Morocco Off-road Adventure: Day 1 from Marrakech to Agadir
Editor Danny Hermans registered for the Morocco Adventure 2023 to finally experience that “Dakar feeling”. He has plenty of motorcycle experience as an ex-motocross rider, but 10 days on an enduro with stages of an average of 270 km every day is a completely different story. Follow his adventures on an enduro motorcycle through the south of Morocco for 10 days.
From Marrakech to Agadir
Today it's for real: The big adventure we've been looking forward to for years is starting. The ride goes from the famous city of Marrakech across the Atlas Mountains to the coastal city of Agadir. My laziness from last night is now playing tricks on me. Before transporting the motorcycles, I had pulled out the fuse of the GPS tracker and the power supply of the smartphone holder to avoid being confronted with a flat battery in Marrakech. I was going to install the fuse this morning just before the start, but due to all my stress there is no time left. That will be a job for tonight.
Just before we start, all 66 motorcyclists are lined up in a field opposite the hotel for a group photo. By the way, that hotel is not in Marrakech itself, but an hour's drive from the city. Around 8 am the first groups drive towards the Atlas Mountains that beckon in the distance in the early dawn. The difficulty level increases steadily. Once in the Atlas you can enjoy the beautiful surroundings and the roads that wind up along rock walls. Descents are also on the menu.
They occasionally give us a broader view of the surroundings and in the distance we see yellow tents popping up from the aid organizations that have been working here since the brutal earthquake a month ago. There was no way in these mountains to completely avoid the epicenter of the earthquake and so we suddenly drive through villages that have been badly damaged. Here and there we see mud houses that have completely collapsed, with a tent from a non-governmental organization next to them.
The earthquake
Despite the heat, I feel freezing when I look at this dull misery. It puts my feet on the ground and for a moment I feel very guilty to make a huge contrast with the poverty of the local population here with a fancy GasGas enduro. A little further we had to go with the motorbikes alongside the tents with a deep abyss on the left and the tension cords of the tents themselves on the right.
Due to the earthquake, our paths became increasingly difficult to overcome and we eventually had to turn around because the obstacles became too big. Sometimes it was difficult to speak of a road. This meant that we had to return almost the entire route and then take the public road towards Agadir.
On the way back (still in the Atlas) I had already been innocently pushed down several times, but the fourth time it was a hit. Playful as ever, we had been cutting corners for a while. The gravel roads invited this fun, but all parties must come to an end. The last time I cut a corner I encountered a ditch before I could turn back onto the gravel road.
A dent in the Atlas Mountains
A sharp pull on the throttle was enough to jump over the canal like motocross. Unfortunately I was now traveling at too high a speed and was unable to stop in time. While braking, I slid head first into a rock. That's what a helmet is for and immediately after the crash I stood up again, a little dizzy but with two painfully sprained fingers on my right hand. They had folded backwards due to the impact. My GoPro had broken off the handlebars and fortunately the camera was not turned on, otherwise I would have had to share yet another embarrassing scene for posterity.
So I quickly got back on the bike and decided to suppress my playfulness for the rest of the day, there are still a lot of tough rides on the menu. The drive to Agadir was quite a tough one due to the technicalities in the Atlas Mountains. On top of that, there were many extra kilometers to cover and we had not taken time to have a bite to eat due to all the problems in the earthquake zone. The drive to Agadir was beautiful, but due to all the events I didn't have enough time to look around, it was important to read the road carefully and not to get on your nerves.
Then there were still many kilometers of asphalt to do. The sun slowly sank and when it disappeared completely, I was glad I had installed an ultra-bright LED headlight on the bike. There are hardly any street lights in Morocco, but fortunately in Agadir this was the case along the major avenues that point towards the city. I arrived in the big city with 500.000 inhabitants completely exhausted. Apparently I was not alone because my colleagues also had to go deep. The motorcyclist with a BMW GS800 in particular had a hard time during this first ride. He dove into a ravine and emerged with a battered wrist and a scratched and bent motorcycle. Motorcyclists help each other and with combined efforts the German two-wheeler was brought back to the surface.
A drinking problem
Carrying bags around the hotel was too much for me and the walk to the location where we could have lunch was also torture for me. I had no strength left and did the things I had to do through sheer willpower. Moreover, I was becoming increasingly dizzy from the impact the crash had caused on my stupid head. I clearly say “silly” because in the hotel it turned out that I had drunk far too little that day. The water bag in my backpack was not even half empty while we arrived in Agadir at 41 degrees on the thermometer. The organization had warned us extensively about this item and so I sinned on day one.
Missed the previous article of this adventure? This is the link: https://nl.motocrossmag.be/index.php/2023/11/marokko-off-road-adventure-de-voorbereiding
Tomorrow: From Agadir to Guelmim.
Participated in our Morocco Adventure Project:
- Bhr Parts
- Smets Screen Printing Sticker set GasGas
- Galfer Performance Brakes Remmen
- Dam Racing Parts
- Dapa Design Clothes
Also to read
VIDEO: Inside MXGP and the Yamaha riders' race in Agueda
The Yamaha camp lets us look behind the scenes again and this time it is during the MXGP of Portugal. A new rider had appeared there who goes by the name...New knee injury for Maeron Peeters
A major setback for Maeron Peeters. Last year the Belgian crashed with Maxi Werner in Oldebroek and tore his right anterior cruciate ligament. On April 27…List of participants MXGP of Galicia in Lugo
The sixth MXGP of this year will be held in Lugo, Spain this weekend. After the Portuguese mud bath of Agueda, the World Cup toppers will have a different kind of circuit under the…Test: Polisport's unbreakable levers
Brake and clutch levers have sometimes broken off in a crash, but it has never been different. Polisport has thought deeply about this subject and now has an unbreakable lever on the…
Your reactions