We took part in the Wildcat Adventures Atlas Mountains Raid in May 2011. The group mostly from the UK met us in Tarifa (Southern Spain) in early May, and we took the ferry to Tangiers the next morning. The adventure began – this is the log of that journey:
Day 1 (3rd May) – Tarifa
Met the group early evening at the Hotel Torre – just up from another of our favourites, the Hurricane hotel. Fairly quiet night, as folks only starting to get to know each other. Good food, and bit nervous about the looming adventure – in a good way. Got our briefing from John and Brigitte, map of the route etc.
Day 2 (4th May) – Tarifa to Tangiers, then onto Ifrane.
Got through customs ok, of course led by Brigitte. Fired up all our GPS gadgets at this point – finding out or TomTom was pretty dumm – in that if you don’t buy the maps for a country, it won’t let you use basic GPS functionality – all we could get is lat/long and direction – good enough. Had to take a later ferry than usual as due to ‘technical’ reasons the bikes could not go on the 9am ferry. So, we took the 11am, which meant on arrival in Tangiers we had to blast down the new motorway to Rabat before turning east and heading over to Ifrane bypassing Meknes and going through El-Hajeb. Arriving at our destination a bit late in the evening – and to our first ‘dry’ hotel of the trip – ahem. Kind of a motel linked to a petrol station – not great, but hey.
Day 3 (5th May) – Ifrane down to the Sahara.
Very long day heading south for Erg Chebbi – largest sand dune in Morocco. Very close to Algerian border. Town of Merzuga, and a lovely Kasbah called the Riad Mamouche. Probably the best overall accommodation on our stay. Entertained after dinner by the staff – with some of our own group joining in – Chris and Ailidh wiggled with the best of them – check out the video!
Day 4 (6th May) – Merzuga to Tifoultoute (just next to town of Quarazate)
The day started with the boys having a play on the sand dunes. Result was that we nearly had to dig the car out the sand (oops) and a couple of the bikers got carried away and had a fall or two…. But all was ok and we headed on the road to Tilfoutoute.
Our hotel in Tilfoutoute was owned by a French lady who kept peacocks. Definitely not what we expected to see in Morocco!
Day 5 (7th May) – Rest day
The core objective of today was to visit the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Ait Benhaddou. Loads of films that we’ve seen have included filming there – Gladiator, Romancing the Stone, Laurence of Arabia and others. On our visit they were actively filming the ‘Egyptian’. Maybe you’ll catch a glimpse of us in the background watching the movie. We both managed not to fall in the river when going over the crossing stones.
Drove back a few km on one of the pistes – splashing through a small stream. Fun drive, and with the sand dunes at Erg-Chebbi that was pretty much our off-roading in Morocco done.
Day 6 (8th May) – Tifoultoute to Tata.
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Day 7 (9th May) – Tata to Tafraoute.
Early start as we all wanted out of Tata and onto to our next destination…
Day 8 (10th May) – Rest day.
Objective of today was to visit an old Berber house, and explore the town on market day. We had a great time at the market but the food stalls were a million miles away from Morrison’s.
Day 9 (11th May) – Tafraoute to Essaouira
Ann Marie’s faourite part of the trip – but only because we found a very high end Sofitel hotel, and had some cocktails. That’s my girl!! Essaouria is a beach resort, certainly seeming a lot richer than many of the areas that we have been on the trip up until now. Went around the market, but resisted temptation to buy too much. Had Pizza for a change – was ok, but missed a really great pizza restaurant which was on the beach. Next time maybe? Got back to the hotel which was dry, and headed out with a few other rebels for a swift few drinks 🙂
We were supposed to be heading for Marrakech today, but due to the bomb a few weeks back the tour leader decided that it had to be avoided. Have heard that tourist numbers in Morocco and Marrakech in particular are drastically lower than normal, which is bad news for their economy. Hopefully numbers will pick up again soon. So – we are headed to the coast instead and the following day will pass to the north of Marrakech.
Day 10 (12th May) – Essaouira to Afourer
Really started feeling like the drive north for home had started. Group decided that the route as selected was just too long – likely best part of 9 hours. John was really under the weather and called in the support vehicle and trailer from Marrakech the night before. He was going to travel with Brigitte in the support vehicle with their bike on the trailer – to rest and try and get rid of the bug he’d picked up. So, it was kind of a slow day, but not a bad one at all. Picked up the motorway to speed things up, then headed over to Afourer. A few people split up into groups and did a few interesting routes, which seemed to really raise the spirits of the group.
Day 11 (13th May) – Afourer to Ifrane
Windy road today and Phil drove like a raleigh driver to keep up with the bikes. The road had no end of obstaces from donkies, horse and carts to the oldest Mercedes taxis which went like the clappers All in all it was a hair raising drive. Fairly nice hotel, but poor buffet style food. Christine picked up a stomach bug here which sucked, but got over it in a day or so, which was good news. The group overall was quite lucky in terms of not suffering too much from any food related issues.
John was back on his bike today, and by the time we got to Khenifra the support vehicle was sent back to Marrakech. It is impressive to see the ability to get support such as this so quickly – but guess that’s the benefit of John’s network of contacts throughout Morocco.
Day 12 (14th May) – Ifrane to Tangiers to Tarifa to Home
Very early morning to make sure we could have time to visit the Roman site of Volubilis. Great site, and a good tour. Told tour guide had less than an hour so had a whistle-stop tour of the place. For Ann Marie and myself that was great, can’t stand long tours of things like this which drag on for hours. We prefer to bomb around then head for the cocktail bar 🙂
Driving through Tangiers was as much fun as expected (scary). We only got separated from the bikes at one roundabout, so wasn’t so bad. We did have a young kid jump on the back of the car for about a mile – getting a free ride into town. Had to pull over abruptly and suggest he get off to get rid of him. Amazing how some terms seem to translate so well.
Day 13 (15th May) – Home
Well, back in Gib, enjoyed 14 on the Quay last night. Sad not to be with the group who are headed for northern Spain tonight, but such is life. Back to work tomorrow, and time to start thinking about the next adventure. Ann Marie gets the call on next trip – so reckon New York or San Fran may be likely. Party on!