Once as a necessary and twice now for 'leisure' - Morocco. Much of the trip in 2014 with the GS lads was repeated here. Down to Chefchauen, same hotel, tagines, wandering through the blue old town whilst holding the urge to buy an opium pipe/leather belt/picture of a camel.
And off roading of course. The two mile ride to Dev's house at the very start of the trip pretty much immediately confirmed that my bike is most definitely only designed for flat Tarmac'ed roads. Shame, as £110's worth of off roadish tyres and fitting could've been saved really. So out of curiosity and with a nod to Mick on his VFR750, up the steep rocky trail we went... As expected it was pretty harsh on me and the bike. I probably did 3-5kms and climbed a pretty high but with Sando refusing his steed to jump at Beachers Brook it gave me a timely excuse to follow him back down for a simpler day taking a dip amongst the rubbish at Aktur Falls.
Any lingering suggestion that the MTS1100s could be used as a RTW bike has now been answered with a definitive no just a few days into Morocco. Like my helmet, my old Tenere actually makes better sense from here outwards. Both are fine for these conditions as travel above 60mph is rare due to traffic/animals/pedestrians and the road conditions. For most of Africa I'd have paid for roads like Morocco's with my own fingers but here, I was more concerned at what was happening to my poor back. Ouch. A long days riding loop saw us into
Ketama the hashish capital of Morocco. It's rough. Not poverty on an Indian or Ulan Bator scale but pretty shit all the same. Some previous reports of thrown rocks were spotted and now confirmed by Sando with no direct hits thankfully. Things quickly change from waves and smiles from the villages to whistles and hand gestures for hashish/money/stop here.
Eventually though, of course you have to stop. For us it was outside a very plush looking hotel with 10' walls and huge iron gates to keep the outside mob out. Not for the first time for me a local that was either a nutter or just high wanted to cause a nuisance. Tricky these situations as should you defend yourself with force you'll be met with the entire local population very quickly.
Fortunately on this occasion firstly a car park attendant intervened and when that didn't work a huge security guy from the hotel planted a right hander firmly on the money once we'd become his customers. As we rode into the maximum security car park last I saw was the poor guy being dragged across the road towards the gutter.
We cleaned up, dined like kings and planned our escape back to our loved ones...
Any lingering suggestion that the MTS1100s could be used as a RTW bike has now been answered with a definitive no just a few days into Morocco. Like my helmet, my old Tenere actually makes better sense from here outwards. Both are fine for these conditions as travel above 60mph is rare due to traffic/animals/pedestrians and the road conditions. For most of Africa I'd have paid for roads like Morocco's with my own fingers but here, I was more concerned at what was happening to my poor back. Ouch. A long days riding loop saw us into Ketama the hashish capital of Morocco. It's rough. Not poverty on an Indian or Ulan Bator scale but pretty shit all the same. Some previous reports of thrown rocks were spotted and now confirmed by Sando with no direct hits thankfully. Things quickly change from waves and smiles from the villages to whistles and hand gestures for hashish/money/stop here.
Eventually though, of course you have to stop. For us it was outside a very plush looking hotel with 10' walls and huge iron gates to keep the outside mob out. Not for the first time for me a local that was either a nutter or just high wanted to cause a nuisance. Tricky these situations as should you defend yourself with force you'll be met with the entire local population very quickly.
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