Desert

Second victim of Morocco's gastronomy from our group but not that serious again so no change in our plans. Probably a crappy  tea we got offered that I wisely didn't try. I start wondering who's next...

5:30 am we entered a Toyota Land Cruiser to watch the sunrise at the desert dunes. Before I continue commenting the experience I have to say that this car didn't miss a beat going up and down the dunes with 6 people in even on these tires:

My first time in the desert so as you can easily imagine I went speechless. I made it to the top of a dune hiking on this soft sand which of course worth the exhausting effort.

Enjoy:

Halfway up the dune:

My hair gives you an idea about how windy it was up there:

At the end this is how much sand you still have in your shoes after the 5th attempt to empty them:

Merzouga

We just had the first of the gang with stomach problems but fortunately nothing serious so we all ended up in Merzouga. The N13 crosses the desert and we made our first stop at the oasis Tafilalet. Really beautiful thing - I've never seen one in my life.

The top moment though was by far this:

I always wanted to picture a bike of mine at the Sahara and finally my v-strom was the lucky one to step its rubbers on that amazing landscape:

Fes - Errachidia

Here I am leaving my suite @ Fes having no idea what we would see ahead:

We took the R503 to make it to Midelt. The route was pleasantly fast and gave us a chance to picture some of those bare houses in the middle of nowhere:

As I was doing around 80 km/h on a straight when suddenly I saw gravel ahead. I said "Oh well...not the first time..." so continued like that but when my front tire stepped on it I realised it was a fresh deep layer of  3A gravel for tarmac ready to swallow me and my bike. The front started shaking like crazy, I was full of luggage and 20 lt of fuel with VERY strong wind coming from the right so imagine how it felt. Fortunately I managed to stop on the right before falling and jumped off the bike fast to warn the other guys (I was leading at this point).

We asked the guys working there and they told us that the nightmare is for the next 5 kms so we started again as no better option was open for us. Lots of trucks, gravel, crazy wind...terrible parenthesis.

We made it faster than expected to Midelt so we decided to spend in the overnight @ Errachidia instead. The route was getting more and more exotic and desertish so finally I got a taste of the real Moroccan landscape as the North looked often familiar to me (places like these can be found in Crete for example).

Here's my rear rim after  all that dirt:

No complains as right now we all chill by the pool:

Fes

With the streets being less crowded and the help of a guide we had a better day walking around Fes today. The heat is still strong (close to 40s) but most of the streets are so narrow that the sun can't make it's way to you. Less mule and donkey shit this time which allowed us to enjoy smelling most of the products for sale at the old Medina. Not the smell of things like these though:

Mules 'n donkeys struggle to carry all that cargo through the tiny backstreets:

There's also this way to carry stuff:

Or you can just put it on your head like the guy in the back:

If you want to make Celine Dion jealous of your wedding get this stuff for yours:

We were unlucky to see this place for dyeing leather renovated after 1000 years...

...but lucky enough to see this in full work:

That lady lying in that mosque gives you a spot on idea of Morocco's muslim slowness:

I couldn't miss the oldest university of the world which unfortunately is also a mosque:


I said NARROW:

Chefchaouen - Fes

I couldn't believe my eyes when I read the forecast before our breakfast at Chefchaouen. We were about to face 40 Celsius  on our way to Fes and unfortunately so it was. My hottest May EVER. After the first kms all the way it felt like riding with a dozen of hair dryers aiming at me. You open the visor to get some air and it just gets worse. Nightmare. But there's worse and that's the accidents on the way so you come out of a corner and you may face things like this:

Talking about corners, the route we followed to Fes on the N8 had lots of them and nice ones but the terrible tarmac didn't allow that much of fun as it often felt like soap on marble crossing some awful towns on the way like Bab Berrad and Ketama. Part of the countryside is quite beautiful and I will never forget the exceptional smell of pine trees and eucalyptus that kept my helmet open with a big smile on my face.

We stopped on the way a couple of times to fight the dehydration. In one of them I met the least automatized toilet:

Yep...you have to fill that tiny basket and flush the thing by yourself.

Moroccans were quite attracted by our "exotic" bikes and wanted to have pictures of them:

A very sweet moment was @ Fes when our dear friend Susan offered some tiny kangaroos straight from Australia to a group of schoolgirls that seemed to suprise (and upset?) the woman who escorted them. They were so cute and thankful all the way till we missed them from our eyes:

 Our arrival at Fes was short of a nightmare in the heart of a heatwave, the city is chaotic maze and except the kind locals out of the touristic business everyone else is attacking you to sell you accommodation, hashish etc. I guess that hashish thing is going to follow me all the way as for them every long haired guy like me looks like a joint maniac to them. It was similar in Chefchaouen but Fes is much worse on people harassing you: They are crazy overpriced and they never show you what you ask them for - instead they lead you to some brother's cousin's place where they expect you to be stupid enough to get ripped off. They are so greedy and stupid that they didn't get a cent from our pockets though we'd happily leave them some money.

The hotel we finally stayed had no single rooms (I'm the single of the group) so I had to negotiate the price for one of their suites and here's what I've got:

Some guys might like "exotic" places like Fes but the part we managed to see last night was a dirty mess of tiny backstreets so narrow that you can't even take a photo. Interesting but not really my taste especially with the harassment described above. We didn't have that much of fun.

Gotta have my breakfast now - see you later :)