• Mark Holbrook
  • Mark Holbrook

Morocco!

Petualangan 16-sehari oleh Mark Baca selengkapnya
  • Awal trip
    7 April 2025

    The Off!

    7 April, Spanyol ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    This is the Istanbul trip which didn't happen because of waiting for the fire risk to pass which became the Picos trip because there was not enough time when the rains came which has now become the Morocco trip because the road bike is pissing out coolant and if you have an adventure bike then you have to go and have an Adventure!Baca selengkapnya

  • Too Heavy!

    7 April, Spanyol ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    So when I left we had to push the bike out of the garage I rent in town....Now this is not quite as whimpish as it sounds....the garage faces on to a steep crosswise slope and it has been raining biblical like and there is lots of very horrid slippery green stuff and the local builder has established a sand store just where I would normally turn to go up the hill ...so pushing it it was and unladen it was still damn heavy. Then I loaded it....spare inner tubes.....slime....spare fuel....water....oil....toolset... everything I could think of down to an adapter to talk to the ECU. Then off I go to Algeciras with the front end feeling very light with it's new Motoz knoblies on for my adventure in Morocco. So I get to Los Barrios which is close to the port in Algeciras and turn into the hotel and park sort of crosswise on a slope....high side to my side stand. I kick down the stand and it comes out but doesn't lock...I lean and the bloody thing folds back....I just....but oh how just.... stop it falling and God it is Heavy!!!!! Doesn't bode well, My Hearties, for the great dessert adventure. Oh...and the USB charger on the bike died....well at least I have that spare somewhere.......Baca selengkapnya

  • It's breakfast Jim but not as we know it

    8 April, Maroko ⋅ 🌬 20 °C

    So no brekkers for me again, up at 6.30 to get to the ferry two hours before departure and turn the wrong way out of the hotel so a 20 minute detour making a 30 minute journey into 50 but no interest in us when we get to the port just queue which as it turned out was something of a theme.... queued for 20 minutes on the boat for passport stamping but the police weren't on the boat. Then queued again for TWO HOURS when we arrived.....still on the boat for passports. Then every official had to ask if I had a drone then I nearly got arrested because I took a photo of dozens of pickups loading in goods at customs which looked like they were just bundles of old clothes right next to customs. So I turned away from the motorway and took a back road towards Chefchaouen and almost immediately found a chemist who with no drama sorted out the fact that I had left half my pills behind then the tea shop next door gave me this which he described as an omelette.....still it was food.Baca selengkapnya

  • Really hard off road

    8 April, Maroko ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    Next time I book a hotel I will ask about the road to it......silly me to expect a hotel in Morocco to have an actual road. So back road to Chefchaouen and all good.....but a bit weird when I first saw the blue houses because Google said I was still 20 minutes from the hotel...the route turned into nice smart road up from the valley to the town....then down a not so good road then up a washed out horribly steep concrete track with exposed rebar where it had cracked and got washed out then that degenerated. I stopped to scout on foot and a Landy passed me and told me it got just a bit worse but the hotel was signposted. Then I met the earth mover........long delay while he removes the road in front of me and then puts it back....sort of.....then I pass a mosque and turn up a horrible loose section and get waved down by the Iman who tells me in French that I have to turn round....well I got here but only when I found that the earth mover had not just removed the road but also obliterated the sign.Baca selengkapnya

  • Chefchaouen

    9 April, Maroko ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    I tried to set my cameras up this morning to find a strange fault on all the DJI stuff....two different phones running the software and two different DJI cameras but same fault on both....I am forced to conclude that they have been disabled because I am in Morocco where drones....and DJI make a lot of drones...are illegal. Anyway phone still works but limited on fancy shots. This place is obviously going through a blue phase. For those interested the path came out at the spring in the Andalus area where the refugees...both Muslim and Jewish.... came after the fall of Granada. The city was built in 1200 odd as a bulwark against the Portuguese.Baca selengkapnya

  • All Change

    10 April, Maroko ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    So after the beauty of Chefchaouen I left early to struggle up the off road lane ....early so nobody would see me fall off and to reduce my chances of meeting something head on on the steepest and narrowest part and then across the Riff.....very dull day with more donkeys than I have ever seen in my life. Also, I am sorry to say, lots and lots of rubbish. Many, many men just standing doing nothing.....strange none of the women seemed to have nothing to do. Stopped for tea (without mint....I don't think I can cope with any more mint) opposite this agricultural fix it place.....should have brought my tractor.....I do wonder though what the poor donkey is having done.....Baca selengkapnya

  • All Change

    12 April, Maroko ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    So crossing the Atlas everything changed....the people are different...not yet Berber but not the same as the folk in Fes...the geology changes all the time with limestone giving way to sandstone and the weather changes to storms!!!! I found a hotel made of old containers to escape from the deluge.Baca selengkapnya

  • I need to stop going south

    13 April, Maroko ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    So the forecast for today was dreadful and it did threaten rain for a lot of the day but only broke as I arrived at Erfoud. Fabulous journey, snow on the mountains, but also a lot of water pooling everywhere which may scupper any plans I had for riding in the desert ...the mud is dreadful.Baca selengkapnya

  • Does this place rock?

    13 April, Maroko ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    So I am in a Kasbah....bit put off by the metal detector on the way in (which I failed.....have you any idea how much stuff I need to keep the Italian motorcycle happy?) but inside....in the darkest depths....there is a bar. I asked the lady serving me if I had to go to prison for two years if I drank it but she didn't find that very funny.Baca selengkapnya

  • Doing an Amanda

    14 April, Maroko ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    There are things about sand......it is meant to be dry here.....this is the Sahara after all....Algeria and Morocco fought a war here...it is called 'The Sand War' not 'The Mud War' I know this looked doubtful when I started but as Magnus Magnuson would have it, I started so I would finish. Anyway....it was very soft so I and the bike didn't break anything. Hurt my back getting it back up though.Baca selengkapnya

  • Dades

    15 April, Maroko ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    Well.....I promised Kari only this morning I would not attempt the road linking the two gorges.....I needn't have bothered it has been washed completely away at the Dades end.

  • Anti-Atlas

    16 April, Maroko ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    Well after my embarrassment at falling off in the muddy sand I thought I should go and have another look at the Sahara so I am on my way south again and crossing the Anti-Atlas....the views are amazing but hard to capture the peaks continuing into the distance.Baca selengkapnya

  • Ait Ben Haddou

    18 April, Maroko ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    More films shot here than you can shake a stick at...all the way from Lawrence of Arabia to Jewel of the Nile and Game of Thrones. Now in danger due to damage from September 2023 earthquake