Morocco Madness, Day 17

Up early because we have a lot of km to cover today, and we have to walk to collect our bikes from the carpark then load them up before riding away. 

The first part was easy, waking up to a cold breakfast on the terrace, with ingredients purchased from the local Carrefour last night. Cold coffee, cold pastries, cold yogurt drink. 🤷🏽

The walk went ok too. But then we had to leave the car park. We had registered our bikes at the hotel but they hadn't given us a discount code so the parking attendant insisted that we pay the full price. We didn't argue, but decided to walk back to the hotel to get the discount. But before we left, much to our surprise the attendant gestured that we could leave together on one ticket, which we did and bid him our muchos gracias. When I asked about the parking at the hotel, it wasn't actually that much of a discount, so the parallel riding exit solution was a good outcome. 

Then motorway blast. The scenery changing all the time. It became cold and later we realised we had climbed to about 1400m while riding. The weather was clear and cool so we made good progress stopping three times for petrol. On the second stop we decided on our destination that evening, somewhere just short of the French border in the Basque country.

We arrive and it's starting to get dark. The bikes are parked, and we look for the check-in. The hotel itself is unusual for us, attached to a bar, and the receptionist is the barman who doesn't speak English - why should he? He uses a phone to relay instructions, which works out fine after our pre-payment is confirmed. The room is better than expected, refurbished and very clean.Then we go out hunting for food. 

The immediate area seems dead for a Saturday night, although the bar itself is busy. It's a working town and there's a Arcelor Mittal steel works down the road, and this is a Friday so no doubt it will be busy with people unwinding after a tough week.

I decide that my chain needs oiling and adjusting, so while I do that, Christopher walks into the centre to find a restaurant. Job done and he pings me his location, another bar. But the food is interesting, I have squid, served in a black sauce, which I eat with bread. Christopher has meat balls and chips. 

After dinner we go in search of ice-cream; no fancy gelato stores here, but we find it in a wrapper at the local petrol station -good enough to scratch that itch. On the way back we see sparks flying inside the steel factory. This really does remind me of the steel town in the Deer Hunter film.

800km today on well kept roads and no tolls - yay!

Morocco Madness, Day 16

The capsule would normally be a squeeze, but this one was a double. And in fact a double bunk, because Christopher had the capsule below mine. And while I was a bit hot, he was a bit cold. 🤷🏽

We find a very fine breakfast just around the corner, and the crazy fact of our Morocco leg is that despite being told we'd have hummus every day, today in real fact is the first hummus of our trip! And that's after leaving Morocco and being in Spain!

Breakfast demolished and back to the hotel. Christopher plans to do some work and I plan to do some stalking! 

Miss Hayes has arranged for Mrs Hayes to visit the Alhambra palace on her birthday. And Mrs Hayes thinks that Mr Hayes has forgotten. But up pops Mr Hayes to surprise his Mrs just outside the entrance. 

Boo! Big kiss and happy birthday!!!

95% surprise. 5% impact lost as I had announced our return ferry for which the timing was a little bit too convenient. None the less we had a great day visiting the Alhambra, eating pomegranate ice-cream, playing with camera AI, and then viewing the the museum of torture - the things people did, and still do, to each other is very sad. 

Then we meet up with Christopher for dinner followed by more ice-cream! 

Then we part ways with the ladies who have a early flight back to London, while Christopher and I reinsert ourselves back into our pods, ready to emerge tomorrow hopefully refreshed from our cocoons like butterflies ready to fly away.

Morocco Madness Day 15

Back to the port today, after an uninspiring hotel breakfast - the ingredients were there, it was just, meh... 

Reversing the bikes out required us to move furniture in the lobby! A short ride and we're there at 09:10, but it all seems quite deserted. We see that our 11:15 ferry doesn't exist, and the next is 12:01. I suspect the "01" is more relevant for a Tokyo bullet train departure than a North African/Spanish ferry. 

We hang around until 10:30 watching the swelling terminal population, including an obnoxiously loud pair of Harley bikes, and eventually decide to make a run for the border.  Only to be turned back because we hadn't yet checked in at the office window we've been staring at for the past 100 minutes. 🤦🏽 That takes all of five minutes and we're on our way again. 

Swiftly through passport checks, X-ray customs checks (an x-ray truck driven over a group of vehicles), sniffer dog checks and one more passport check. Then straight onto the ship. The Filipino crew member recognises my bike from the journey over and we chat about the Philippines embassy functions in Brussels, and the Filipino Satwa area in Dubai.... At least I do, he just listens... 🥱

And Christopher notes my name dropping 🤷🏽 yeah, sorry about that. 

The ferry seems busier and nosier, but we settle on a free sofa, before ear plugs and eye shades are deployed and the floor beckons. The journey passes more quickly than expected. 

Back in Europe and a fairly quick passports and customs check for me, but Christopher's equivalent passport and baggage take a temporal detour. But nothing too long and we're soon on our way. 

We figure we'll avoid the toll faff and it's only 30mins longer on a 3hr journey. But that proves a bit longer as we hit traffic due to an accident, and while I can easily filter, big Bertha with his overly lardy rear end struggles to squeeze through the gaps. So what do friends do? I leave him! 

About 5km further along the road, I wait at a bus stop. I contemplate having a dip in the inviting blue sea while I wait; it's just a few metres behind that hedge and row of houses, we've been admiring it since we left the port and it's calling my name...

But like a 'good friend' I wait. Longer than anticipated, but after about 15 minutes the Africa Twin passes by and I race after him to catch up. 

Back on track, we pass Marbella, Malaga before turning off and heading north east into the mountains. 

Then eventually we reach our destination... Granada! Where a surprise awaits a birthday girl!

We check into a capsule hotel!

Morocco Madness Day 14

We are up early: an extended Ibis breakfast, and on the road by 0955! Five minutes ahead of our target: that's a record for us. 

Straight on to the main road north avoiding the motorway, but it's frustratingly slow at 40, 60 and 80kph, punctuated by frequent roundabouts and speed checks. But we are good boys today. 😇

Half way to Rabat and we pass some kind of royal residence; there are many soldiers and police outside guarding the place. The whole coast road seems relatively affluent with nice properties between it and the sea. But from the parts we can actually see, it's mostly low cliffs rather than beaches, and in places anglers dangle their lines into the mighty Atlantic.

As we approach Rabat the area becomes more holiday than home, with restaurants and other facilities catering to tourists. But it's not like Blackpool and has a definite upmarket feel. Impressed by the number of joggers we see along the road.

We pass through Rabat, the capital city, and it seems very nice. Although we are just passing through, it leaves a positive impression as the most attractive and modern of the cities we've seen in Morocco - neat and tidy, with nice architecture.

After Rabat, it's Kenitra, but we don't see enough of it to form an impression. We stop for a roadside coffee somewhere and it's excellent, strong and flavoursome, for a bargain 6 Dirhams (about 60 cents). We need the caffeine because the slow roads are putting both of us to sleep.

Turning off the main road to Tangier we head into the Riff mountains. Not that high, but enough to be interesting. The roads get twistier and the scenery changes yet again. It's almost alpine with conifer trees and a few reservoirs, but at the same time the scenery reminds me of Ireland in places. 

There's a market in Kasar el Kabir and our plotted route is practically barred by throngs of shoppers and stalls, but Google doesn't know that. It quickly reroutes us when I u-turn, but I use my intuition before it does so. 

We pass below the town of Chefchououen. From a distance it looks very pretty with its colourful buildings spread out on the mountainside; it's a shame we don't have time to visit. 

But we do stop to shop at a roadside ceramics store, one of many that we've passed. I buy a tajine dish, but now the challenge is to get it back to Belgium in one piece; at least it fits in my bike's top box.

It's getting colder now as we climb, reaching above 800m altitude. There are still roundabouts and roadworks to negotiate and we both notice our front wheels sliding on the roundabouts' shiny tarmac at times, probably due to the dust on the roads. 

We are becoming tired, but there are still about 100km to got. I take a wrong turn and we have to go back; more police checks, but fewer than the coast road. My bike hits reserve, we stop for petrol for the second time today. 

Not far now and signs for Tangier Med port.  We figure we'll look for some where to eat, but there's nothing until we are virtually in the port. We park up on the pavement and give a few Dirhams to the parking wallah. It's only shawarma and chips, but welcome after no lunch - I have a habit of torturing my riding companion, but he doesn't complain (much).

Then we find the hotel, deep in the port admin building area. The receptionist/parking wallah/concierge directs us to park in a corridor inside the building! 

Our room over looks the container port, but there's not that much actuvity.