Morocco Day 2 - Algeciras to Midelt

Its going to be a big day, 565km to cover

I wake and its still dark, thinking I've got hours of wonderful sleep time left I close my eyes, within seconds the alarm goes off!

We're on the road by 8am fully fuelled and heading towards the port. After a couple of mishaps in the one way system, getting whistled at by a security guard and pointed in the right direction by several others we find ourselves at the ticket booths. Parked in the no moto zone, but no one seems to care.

Algeciras port is as easy as it gets, several official ticket booths line the halls, all showing the sailing times for their respective companies. You just select the time you wish to sail, walk to the booth and present your passport, we opted for the 8:30am sailing.

Needless to say, given the time, we left the attractive and helpful ticket lady in hurry with her shouting after us 'rapido rapido.. '

We made it.

Our first view of the african coast. Cloud formation over mountain.

The ferry was almost empty and we joined the queue for the Moroccan passport control. You need to get a CIN number stamped in your passport and the police were obliging. They did however get quite angry with one trucker who carelessly tossed his passport onto Thier desk, having witnessed the altercation, I was much more respectful.

Arriving at Tan Med port the security force searched our bikes for weapons and drones and then let us pass. Drones require a special permit in Morocco.

There's a small line of shops at Tan Med port that have all the services you immediately require.

1. Money exchange. You can't take Dinahs out of Morocco.

2. SIM card. - it's £3 per mb roaming or £10 for 10gb on a Moroccan SIM

3. Bike Insurance. £50 for 10days.

4. Customs office for bike importation permit.

Ten minutes later you're sorted and ready to brave the roads, 565km of road in our case, most of it through the center of the country on minor roads.

the road stretches on forever...

Having completed a chunk of miles we stop for lunch in one the little towns. These places are poor and we drew a lot of attention on the bikes. People immediately want to help you for a Dinah or two tip, evening trying to help you park the bike?!

The place we stopped at was on a busy roundabout where a policeman presided over the road. You take your life in your hands when use a roundabout in Morocco, the copper was constantly on his whistle as tuktuks, donkeys, cars, trucks, people, horses and scooters all vied for position, some of them going the wrong way, all of them making their own rules.

I went to use the loo, which I instantly regretted, accidentally paying the toilet attendant woman £1 for the privilege on my way out. You should have seen her smile with delight as I put the cash in her palm, I could see and count all two of her teeth, both brown. Must have made her week.

Having paid such a lavish tip to the loo lady, the waiter, seeing his opportunity, immediately over charged us for lunch. Still it was only about £4 each for a large meal comprising some odd and smelly meat. Chickens and cats mooched about our feet as we ate.

We were glad to hit the road and leave the dusty hot town to memory.

...and it is hot, really hot, baking hot, so hot the heat seems to hit you with force as you waft along. Like when you're in the ocean or a pool and you find a 'warm bit', riding here you hit 'hot bits' as you move. It's difficult to ride with our visors up as the heat is so severe.

view from the Atlas

Then we reach the atlas mountains and begin to ascend, as we climb it gets cooler until it's positively cold!

monkeys in the Atlas checking out Jason.

During the later part of the day we're skirting around the edge of a storm, a huge storm, we can see the damage it's causing along the road. Mile after mile the wind begins to pick up and gets so severe the bikes are being blown across the road. Feeling cold we have to stop and put more layers on, my gloves blow away causing me to chase them in my motorbike boots. From melting hot to freezing cold in a few hours.

Finally we reached our destination, Midlet, the capital of this region, but it's really just a small backwater town with a night market. Rolling into town on the dirt bikes we get a lot of attention. Stopping next to a hotel a guy comes out to 'help' us, we ended staying there so his help worked, we are the only guests and they allow us to park the bikes in the actual hotel.

There's no hot water, Jasons shower falls off the wall, and bugs fly out of the loo. Nice place. It was only £15.

We had an amazing pizza at 'Pizza Aziz' which we found via Google and left a 5 star review. Just what we needed, food you can recognise from a menu with prices, with hosts that spoke english.

No booze in muslim towns, though oddly, Midelt has an off license that was going brisk trade, though it was closed by the time we'd finished eating.

Totally knackered, bed early, after a walk through the night market.

today's route.