Not dead, nor kidnapped!

It’s been over a week since our last post and there’s been good reason for that. We’ve been busy. We reached Agadir as planned after negotiating one of the most treacherous roads in Morocco. Think very bad non marked mountainous roads with slow trucks a dozen and irate drivers trying to overtake them at any opportunity. Then picture all this done at night. It was scary!

We stayed three nights in Agadir kipping in Rohans swank 4 star hotel room. It’s most likely one of the last laps of luxury we’ll experience on the trip. On our first night we found the joys of alcohol again. It was the first bar we’d seen or been to in Morocco. Alcohol is not appreciated/allowed in the Muslim world and is not illegal but is just not done openly. We dived back in with much gusto and enthusiasm. The following day we were regretting it. While in Agadir we met some locals and after Rohan left for Libya we ended up in a relaxing little surf town just north of Agadir called Taghazout. We still haven’t left. Khaled, one of the locals we met, rented us a room there. It’s ridiculously cheap and perfectly placed sitting beside the sea.

While in Taghazout we’ve chilled out quite a lot. I think it’s the first time Jeremy has actually relaxed since quitting work. Mariah one of the other locals we met brought us to a cool trance party in the mountains. It was full of new age European hippies in camper vans and a few like minded Moroccans to boot. We’ve also now had our first proper off-roading adventure. On Wednesday we left most of our luggage in Taghazout and departed for two days. On the first night we camped near FoumZguid before attempting a 150k off-road trail leading to Talouine. The trail we undertook started excellently and ended in the same way however it didn’t end in Talouine.

While in the mountains we were invited in for tea and even cooked a fabulous and unexpected couscous by a very welcoming and friendly Berber village. We had a similar experience when we went off-roading with Rohan in Agadir on a small 4k trail. It’s these types of encounters which really make Morocco shine. The people are so warm and welcoming and expect nothing in return save your company and some stories. The trail was not without a handful of hardship. There was a 10k section in the middle where the trail ended. It took us two hours of bouncing and falling over rocks to navigate our way to where the trail resumed. That part I could have done without. Jeremy the sadist seemed to think it was the best part.

The plan from here is to get booster injections today and get our bikes serviced before heading down to Mauritania. This could take the best part of a week as we need to fly in a new master clutch cylinder for my bike. For now we’re just refilling the mineral oil as it seems the master cylinder has developed a slow leak. It’ll work for now but if I sustain another big bash it may ground my bike and become a nightmare to get fixed. Especially if this happens somewhere remote. Jez has updated the route page and I’ve created a Morocco gallery. The last time there were some technical difficulties. There’s a few pictures from our off-roading which have to be uploaded but I’ll get around to that later.

Thanks to everyone for their support.

Cheers K+J

Morocco

After 2 weeks wheeling around Europe we eventually arrived in Morocco last Tuesday. We crossed the border at Ceuta. The crossing in itself was painless but took a lot more time than we had planned for. Getting lost in Ceuta didn’t help either nor did spending an hour scouring for the KTM dealer located there only to find it closed for siesta.

From Ceuta we had intended to ride down to Fez. The night came upon us faster than expected so we made an unplanned stop in a town called Chechaouene. The town lies on the foothills of the Rif mountains. Apparently this is were the word ‘reefer’ comes from. Rif is pronounced reef in French. These mountains being the primary weed growing location in Morocco we were approached at every turn by locals trying to get us to sample the fruits of the mountains. We’re getting old and boring now so we declined and instead found a great restaurant overlooking the entire square.

Riding through the Rif mountainsBoarding the boat to SutteThe border to Morocco

Morocco has been a bit of a shock. It’s the first time I’ve been put outside of my comfort zone on the trip. Things are really different here. People still farm the land with animals pulling their equipment. The roads in rural areas are dotted with horse and carts. There’s these great little kids who randomly cheer you on as you pass them. It’s kinda like Ireland 20 or 30 years ago. There’s also the poor people trying to make a quick buck out of the rich foreigners. You can’t really blame them.

We’re in Rabat now. The administrative capital of Morocco. We rode here along some really amazing roads. There’s some pics in the Morocco gallery to check out. The reason for coming here was to obtain our Mauritanian visas. We’ve been told we’ll have to wait until tomorrow which is just as well as my clutch died today and we had to spend a couple of hours bleeding it and replacing the clutch fluid. A job neither of us knew how to do before today. The damage probably came from the Ronda accident.

Tomorrow we will try to ride down to Agadir in one go. We’re going to be visiting Rohan, a friend of Jeremy’s. He’s been able to rent a bike and we’ll be attempting to go off-road around the anti-atlas mountains. It should be good fun.

Rabat and Sponsorship

Just a quick post from Rabat, we arrived this evening after stopping overnight in Chefchaouen last night. We are going to get our Mauritanian visas here tomorrow hopefully! Keith will put another update post on here with some more details of where and what we have seen.

I just wanted to let everyone following this blog know that we are trying to raise a bit of money for a couple of charities to try and make a difference in Africa as well as just have a bit of an adventure in Africa! The sponsorship page is now fully online and you can see links to it on the top and on the right of every page on this site.

There are two charities we are trying to raise money for and we hope to raise a total of around ten grand split across both charities if you all dig deep in your pockets. Unfortunately there is no easy way to sponsor both charities with a single donation so it would be great if you could either split your donation across both or chose the one that is a bit behind the other!

As we are both seeing here in Morocco, your pounds, euro and dollars go a lot further and even a donation of 10 pounds can make a huge difference over here.

The just giving website is secure and it will even claim back the tax if you are a UK taxpayer! So what are you waiting for?

To those who have donated already we want to say a big thanks for your support.

Look for further updates on the site over the next few days as Morocco has an abundance of internet cafes for about 50p an hour – a godsend for two techies without their laptops!

Gibraltar and the end of the European leg

We arrived in Gibraltar after 11 great days on the road. It’s been a a pretty crazy ride down. We’ve ridden in rain, wind, snow and sun. All of which were hard work apart from the sun. Overall a really great experience if not sometimes a tad challenging.

After leaving Andorra we rode to Deltebre national park where we decided to camp. The wind in this area was so strong that we were sometimes leaning at 45 degrees just to keep the bikes straight. It was a hard day fighting against the forces of nature. We then rode from Deltebre to Turre where we camped again before making our way down to Gibraltar. This was by far our best day riding down through Spain. The sun shone and the Spanish coast and geography opened up in all its splendour. It was fabulous riding through twisty mountainous roads from Turre to Carboneras. Later we passed the Sierra Nevada mountains and then Granada and Malaga before hitting the rock of Gibraltar.

We’ve dug our heels into Gibraltar for a few days as there was some bike maintenance to be tended to. My bash plate had almost cracked off and I needed my kick stand fitted. The latter will hopefully decrease the steady but embarrassing increase of the fallen bike score. Jeremy also needed bash plate work. Thanks go to Rob in Car Clinic for fitting us is!

On our second day on the rock we met Nigel, a fellow biker, who has introduced us to his wonderful family and friends, brought us on the road to Ronda with his mates and even had us over for Sunday roast.

The road to Ronda is a very famous mountainous biker route. It’s also the scene of my first ‘real’ accident. I rode around a corner a wee bit faster than I should have and then drifted wide into a stoney embankment. My bike then had the pleasure of meeting a large rock before we were violently separated and I went sailing over the handlebars and through the air. Luckily I landed rather gracefully with a tripple roll. Apart from a sprained thumb and a bruised ego I was fine. The bike wasn’t as fortunate as I. It’s all fixable though and I was able to continue riding on.

When we got back from Ronda Pete, one of Nigels mates and the organiser of the ride, brought us on a tour of the caves and tunnels of Gibraltar. Pete is an MBE and works in the army. The guy is an authority on Gibralter and especially its caves and tunnels. Some even refer to him as the mole. When he’s not on his bike or with his family the guy spends his time underground. Thanks Pete for the private tour. It was awesome!

Tomorrow the real adventure begins. We depart for Morocco. We’ll be sailing from Algeciras to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta sometime in the early morning.

Thanks to all the folks in Gibraltar for making our stay here a very memorable one. Nigel and his family, Pete, Karl, Diesel Dave and Mark. You won’t be forgotten!

Jeremy has uploaded some more pictures to the European Gallery. We’re being kicked out of this internet café so we’ll add the rest when we get to Morocco.

Last day in Andorra

Today was our last day snowboarding in Andorra and we have had a ball of a time here. The snow has been perfect and the sun has still been out in the day! Great conditions for boarding, in addition we have enjoyed relaxing in the small village of Soldeu and meeting some interesting people in the evenings, like the honeymoon couple from Iceland whose holiday was displaced from Kenya to Andorra, great people and they really spoiled us!

The people here in Andorra have been really friendly and we found a pretty good hotel with good food and a reasonable price.

There are some pictures of our European travels in the gallery.

  • European Leg
European Leg

Photos from the European leg of our journey. Sorry we haven´t taken too many - Europe just feels like home so you are less likely to just pull out the camera!

Tomorrow sees us heading south again along the east coast of Spain towards our crossing to Africa in a couple days time. If the weather is reasonable we are going to try our first night camping. A good chance to try out the kit and to test Keith´s hardiness out a bit more!