Wednesday, April 12, 2017 | Ted Goslinga / Angela | Africa
One by one the tourmembers are arriving in our starthotel in Malaga, in the beautiful motorcycle area of Andalusia, to begin the first Morocco adventure of 2017. The transport with the bikes has safly arived and bikes are all prepared and ready to go.
Also today tourguide Ted went with Edith and Mario from Switzerland to downtown Malaga to do the Edelweis guided city tour.. A perfect temperature acoompanied us during this beautiful day in the city.. After the end of the tour, all guests have arrived in the meantime and so the welcome brifing and handover could take place. All went smooth and everybody was happy with his bike of choice
After a nice welcome dinner everyone went up to their room to prepare for the first riding day!
With nice sunshine but a fairly cold temperature the Morocco group started of right after the morning briefing. First part on the highway everybody could adapt to th!eir bikes and the roads. But soon after leaving the highway the joy switch was on! Great roads and curves up to Ronda where we had our very first coffestop. Then back to the Mediterranenan to pay a quick visit to the Rock of Gibraltar.. The weather was very much cooperating so we had very nice views. A last look at the Rock and then quick direction Algueciras to catch the late afternoon ferry which brought us down to Ceuta. A quick stop for duty free booze and then the day was done
After an early breakfast we took of to the bordercrossing with Morocco. Everything went relatively smooth so in two hours we were entering Morocco. Weather is awesome today and at our coffeestop in Mdimq we already fully enjoyed the warmth of the African continent. After everybody has pulled Moroccon money out of the ATM,s we followed our way down to the blue city of Chefchaouen. Entering this town is always one which open all the senses. Colourful, city noises and a lot op people. After we parked our bikes and got in to our nice ryad hotel everyone took the opportunity to stroll a bit around the souk and made some nice pictures. We ended our day with a cosy dinneer in Casa Hassan's restaurant. A nice end of a nice day!
A long and nice sleep is what most of the group had last night so everyone was very fit and eager to go into the mountain area of Morocco.
Descending from Chefchaouen and up again into the Reef mountains was quite an adventure! Here man can see the real Moroccon life in the mountains! About 60 km of curvs, sitchbacks and potholes we arrived at our coffeestop of Ksar al Kbir, where we could enjoy the melting pot of noise and colours in the main street while drinking a nice mint tea or a cafe au lait!
A easy ride through the agriculture area down south to Rabat completed the day. One more challenge was entering the hectic rush hour of Rabat, but with this group of great riders no problem whatsoever! Parking our bikes on the curbside of our hotel good on time, saved us some time to play a short visit to downtown Rabat
Under a bright blue sky we took off a bit earlier this morning , in order to be on time for the scheduled guided tour in the Hassan II mosk in Casablanca. So worked ourselves a way throught the dense morning traffic we managed to be in time at the seaside area of the beautiful mosk.
After this aboslute highlight of the day we had another one coming up, and thats the famous La Terraza restaurant inside the Tahiti beach club. We had our delicious lunch there acoompanied with a very nice outisde temperature.
Last part of the day was the fairly long stretch to Marakech where we finally arrived in the lae afternoon
A cool beer at the poolside bar and a splendid dinner concluded this wonderful day
After a nice sleep in, the group gathered in the lobby for a ride downtown with our famous tourguide Achmed. Starting out in the beautiful Bahia palace we started this beautiful day under a clear blue sky and worked our way through town. Via de herb pharmacy, the carpet shop and a nice lunch at a roof top terrace we ended up at the famous Djemna el Fnaa
In the evening we went again to this famous unesco heritage plaza to have a funny dinner at one of the stand uip restaurants
A nice ending of a beautiful day at the foot of the snowy Atlas mountains
An absolute beautiful riding it was today!. ~Under a wonderful outside temperature we left the wonderful 'red' city of Marrakech in order to cross the Atlas mountains in south eastern direction. As soon as we crossed the highest pass and made our descend down towards Telouet, it became warmer again. After a beautiful ride we arrived in telouet to have our lunch in a genuine Berber tent. After lunch the group joined Ali, a local Glaui, who showed us the remains of a former Glaui tribe kasbah house.
As soon as we finished this interesting tour, we followed our way down through a awesome mingle of coloured rockformations . At the end of this beautiful day we ended up in a Ksar (castle) where everyone experienced the beauty of this kind of buildings
In the quiet and early morning light we took off to do today the so called "route of the Kashba's`' in eastern direction from Ouarzazate to Boumalne.
The route also took us along the big film studio's and industry of Morocco. In the morning we made a stopl to take a guided tour throught the Atlas studio's . After this we rode along all the beautiful kashba's and villages along the road. Finally arrived in Boumalne, we took our bikes into the amazing Gorges du Dades where tourguide Angela was waiting with a nice picnic. After this incredible nice picnic some decided to go to the hotel to have a relaxed afternoon , others decided to ride up into the Gorge and went back later down to the hotel
Another beautiful day in paradise!
Today 's highlights are a visit to the Gorge du Thodra in th morning, and after that a ride in eastern direction towards our most souwtheastern destination of Erfoud, near the Merzouga deseert where we will have a night in the desert
The mroning took us through the awesome gorge du thodra which is in the middle real small to pass through, with beautiful views.
Then following the road through desolated desert area's we had our secon picnic of this tour, which is obviously a desert picnic. The sky was a little overcasted which mad it luckily not so hot.
A last 40 km brought us to the town of Erfoud where two tourmembers stayed in the hotel and the rest took off with tourguide Ted to the Tombouctou hotel from where we climbed on our camels and headed for our overnight stay in the berber desert camp.
Finally arrived we had a lot of fun on the campsite and the evening was concluded with an excellent tajin and salad meal prepared by our two camel boys
A wonderful evening.....to be continued
What a night! A lot of fun, good company, good food and an awesome camel ride (right Margy? )
Mario, Edith and Stefan were early and brave enough to climb the huge san dune next to our berber camp to see the sunrise.
After a refreshing tea we hopped on our camels and rode for antoher two hours back to the start hotel where we also had a very nice breakfast.
Also Edith made for her husband Mario's birthday an improvised birthday cake in the camp. Congratulations , Mario!!
In our fantastic hotel for tonight in Erfoud everybody freshed up, took a dip in the pool, had a nice massage and the majority of the group decided to go in the late afternoon for an outstanding quad ride in the sanddunes behing our hotel
What an absolute fantastic riding day we had today! Under a steady blue sky we took off a little bit earlier to swallow the 415 km long ride. An what a ride! Through the amazing Gorde du Ziz with it's countless dade palms and stunning rock formations, through the beautiful plains and mountians of the Atlas. Riding over dthe 2400m Col du Zaz pass, riding thorugh Ifrane, a.k.a the Switzerland of Morocco, having a roadside grill lunch! And all this fitting in one day. By the end of the day we entered one of the four kings' cities of Morocco: Fes! An azaming moderen city on the outside with a load of history on the inside
Tired but very satisfied the group joined for a nice cool beer, wine or scotch on the terrace with the best view over the city
The last rest day of our Morocco adventure tour is a fact!
Our famous local tourguide Achmed guided us also here in Fes this morning and early afternoon through some highlights of this beautiful city.
Surounded by an old city wal it keeps inside the old medina about 300.000 people and outsice the old town another 700.000.
We started our day at with an interesting tour in a pottery where we could see this incredible creaftsmen at work. After that we went throught the Blue gate into the old souk and visited a brass shop, the oldest university and a Koran school. And of course strolling around the uncountable shops was a treat to all the senses!
AFter a nice lunch in a genuine Moroccon restaurant most of us went back to the hotel to relax the rest of the day
The last complete riding day in Morroco is already here! Under again clear blue skies we left our very nice hotel on the hills of the city direction Chefchaoun again. This beautiful riding day led us through different landscapes. As soon as we were out of the mountains we began to enter the fenomanel cedar woods within in the middle suddenly a very un-Moroccon place: Ifrane! Ifrane is known as the "Switzerland" of Morocco , complete with real ski slopes!
After a short stop here we moved on through the Rif mountains with all its beautiful flowers and trees in bloom. This Morrocco adventure is defenitely an awesome adventure for the senses!
Finally after some nice working on curves we moved in in our hotel in Chefchaouen to have our final dinner on Moroccon soil
Great day!
And here it is: already our last riding day of the tour! To be able to get the afternoon ferry in time, we left a little bit earlier than our regular time.
From Chefchaouen we rode throught the awesome valleys near the coast and finally followed our way up north over the always super nice coastal road to Tetouan..
From there we followed the coast up until the border. The queue into Ceuta was so long that we took a detour in order to get a bit more upfront. With the bikes we squeezed and meandered through the lines and finally managed to get the ferry just in time
How motorcycling can be beneficial!
Arriving back on the European mainland we took the highway to our hotel in Malaga where we arrived in the late afternoon
It was again an awesome tour with an awesome group of riders ánd passengers!
Thanks Bill, Margie, Jürg, Mario, Edith, Randy, Beverly, Stefan, Heinrich and Bernd for your excellent company and friendship this tour. We hope to see you all again on another Edelweiss adventure sometiem, somewhere
Ted and Angela
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