Our first riding day is focussed on entering Marokko. We arrived on time at the ferry and started the boarder-procedure. Today everything was very accurate, and that cost time. First Impressions gave us an idea of the upcoming days.  A bit late and tired we arrived at chefchouen, the blue city in the rif mountains. A warm welcome tea and an excellent dinner made everything perfekt.  A good start…..

nightlife )

A few "organisational" things needed to be done, sorting out the many motorcycles on this small parking lot in high downtown Chefchaouen. Then we could start our day of riding south to Azrou. A first impression of Moroccan life gave us our coffee stopp in Ouezzane. People watching is always agreat thing to do.

The big highlight of today was the visit of the Roman ruines of Volubilis. And another curiosity was the town of Ifrane, the so-called "Moroccan Switzerland". With its tilted roof tops, which reminds you of Swiss houses, it gives the visitor the strangest impression if you see Moroccans running around instead of Swiss people. But the amazing pastry finally convinced us of the similarities.

In Azrou we found our really nice hotel with an unexpectedly excellent dinner.

3 rd day: In the morning fair weather and we started our tour to see the nationalpark of Azrou and Ifrane with the famous cedar forest. Hard to imagine that forests like this covered the Atlas mountains all over in the past. We tried to get the Maki monkeys familiar with the KTM 1290 Adventure but no way today. As an early lunch we had excellen tajin and chicken in a small town, maroccean cuisin as it is. Than the "liason" straight roads villages and the boys coming out from scool waiving us. A mountain road brought us finally to our next Stop, a fine beer t the terrace takling aubout the ride............

Out of the country's center, over the Middle Atlas mountains, and into Marrakech. That was basically the programme for our fourth riding day. And it was just another beautiful day in this westernmost Arabic country with its very warm and welcoming people. 

After our visit of the Ouzud waterfalls, along the way we found a really nice and small road in the Moroccan neck of the woods. The hills and mountains were coloured in a mix of beige, brown, and red soil, dotted with some low growing green trees. What a relaxing ride through an area that had nothing more to offer than a soothing, laid-back athmosphere. One of these undescribably beautiful riding days Morocco is famous for.

Lunch time for the monkeys ... 

At the Ouzud waterfalls

... and lunch time for us now, too

Our charming Hotel in Marrakech

Sabina, Karl, Christian and me (Franz) started the loop to the "skiresort" at 08:30. we got easy out of town and got soon to the high Atlas Mountainrange. Our route took us up to almost 2700m, 9 C and fair wather.Any other wishes? Some great viewpoints and then back to Marrakech to join the Restday with great lunch and dinner and cool swim in the pool.

While the riders had their fun in the mountains, the remaining group members went to tour the city of Marrakech together with our very knowledgeable guide Ahmed. First we went to see the Kutubya Mosque, the main mosque of Marrakech. Afterwards we were meandering through the alleyways of the Marrakech souqs to end up in a museum that told us all about the life style of an Arab family in a so-called Riad. The visit in the herbal shop is always very interesting and it gives you an insight of the Moroccan herbal natural medicine. Along the way though we got so thirsty that we couldn't walk past this juice stand. The poor guy had to press the fresh pommegranate juice for all us 12 people. He said he would go and get an appointment for an arm massage afterwards

The following visit of the Jaques Majorelle house and the Yves Saint Laurent muesum was even new for me after having been touring Morocco so many times. 

Our dinner at one of the food stands at the Jamma Al Fna nicely rounded our great rest day in Marrakech up.

this is majorelle blue . or (tenere xt 600)

Today we left the big city of Marrakech again and were headed towards a different climate zone in Morocco. The High Atlas Mountains were our today's riding challenge. Once we got over the Tichi'n'Tichka pass, though, we were immersing ourselves into Berber country and their stunningly coloured mountain areas. A visit of the famous Glaoui Kasbah and a typical Berber lunch made us almost feel like Berbers. At least as famous is the village of Ait Benhaddou, our last highlight of the day. It already served as a film setting for many well-known movies.

Starting our ride today, we continued learning more about the film industry in this country. In this part of Morocco, the landscape and its colours are already so perfect that it doesn't need to be changed a lot, hence, its popularity with the film industry. The next town, Ouarzazate has the famous Atlas Studios, which we took the chance to take a closer look at during a guided visit. The highlight of the afternoon was the ride into the Dades Gorge with its often photographed switchbacks.

Apparently, we have quite a few talented actors in our group

A well-deserved coffee stop along the way

Approaching the switchbacks of the Dades Gorge.

Our fast Christian caught in the act

These rock formations are called the "brains of Morocco"

We arrived on time at Merzouga at our hotel, changed from MC gear to Touareg gear and got on our camels. Sunset in the dunes of Erg Chebbi and dinner in the Berber Camp and finally open fire, music and dance. We all slept well in our tents an got up again to see the colours of the sunset. Our camels brought us home to the hotel and we can enjoy our restday in the hotel, and the visit of the 4X4 maroccean museum. Have a look!

After a nice Restday in the desert we know that it is our turning point and we have to go back to the north. It will be the longest riding day by milage. 475 km to go to Fes.  We started at 08:00 in the morning right with the sunrise. We were lucky, good roads, beautiful sceenery, and low traffic. The last half hour lead us all through the city of Fes (1.4 mio people)  and we lost nobody. Right on time we were at our hotel and had a Casablanca on the terrasse overlooking the medina.

After Breakfast our local guides Ahmed and Mohammed took us to the medina of Fes, unesco world heritage, oldest city, and oldest niversity in the world. Handcraft and oriental food everywere! just see the pictures, there are coming more....

tajine, I can't get enough )

Wow, this will be our last riding day and on the evening we will be full off new impressions and stories to tell.