What a Ride!

Now that was what I call a ride! 700Km and I’m now in Marrakech… Yesterday was spent in doing a circuit from Moulay Idriss up almost to Chefchaoun and back to check out the condition of the Zoumie road; a day that also ran to around 700km. (Sorry Joel, old habits die hard!). Unfortunately it’s as bad as ever, but wow, it’s still very high on my list of “must do” rides. Whether it is sensible to take the Scoots team through there is another matter. 

Amazingly I not only found a superb roadside shack for lunch, I also found a whole new loop of quite reasonable tarmac, to add rather than instead ofthough… The amazing lunch of fresh fried fish with spicy tomato dip and fresh bread, completed with a nice cold Coke, it came in at a little over £2,00; a bargain me thinks!. With or without Zoumie I still managed to find a rather nice cut through to Moulay Idriss via Sidi Kacem along a great little back road. It adds a few Kms but well worth it in my view.

However today was something else entirely, instead of heading down towards Meknes, I back tracked a couple of mile from the camp site and turned up towards the small market town of Moulay Idriss itself, and lo and behold it was market day, which made negotiating the narrow, crowded streets “interesting” on a fully laden Airhead, but the old girl didn’t put a wheel wrong… I was very tempted to park up but knowing what I had ahead of me (more or less) I decided that inspite of an  8.00 am start, it would be foolish to tarry ( a thought which was to prove to be right !) so on I rode through some of the prettiest scenery I have ever encountered in Morocco, but then I’ve never been here in May before. 

The fields are a verdant green, with hedgerows and field alike a mass of wild flowers, in particular poppies; the brightest, most crimson poppies I have ever seen, field after field of them with tiny yellow flowers (mimosa?)intermingled to make a most spectacular display. The road too was everything I could have hoped for, admittedly they could do with Pat & Mick chucking a bit of asphalt in the holes, or to be more accurate actually laying a road here and there, but the riding was pure joy, one of those rides that just happen once in a while, you can’t explain it, in fact it is one of those questions which if you have to ask, you’d never understand the answer anyway ! Eventually the little road joined with what I though was going to be a main road; except that it wasn’t! It was another tiny, asphalt starved little road that lead up and over the hills before that one did eventually join on to a more major road, not that it’s greater status in any way detracted  from the sheer joy of the ride. 

Dropping south through Fes, I took the road for Sefrau and at first thought I had got it wrong. The road that left the town was a wide, smooth, straight dual carriageway, not what I was hoping for At all. However it wasn’t long before suburbia ? was left behind and once more the road twisted and turned way up to over 2000 metres before tumbling back down to the relative low lands around Midelt. About 6Km before the town itself I found the campsite I was looking for and stopped to check it (and it’s prices) out. A nice place, with friendly, helpful staff, we will definitely be stopping there in October! So that would be the end of a Scoots day… However I had made up my mind to try to pick up another day on the Scoots schedule by heading on to Marrakech, and anyway it was barely lunchtime! So I set Mr Garmin for the shortest distance to Marrakech  to see where it took me. I knew if I headed back about 6Km I could pick up the road heading more or less west, but I was hoping to find a cut through, and WOW did I ever? It means that the day will start just as the previous one, with an incredible ride along small, empty roads, through simply, stunning scenery. To be fair that is only half the story , as the second half of the day after lunch at Beni Melli is somewhat less scenic, although riding along with the fluffy snow caps of the Anti Altas mountains forming a backdrop could never be described as boring. So here I sit at Camp Relais, Marrakesh, sipping a cold beer, having pushed  the boat out and booked into one of their little cabins; after 700Km and 12 hours in the saddle I just couldn’t face putting up my little tent, and guess what? I’ve ended up in the same one I had back on the last Scoots trip.

Any of last years Scoots team recognize this Hotel? I aways think of Hot Chocolate when I see it for some reason. No idea why...

I’ve no idea where I will be tomorrow night. I will certainly be the other side of the Tizi n Test pass, but I’ll be carefully watching mileage to find a stop over for the Scoots before pushing on hopefully to the Blue rocks if time allows. Meanwhile the old girl continues to purr on effortlessly. I need to do the usual routine checks in the morning; oil, tyre pressures etc, I might even give her a wash… then again I might not!