I will fly to Morocco tonight.  I got back on 12th November 2007.

I'm going on a biking holiday. I'm going to be a punter - I'm actually paying for this one :)  It's a mate's 40th birthday, and this is the kind of thing we do.  This is partly how my Thailand dirt-bike tours came about actually.  One of the early tours there was a 40th Birthday event.

I'm filled with a certain amount of trepidation actually.  I thinks it's going to be hard.  1600+ kilometres, mainly off road, over the Atlas mountains, then into the dunes of the Sahara desert.

I know how people feel just before my Thai trips now.  But this will be harder I think.  Thailand is "easy" for me; after riding the same trails 10 times or more you become fully at ease with them.

It's not just the Saharan terrain that bothers me, although the 300m high sand dunes of Erg Cheggaga do sound quite daunting;  the guys I'm going with are nearly all 10 years younger than me, much fitter, and they race in TBEC Enduro events every third weekend!  One guy's also a TT racer. 

Daily riding distances are also a fair bit more than Thailand also.  Like double.

Anyway, we'll see how it goes, and I'll report back.  Gotta go and pack know - we leave in 2 hours time!!!

WOW!  I'm back.  What a trip.  I need to re-grade my own tours.  I describe my own trips as "adventurous", which they are.  On a scale of 1 to 5, I say my trips are grade 3, 4 and 5.  For the Dordogne, Alps, and Thailand respectively.  I need to move my scale from one to ten, leave my my own tour grades the same, and give this Moroccan trip a grade of ELEVEN!

I suspected the trip was going to be a challenge. 

I was right. 

It was harder than I'd feared, BUT, despite me being the slowest rider by quite some margin, I suceeded, and rode every 1628km of the "Enduro".  Over 95% of it off-road, much of the terrain absolutely miles from anywhere, simply following GPS readings across open desert.

I have lots of photos, and we kept a daily journal.  I'll publish this soon, in instalments.  I'll introduce a new, Trail Riding section to my website, and you can read about it there.  The bit in the photo is part of the Paris / Dakar route, with John & Dave dicing with a competitor in the Trans-Africaine Rally. Pic taken just last week, click it.

The write up on Morocco has begun - go the the left hand side of my Homepage, then click on the new section entitled "Trail Riding and Adenture Biking" if you'd like to read all about it.  Or, for quick access - just click here

Not much recent progress on writign up the trip, one day....

Note not all our tours get helicopter support, as in picture :)

These are the guys we went with.  We did a slightly extended version of their Salom Maroc route.  I know why William defines this as a "sport" tour now.  However, he also offers a softer version, the Atlas Tour, and very scarily, an even harder one - Classique Maroc.

Easy Raider - Tours in Morocco

These are the guys who are sorting out out a dirt bike adventure across Morocco for us this November ('07).  Another 40th birthday celebration to endure :) We liked the sound of these folks.  Not pushy, very flexible.  Worked with our ideas and came up with a really varied, off-the-beaten-track, circular route for 6 of us.  We've got a couple of nights in a desert Bivouac, which we wanted, and a start and finish point in Marrakech - which we 've been able to book cheap flights to. Here we go then, 1600+ kilometres of dirt trails on DRZ 400s; across deserts, sand dunes, Haute Atlas & Anti Atlas mountains and even a bit of Moroccan coastline thrown in as well. We've chosen a slightly extended version of their "Salam Maroc" itinerary, but there are others to choose from.  Maps, details, distances etc. on their website. Tours are competitively priced, in Euros.

Went Live : Sat 18th August 2007

Author : Bill

Web-link : http://www.easy-raider.com