Thursday 29.04.10
We left Ourzezate and rode down to Zagora, planning to stay there for two days checking out the local marketplace and doing a short daytrip further South.
In the evening after eating at a local restaurant, Jim needed to refill his cell-phone with a calling card. We went to one of the many tele-shops and long story short, a friendly guy helped him and as a favour we agreed to just come into his little carpet and jewelry shop to take a look, no obligations..
Well Jim ended up being shown all kinds of stuff, he found a symbol in metal that he liked, but wanted it in a smaller size. Well the guy didn't have it, but he was gonna take us to a friend who did.
Reluctantly we walked along to the other shop, being asked to sit and presented with the option of several cups of tea. After having been shown another 20 or 30 icons or symbols, each picked up slowly out of a bag and meticously positioned in front of him on the table, each NOT the one Jim had wanted, his patience were running thin(ner).
But it was hard to get the message across, and it went something like this: Jim:"Do you ha.." Trader:"How about THIS my friend, it is made of pristine quality by the finest craftsmen!" Jim:"I was actually loo.." Trader:"I GIVE you SPECIAL price, 200 Dirham for these two" Jim:"I really didn't..." Trader:"You must see this one, it is a very unusual, very special piece." and so on and so forth, until we finally got away.
Friday 30.04.10
We unloaded our bikes and made a daytrip from Zagora to a place further South in the desert called M'Hammed. The towns' naming process of which transpired in the following manner: Ahmed The Explorer: "What shall we call this place? Izmael, my brightest advisor, what say you?" Izmael: "How about Muhammed oh honorable explorer of deserts?" Ahmed:"WHAT?! Not Muhammed again, praised be his soul, there are already 11 968 towns, villages and roads with that same name, praise be it and all which bear its name.."
Izmael: "hmm you speak the truth as always Ahmed, what about this... M'Hammed?" Ahmed: "YES, original AND with a nice ring to it, genious Izmael, genious."
Not much to see in M'Hammed, we've been quite spoiled by incredible views from our earlier escapades out into the desert, and the only things we really did take notice of were all the tourists arriving and leaving all the time. It had become of a bit of tourist trap complete with annoying hustlers and tradesmen using every trick in the book to try and seperate tourists from their money. The road into town even had huge yellow warning signs saying things like "WARNING! You are entering the desert, please pick up your trash" making it all kinds of funny.
We had a quick lunch and started heading back to our hotel in Zagora, enjoying our now sporty and light bikes with lots of power to spare.
Saturday 01.05.10
On this day we completed the second longest leg of this trip, traveling from Zagora west first 120km on dirt roads to Foum Zguid, then an additional 550 through Tisint, Tata, Akka, Guelmim, and finally arrived at a local inn at Mihrleft.
The leg felt alot longer than it was, mostly due to very strong, and very hot headwinds for most of the ride West.
Even though my helmet fits tight enough normally the combination of the speed of the bike and the wind, pressed my forehead so hard into the front of it that it felt like I could put my fist between the helmet and the back of my head. Very tiring for the neck and upper body.
Getting closer to the coast the winds calmed and temperatures dropped from 38 degrees to an "icy cold" 21 degrees. Having more or less acclimatized to the desert we really were messing with our body's "thermostat", and I have gotten a slight cold because of it.
We pressed on longer than normal that day and even drove after dark. Reason being because we really wanted to get to the coast, giving us more time to spend there once we arrived.
Sunday 02.05.10
Another day of transport getting from Mihrleft and as far North as we could reach before dark, finally ending up in a place called Tafrout. Before leaving though we spent a few hours at a beautiful beach with the name Legzira, known for its amazing cliffs and arches. The visibility that day was not very good due to alot of haze but we still looked around and took some photos.
We were stopped by two policemen on the way, surpisingly, since at every other checkpoint (and there have been many) we've been waved on by smiling nodding police.
I think these were just bored. We saw only one to begin with, I was up front, so I pulled over, shut down my engine and flipped up my sun-visor so he could see my face, Jim pulling in behind. He asked the standard questions, nationality, occupation, departure point, destination, bussiness etc.
All of a sudden he noticed my helmet camera and became very excited. "..a camera you say, really!?!" He yelled something enthusiastically to his partner in the nearby guard shed and he came running out with big eyes. "A camera you say, really?! But how do you see it?! (the film)" Amused that they were so interested I went on about how it worked, and that I could watch it on a laptop f.ex.
I also may have mentioned that Jim had such a laptop as they really wanted to see some film. The other officer had swiftly quizzed Jim about this, and Jim shouted up to from the back in Danish "Magnus...? Did you or did you not tell them I have a laptop with me?". To which I replied "eh... maybe... sorry!" Well he explained it away somehow, but the officer that came out of the shed was still staring at the side of my camera with big question marks in his eyes.
I thought it was an absurd situation so I decided it was a good idea to start recording some of this and get this guy on video. "Are you filming??" "no no, see, its red, that means off, it's off now." "oh good."
Then he asks where the film is? The tape? Where does the film go? I show him the tiny 1x1cm micro-SDHD card, and he doesn't look like he can accept the fact that it is the actual "tape".
He still wants to see some road movies and keeps asking about if I can show him, finally he asks if I cannot show: "an officer of the gendarmerie royale de Maroc the film?"
I tell him: "n'est pas possible"
To which he disappointedly replied: "You can go, have a nice day".
We rode on to Tafrout and stopped there because it was getting darker but also because the mountains and huge rocks surrounding it looked like something out of a cartoon, a very strange place.
Monday 03.05.10
Driving further North passed Agadir we set our sights on Essouira a coastal city.
All this getting up early each day and packing our bikes before doing long rides is taking its toll on us. We have decided to adjust the route some and just take 3 or 4 days and be beach bums. The area around here is perfect for all kinds of watersports, so we are planning to either surf or kitesurf or both for the best part of this week.
After stopping at a few coastal towns and talking to the local surf-shop dude (who speaks english! Hooray!), we were told Essouira had it all, allthough with a more or less permanent strong wind of 20-30 knots each day.
Tuesday 03.05.10
After checking out a few watersport places around the beach last night, we found one we really liked. Since I already kitesurf some in Norway, I have persuaded Jim to try it as well, we rented equipment and got an instructor each. Jim got to sit on the beach learning to fly the smaller kites, I (apparently) tried to kill myself by drowning in the unfamiliar strong winds and choppy waters trying to perfect my going upwind skills. The instructor admitted the conditions were not the best for beginners to intermediate. Allthough promising me that if I came back tommorrow (and paid them again) I would finally be able to go upwind.
We are giving it another try tommorrow, then we'll see if we'll maybe try regular surfing instead.
Either way, surf is definately up! :)
