EDC 2016 Maroc Ride Report

[WIBO]

The trail is one of my favourites with a nice climb at the start,going through a few hilltop villages and with a scenic view looking down onto plains.















We ride through the villages and begin to descend to a flat stoned viewpoint I know.....


















Jon on his Triumph Bonneville......





Pity it wasn't raining......
























Percy's KTM 950 Adventure









Oh look...it's a viewpoint....
































Percy and I are chatting when Roger comes close and says he'd like to show off when we leave as there was a group of woman watching us.........Percy and I smile and agree that he should do just that.















He rides off to leave the viewpoint and promptly drops the moto....before anyone helps him we take a picture.














We ride on and drop down by trail to pick up blacktop to Taroudant and where we arrive at an hotel I use each time I visit there.




Roger and Percy avail of one of the two swimming pools......










We get cleaned up then we go for beer.....this hotel also has a great restaurant

[WIBO]

We crew up the next morning, go get fuel and head over scenic mountain twisties bound for Argana for food and from where we'll pick up the trails to take us over the High Atlas to Imintanoute.

Roger heads off earlier to the camp site in Marrakech. The route shows a bit of dampness here and there and we hope he's been soaked.



I'm reminded to check my rear sprocket. Thanks for that again.



We stop at a viewpoint to take a few pictures.











Jon's Honda CRF450 ......








Look at his hair.....










Gordon has a pish.....







Al has a pish......









Jon has a pish.....










I don't have a pish.....








Neither does Percy.....










.

[WIBO]

We drop down to Argana for lunch


Oh look,a goat in a tree.....












After lunch we head on to pick up the trail to traverse the Atlas.....it start by crossing a normally dry river bed...this time there is some water but we can pass by riding over some rock to the other side.


I drop my moto first and then Percy bogs the rear of his in river sand. Moto is put on it's side and the hole he's made filled in with out feet then the moto picked up again.

I couldn't believe that no one took a picture of me in such a situation but they were able to get a picture of Percy with his NSU Quickly

















The going changes to red dirt and rock trails passing through two or three villages before climbing into the mountains.
















As usual they panic when they see this type of sign thinking they're going to get lost and stranded.



























We leave the red dirt and start to climb where stop and take in the view.





























































Look at his hair....















Look at his hair











.

[WIBO]

We climb on up and take the trail to our right that we normally take...I notice there's a few plants in the trail pointing to the fact that it's not used any more.

We ride on and at the point of no return as it were we find three of four rock slides that have blocked the trail. We can get past if we move rock away to expose the level trail and to our left there's a vertical drop of about 2 metres ending in a 60 degree slope on down the mountainside.


The first rock slide is made up of football size rock here and there which makes it impossible to ride over.


We clear rock to have enough place for our tyres to pass and we push the motos past the first one to not risk any mishaps.













































We'll be dropping down to the village trails that can be seen in the left hand background in this picture.

We'll then climb up to ride over the mountains and on in the direction of Imintanoute.

[WIBO]

We climb up to 2020m altitude and take a few snaps before continuing. I'm again reminded to check my rear sprocket.













































.

[Stewie]

Great RR and thread (thumbs)

[WIBO]

We stop after a steeper zig zag climb for a rest. Now we'll start to drop down properly.





As the sun is dropping soon too we press on. I tell the goats that we will have to wild camp along the softer ground along by a river we'll parallel later on. They get frightened about being stuck in the mountains all by themselves and with the same threat of vampire giraffes apparent.


Our rental bikes are getting well used.

[WIBO]

We ride in the dark into Imintanoute town centre to find an hotel, through a a busy street festival full of noise and hustle and bustle.



I can't help thinking that if on a paid tour the company perhaps might take a detour to avoid a traffic jam just to get to a pre booked hotel for a certain time,thus missing out on a genuine cultural experience.

No planning means one bumps into all kinds of coincidental experiences on a ride out like this.



We get to a T junction and I ask a cop if there's an hotel and he points just across the square to one.

We ride over park up and book in. We park the motos in a car park about 100m away. We head out afterwards and get fed and then return to bed down for the princely sum of 50D. Bargain basement with no hot water, small rooms but good beds.


In true adventure bike rider format,for breakfast, we saunter over to a Starbucks opposite where we order milky coffee with a couple of packets of biscuits whilst watching the world go by. The goats are all annoyed because there's no where to park the motos in front of it and go into a sulk.






















These are everywhere.....







Imintanoute.





World going by...or not as the case may be.






























Later we crew up bound for a camp site in Marrakech via the Route National rather than the autoroute. We'll meet Roger at the camp site as prearranged.

We get our motos from the parking and pay the dude small change, about 10 or 20 dirhams each.


I'm still hungry so I'm pleased to find a free snack in the car park....although I chipped a tooth on the donkey shoe.






Just before we leave I'm reminded to check my rear sprocket in case all the teeth will round off en route. Thanks for that.....again.










.

[WIBO]

Just before lunch we all arrive and book into the camping. 90D for one person camping.

Roger is not there but his Lidl's Coleman Force Ten tent is. We open the flap and put a couple of bees in that we caught.



We have a beer or two then make camp. There's plenty of time for checking the motos and kit over.







Pity in wasn't raining......
















Any colour as long as it's black......







The clothes line post is just about up to spec for the job intended....












Look at his hair.....








I sew my glove finger after Percy produces a guide book that he uses at home.









This was spied in the car park...














Roger and I decide to go on a bender over a meal in the camp site,which makes good food. The others go into town to explore the city centre medina.






















We're on the run down now for heading back to Tanger Med.

We'll head to Khenifra to stay there the next day.

[WIBO]

Since leaving Taroudant Roger had taken the same route to Argana.......as we hoped earlier he had indeed been rained on and we missed it.

















No goats apparent.....















Argana where we stopped for food..... I'm glad to see it was damp for Roger.












Roger meets locals......





























Roger had been out exploring here at almost 3000m whist he was in the Marrakech region.