Recomiende esta páginaContáctenos

Marocco Tour 2.

Sunday, November 20, 2022 | Franz Gmachl / Angela | Africa

Good Morning in Malaga

Good. Morning everybody! Here we start our preparation for the upcoming Marocco Tour. Looking foward to meet our riders and guests and riding a wonderfull tour through Marocco, the door to Africa the door to the desert.  We will see us at 5 pm for the welcomebriefing and bike handover. Till then Angela and Franz!

Riding Day 1 Malaga to Chefchouen

Our first riding day is focussed on entering Marokko. We arrived on time at the ferry and started the boarder-procedure. Today everything was very accurate, and that cost time. First Impressions gave us an idea of the upcoming days.  A bit late and tired we arrived at chefchouen, the blue city in the rif mountains. A warm welcome tea and an excellent dinner made everything perfekt.  A good start…..

waiting for the Ferry at Algericas
yes it was a long day
impressions from Chefchouen by night
nightlife )

Riding Day 2: Chefchouen - Azrou

A few "organisational" things needed to be done, sorting out the many motorcycles on this small parking lot in high downtown Chefchaouen. Then we could start our day of riding south to Azrou. A first impression of Moroccan life gave us our coffee stopp in Ouezzane. People watching is always agreat thing to do.

The big highlight of today was the visit of the Roman ruines of Volubilis. And another curiosity was the town of Ifrane, the so-called "Moroccan Switzerland". With its tilted roof tops, which reminds you of Swiss houses, it gives the visitor the strangest impression if you see Moroccans running around instead of Swiss people. But the amazing pastry finally convinced us of the similarities.

In Azrou we found our really nice hotel with an unexpectedly excellent dinner.

Gooooodmooooornig Chefchuoen, we are not alone......

Riding Day 3: Azrou - Bin el Ouidane

3 rd day: In the morning fair weather and we started our tour to see the nationalpark of Azrou and Ifrane with the famous cedar forest. Hard to imagine that forests like this covered the Atlas mountains all over in the past. We tried to get the Maki monkeys familiar with the KTM 1290 Adventure but no way today. As an early lunch we had excellen tajin and chicken in a small town, maroccean cuisin as it is. Than the "liason" straight roads villages and the boys coming out from scool waiving us. A mountain road brought us finally to our next Stop, a fine beer t the terrace takling aubout the ride............

Riding Day 4. Ben el Ouidane - Marrakech

Out of the country's center, over the Middle Atlas mountains, and into Marrakech. That was basically the programme for our fourth riding day. And it was just another beautiful day in this westernmost Arabic country with its very warm and welcoming people. 

After our visit of the Ouzud waterfalls, along the way we found a really nice and small road in the Moroccan neck of the woods. The hills and mountains were coloured in a mix of beige, brown, and red soil, dotted with some low growing green trees. What a relaxing ride through an area that had nothing more to offer than a soothing, laid-back athmosphere. One of these undescribably beautiful riding days Morocco is famous for.

Lunch time for the monkeys ... 

At the Ouzud waterfalls

... and lunch time for us now, too

Our charming Hotel in Marrakech

Rest Day in Marrakech Loop to Oukmaiden

Sabina, Karl, Christian and me (Franz) started the loop to the "skiresort" at 08:30. we got easy out of town and got soon to the high Atlas Mountainrange. Our route took us up to almost 2700m, 9 C and fair wather.Any other wishes? Some great viewpoints and then back to Marrakech to join the Restday with great lunch and dinner and cool swim in the pool.

While the riders had their fun in the mountains, the remaining group members went to tour the city of Marrakech together with our very knowledgeable guide Ahmed. First we went to see the Kutubya Mosque, the main mosque of Marrakech. Afterwards we were meandering through the alleyways of the Marrakech souqs to end up in a museum that told us all about the life style of an Arab family in a so-called Riad. The visit in the herbal shop is always very interesting and it gives you an insight of the Moroccan herbal natural medicine. Along the way though we got so thirsty that we couldn't walk past this juice stand. The poor guy had to press the fresh pommegranate juice for all us 12 people. He said he would go and get an appointment for an arm massage afterwards

The following visit of the Jaques Majorelle house and the Yves Saint Laurent muesum was even new for me after having been touring Morocco so many times. 

Our dinner at one of the food stands at the Jamma Al Fna nicely rounded our great rest day in Marrakech up.

2645 m altitude, the sky is blue and the air clear, what a day
Play video Download
Filesize: 39 MB
this is majorelle blue . or (tenere xt 600)

Riding Day 6. Marrakech to Ait Benhaddou

Today we left the big city of Marrakech again and were headed towards a different climate zone in Morocco. The High Atlas Mountains were our today's riding challenge. Once we got over the Tichi'n'Tichka pass, though, we were immersing ourselves into Berber country and their stunningly coloured mountain areas. A visit of the famous Glaoui Kasbah and a typical Berber lunch made us almost feel like Berbers. At least as famous is the village of Ait Benhaddou, our last highlight of the day. It already served as a film setting for many well-known movies.

Play video Download
Filesize: 33 MB
Play video Download
Filesize: 25 MB

Ridingday 7. Ait Benhaddou - Gorge de Dades

Starting our ride today, we continued learning more about the film industry in this country. In this part of Morocco, the landscape and its colours are already so perfect that it doesn't need to be changed a lot, hence, its popularity with the film industry. The next town, Ouarzazate has the famous Atlas Studios, which we took the chance to take a closer look at during a guided visit. The highlight of the afternoon was the ride into the Dades Gorge with its often photographed switchbacks.

Apparently, we have quite a few talented actors in our group

A well-deserved coffee stop along the way

Approaching the switchbacks of the Dades Gorge.

Play video Download
Filesize: 34 MB

Our fast Christian caught in the act

These rock formations are called the "brains of Morocco"

Riding Day 8. Boulmane Dades - Erg Chebbi

the morning briefing
endless desert roads

Day 9. Desert Night Erg Chebbi

We arrived on time at Merzouga at our hotel, changed from MC gear to Touareg gear and got on our camels. Sunset in the dunes of Erg Chebbi and dinner in the Berber Camp and finally open fire, music and dance. We all slept well in our tents an got up again to see the colours of the sunset. Our camels brought us home to the hotel and we can enjoy our restday in the hotel, and the visit of the 4X4 maroccean museum. Have a look!

Riding Day 10 Erg Chebbi - Fes

After a nice Restday in the desert we know that it is our turning point and we have to go back to the north. It will be the longest riding day by milage. 475 km to go to Fes.  We started at 08:00 in the morning right with the sunrise. We were lucky, good roads, beautiful sceenery, and low traffic. The last half hour lead us all through the city of Fes (1.4 mio people)  and we lost nobody. Right on time we were at our hotel and had a Casablanca on the terrasse overlooking the medina.

Vale de Ziz
The Foreignlegion-tunnel ahead
preparing for the city ride
We arrived at our hotel in Fes
The briefing for our rest day in Fes, while sitting comfortably on our hotel's terrace overlooking the Fes Medina

Restday in Fes

After Breakfast our local guides Ahmed and Mohammed took us to the medina of Fes, unesco world heritage, oldest city, and oldest niversity in the world. Handcraft and oriental food everywere! just see the pictures, there are coming more....

view over Fes from the terrace of our hotel
the oldest tannery in the world
tajine, I can't get enough )

Ridingday 13. Chefchouen - Malaga

Wow, this will be our last riding day and on the evening we will be full off new impressions and stories to tell.

We managed fine to cross the border back into Spain and are on our way to the ferry in Ceuta
The Rock of Gibraltar
At the fairwell dinner
Top of page

Blog search


Add a comment Rate this post
David McMillan
Friday, December 16, 2022 at 21:11

Nice blog. Is this tour all on asphalt or is some off road riding involved? Thanks for any response.
Franz Gmachl
Tuesday, December 20, 2022 at 09:08

Hi David, there're 99% asphalt roads, some in not so good conditions and some constructions along, but no planned off-road routes.

greetings franz
David McMillan
Tuesday, December 20, 2022 at 10:11

Thanks very much for that, Franz.
Alison Seaman
Tuesday, November 22, 2022 at 10:53

Thank you Angela and Franz, we had a special time with you and the group. Morocco was more than we hoped for; cities, sites, hotels and some fabulous roads and scenery. Until the next trip.
Angela
Tuesday, November 22, 2022 at 13:52

Hi Alison and Brian,
The pleasure was on our sides. We had a fantastic time as well, traveling Morocco with you guys and the rest of the group.
Looking forward to repeating it in the future.
Safe travels, Angela
Michael Göbel
Tuesday, November 8, 2022 at 17:05

Hi Paul,
I hope you enjoy the tour and you like the bike.
Have a good time!
Paul
Saturday, November 12, 2022 at 08:12

Hi Michael,
thank you for thinking about me. I am doing well.
Brian and Alison
Sunday, November 6, 2022 at 09:23

Should be there about 1pm. Looking forward to seeing you there

Boletín

Regístrese ahora para mantenerse actualizado y recibir nuestro documento digital con las 10 carreteras de motocicletas más bellas del planeta.

Edelweiss Bike Travel