After breakfast many photos are taken for old time's sake. And then packing for the off. We've chatted so long that it's not until after 1030 that we leave Moulay Idriss and the lovely Dar Zerhoune guest house
Our first stop is to a viewpoint above the town, but we take the wrong high road and have to double back to take the mid level road, which offers excellent views of the town and the Roman ruins of Volubilis.
A dog darts across the road and narrowly misses becoming squashed by a heavily braking coach heading in the opposite direction. I had already slowed as soon as saw it, while Christopher, ahead of me, just dodged past. An uncontrolled donkey similarly avoided a nasty collision earlier in our day. More surprising were the two women who narrowly missed being given a lift, on the windscreen of a VW Touran V6 TDI, from the zebra crossing they were on to somewhere a few tens of metres down the road. The 🤬 had the audacity to honk his horn at them.
Like yesterday the scenery keeps changing as we ride, going from the relatively high vegetation of tree lined roads we left, through to narrow rocky valleys, to arid desert with nothing but bare rocks km after km.
The arid area is a wide expense of flat plain with very little vegetation and only a few ramshackle structures, not a good place to break down as there would be no shade and respite from the sun. At least on the move, the fast following air offers some cooling effect.
We reach the end of the plain and climb its valley side. At the top, and a short gravel road detour, is an abandoned fortification with a commanding overlook of the valley below. We get some great pictures there.
We've been lucky with the police roadblocks so far, and even avoided being stpped by police hiding behind trees; it's the sleeping policemen that keep catching us out, as they are not marked clearly.
As we get nearer Marrakesh the road gets busier and we have to overtake more cars and trucks. It's not big problem for us as our bikes have plenty of oomph to safely get around these obstacles. My bike continually surprises me with its turn of pace for a 33 year old vintage machine and I find myself wondering how much it would cost to renovate it from top to bottom with new parts to essentially create a brand new machine. It feels agile and engaging and has just enough power to get you out of trouble, while not getting you into trouble! You can't buy simple bikes like this anymore due to emission regulations, but there's a lot to be said for keeping things simple when exploring places a long way from home.
Into Marrakesh and the roads are definitely busy, but we're not in the chaotic centre yet as our hotel is just north of that. We eat and then look for ideas and inspiration in the local Decathlon - the two mountain marathons are looming large, finally! Inspiration comes in the form of a McFlurry and we eat them while watching the traffic cops pull over cars. We speculate that we might be next if we're not careful.
Another epic day of almost 450km evading motorways on wonderful flowing roads with character.
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