You gorrit!Originally Posted by mr_uks
You gorrit!
lol its under day 6wait and see
Day 2
29/12/09
Day 2 our first full day in morocco, the day started early for me, around 6.30am, I lay in bed with the door open, smoking, just watching the world go by, hoping, wishing, the other 2 would wake. The sky was clear, looked like we were in for a nice day .
My little friends came past again and I needed the loo, so I dragged myself from the warm sleeping bag, well not so warm, I did have 2pair of socks and 2 pair of jog pants 2 t-shirts and a jumper and wooly hat, this was to be the norm. From now on the nights were cold and my sleeping bag was only good for +5 (hey come on I do live in Portugal)
Around 8am I decided it was time for the kettle and a nice cup of tea, the sound of the kettle boiling soon woke lubo and this was to be the normal for the next few weeks. I would wake early lay in bed until I could not lie any, longer then kettle on and lubo up, ian, well he loved to lie in and would get up for the second round of drinks.
Finally we packed up camp, loaded the bikes and hit the road. I think time was getting on and it was around 10.30am or maybe even 11am, our plan for the day was to ride from our camp site at MARTILL to AL-HOCEIMA 130K as the crow flies. But as we know, the crow flies straight and the coast road was anything but straight.
I think we should have set off earlier but hey, if we did not make the camp site we could always find somewhere else to stop, but as you will read, anything can happen and it did!
Stopping along the way for pics and cigs the view’s passed us by and so did time. The roads were good, to start but they were resurfacing the roads and around every corner there would be a digger and a team of men cutting back the cliffs or removing landslides, then right and left one after another on knobbly tyres, gravel on every corner thier were a few bum twitching moments the roads would be great when finished.
Smoke time every car/van that passed would pip and wave asking if you were ok
Lubo thinks he is DAVID BAILEY but I’ve seen his pics and they are better than mine
On we go more twists, turns, more gravel, more road works, more beautiful scenery, more cig breaks
Time for fuel aprox 10.30 drams per ltr works out about £1 per ltr for super which we think was same as 95 octane. The fuel stop also allowed me to mask up and clean up as we had been chasing tipper trucks for what seemed hrs and I was covered from head to toe in dust, this was 3.15pm, no lunch yet but we had had porrage for breakfast. I think we had stopped for coffee and ian got some bread on the way, or we were just about to, can’t really remember but 1 hr on, time for more pics
we looked at the map and planed to stop at EL JABHA this was aprox half way, well if we had not planned to stop, we had to anyway as ian, as usual, wanted to be first to try everything, even a puntcher riding through el jabha he picked up a nail, so time to pull over and crack out the tools, good job myself and lubo had the foresight to bring everything I supplied, the tyre levers and lubo the tube.
30 mins later the bike was back on its wheels (lucky ian had center stand) lubo made lunch, tuna sandwiches, as far as I can remember, I set of first only to stop 2 mins up the road and eventually turn back, ians centerstand had seized and would not go back up, after a quick fix, jumped on it and pulled it up!! Lol. We were off, time was getting on and dark was only an hour ish away and we still had miles to go, none of us clocked the distance but I’m sure we rode over 300ks that day, arriving in AL-HOCEIMA AROUND 9.30pm very tired. Opps! almost forgot, when we entered the town it was duel carriageway. Me leading, ian second and lubo last. Dark, cold, been in the seat for around 10hrs ,needing sleep, I noticed a black line in the road, water? Fuel? Oil? Shit I realized a split second too late ass my rear end stepped out. Foot down, you know the toe stinger, OWW!! ian was on my left and noticed the bike skip, lubo not so lucky followed my line through the corner and looking in my mirrors I saw him go down FxxK fxxK fxxK I pulled up and ran back down the road, ian had stopped, must have seen it all, and a car pulled up stopping the traffic. Lubo was on the floor, I ran heart in mouth, shit!! He stood up and was ok, good, was a fright, only 2 days in and a crash already. We all picked the bike up as it was facing the wrong way, bags intact, leavers ok, broken front indicator, phew lucky!! Lubo smiled, he was fine, pushed bike to the edge and jumped on, turned over a couple of times, small fuel leak on the road and she fired into life, great, off we go!
I had searched the internet and found a camp site on or near the beach, after searching and asking many people we discovered the camp site had shut 2 years ago. We were gutted and I so wanted my bed!! So, back on the road, ian suggested we just rode out of town and found somewhere, anywhere to pitch the tents for the night. We agreed, as I was too tired to say no, about 2k out of town we turned left along what we soon realized was the coast road, there was nothing, nowhere, then ian found what looked like a disused farm. I stayed on the side of the road whilst he checked it out, I noticed a carpark or something in the moonlight on our right. Lubo went to investigate, it was and there was a small forest to one side. I asked if we could get in and ian returned saying that the farm was a no go. Pointing out the woods, ian was off checking it out. As he drove into the wood his lights vanished, well if we can’t see him that means nobody will see us, so we all set off, great stuff! 20ft from the beach, hidden in the woods. Time to pitch our tents and get the stove on the go. Time for a nice cup of tea and lubo our chef made food. I collected some fire wood and we all sat there around an open fire everything was good.
10.30pm all was well but morocco had not finished with us yet.
Whilst collecting fire wood, I noticed two men on the beach. I whispered to the others, then the two men started to walk over to us. OMG I sat in the tent door. I had brought a couple of things with me for safety, one of them being a police cosh, the expandable type, this was now between my legs and I was ready, ian and lubo were checking out there bikes (now remember they speak French and we don’t ) well hello and goodbye was about it. One of the men asked for something, turns out he was asking for papers, we said “no” again. Papers! said the man, why? asked ian !! papers! why!! Policia!! yeh really??!! I asked for his papers, he looked at us blank, I asked again, then he pointed to his camouflage jacket and said policia again, we laughed, ian got his camouflage trousers and said same. Military said the man, ian said yes, small white lie there. It tuned out the man was maritime police, him and the 3 other men (2 more had arrived) patrolled the beach at night for drug smugglers. This was feasible, as we were on the northern coast, just over the water is Spain. The 4 men looked through our paper work and I handed out a few cigs and we chatted for a while, then they went. 10 mins later, one came back, he missed the reg numbers off. We offered him tea and he sat with us, infront of the fire for a while, we ran out of water so lubo or ian went with one chap to thier hut on the beach and came back with 4 bottles of water, more cigs and coffee. They were great. I was tired so hit the sack but ian and lubo sat chatting with them for hrs. I slept well, knowing we had our own personal bodyguards.
Last edited by punisher_uk; 01-31-2010 at 01:40 PM.
the beggining.. all looked clean and ''ready'' our first and last
EARLY start
twisty roads
mapping
''Lubo thinks he is DAVID BAILEY but I’ve seen his pics and they are better than mine''
check out what a 32mm fuji film does!!!
Ians flat tyre
the spot.. crap town uphill at a corner... it couldnt be better..actually next time Ian chose great place ..but thats to follow
Last edited by Koho; 01-21-2010 at 06:10 PM.
Africa is too far....
Ian and the Fixer
after the tea and the cigarete... He told me that he will buy a ''nice'' wife for 400GBP.. i liked it
Tony and his home.
5.45am Ian get up dudeeee!!!!!!!!! He did not
got up too early all where asleep..sunrise .......
Last edited by Koho; 01-21-2010 at 06:16 PM.
Africa is too far....
[QUOTE
got up too early all where asleep..sunrise .......[/QUOTE]
come on tell thr truth you got up for a wee and went back to bed :P
Fantastic, it's like reading a Biggles Book. Oh I don't suppose you will remember them. Giving my age away again, me and my big mouth.
Oh, you had Biggles on the Internet back then?
PunUK et al, keep up the good work, I can hardly wait for the next episode
1998 Pegaso (cube), 60006 km
Don't take my word for anything until you get a second opinion! This is the Internet you know...
An internet was what you used for fishing Sticklebacks in those days!!!!Oh, you had Biggles on the Internet back then?
PunUK et al, keep up the good work, I can hardly wait for the next episode
internet (carrier pigeon) lolOh, you had Biggles on the Internet back then?
PunUK et al, keep up the good work, I can hardly wait for the next episode
and not tonight im off out for a drink
Hope its not to long but as im writing i keep remembering things so if its to much please say i would hate to bore you
We don't bore easily!!!!
Not boring at all - especially the bit with the beach-militia.
Looking forward to the next episode.
2003 Pegaso 650IE, now with added centre-stand!
dont mean to correct lubo as this chap was a fixer ish but he was the policia
also glad you are enjoying it i will carry on writing
Day 3
30/12/09
Day 3 planned to be one of our longest days as we had fallen behind and really needed to cover some klm to catch the Africa race which left NADOR this morning at around 6.30pm, or first light,so we planned to catch them at their overnight stop, which we knew was somewhere within a 30 or 40k radius of TENDRARA
The night before the police chap had helped the boys map out a route and when adding a waypoint or two to the sat nav, we realized that we needed to cover around 300k (straight line). If the day before was anything to go by, we had no chance of making it. The road did look straighter and we had chosen a more major road (or so we thought) so we should be able to cover the distance and still be able to make camp in time for tea.
View of the ocean from our camp
And from the beach looking in
Time was getting on and we had a long way to go we had breakfast early and started to break camp
Lubo ready for the road
9am things were looking up (too much gear on my bike) cant really remember much about the first part of the day, nothing really happened. We headed east to NADOR along the N2, approx 100k and then south, at last we were heading in the right direction. Stopped for fuel on the way in one of the small towns and lubo managed to get 2 mobile phone sim’s, what a guy! We both had unlocked mobiles so now I could text and phone the wife (got to keep them happy for next time!!)
30 mins coffee break and some shopping done, fruit and bread for dinner, bikes full of fuel and we are off.
2hr later, around 2pm, warm but windy, we pulled up on the side of the road behind a hill to stop some of the wind. Ian made more tuna sandwiches, they tasted great! Looking again at the maps we had traveled quite a way but not enough
Now you know why aprilia have a table on the back, it’s for lunch!! Ian’s bike really did have everything but still cannot find the onboard sink. We must press on so off we go again, head down as fast as we could, klm after klm, sore but headache from wind noise, no time to stop, no cig breaks, must press on, wind got worse I’m sure.
(Red ring ) time for a break, pics and a smoke. I chose to highlight this spot for you for couple reasons, you can see just how far we got in 7hrs, great section of road, pics to follow (no dout lubo’s will be beter)
This section we climbed from around 700ft above sea level up to 1600 ft, great section of road, twisty curves, no crash barriers or walls, one mistake and opps, goodbye and again, lubo would insist on riding on the left. I’m sure he kept forgetting he was not in the UK , overtaking on bends and just being plain silly. I felt I had to tell him, if a car had come or a donkey we would be collecting his belongings from the valley below.
Last edited by punisher_uk; 02-01-2010 at 02:11 PM.
Day 3 Part 2
This is one time my camera skills let me down, let’s hope lubo has some better one’s, the pics do not do the mountain range justice. 30 mins later we found ourselves on a flat Plato at around 1300ft, sunny but cold and windy but flat and it went on and on and on the road was boring, there was nothing, not even grass, no life at all!! I think they grew rocks here and that was it. I think the boredom effected lubo first
“It was this big honest”
More map reading and we decided time was getting on, 4.40pm, quick smoke and off again, dark in an hr or so, best ride faster.
Riding fast is boring just going in a straight line, time for a smoke again, oh look, life!! “lubo look out behind you “
Off we go again, by this time ian had found flat tracks on either side of the road and proceeded to play on them to kill the boredom, they must have been the old road before tarmac, 30 mins later this is where I think the boredom effected ian.
I saw ian pull over in my mirrors so I pulled up 20ft infront and walked back slowly (might as well grab a smoke whenever you can) ian then got all his paper work out of his map pocket, (don’t know why) and the wind got hold of it, remember its gusting up to 70k ish, well something blew away so like an idiot I ran after it, yes fully loaded, helmet gloves, jacket, I think I got about 100yards before I gave up, waving to ian to chase it on his bike, well he did and caught it, it was his logbook! I’m sure lubo has a pic with the tyre prints lol
This is him heading back to the road after rescuing it
Now the sun was setting and we were around 70k from our overnight stop, which we still had to find and as I mentioned, we knew the rally were bivouacking somewhere, but not sure where. It was now dark, windy and cold, as we arrived at a junction, left or right ,we stopped and looked at map, there was nothing anywhere and too windy to pitch a tent. We all agreed to head left towards TENDRARA, if we did not find the bivouac we would find something in or near the town, 30mins further on rounding a bend we saw lights, it was either locals OR!! We got closer and yes it was the rally, out of nowhere we stumbled across their camp. Great stuff! Parking the bikes outside the walled enclosure, we dodged past the police, who were standing guard, I suppose it was to keep locals out and we looked the part, head down, keep walking and we were in. Wondering round the pits, bikes and cars all light up, mechanics working on the cars and the big support trucks.
Ok I must own up, the pics are stolen from a Spanish chap I met called tomaz, coz mine were shit. He gave me his email address, so we exchanged mails and he sent me some pics.
Sorry, went off on a tangent then. Back to the night, it’s now around 6.30pm and I decide to find an marshall and ask about camping, 3 walk by and I start with the French and a little Portuguese, they look at me funny and reply in English! PHEW! that made things easier. After explaining we are here to watch the race, and found their camp. It’s cold, dark, and windy can we camp inside the walls. He had to go ask some head honcho and asked us to stay with the bikes and he would pop and see us in 5 mins. Pic time again.
Time ticked by it got darker and colder and windier
Some time later, about 1hr, I hunted round and found the marshall, he looked at me and said “oh sorry, I forgot” GRRRRRR well its colder and darker and too windy to ride on (put the pressure on a bit). He got on the radio and said, follow me, you guys can pitch the tents here, you can’t use the food tents but you can get beer in this tent. GREAT STUFF!!! Went to find lubo and ian, lubo was standing with the bike’s and ian was still looking round so we rode into the camp and pitched the tents. Lubo got the coffee on and I got some warm clothes on. Time was getting on and as normal I was tired, when we had stopped for coffee ian had bought 6 steak’s. Lubo dug through his bag of tricks and found some pesto, I got the frying pan out and we had steak and pasta. Then ian came back and pitched his tent finally, he had been chatting to some drivers getting info on the next day’s stage’s.
11.30pm and ian still not sorted, meanwhile I’m ready for bed
Yes this is me, ready for bed. No joke, it was 0 deg, I was frozen, again, same routine, 2 shirts, fleece jumper, thermal underwear, jog pants, and the thermal liner from my bike pants, 2 thick pair sock’s, wooly hat and riding face mask, nope, still cold! Jacket over the sleeping bag, little better, just the feet, freezing. Text the wife good night and mentioned the cold feet, she replied, what about the hand warmers you got for the bike? (that’s what wife’s are for) she does look after me. Just before we left on the trip I purchased a pair of tucano urbano mits as I didn’t feel I would ever use heated grips in Portugal. These are wind and water proof and thermal lined, quick to fit and to remove.
And jokingly when they arrived, my son put them on his feet as shoes! Well I kid you not, I was so cold I would have tried anything. Out of the bag they came, slipped them on and tucked them into my pants, climbed back in bed and job done! Warm feet warm heart, time for bed.
nn
Last edited by punisher_uk; 02-01-2010 at 02:40 PM.
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