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Overland with James

December 2016 - May 2017
A 156-day adventure by Overland with James Read more
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  • 33footprints
  • 16countries
  • 156days
  • 150photos
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  • 7.5kmiles
  • 1.3kmiles
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  • Overland with JamesOverland with James
    Day 12

    Bilbao

    December 12, 2016 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    So, I've arrived in Bilbao. After freezing to death riding in the UK I must say I'm enjoying spring like temperatures of 15 degrees. Bilbao is great!

    A few revelations so far;
    1) British are the worst drivers! I had to "sprint" across a petrol station and bang on the side of a van to bring to the attention of said white van man's bovine mind that he was about to reverse over my bike at great pace. He stopped with about 8 inches to spare.
    2) I can declare that I'm not seasick. The journey from Portsmouth to bilbao was a tad rough. It says a lot that when I was in bed I was sliding from one end to the other as the boat rocked. Sadly it didn't have its own radio station or any of the other perks.
    3) I shouldn't pack the bike in such a way that it requires a polevault to mount it and enduring cramp to dismount.    Read more

  • Overland with JamesOverland with James
    Day 17

    Barcelona

    December 17, 2016 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    Hello from Barcelona. Been having a great time here, the city is so beautiful and the people are great. Sad to leave but time to go for the ferry to Morocco. I've been playing about with my new camera hence the picsRead more

  • Overland with JamesOverland with James
    Day 19

    Africa!!!!!!

    December 19, 2016 in Morocco ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    So Barcelona was great, the ferry to Morocco was not.

    I've concluded that old Italian ferries make the perfect solution for prison overcrowding. Once you're on board there is no level of repentance that will save you from an interminable wait for your release back into society. After 27 hours of sitting on the floor and 40 hours without sleep I was primed to face my first bureaucratic and chaotic border formality.

    Needless to say that when I arrived at my hotel at 1.30 at night I was very much looking forward to a good night sleep. The owner of my hotel was patiently waiting for me, upgraded my room for free, offered to share his dinner with me and generally restored my spirits. And in the morning I was greeted to this fantastic view across the straights of Gibraltar to Tarifa. All is well in the world again    Read more

  • Overland with JamesOverland with James
    Day 21

    Blue walls, great views and ox penis

    December 21, 2016 in Morocco ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    I'm just leaving the beautiful city of Chefchaouen, known for it's blue painted medina. It's a very photogenic place and it's also quite nice that the medina is equally set up for tourists and locals.

    It also turns out that Chefchaouen is the global capital for hash production and supplies most of Europe. The effect of this on the town seems strangely non-existent. E.g. there are no Mexican drug wars. The only downside is the rather persistent dealers, that and the odd person in the hostel who's been there a month and haven't moved, apart from to get more hash or possibly wash.

    Anyway, onto the click bait. Another guy and I decided to go out to a recommended restaurant. We look at the menu, and each line up a tasty tagine. We order to find out there is no tagine available, we try a second choice....not available. So we ask what is available and are given about 4 options, mostly offal , with one described as 'sinew'. Now I thought that this didn't sound appetising and that they were probably underselling it, so I asked for an explanation of what sinew is. The answer of ox penis took me by surprise. Maybe sinew is a better menu description after all! So my options are limited, apart from I can have any feasible organ availbale. I chose the ox penis with chick peas and can report it is both tasteless and texture less, it's kind of like eating a softer, flavourless wine gums. Not offensive, but not particularly desirable either. Anyway I'm of to Fes now, determined to get my tagine.    Read more

  • Overland with JamesOverland with James
    Day 24

    Fes

    December 24, 2016 in Morocco ⋅ 🌙 9 °C

    Well firstly it's a bit warmer now I'm not in the mountains. It's not generally that cold at night c.9 degrees, but most traditional Moroccan places don't have heating, so it soon feels cold.

    Secondly Fes is the tightest medina I've ever seen, the place is an absolute maze with loads of dead ends. It'd be rubbish to be the postman. What's really nice though is that most of the 9000+ alleys are lived in by locals. I met Dan Hui and Gabriel in the hostel and we went out one day just to get lost and see what we would find. We succeeded quite easily and tried to walk into someone's house accidentally. We got stopped by the neighbour only to be invited into their 400 year old riad with amazing carved wood and plaster work. The same day we went to the Tannery and saw the men at work dying and curing leather. It turns out that to make leather you need an ample supply of coloured piss and bird shit, and it smelt of it. I have no idea how anyone could do this all day long.

    While also in Fes I realised that i had no insurance even though I had gone through at least 4 layers of checks when my ferry arrived into morocco. So I set off to get some and discovered my French is woefully inadequate, but I found the place eventually, but it was closed for lunch... for 2.5 hours. So off I went for lunch. Next thing I see is a 125cc bike going down a 3 Lane boulevard in Fes about 30 mph, but with an old lady in a wheelchair holding onto the back being towed. Unfortunately I couldn't get the camera out quick enough. I'm still puzzled to know how they handled the roundabout at the end of the road.

    But the best thing about Fes was the riad I was staying at run by Youssef a very friendly guy and the guys I met there and shared some good times. Thanks to Gabriel, Dan Hui, Hillary, Andrea and Mike. It turns out that morocco attracts a different group of travelers. We spent hours playing cards and just chilling sharing stories. I also learnt a Russian card game called darjit. So stereotypically Russian, the game has no winners, but you just don't want to lose and it's based on rounds of attack and defence.

    Photos
    1&5) Tannery
    2) typical Fes street
    4) a massive overlanding truck I came across. I thought I might have packed too much stuff but now I feel underprepared, especially as it had a motorbike attached to the back.
    6) Gabriel surveying a huge cous cous meal after our wander around Fes.    Read more

  • Overland with JamesOverland with James
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    1
    Day 26

    A Marrakechy Christmas

    December 26, 2016 in Morocco ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Onto another famous Moroccan city, but not before taking the mountain pass to make sure I can say I've seen snow this Christmas.

    However this scenic route meant I arrived in Marrakech just as it was getting dark on Saturday, almost the busiest possible time. So far I had been relying on the trusty 'maps with me' app. It had every single alley of Fes in it, all offline ready for me to use at anytime. In fact in Fes it helpfully told me what was a street and what wasn't. All this made me feel good about picking a hostel in Marrakech that I could ride up to the door. You can probably see where this is going, particularly anyone who has been to Marrakech. But for those the haven't. Take a street 10ft wide, subtract 3ft from either side for the souk stalls, then in the remaining 4ft fit the population of Marrakech doing its shopping, then place me on a 3ft wide bike trying to part the waves, whilst frantically work out which direction I should be going. 45 minutes later I arrive at a location you most definitely shouldn't ride a bike to. Unfortunately the go pro was out of charge otherwise it would have been an amazing video to watch back.

    Marrakech is all hustle and bustle without my input. It's all good natured and enjoyable but I have never been so pestered in my life. It's a great experience, the whole city is just constantly trying to sell you something, even if it's just directions. The main square, jemaa el fna, is supposedly the busiest in Africa and at night it comes alive with a mix of locals are tourists. There are various food and drink stalls, but in the open bit of the square, people gather round Berber story tellers, musicians and dancers. The place just has a constant noise of people and drumbeats.

    I also went to the Bahia palace where there is a bit of quiet and you can see the best examples of the carved plaster and wood.

    Photos
    1) A local looking out of one of the windows at the Bahia palace
    2) Snow on the mountain pass
    3) More Bahia palace
    4 and 5) Jemaa el fna, the second one is taken on a long exposure so you can see how a lot of the square is busy moving around, but then there are these circles where people are standing listening to the story tellers
    6) Local takeaway    Read more

  • Overland with JamesOverland with James
    Day 32

    A long stay in Essaouira

    January 1, 2017 in Morocco ⋅ 🌙 18 °C

    Next stop is some summer sun on the beach at Essaouira and a Norfolk reunion with Pete, who has flown out to see me between Christmas and new year.

    So after a quick catch up on news, we get our priorities sorted and look for a place to show the Liverpool v Man City game. We end up in this back street bar watching the game and get speaking to a Senegalese guy called Adam. We buy him a couple of drinks as we hear about Senegal and how he is in Morocco as a musician. Through broken franglais, a couple of small beers and an hour of time it seems Adam is now our lifelong friend.  After then buying him dinner and seeing where he lives and quite firmly refusing to tell him where we are staying, we still can't decide if he is really friendly, scrounging, or a bit dodgy. After seeing him play a terrible rendition of 'jamming' by Bob Marley we decide he is mixture of the first 2 options. So harmless, but we can see that if he sees us we will not lose him for the whole day.  So for the next 3 days in Essaouira we play this ridiculous game where we pick our routes to wander based on if we can see (or are likely to see) Adam.

    I also learnt from Pete the way to deal with persistent shop owners trying to sell you stuff is to just say "je suis russe". Most of the shop owners speak Arabic, Berber, French, English, Spanish and German...but not Russian. However Pete's pasty skin allows him to pass for Russian, but for me they all just speak to me in Spanish.
     
    Finally I need to apologise to Pete as the last couple of days I was a bit rubbish having got a mild mixture of heat stroke, manflu and dodgy stomach. I finally left the picturesque but tiny town 6 days after I arrived! I never want to suffer the nervousness that is a cold / dodgy stomach mixture. Every sneeze felt like a risk!    Read more

  • Overland with JamesOverland with James
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    Day 34

    Dirt mountains

    January 3, 2017 in Morocco ⋅ 🌙 18 °C

    Having been in the cities so far,  I'm off to hunt out some mountains.  They're pretty easy to find as the various atlas ranges are as high as the alps. I went for some lowish ones while heading south. The upshot was some good riding and the learning of a few lessons.

    1) Appreciation of geography. The highest mountains in this area are about 2000m, this actually turns out to be quite high and takes longer than expected
    2) Always ask 3 people for directions! I asked the police at a crossroads which direction to take... they told me the wrong one, probably because they didn't know.

    However this detour allowed me to be inventive so I got some Dirt riding in, by cutting across between the 2 roads. 😀    Read more

  • Overland with JamesOverland with James
    Day 36

    Sahara (Western)

    January 5, 2017 in Western Sahara ⋅ ⛅ -7 °C

    I've never seen a desert before so I've been looking forward to getting to Western Sahara and seeing some drifting sand dunes.  However I've been severely disappointed, this area is totally flat gravel. It's just a bit dry.  It is an utterly featureless, boring, monotonously huge wasteland covered in litter.  This area was Spain's only African colony, and is now disputed between Morocco and a group called the Polisario. I have no idea what the appeal is, it seems to have zero economic, social or aesthetic value! On the plus side though this desolation makes for easy camping and amazing night skies.

    The Moroccan authorities spice it up though about every 70 miles by placing a roadblock and asking for a fiche (a written note of all your personal, passport and vehicle details along with your itinerary). At one of these I asked how far to the next petrol station and was told 100km. Needless to say after 140 km I have seen no petrol and the tank is empty. So the next hour goes a little like this;
    - Try to flag down first 2 cars. They speed past. This might be more difficult than I thought.
    - 10 mins later flag down third car. Taxi. I'm told there is a cafe in 3 km that might have petrol. No lift.
    - Start pushing loaded bike to cafe. Pretty tired after 1 km. Stop.
    - Realise how stupid I've been and decide it is much easier to bring petrol to the bike than the bike to the petrol. Start walking.
    - 2 Moroccans pull over and give me a lift to the cafe. No petrol. Continue lift for another 5 km to petrol station.
    - Arrive just as the petrol station is about to send a rescue truck for the bike. They'd been told about the bike by someone passing.
    - Get petrol. Get ride back in this Rescue truck.

    Now, I didn't get a photo of the truck unfortunately but let me just describe a few things about it, in the order I noticed them;
    - It's a land rover defender with a crane contraption built on the back and looks like it was one of the first ever built. Clearly British engineering was good back then.
    - Once we start moving I realise I'm not wearing a seatbelt and I'm leaning against the door, which is held closed by string. No fear though, at this point we are in 5th gear and doing about 20 to 25 mph.
    - It has an aftermarket stereo which is basically a house stereo shoved into the footwell, however I see why this is needed as the engine is so rough and loud.
    - The steering is so slack that the guy is turning the wheel 90 degrees without anything happening. Then he turns a little more and the landy swings wildly across to the other side of the road.
    - Then we get near the bike and the guy starts slowing down about half a mile before we get there. I wonder what's going on but then I look and see he is pumping the brake and barely anything is happen. His face clearly shows that this is normal. We slowly cruise to a stop, using the gravel verge for extra friction to slow us down in time.

    So now I'm refuelled, but I wonder whether I should follow the truck back to the station. I think there is a good chance I need to rescue the rescue truck!

    Off to Mauritania next.    Read more

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