route – Page 10 – 2wheels2africa

The end of civilisation or so they say

by Keithroute February 20, 2008February 24, 20087 Comments

After arriving in Dakhla we met some really wonderful folks and stayed in a chilled and friendly camping site nestled alongside the beach. The place is a virtual mecca for kite and wind surfers. Although not being surfers of any kind ourselves we enjoyed it immensely because of the people we me there, it’s been the first place we both felt truly sad in departing. The folks there were really kind and helpful. A big thanks to Colin and Freya for being so welcoming and showing us around.

On our second day in Dakhla Colin brought us to a local technical school to meet a class of students studying to be freezing technicians. We talked in English about our adventure and about the lives of the students in Dakhla. It was a very interesting session and was probably as enlightening for them as it was for us.

While in Dakhla we also met a Spanish couple, Borza and Patricia, who were coming back from Senegal. They left Madrid 2 months ago on a Honda CB 250 and are in the final stages of completing their journey back home. The funny thing about these guys was that Borza only passed his bike license in October and then decided to set off to Africa with his girlfriend accompanying as pillion. I really empathise with Borza. I only passed my license recently and had very little riding experience when I undertook this trip. It’s great knowing you’re not alone.

While crossing over from Western Sahara there were some scary moments. There’s a a 7 km sand trail with mines on either side between Moroccan controlled Western Sahara and Mauritania. The place is littered with burnt out and blown up vehicles. The trick is to ride on the tracks made by other vehicles. Foolishly I didn’t zip up my tank bag and lost my V5 vehicle registration document and mobile phone there. We decided to go back and thankfully found both beside each other at the beginning of the trail.

We’re now in Nouadhibou, Mauritania. We arrived here three days ago after bumping into three South Africans at the Moroccan border. These guys originated from Cape Town and are traveling on to London. They came back to Mauritania after being denied entry at the Moroccan border on a stupid technicality. They’re on a similar trip to ours but in reverse. They’ve taken 11 months to get to where they are now. You can check their website out at www.africansurfer.com. On the other hand we know of 3 other South Africans, on KTM’s like our own, who’ve done the same trip in 60 days. I think we’ll aim for something a little in between.

Jeremy has become the victim of an eye infection which we believe to be conjunctivitis. We tried one form of antibiotics which have only seemed to make things worse. This morning things were worse, so after a consultation with an Algerian Doctor we’ve now switched the treatment to something a little stronger and are hoping for the best.

Depending on how Jeremy’s eye is tomorrow we will either go to Choum and Atar in the Adrar region, along the railway line as planned, or if his eye is not responding to the new treatment we’ll go down to Nouakchott. There’s better facilites there and we can organise Visas for Nigeria and Mali while we wait for a full recovery.

We have added the final pictures and captions to the Morocco gallery and we have now added a new gallery for Mauritania with more pictures to follow.

Western Sahara

by Keithroute February 14, 2008February 20, 20086 Comments

Finally we left Morocco behind us and are now in the Moroccan occupied territory of Western Sahara. What a difference! We’ve been on the road killing kilometers for the last few days. We’ve been keeping the speed around 80-90km/h so as not to ware out the desert tyres. We made Dakhla today and intend to push on tomorrow to Nouadhibou, Mauritania, passing the tropic of Cancer as we go. From there the plan is to ride eastwards into the Sahara alongside the railway line which links Nouadhibou with Choum. It should make for an interesting few days. One side of the track is a minefield ,won’t be going near that, and the other is sand trail littered with old pieces of broken track. The Rough Guide strongly advises against this route without the aide of a guide. Where would the fun be in that?

On the way down through Western Sahara we’ve been stopped almost every 30-60km. Initially I found it off putting but the Moroccan police temperament goes a long way to making amends. One guard was almost inviting us around to his family home while another humoured us to no end as he went on at length about Morocco’s #1 export. ‘Columbia has theirs and we have ours’. It was hilarious hearing this from a police officer.

We’ve uploaded a few more pictures to the Morocco gallery. They’ll be the last additions.

Essaouira

by Jeremybike, route February 10, 2008February 10, 20083 Comments

We arrived in Essaouira yesterday evening after a really picturesque ride down the coast via El Jedida and Safi. After El Jedida the coast road is really quiet as the main road goes inland for a faster road south, however with a strong desire to conserve our Michelin Desert tyres we are only doing 85 km/h (50 mph) so the coast road appealed to us.

It was a lovely ride down with parts of it feeling like Europe with lush green fields and fertile farm land all around us. There was one stretch of road near El Jedida where the road was shaded by forest on both sides and it just felt so luscious and green. Made you feel like you were in an Irish forest!

All the way down we were riding through fields belonging to homesteads where I imagine people managed to just about keep above the poverty line and no more.

A couple kids threw stones or in one case a hula hoop, which is strange for Morocco, but most were friendly and smiled and waved or clapped as we passed by. Strange that on this one out of the way stretch between El Jedida and Safi there seemed to be a few that wanted to hit us bikers as normally the people here are overwhelmingly friendly to bikes and we get a real reaction from young and old alike when we pass by.

We stopped at Safi for lunch and I think the waiter went to town on us trying to get us to spend as much as possible! Still the food was great and there was plenty of it so we were happy enough – it cost 7 pounds including tip for both of us to eat more than our fill and Keith to have his two cokes!

We should have stopped to refuel our bikes at Safi but instead we rolled out of the town. I knew my bike had enough to make the next 140 km to Essaouira but I didn’t think about Keith’s bike’s higher consumption! He went on reserve (2 litres) about 60 km out of Essaouira and because he stopped when he was on reserve and I was the lead biker I went back 5km to find him – so by the time we got back to where I had turned I had done an extra 10 km… eating into my own calculations and leaving little margin for error! There were no fuel stations between Safi and Essaouira as the coast road is so rural there are few cars traveling down it.

Keith ran out 22 km from Essaouira and by then I’d been on reserve for nearly 20 km! He had only made 35 km on his reserve so I was doubtful if I’d make it! We decided that I should give it a go and I’d already been as riding conservatively as possible so off I rolled, 80-85 km/h in fifth gear, barely accelerating, just riding as smoothly as possible, counting down the km markers on the road and watching as the number of ks on reserve went up on my dashboard!

It was nerve wracking stuff and the last 5km were really touch and go, however the sight of the Afriquia petrol station on the edge of Essaouira was a huge relief and I forgot anything about fuel conservation as I accelerated towards the station forecourt! If I ran out at this point I didn’t care as I could push the bike in!

I filled up my bike with 24.5 litres (25 litre tank) so I found out my range was a bit more than Keith’s and exactly what my reserve is on tarmac when riding like a priest! I went back and rescued Keith with some fuel from my tank and then we we managed to get into town an hour before the sun set. Keith did his usual magic in finding us a budget room for the night while I watched our bikes and kit.

Good to know how far the bikes will really go on tarmac but not something we are hoping to repeat again!

We’ve really enjoyed chilling in this laid back town with it’s old Portuguese fort and Medina full of shops of art and curios. The ladies would particularly love spending a few days in the souk here trawling and haggling for jewelry and nik naks, we were content to wander idly around and soak up life in a few street cafes.

Tomorrow sees us pushing south again to hopefully make Assa in the Moroccan Sahara sometime in the evening.

Checkout our updated Morocco gallery for our latest images. We’ve finally fixed the ordering of the images and put some more captions up.

One month on in Casablanca

by Jeremybike, route February 8, 2008February 8, 20082 Comments

Yesterday was our one month anniversary on the road, we left London on the 7th of January and it was fitting that we had the bikes serviced here in Casablanca after having done about 6500 kilometers on them so far (about 4000 miles).

We had some fun and games coming up from Agadir to Casablanca with a few interesting incidents to keep us on our toes!

The road from Agadir to Marrakesh is notoriously dangerous as it curves through the mountains with a slippery tarmac surface that gave me one big slide on a bend that nearly made me fill my pants! Keith was behind and thankfully didn’t go over the same part of the road that I did and so managed to avoid having his scare!

Moroccans drive like maniacs and it doesn’t seem to concern them that they are driving an articulated lorry or an overloaded taxi up or down a mountain road, they go as fast as possible with the minimum margin for error – i.e. none! It’s all based on the Arabic phrase – “Insh a Allah” which translated means “God willing”, this means that they are pretty fatalistic about accidents, God willed it and it had nothing to do with the fact that they were overtaking on a blind corner with no idea of what is coming around the corner! It makes for a fun and varied driving experience in Morocco as you try and avoid God’s messengers of death!

One incident I had on the way up the mountain was particularly fun! I came around a corner about 80 km/h (50 mph) to find a water truck going in the same direction at about 30 km/h (20 mph) as he struggled to go uphill. The truck was spilling water all over the slick and dusty tarmac surface that was heated nicely by the sun as it was about 30 degrees C outside.

Normally I would just sail right by, but there was one of God’s messengers coming the other way downhill with his overloaded taxi of death. No problem, I’ll just put the brakes on to scrub off some speed and let this taxi past… front brake on, rear brake on… screeching rubber sound, front wheel sliding away from under me as I see the back of the truck and the front of the taxi approaching me fast and I feel God’s fingers holding them in a pincer movement that would have made Hannibal proud!

Thankfully we have now done quite a bit of offroading so my reactions kicked in and I released the front brake, kicked out with my left boot to right the bike and then gassed the bike between the two vehicles with my handlebars still waggling a bit from the tank slapper I was recovering from.

Phew! It was a close call and I’m glad I haven’t ended this trip under the back wheels of a truck, or worse on the bonnet of a very wide eyed taxi driver! I saw it all in slow motion and he was definitely saying Insh a Allah as I squeezed in between him and the truck. The take away lesson is you can drive slow but you can’t always be prepared for what is going to happen around you in Africa!

It was Keith’s turn when we got into Casablanca when we pulled up in front of our hostel in the Medina of the old city. He hadn’t noticed that his bike had been running hot in the traffic of the Casablanca and when we pulled up outside the hotel he switched the ignition off and went inside to sort a room out.

It was only a couple minutes later when I heard a big whoosh and a load of water was dropped on the pavement and Keith’s bike was engulfed in a cloud of steam. The hot water in the coolant system had built up a huge pressure with the radiator off and no water circulating and had caused one of the pipes to pop off and release all the water and steam on the ground. Not a big thing to fix, just pop the hose back on and refill the radiator with water. We were servicing the bike the next day so we didn’t bother with distilled water, however the takeaway lesson is to not switch the hot bike off as you don’t want that happening in the desert!

We have been enjoying the big city buzz here in Casablanca, checking out the huge and ostentatious Hassan II mosque and enjoying the street cafe life. It’s been a good time to get ourselves and our bikes sorted before we make a push for our next country, Mauritania.

The bikes are now spotless after a hopefully good service, it was certainly cheap at less than 100 pounds per bike including parts and labor! As long as they didn’t wreck anything we should be okay – Insh a Allah! The mechanic reckons he has sorted Keith’s clutch and both bikes are certainly running a lot smoother now that we have treated them to fresh oil and a bit of a tune up. We’ve also put in new reusable stainless steel oil filters and added Water Wetter to the water in the radiators. Lets see how these perform in the big wide world!

We’ve loved being in Morocco and the friends that we have made here but I think both of us are now champing at the bit for our next country.

The plan is to ride south tomorrow to the old Portuguese town of Essaouira before pushing south to the start of the Sahara and Tiznit and Tan-Tan via another piste between Assa and Smara. We will then continue down the Atlantic road along the coast to Mauritania. It will take us several days and we will try to blog as we go but who knows how good the Internet connections will be south of Tiznit.

Not dead, nor kidnapped!

by Keithroute February 1, 2008February 1, 20088 Comments

It’s been over a week since our last post and there’s been good reason for that. We’ve been busy. We reached Agadir as planned after negotiating one of the most treacherous roads in Morocco. Think very bad non marked mountainous roads with slow trucks a dozen and irate drivers trying to overtake them at any opportunity. Then picture all this done at night. It was scary!

We stayed three nights in Agadir kipping in Rohans swank 4 star hotel room. It’s most likely one of the last laps of luxury we’ll experience on the trip. On our first night we found the joys of alcohol again. It was the first bar we’d seen or been to in Morocco. Alcohol is not appreciated/allowed in the Muslim world and is not illegal but is just not done openly. We dived back in with much gusto and enthusiasm. The following day we were regretting it. While in Agadir we met some locals and after Rohan left for Libya we ended up in a relaxing little surf town just north of Agadir called Taghazout. We still haven’t left. Khaled, one of the locals we met, rented us a room there. It’s ridiculously cheap and perfectly placed sitting beside the sea.

While in Taghazout we’ve chilled out quite a lot. I think it’s the first time Jeremy has actually relaxed since quitting work. Mariah one of the other locals we met brought us to a cool trance party in the mountains. It was full of new age European hippies in camper vans and a few like minded Moroccans to boot. We’ve also now had our first proper off-roading adventure. On Wednesday we left most of our luggage in Taghazout and departed for two days. On the first night we camped near Foum–Zguid before attempting a 150k off-road trail leading to Talouine. The trail we undertook started excellently and ended in the same way however it didn’t end in Talouine.

While in the mountains we were invited in for tea and even cooked a fabulous and unexpected cous–cous by a very welcoming and friendly Berber village. We had a similar experience when we went off-roading with Rohan in Agadir on a small 4k trail. It’s these types of encounters which really make Morocco shine. The people are so warm and welcoming and expect nothing in return save your company and some stories. The trail was not without a handful of hardship. There was a 10k section in the middle where the trail ended. It took us two hours of bouncing and falling over rocks to navigate our way to where the trail resumed. That part I could have done without. Jeremy the sadist seemed to think it was the best part.

The plan from here is to get booster injections today and get our bikes serviced before heading down to Mauritania. This could take the best part of a week as we need to fly in a new master clutch cylinder for my bike. For now we’re just refilling the mineral oil as it seems the master cylinder has developed a slow leak. It’ll work for now but if I sustain another big bash it may ground my bike and become a nightmare to get fixed. Especially if this happens somewhere remote. Jez has updated the route page and I’ve created a Morocco gallery. The last time there were some technical difficulties. There’s a few pictures from our off-roading which have to be uploaded but I’ll get around to that later.

Thanks to everyone for their support.

Cheers K+J