It is now November 5, and I am way behind in my blog. So I must start at Fes, a big city with a core, “Medina” that is the old city with some building hundreds of years old. Fes is a big tourist city and comes with all the good and bad of that. I refused, had to say no many times, offers for a tour. Instead I got a map and started walking the m/l 3 k to Medina. On the way I passed upscale shopping center with Burger King and Pizza Hut as well as a MacDonalds in a real classy separate building. OK I did stop and get an ice cream cone at BK just to remember what they were like.

Back roads agriculture being done the way it has been for hundreds of years

Market day in a small village, buy meat from vender then take to this tent and they cook it. Many had rode in on horses dressed fancy

The Medina has 350,000 people living in it and if you walk it yourself and go off the tourist path there is a lot of poverty. Also saw hypodermic syringes thrown about in one area so they have not escaped the drug problems.

They have some really good food in Morocco but I found some that did not like me that well. I think it was a fruit cup much like fruit salad with yogurt dressing. So that put me half under for the next three days.

Because I was not feeling well I took the toll road to Rabat to get my visa for Mauri at their embassy. Once in to the city I had to find it with out the GPS much help. Went in to a five start hotel and asked price for a room, m/l $230. But while there young girls at the desk spoke good English so I got them to look it up on the computer and they gave me a general idea as to where to start looking for the embassy. Normally there will be an “embassy row” or general area where all embassys are located and this was the case here. With in a half hour I had it located, but as expected it was closed being Sunday. I recorded it in the GPS and went to find a more affordable room. Found one for 400 dh which for big city is ok.

Getting the Mauritanie visa is kind of a game, I and about thirty other are up early and at the door by 8:15, and about 8:45 they open and had out applications. All in French but I got some friendly help and filled in all the blanks. Then back in line to hand in application and 1110 dh visa fee, told it would be ready by 3:00. So I rode around a bit but still not feeling well I hung out by Pizza Hut and waited till they opened, had a good salad bar then rode back to Embassy to wait. It was a little after 1 and a back packer said I should check because some were ready, sure enough it was. So back to the toll road for a burn back to Fes and found the hotel without a guide even though several wanted to help for “free”.

Jon from Italy, riding R1200 GS met at hotel

On to Marrakech, this was a day for adventure. First in leaving Fes I had a mishap in the crazy traffic and dumped the bike over. Damage appeared minimal but now it ran very poor at low rpm, had no problem at higher speeds so I moved on. If one was to gauge how well the country was doing by how much road construction they could afford, Morocco is doing well. Was making good progress but did not plan on going into Marrakech but the small towns where I had planned on stopping did not have any hotels. So I get in to the city after dark, check GPS for a hotel and set it to get me there. It took me into the old city with narrow cobblestone streets filled with people, horse and donkey carts, small motorcycles and even a couple of cars. It was simply amazing that I could work my way thorough this. At one point I was between a horse pulled wagon and a baby buggy, could not move till someone moved the baby over. Finally found the plaza and hotel. The plaza was alive with activity, was like a circus.

The plaza

From Marrakech I started heading south, into the valley between the two Atlas mountain ranges. This was the bread basket of the country with large farming operations. Then over to Tan Tan, this is a very clean and bustling city with building going on everywhere. The landscape changing to dry desert which ran right up to the Atlantic Ocean.

Once I got to Tan Tan I had to stop at police check points and show them my passport. Prior to there I went through several every day and was just waved through. I would appear that there is still tension over the war and annexation of Western Sahara by Morocco.

no L&I here

no WSP ether, why can't my crew stack hay like this

The Sahara desert, it is amazing that anyone or anything can scrape a living out here. From huge sand dunes to rocky scrub. The road ran right on top of the cliff that dropped thirty to seventy five meters into the ocean, sometimes within ten meters of the cliff where it cuts in. Some would be fishing from the top of the cliff with very long lines.

Tan Tan

Where Sahara meets Atlantic

We could do a bungie jump here

lots of building going on here

Lots of Morocco flags in the cities of Western Sahara, I think trying to convince them that they are now part Morocco

The long straight, blowing sand in the distance

Not many speak English in these parts but I have found a few where I could get a feel of the local mind set and culture.

Where coming into Morocco was a breeze at Tanger Med, they must have sent all the rejects south. Took at least an hour and a half to process out of Morocco. Once out we entered “no mans land”. And this is the ultimate no mans land, there is no road from Morocco Customs to Mauritanie customs, not even an attempt to run a cat road. You just wind over the desert rocky ground for a few K till you come to Mauritanie customs. Then the zoo that is Mauritanie customs takes another hour.

I had filled up at last fuel stop 77k before border with my information showing three fuel stops on the way to Nouakchott none had gas, only diesel. I normally run at 19 k/l. but on the flat and keeping speed down I made it the 520 k, where I put 23.67 L in my 24 L tank.

Spent the night in then I headed east to Aleg where they had six fuel stations and none had any gas. Most vehicles are diesel here and no one knew when they might get gas. So I am too far out to make it back and not enough to make it on east to the next big spot. I took the only option the next day and backtracked a bit then went south. When I came into this town and saw small motorcycles zipping about I knew I would find fuel.

Aleg

Aleg

Aleg

A bit about Aleg, not sure it is a city, more a big town. I got in there about noon but without fuel did not want to go further till I got a better idea of where I could get fuel. This gave me time to wander about and was able to talk to a couple of people at the hotel. There was a stage set up in town with a large banner “festival of Arts and culture”. It was a three day event with this being the last day. I asked about and found out that the program started at 9:00. Also several of those putting on the program were staying in the hotel and one or two could speak some English. They invited me to attend. So when it got close I wandered up the dark street, (no street lights here), to site with plans of observing from the outer edge of enclosed seating area. Someone had told them to watch for me because a young man soon came and indicated I was to come around and into the seated area. Seating was by status with very important people, (three with military body guards), in the front row, then local important people and so on. They sat me in the third row. It was a very interesting evening. The program was ok but for me it was more a look at there culture. Women sat separately but also my rank it appeared. There was a lot of effort to get seated to the front and those in charge were constantly sorting things out. Serveral of the “important people” welcome me and shake my hand. All in all just one of those unexpected events that make it a great trip.

There is an obvious cast system in place here, with light skinned on top of the list. This was the last country to outlaw slavery, in 2007 I think, but have been told it still exists in parts of the country. The Eastern part, (Aleg is in east), have rebelled against the government in the past so I think there is still some tension there.

All of the Sahara was once under the ocean. If you scrape the sand off you have sea shells. It is what they use for building roads and even in concrete. Some of the sea shells are still complete after hundreds of thousands of years, if not millions of years. As I rode along some strate streches I wondered what evidence would be left of our species in that much time. As I rode through the next town I got the answer, it will be a ten meter deep layer of plastic water bottles. They are everywhere and as they get smashed build up a layer of plastic.

Once I got fuel I headed back to Nouakchott I decided to make a run south to Senegal. This boarder crossing was a bitch and took 5 hours by the time I waited for ferry across the river and got paper processed. Found a place to stay in Richards Toll then headed to Dakar in the morning. It has been hotter than normal with the last five days topping out at between 39 and 41.5C. Was into Dakar early, got cleaned up and went for a swim in hotel pool. Then wondered about the city which really is jumping with venders selling all types of ware. I decided to get a hair cut and trim off some of this beard, his idea of short and mine are a bit different. Lets just say this is the closest to being clean shaved I have been in decades.

A sign not seen at home