the-spot report I phone Nathan, a friend in Azrou, who says although there has been snow falls a couple of days ago all the roads have been cleared, so we decide to continue with the original route. We have a meal in the open air under the ramparts of the old Portugese fort, then an early night to catch up with sleep.
Sunday 6 Jan (333 miles, total 468)
Get a text from Steve early in the morning saying he had been stuck in snow for a couple of days but is now heading for Rich. My guess (which turned out to be right) was that he had been in the Imilchil area of the High Atlas.
Adrian, Simon and I left Asilah at 0900 and take the motorway to Kénifra. We are stopped at a petrol station when a group of Portuguese Dakar competitors and support vehicles arrive. Having gone to the expense of preparing their vehicles they have decided to do their own thing in Morocco. We have a chat about the Rally cancellation and they say it would have been very difficult to reorganise the rally with more Moroccan stages to replace the Mauri ones due to the large amounts of rain in the eastern part of Morocco.
After Kénifra we head south from Sidi Yalla on a lovely road through the Forest of Maamora, then lunch at Khemisset. The original plan was to head south then east through the Jbel Mouchchene mountains but it was getting late so we decide to head straight for Azrou. There is a lot of traffic on the main N6 road to Meknes, so we take a rural road (R402) south east to El Hajeb which turns out to be much quieter, quicker and also great scenery. The only problem in places is that manhole covers have been salvaged for their scrap value and replaced with old tyres!
Just before Azrou Adrian’s 1200GS takes a poorly turn with what sounds like fuel starvation. I take off the fuel controller cover but can’t see any water or other sign of problem. We are less than five miles from the hotel so I go off to find something to tow with. It was dark by the time I return with a cable and meet Simon already towing Adrian along the road. Some local children have seen the problem and have kindly donated a rope. When we arrive at the Hotel Panorama Adrian tries the bike again and perversely it starts and runs cleanly.
Adrian (left) at Hotel Panorama
We head into town, find an cybercafé, log on to UKGSer and HUBB (Horizons Unlimited bulletin board) and describe the problem. The collective advice received within just a few minutes is that it is likely to be the fuel pump controller and we note down the details of a hread on AdvRider site on how to bypass the controller.
Monday 7 (2 miles piste, 230 miles tarmac, total 702)
I exchange texts with Steve and arrange to meet at Hotel Said in the Erg Chebbi area near Erfoud. The three of us set off from Azrou but within just a few miles Adrian’s bike starts exhibiting the same fuel starvation problem. We discuss bypassing the controller but Adrian is concerned that if we continue south and have further problems he will not be able to get back to Spain in time to rendezvous with the Biketruck for the return to the UK. So he decides to limp back to the Panorama and set about finding a ‘man with a van’ to take the bike back to the ports. We discuss between us how much it might cost; Adrian thinks £300, I suggested it might be done for as little as £50, though perhaps this will prove to be hopelessly optimistic. The weekly market is the next morning and I suggest trying to find an empty lorry headed north.
Adrian and Simon are keen for me not to miss the meeting with Steve, so with reluctance I leave them and continue south on the N13, climbing up through the snow-covered cedar forest. It is cold but otherwise a beautiful day with high pressure, deep blue skies and a warm sun.
The plateau to Timahdite is deep snow. South of there the road goes through a cutting in a range of hills at Foum Kheneg. By now it is close to noon. I remember from previous winter visits that there’s often a severe temperature difference here. The temperature gauge on the bike is reading 4c and I watch in amazement as in the next 800 metres it plunges to minus 7c, a drop of 11c! On the southern side of the range of hills all the streams are frozen solid. Goodness knows what the overnight temperature had dropped to.
It wasn’t until I reach the 2200m Col du Zad that the warmer air to the south lifts the temperature. The descent down the wide cedar-lined valley to the arid hamada is one of my favourites in Morocco. Three English bikers are stopped by the side of the road and I halt for a quick chat. They are participating in Nick Sanders ride to Timbuctou, going through Mauritania to Mali.
The snow finally cleared south of Midelt where I stop for some soup
The three on Nick Sander’s tour sweep through the mountains
Late afternoon I reach Erfoud and head out towards on Erg Chebbi on a deteriorating tarmac road. Shortly after it turned into piste I reach Hotel Said where Steve had already arrived.
Over the evening meal Steve recountes his experiences of the last few days. Having been told the weather forecast was fine, he was riding the piste from Midelt to Imilchil when it started to snow quite heavily. There are a handful of auberges on the piste but Steve rightly concluded that if he stopped he would be snowed in until it thawed–snow ploughs can’t clear the uneven pistes–so he continued on until he hit tarmac again at Imilchil and stopped at the auberge on Lake Tislit Bride where Andy Shortridge and I stayed in October. The snow continued that night and the next day. The hotel is extremely basic, there is nothing to read, the TV aerial had been blown over by the winds, so all Steve could do to pass the time was improve Rachid’s English. It wasn’t until the third day that a plough arrived and cleared the road.
Steve’s bike at Tislite Bride Hotel. Looks very pretty though!
Just before turning in I receive a text from Adrian saying his bike would be on a truck back to the ports the following morning. It wasn’t as simple as getting a man with a van, it was necessary to find a truck which had a licence to transport vehicles.
Tim
There and Back Again 