GPJMurphy

I normally finish these trips with an Epilogue which is kind of a Gary’s Do’s and Don’ts of the trip. A mix of lessons learned and things I would do better/differently/avoid like the plague next time. I have travelled a fair bit – in my early twenties I spend 4 months across the US and then subsequently 18 months across Australia and South East Asia. Latterly on the bike I have also made several trips – although sometimes ending in broken limbs. Always I have set off solo. However Biking around Morocco on your own would be pretty hard work and I wouldn’t recommend it at all. There was so much hassle that you needed two pairs of eyes, so one could watch bikes et al whilst the other changed money or whatever the order of ... read more

We had three days to cover the 650 miles from Malaga to Bilbao, allowing a more touristique route to be taken. Having ridden 250 miles the day previous to Caceres we elected to just scoot up to Salamanca a mere 125 miles north of Caceres today. This left about 270 miles to cover on Saturday to make the evening ferry from Bilbao. Salamanca has the reputation of being the Spanish’s favourite city and it is quickly apparent why. A magnificent square is perhaps the centrepiece but it is thronged all around by superb architecture. The University’s inner courtyards rivalled those of the Cambridge colleges and the Cathedral and other buildings of the old city, churches and municipal, mesmerising. Added to this the town had a wonderfully relaxed atmosphere and the ambience of a feel-good student town ... read more

Given we had ridden so many amazing routes during our tenure in Morocco we could hardly be disappointed that today’s ride wasn’t one of them. We had elected to head for Larache, which sounded a pleasant enough Atlantic coast resort and allegedly had a top end boutique hotel, the Hotel Riad which would offer a welcome change from the sub-backpacker standard of our smelly Meknes Riad. Studying the map we felt it would be far more interesting to cut through the countryside rather than sit on a dull motorway via Rabat but we needn’t have bothered. If Morocco is some kind of world centre for sh*t driving then the epicentre of sh*tness had to be Tangier. As you drew closer to Tangier so it seemed the worse the standards of driving became. We had ridden through ... read more

This short video clip is just an example of the Video shot using the superb Go Pro head cam. The only problem is the size of the files, some up to 3Gb. This is the smallest one we have at 40Mb, which will still take an age to upload. Should play/download OK though.... read more

The Hotel Taddart in Midelt was perfectly comfortable, it was just rather soulless. It had barely opened and thus had a rather odd ambience about it. An overly large and wannabe grand reception area, adorned with Morocco’s best weaves draped on the floors, was deserted and ornately carved alabaster aside it had the feel of the Overlook (Overreach?) hotel – or whatever the hotel is called in The Shining. It was standard almost formulaic 4* fare and it could have easily been in the Algarve, apart from costing a third as much. But we weren’t complaining it seemed absolute luxury just to be out of the southern heat. The Sahara was fantastic but it was heavy going and riding at any time of the day after 10 am borderline unbearable. And we weren’t even quite yet ... read more

We decided to ride straight from Fes to the Sahara dunes because the map showed little of interest for a stopover, a fact reinforced by the shabby settlements we were to later pass en route. As Vince would say decidedly “one-horse”. We figured we could always duck out at Midelt or Er-Rachidia if we were just too fatigued. It would have been a long day’s ride on European roads with European standards of driving – the Morocco factor doubling the effort required. Unusually we decided to take heed from the folly of our previous departure at midday and determined to set off early to get as much riding as possible before the heat of the day started proper. Panniers packed from the night before and arising at 6 am had us under way before 7. It ... read more

We set off for Tarifa, both now on F800GS, via the superb A-355(?) which swooped around the foothills of Marbella, winding slowly through its descent of the hills. As we approached the coast you were rewarded with pristine vistas of the med, dropping away far to your left in an azure blue sky and you could clearly see Gibraltar sat up proud and arrogant. Once we hit the coast motorway there was less interest until it again climbed near to Tarifa and at last you could see Africa looming as close as the Isle of Wight. Surely even Vince’s stomach would hold for that? Err no. We messed up the ferry times so had a 2 hour wait at the dock, but finally the catamaran got underway. Once Vince’s yawn rate exceed more than 2 a ... read more