Ziz Gorge to Desert Camp 1, Morocco
125 miles / 200 km
Wx: Scattered clouds, cool. Nice
Seeing as my body clock is still set for somewhere in the south pacific I am up early, before the rest of the group. I take the opportunity to sit out on the back deck of our Auberge with my feet up and watch the sunrise over Ziz Gorge, the light creeping over the tops of the cliffs until it stabs down to the valley floor.
Sunrise At Ziz Gorge
I must admit I am pretty excited about today’s ride. Up until now we have been riding on the tarmac, with the exception of some inventively pot-holed sections of dirt road. Today though, we are going to get into some proper off-road riding. None of the riders in the group have any experience with off-road riding at all. When asked by the guides about our previous off-road riding the best anyone could come up with was Rich who said “I’ve ridden up a muddy driveway once”.
The plan for the day is to head south out of Ziz to Erg Chebbi, which should only take about half the day. Once in the dunes at Erg Chebbi we will set up camp, have some lunch and spend the afternoon training off-road and in the soft sand. Sounds like massive fun. Giddyup!
As we head out of Ziz Gorge we are again treated to some more beautiful views and perfectly winding roads. The scenery very much reminds me of the Grand Canyon back in the ‘States. What a pleasant morning of chewing up kilometres as we head through Er Rachidia and continue southward. As we continue along the road the landscape to our right seems to drop away out of sight. When we pull over to have a look we can see it is actually a large chasm with a ribbon of oasis running through it. As we stop to admire the view and take some pictures we meet some other travelers, some German folks that have been travelling for a year. Hmmm a year, now that sound like fun.
Ribbon Oasis At Talfilalt
Pictures taken we hop back on the bikes and continue on. The road drops down into the valley we have just been admiring and the air becomes noticeably cooler while we wind our way through numerous little villages taking in the sites of the people and donkeys going about their daily business. As we press on the group splits up again into smaller riding groups. Matt, Al and I press on through Erfoud (scenes from the movie ‘The Mummy’ were filmed here) and on to Rissani. Rissani is the last town before Erg Chebbi and our campsite for the night. Deciding we don’t quite need fuel yet we choose to press on and get fuel at Erg Chebbi.
Okay so it turns out that the only thing at Erg Chebbi is a sign that says ‘Erg Chebbi’. Hmmmm. So, we turn around an burn back up the road for our second lap of Rissani to fill up with petrol and stock up on water. As we get back into town we come across the rest of the pack who have been smart enough to stop and fuel up. With all our tanks filled the whole group now heads through Rissani (aaaaagain) south towards the dunes. As we get out of town Matt and I have an idea. Since we have already been on this stretch of road twice now and we know it is pretty straight, free of animals and other traffic we twist the throttles to see how fast these beasts will go and Rich tags along for the fun. We blast out in front of the group back toward the ‘Erg Chebbi’ sign. Wooo great fun!
Erg Chebbi
We wait at the turn off and the rest of the group eventually catches up and en mass we exit off the tarmac and head ‘ummmm that way’. After 10 or 15 minutes we come to a random spot of open ground that looks as good as any to pitch camp. Flat, open and plenty of dirt, gravel and soft sand dunes to practice in. We set up camp and have a leisurely lunch off the 4×4.
Desert Camp 1
After lunch Werner and Niall do it in turns taking small groups out in the dirt and gravel for some instruction and practice in off-road riding technique and the art of riding a motorcycle standing up. Thankfully I pick it up pretty quickly and I am having a blast. Jack even teaches me how to do power slides. Turn your head, drop your shoulder, up shift and a sharp twist of the throttle. The back tire spins up, kicks out and hey you are power sliding across the desert plains of Morocco. Wicked!
After a bit of a break we are back at it again. Except, now it is time for the dreaded soft sand. Soft sand is the sworn enemy of the biker. If you don’t get it right, the bike waffles everywhere, bogs down like it is in quicksand or comes to a dead stop and tosses you headfirst over the bars. (Even The Pros have Trouble)
Soft Sand, Always Fun
I have to admit I don’t pick this up as quick as the dirt riding. After a couple tentative traverses over some dunes (and by dunes I actually mean tiny little piles of soft sand that are in no way manly whatsoever) I get a little cocky and am ready to try getting up my first proper dune. Bam! Ugh! Dead stop as I proceed to bury my front wheel up past the axel in the side of a sand dune. It is so deeply buried and fastly held that I can’t manage to pull it free myself and I have to get some of the others to help.
Okay that didn’t work. Maybe if I go a bit slower. Bam! Straight over. Okay, no slow is no good. Faster is what I need. Stand up, weight back, on the throttle, keep the speed up, steer with your hips, like you’re skiing. Hey that actually works. I think I’ve got! Woohoo! This is fun, fanging over the dunes. Whoops, spoke too soon. The thing with dunes is they usually have nice gentle slopes on one side then sharp drop offs on the back side. Like this one! Bam! Over I go straight on to my head. Bwaaaa! Okay that actually hurt a bit. Still fun though. Still need some help getting the bike out. But hey at least I’m not the only one. Most everybody seems to be taking a tumble or two and Dave is on his own bike which is about twice as big and heavy as everyone else. That one is no fun to pick up. Check out the helmet cam below.
Anyway we finally all get the hang of it, more or less. Back to the campsite for some dinner and some well earned sleep. That is day 4 done and they all seem to be getting more fun than the day before. I am well and truly digging this!
Dinner With A View
Bazosphere 
Leave a comment