Funny how the mood takes you some days; Today was probably the day I was most looking forward to on this trip. I’ve done the run across the Atlas mountains many times but doing it on the Airhead  is something I’ve long wanted to do, but…. Well I don’t really know what the “but” is to be honest. I awoke early as usual but in what I can only describe as a bit of a melancholy mood. Every other time I have been to Marrakech and the High Atlas it has been with friends, wives or lovers (not necessarily in that order!). Going right back to my first ever visit in 1969 the trips have always left me with many, many happy memories, but now, this trip, on my own…well that something (someone?) special is missing and far too many old memories are being stirred. My next  mistake was to try some music, a first for this trip, but Celine Dion was definitely not a good choice as I just sunk further into the blue funk! Sitting now at the little café right at the top of the Tizi n Test pass, my thoughts turn to years gone by, so many, so fast, and the euphoria I had on starting the trip seems to have just drained away. Oh well! Perhaps I’ll just slip back into “the groove” later in the day.

I eventually stirred my bones back into action, after all there is only so much mint tea one can drink, and headed down the southern side of the pass. The sun was shinning, but the temperature wasn’t too hot, there was some traffic coming up to meet me but not too much, the scenery was great but… well I’d seen it all before and I was still finding the riding just hard work. Finally I got to the bottom and the road straightened and flattened, I pushed on. Waymarking the spot where we tend wild camp, I stopped to check the map to make sure that I knew where I was heading ! GPS is great, but I still like to know which towns and roads it is going to send me along… just in case! I still had about 170Km to go before I reached Tafraoute and I was still hadn’t found the “zone” . I stopped for an ice cream and a bottle of ice cold water, thinking that a bit of dehydration might be the problem, although with the amount of mint tea I had taken after lunch I didn’t really think that it cure my problem, however , at least it was an excuse to stop for a few minutes.

I removed my heavy jacket as the heat had increased considerably now that I was at a lower altitude. I guess it was still the effect of my minor spill on the C90 a couple of weeks ago but I felt unusually vulnerable, quite strange  seeing as I spent the best part of 3 months riding in Greece in just jeans and teeshirt!  I turned left off of the main road heading more or less due south, it was a good road without too many twists and turns and I started at last to settle down into the ride. At the little desert town of Igherm I turned right oto a very much small road, the line on my map was so faint it was almost non-existant. I just hoped it didn’t disintegrate into a gravel track, I was in no mood to go “off-roading”. My luck held though and it was once more, up and over, on a beautiful little road that I wouldn’t have contemplated taking from looking at the map! Today my GPS was being benevolent and showing me her good side, but just like the lady she undoubtedly is, you can never tell how long that will last !!!!

As I closed on Tafraoute, I spotted a sign on my right indicating a cam site at the rear of a hotel, it wasn’t the one I was looking for, but it looked good enough to me… and I was the only camper! As I was being greeted by the Patron, I nearly fell of my bike as an English guy appeared and said “hello” who was the absolute doppelganger of one of my friends back in Wales. He and his wife were also bikers, but staying in the hotel rather being cheapskate like myself and camping and of course they were riding…. What else but a R1200GS, you just can’t get away from the damn things… However I spent a very pleasant evening with them talking all things Morocco and bike. Amazingly they were Londoners but now living in Pembrokeshire and we had a mutual acquaintance in the form of my old IAM instructor John Codd. And so to bed, lets just hope I get up on the right side of the tent tomorrow and find my mojo….