2muppets.com

Weblog Route Update

Posted on January 25th, 2008 by 2muppets.
Categories: 05. Western Sahara, 04. Morocco
Post Location: GPS Map

Overnight point: Laayoune, Western Sahara

0 comments.

Weblog Route Update

Posted on January 23rd, 2008 by 2muppets.
Categories: 04. Morocco
Post Location: GPS Map

Overnight point: Tan Tan Plage, Morocco

0 comments.

Life on the road…..

Posted on January 23rd, 2008 by 2muppets.
Categories: 04. Morocco
Post Location:

Well the initial excitement of the trip being underway has subsided, and we are starting to settle into our daily riding routine. We have already put over 3000kms on the clock including some extremely challenging desert riding. A number of these sort of trip websites simply focus on the sites seen and performance of their vehicles - however Dan and I are hoping to give you a deeper insight into what we are experiencing and what a “a day in the life of a Muppet” really entails.

Accommodation wise we have either been staying in cheap hostels/hotels or camping. The decision on which has largely been based around how knackered we are at the end of a day, if a campsite exists in the village, and how long we intend staying - for our rest days we have camped in order to save cash. Costs wise we have been paying between 150 and 300 Dirham for a twin room (1 Euro = 10 Dirham), camping rates vary but the most we have paid is 80 Dirham per site per night. We had expected to camp more through Morocco however due to the remote route we have chosen these facilities rarely exist. Staying at a hotel involves the usual haggle over price, seeking out the best room (furtherest from street and Mosque tower), waiting for the hot water to materialise, then sampling their “best in town” tagine. We are woken to the sound of morning prayer chants from the Mosque PA system at around 7. Throw on some jean pant and head down for breakie (usually included) which consists of flatbreads, jam, butter, coffee and an orange juice if lucky. After breakie its the rigmaral of putting all our kit on, deciding on the day’s route, which we highlight on the Michelin map and coerce into the map pockets attached to our tank bags, pack up the duffel and tank bags, strap all the bungies on, pay the man from our very fashionable trip wallet (a zip lock bag) and hit the road.

What has struck Dan and I most about being out on the road is how raw the travelling is when riding a motorbike. Your emotions and senses are constantly active with that protective isolated comfort that comes from being in a car being completely removed. The temperature, the position of the sun, the wind strength, the windblast from heavy vehicles etc all impact you through the day. On a bad day these can obviously take their toll but this rawness also means that you experience the adventure that much more intensely - you feel closer to the environment and locals, getting waves from young and old through each village (resulting in Dans creation of the “wave game”, a form of car cricket - only had a couple of innings but already he is fairing far better than his beloved Black Caps). We usually ride around 300km a day with most of this being on small asphalt roads that wind over passes, through tiny villages and alongside oasi. Of course there are also those long bland sections where the riding is utterly boring and the scenery just fades into itself - keeping sane has involved some interesting tactics: listening to our MP3 players (mine is bust and Dan takes great pleasure in nodding his helmet in time to a good Chemical Brothers beat when riding out front to rub it in!), trying to decode our dreams from the previous night - you would swear we were on a cheese diet, singing to ourselves, zig zaging the white lines, and conviluted stretching routines involving various limb and ass shaking techniques. Most towns will have a police check point on either the entrance or exit, and for the most part the cops have been extremely friendly and curtious. We did get pulled over just after crossing the Atlas on a charge of speeding with a 400 Dirham fine each deemed appropriate, however after Dan showed him his wallet that contained not a single piece of money and we explained how long the trip was and that we had spent all our money on these fancy bikes we were let off with a group photo and ciggie for the junior cop We have given up trying to explain to the cops that we are “business consultants, you know work with computers” whilst doing a concert pianist sketch with our fingers - so our new profession is truck driver, which is greated with big nods of approval.

Over this last week it has really hit home what a massive undertaking this is. I think we both had gotten carried away in the notion of riding vast distances on amazing off road routes, camping in idealic locations, and having face to face contact with the locals along the route. All of this will of course happen through the duration of the trip however up till now these moments have been fleeting and the constant pressure of making tar miles and fighting the langauge barrier had left us feeling rather dejected and somewhat daunted by the remaining 4 months. However we have stumbled across a fantastic little beach town of El Ouatia where we are camping alongside the beach, making merry with the locals, and catching some CAF (African Cup of Nations) cup football action on the telly. Our batteries have been recharched, maintenance on the bikes performed, and next it’s straight south through Western Sahara and Mauritania before hitting our first major milestone of Dakar in Senegal were we catch with some family, give the bikes a full service, and treat ourselves to a good 5 days of R&R !!

Doing this trip as a pair with no following support has seemed slightly mad to some folk, however to date it is working extremely well. We both understand each other well enough to pick up on the others mood or inclination (i.e. seeing the twinkle in Dans eye after getting his passport back at a police check point only means one thing - spoiling them with a tasty wheelie as we ride off!!). We both want the same things out of this trip, and we have identical attitudes to engaging with local people. A big plus is that we are of very similar riding ability, so when we recently hit the desert we both had the same sense of panic and accomplishment when we made it through. Things of course do get intimate living in such close contact 24 7 - the mandatory rating of your morning ablutions is shared, along with the “who’s socks smell the worst” competition. In general “yo ma se….” chirps are plentiful and we really are in good humour.

Hope this waffle helps to give you a little window into whats happening on this adventure of ours, but feel free to post up any questions or insights for us on the guestbook - we are clearly not journo’s and its easy to forget the 3rd person perspective.

Cheers
Jody

0 comments.

Updates En-route: 21st January 2008

Posted on January 21st, 2008 by 2muppets.
Categories: 04. Morocco
Post Location: GPS Map

Date: 21st January 2008.

Location: Guelmin - Morocco.

Distance travelled since last update: 835kms.

Muppets Say: Sunny and hot. Sad to be leaving the beautiful Berber region. Back to chaotic, grimey coastal towns. Hauling ass south - next stop Western Sahara.

0 comments.

Updates En-route: 19th January 2008

Posted on January 20th, 2008 by 2muppets.
Categories: 04. Morocco
Post Location: GPS Map

Date: 19th January 2008.

Location: Rissani - Morocco.

Distance travelled since last update: 80kms.

Muppets Say: Hot. Unrideable tracks and dangerously low on water meant a change in plan and an early exit out of the desert. A fantastic adventure in hindsight and even though at times we were lost in the desert the riding was brilliant!! Must press on South now.:-)

0 comments.

Ships of The Desert

Posted on January 19th, 2008 by 2muppets.
Categories: 04. Morocco
Post Location: GPS Map

With our Mauritanian visas finally in our pockets, Jody and I left Rabat on the 16th of January, all too eager to see the real Morocco; the Berber regions.

We had two long days of riding to reach the desert - passing through some of the most varied terrain that either Jody or I had ever encountered. This place should be a compulsory field trip for geologists; green plains change to heavily wooded foothills, the foothills becoming rocky mountain passes, in turn opening up to vast snowy plateaus, before plunging again down Oasi filled Oued (river) canyons - a sensory overload which combined with the temperature changes (warm to freezing to hot again) left us variously shivering, sweating and grinning ear to ear!

Arriving in Erfoud on the afternoon of the 17th, we hastily began our preparations for the desert the next day. Anyone who has ever changed a motorcycle tyre, in particular to a Michelin Desert tyre and rimlocks, will attest to what a crap job this is. Aided by a spotlight rigged up in the hotel we treated ourselves to, and a few beers that we were lucky enough they were licensed to sell, we quickly had the job done in some 4 hours or so of misery, cursing and sweating! Ha ha, hopefully not a job that we’ll have to do too often (touch wood)!

Finally, on the 18th, we rode into the desert for the first time, and it was everything I expected it to be and then some… All the cliched descritions are apt - it is relentless, neverending, and holyshit is it dry!

The trip that we had planned was to ride from Erfoud until the roads ended and the track started, past Erg Chebi (Morocco’s biggest dunes), before following the Piste Principal from Merzouga to M’Hamid, around 270km of piste in total. The reality however was to be quite different…

We made good progress for most of the morning, covering good pistes, past regular Auberges, or “camping hotels”. Some sort of human presence was regular and abundant, access to water was a given, and we were having the times of our lives, despite the odd sand induced fall. At around lunchtime things started to go slightly awry, when we reached a point where seemingly the track stopped, and the real desert began. Put simply, the track dead ended into 6kms of dunes; dunes that neither of us had any experience of riding, dunes that looked just about impossible on a heavily loaded bike, dunes that meant the “Piste Principal” would soon become a distant longed for memory!

We consulted with a local, checked the Tracks4Africa routes on the GPS, and made the decision that rather than turning back, we would push on with a longer, round about route that would take us around the uncrossable sables (yes, we finally learnt the French word for dunes!). We headed off into the hills, the first bad decision, and one that would be compounded by further bad decisions that by nightfall would find us in the middle of nowhere, vainly trying to follow tracks that either dissappeared or eventually went the wrong way, burning precious fuel and energy, and stupidly, foolishly, idiotically we were also low on water.

As it turned out, right from the concept stages of the planned trip things were doomed. We hadn’t consulted anybody on the type of terrain that we’d be covering, and when the locals had told us that the piste would be very difficult if not impossible to traverse by motorcycle, particularly a heavily loaded one, we’d confidently patted our bikes and said something like “KTM, the ship of the desert! No problem!”, assuming that they were trying to make some Dirhams out of us for the 4×4 guided tours that they all peddle. We’d looked at the map, and surmised that we were following a river, and that wells were numerable, so had only taken in 4.5 litres of water between us. And lastly, we’d trusted that GPS navigation was as straight forward on the pistes as it is on normal roads. Not so, it turns out that dunes move!

Anyway, back to nightfall… Despite our precarious predicament spirits in the camp that night were the highest of the trip thus far. We burnt prickly bush and went dry bush hunting, and made jokes about being “a bit parched” over our 2 minute noodle and sardine sandwiches. Our biggest gripe that night was that there was a nearly full moon on our first night in the desert - no bloody stars! We sent cheerful texts from the Sat phone so no one would worry, and rationed ourselves to one cup of water after dinner each.

Morning broke and Jody wanted to go cross country to the nearest camp that we could see on the GPS - 17kms in a straight line from our location. Only problem is that there’s no travelling in a straight line over this terrain, with rocky mountain ranges, rock fields, and sables between us and our new goal. The end result was that we quickly abandoned that plan, and Jody agreed that we’d do best to head back to real civilisation as directly as possible, using the GPS tracks as guidance. This alone is not as straight forward a task as it sounds, given the myriad of criss crossing paths that are available to take, and the aforementioned shifting dunes.

With almost no water left, a searing hot day, and little progress made toward the road, we were both starting to get a little concerned about spending another night in the desert by late morning. Funny thing about having no water in the desert - it’s all you can think about! Queue our nights in shining armour - a couple of Berber chaps on a little Yamaha motorbike. A chat about directions, and a chance question from Jody about water, and it turned out that we were no more than 150 metres from a well! Without them leading us directly to the well, we’d never have seen it, and we gladly handed them the last of our reserve fuel in thanks. We’d have given them a whole tank at that point!

With the drama over we had ourselves a bit of a party at the well - more instant noodles and some green tea were whipped up in short order as we filled up our water bags. The day’s frustrations didn’t end there, and navigation out of the desert continued to be difficult, but at 6 o’clock that night, 2 very weary Muppets arrived in Rissani - slightly older but much wiser than when we started the day before!

All in all it was an adventure that we were fortunate enough to get away with as lightly as we did given the decisions that we were making - definite lessons learnt. The most positive thing was the bikes; they never missed a beat despite some very hard riding in dusty, sandy and hot conditions. Just the sort of thing we’d told ourselves these Ships of the Desert were made for. We just need to sort out the Muppets riding them!!!

Take a look at the gallery link on the right for further pics of the desert adventures. Below are some video clips to give an indication of the riding conditions.

It was faster in real life.mpg

Go little piggy.MPG

Jody confusing ambition with ability.avi 

Cheers

Dan

0 comments.

Updates En-route:18th January 2008

Posted on January 18th, 2008 by 2muppets.
Categories: 04. Morocco
Post Location: GPS Map

Date: 18th January 2008

Location: Morocco Desert

Distance travelled since last update: 120kms.

Muppets Say: Hot as Hell! Camping alongside piste. Super tough riding. Two small falls each. Happy as Larry.

0 comments.

Updates En-route: 17th January 2008

Posted on January 17th, 2008 by 2muppets.
Categories: 04. Morocco
Post Location: GPS Map

Date: 17th January 2008.

Location: Erfoud Morocco.

Distance travelled since last update: 320kms.

Muppets Say: Followed the Oued Ziz past oasis and into the desert. Sand tyres on at our hotel ready to hit the piste!

0 comments.

Updates En-route: 16th January 2008

Posted on January 16th, 2008 by 2muppets.
Categories: 04. Morocco
Post Location: GPS Map

Date: 16th January 2008.

Location: Midelt Morocco.

Distance travelled since last update: 460kms.

Muppets Say: Coastal sun to snowy mountains. Crossed the Atlas Mountains. Simply breathtaking scenery. Cold as a witch’s nipple!

0 comments.

On African Soil!

Posted on January 14th, 2008 by 2muppets.
Categories: 04. Morocco
Post Location: GPS Map

Well we have left Europe and are finally into Africa. We are currently sitting in a very wet and cold Rabat, the capital of Morocco. We decided to bomb straight down to Rabat and get our Mauritana visas given the recent issues in the country - unfortunately the embassies have been shut since getting here on Thur on account of their new year festivities. Today we managed to submit our applications and should be ready for collection at 3pm tomorrow. The plan is to head east to Fez then on to the Atlas mountains for some much needed serenity and off road action - the oasis and Kasbars beckon!

On Mauritania - we have spoken to a number of fellow travellers and contacts at the SA embassy, and the consensus is that it is safe but to take extra precautions such as travel in convoy where possible, stick to the main coastal road, and waste no time in getting to the Senegal border.

The trip from Malaga into Morocco certainly turned out to be an interesting one, I for one did not have my best day. Soon after leaving the hotel I realised i had left our toiletries behind and given our frustrations with Spanish roads decided to press on. 20km further on towards the ferry departure point of Algeciras I ran out of petrol on the side of the highway, the service station we were aiming for being 600m ahead. Dan managed to make the station and fill up our stove fuel bottle for me, however finding a route back to me proved more challenging with the trusty Zumo and one ways meaning a 20km cross country expedition - a good laugh was had. Upon getting some local currency at the port I promptly left my credit card behind, only realising half way across the straight of Gibraltar. On reaching the border between the Spanish enclave of Cueta and Morocco I opted to use the services of a local ‘fixer’ - a decision that saved time but certainly not Dirhams!

Morocco has been a country of contrasts for us so far. Our first night stop was in Tetouan where Mohammed the fixer sorted us out with a clean cheap hostel, we then went for a tour of the old town with its tight white washed walls and chaotic markets. For the first time on the trip it felt like we were exploring the real inner workings of vibrant African town. Part of the ‘tour’ was a visit to a Berber carpet exhibition. This ‘demonstration’ by the very friendly mint tea pouring Berber spokesman quickly became a hard sell with the ‘I write my price, you write your offer’ game being played out. The carpets are of great quality and carrying a small one to sit and camp on did come recommended by other bikers. Dan did some hard core negotiations and got us 2 small ones at a respectable price, I however found one that really took my fancy as a pressie for my folks - having paid substantially less than I would of in Rands but I still suspect a sizeable mark-up we left the market slightly shell shocked and very eager to ditch the attentions of our fixer (who I am sure made some tidy kick backs from our activities)!

After not the greatest start to the African escapades we had a simply fantastic second day down to Rabat. The country side opened to reveal rolling green hills, windy little roads, super friendly locals, and a country that is ripe for exploring. Dan and I having great fun out on the road taking regular breaks - often greeted with families plonking their little kiddies on the bikes and having a broken conversation between our very poor French and their equally poor but eager English. Unforunately all to soon we hit the familiar chaos of a large city and its sprawling inhabitants. The coastal road from Kenitra into Rabat was a particular highlight, dual carriage way with 3 dotted lines for lanes…the middle lanes it seemes is used by both directions of traffic for overtaking with whoever has the largest vehicle / balls taking priority !!! We have set up camp just outside of Rabat in Sale which is occupied by loads of campervan folk….a crazy club of older European folk using the most of their kids inheritance. A particular couple Andy and Lynn have been extremely helpful with the visa and travel info, and most importantly pointed us in the direction of a supermarket that stocks beers !!! See www.odyssee-reve.com for details of their trip.

Our camping skills are coming along nicely with us (Dan mostly - his marriage CV is looking good) rustling up a very tasty cous cous salad. The campsite fortunately has a western loo but only a cold shower so cleaning activities have been rather sparse! We have been killing time waiting for visas by taking walks into the old Medina and short hops up the coast on the bikes. Speaking of the bikes we have turned them from bright KTM orange into only slightly less bright ‘duct tape’ silver - this is an attempt to make them and us look less valuable and protect them in the inevitable spill…how effective this is remains to be seen, our spares box is now short a roll of duct tape!

So with any luck the rain stops soon, the campsite cat stops sneaking into our tents, the visas are issued tomorrow, and we can be back on the open road doing our Ponch and John (CHiPs) impressions !!!

Thanks again for all the supportive guestbook entries and text messages, really means allot to us both - sorry we cant reply personally to every mail but our thoughts are with you. In terms of contacting us unfortunately you cannot send a standard cell text / sms to the sat phone, only email and calls, with email being free for you and us (however limited to first 160 characters). The sat phone details are listed in an earlier post.

Beslama
Jody

0 comments.

Older »