12th June
After a breakfast of French bread, fresh orange juice and coffee we set off around 8.45am, refuelling at the local petrol station - Abdul Jaleel fills up Pete's XR for him - riding the bike to the station in flip flops - ouch! We ride up the valley through a verdant river plain and onwards and upwards into the mountains. The colours dramatically change to all possible shades of browns and copper with massive jutting outcrops on the sides of the piste - it was here that I nearly overshoot a corner watching the fantastic scenery - again the pace is too fast for me so I slow down so I can take it all in and feel safer with my riding and more importantly within my riding abilities. I completely lose sight of even the dust trails of Pete and Paul as they set a furious pace trying to make up some lost time - we should have been away by 8.00am. Beautiful purple flowered Oleander bushes grow out of the side of the rock on either side of several gorges we cross - there are terraces either side planted with wheat and even cactus , whole families are out on the hillsides threshing wheat by hand , we pass a woman on the trail carrying a massive bundle of fresh mint on her back. I stop and try take a photo of a couple of girls leading a donkey carrying brush but they turn their faces away as soon as they spot the camera.
Most of the girls we pass are wearing brightly coloured clothes and headscarves and melt my heart ( I'm such a romantic ) with their timeless beauty and innocence - I wish I could stop but I guess they probably would have run away. The piste climbs steadily to a village ( Assarag ) where we stop for a refreshing mint tea. We sit in a small unmarked house and the local kids gather in the doorway to watch us - chattering excitedly. We soon head off up the trail which becomes increasingly soft and sandy which holds Paul up but Peter and I blast off up the mountainside - again I feel more at home on the 'soft stuff' - too much maybe as I almost 'overcook' it on a nasty right hand bend which has an extremely long drop off on the left down the mountainside. I wonder about Paul who is following on behind. Pete and I wait for Paul at the top ridge for what seems like a long time and I again wonder about 'that bend'. Eventually we see Pauls dust trail in the distance and he soon joins us up on the ridge and Yes! he had almost gone off at the bend and had to drop the bike to stop going over the edge - again no injuries but this time a bent offside footpeg negated the use of the kickstart lever, this meant bump starts for the rest of the day until Pete could replace it. We carry on with the large mountains of the High Atlas all around us , their edges softened by the heat haze.
On the plain
Eventually we reach the other side of this range and the scenery becomes more barren and desolate with lots of tight bends on the trail and dry river crossings - some of which are strewn with vivid blue coloured rocks. It is here I start to feel extremely mentally tired and start to make stupid mistakes on the bends , and on the river beds I start to lose concentration and end up struggling to maintain control of the bike. It is with a sigh of relief that I find Pete and Paul stopped talking to a couple in a 4X4 - I park the bike and throw myself down at the side of the trail to try regain some energy - however this doesn't last, as a brief dust storm flares up out of nowhere and threatens to engulf us , so we quickly get on the bikes and off again. The terrain here seems volcanic with strange formations on either side of the piste but not much time to look as we have to get a move on and make good speed to Agouim where the 'boys' are waiting for us . As its around 2pm by now we decide to break for lunch so the boys shoot off to buy some meat - we sit outside a local cafe and the owner barbecues it for us over a small clay bowl at the side of the road - behind me sits a cows head perched on a shelf peering out of a black plastic bag. Its great to get our boots off and relax after the previous 135km dash on piste but as we are all tired and also running late , we elect to blast back to Ouarzazate mainly on tarmac - the allure of the hotel pool is a very attractive vision by now.
We set off down the valley which is shaped like the set of a western film complete with square topped hills and mountains , and turn off on an extremely rocky and bumpy section of piste to Ait Benhaddou - this is the spectacular Kasbah and village where they shot some of Lawrence of Arabia. We are invited into a shop by its owner who speaks English and are gives glasses of mint tea with a hope that we might buy some of his goods but we explain that "today we aren't shopping" - however this doesn't put him off and out comes a locked chest full of beautiful Berber and Tuareg jewellery.
Shop owner - Ait Benhaddou
We set off again on a short bit of tarmac and then on to a fast section of piste where Pete and Paul 'blat' on again leaving long trails of dust in their wake. Another short section of tarmac brings us back to the Palmerie hotel where Paul and I strip off in super fast time and dive straight into the pool - bliss!!!! - blisters on hands and feet - ouch! and a bad case of 'numb bum syndrome' but hey! its well worth the pain just to travel in this majestic and magical country.
Mileage: 180km piste / 80km tarmac