Crossed the High Atlas today

Hotel yesterday did not have working Wi-fi so this is the post for yesterday ((Saturday)

We crossed a pass that peaked at 2,700m.   But before then we had lots of fun and games.

We had a slow start in the frosty morning so I took the opportunity to adjust the chain.   Also, I played around with the settings for the rear shock absorber.   Yesterday the bike handled really well, but there were quite a few instances where the rear wheel bounced around and kept leaving the ground.   I had a bit of a think last night and realised that I weighed about 16kg more when I set it up originally.  So I had a play with the pre-load and dampning and the bike was so much better today and I don’t think the rear wheel left the ground once dispite the rough ground.  

We had to change the route a little.   When stopping for petrol the owner said that the road we were heading for no longer existed, apparently it got washed away over the winter.  It is set in a gorge and apparently the river had slowly been eating away at the road and now it no longer exists.   The problem was that the alternative route had three river crossings and we were unsure how high the water would be.   Luckily not that high.   The first crossing had the water just above the concreat bridge/road

The second was a little deeper

And the third a little wider.     This one had a very loose base and I cold feel the current as I road across

The pass we took over The Atlas was a fair mixture of tarmac, tarmac with loose gravel, bits of tarmac with Masive potholes, sections had sand across them, some sections had a white powdery sand/dust that was quite slippery and filled the air like smoke as we road through it.   This was really tough as the dust obscured the road and made it difficulty to spot the ruts and potholes.  This dust also got every where, coating the inside of my visor as well as my sunglasses inside and out.  There were sections of the red earth that were dry but interspersed with small streams across the road.  There were times when it just was easier to ride on the loose gravel verge than on the actual road.  

The kids are now becomming annoying.   Every where we go they come running to the road.  From houses, from olive groves, fields and from the middle of nowhere.   They wave and smile and you wave and smile but they all call out for the same things, pens, sweets and money.   It was not so much of a problem on previous trips to Morocco as these were road tours, but here on these loose gravel pothole ridden trails it is quite dangerous.   The problem is that the bike is more stable the faster it is going, especially bouncing around  big potholes.   So kids running out into the middle of the road cause a danger to you and them.  And when I say fast I mean 20 ish miles an hour, 30-40 when no one is around.    Any faster would be suicide with the blind bends and the oncoming traffic generally taking its half of the road out of the centre of the road, plus you do not know who or what is round the next bend.  I can never work out what these kids are doing in the middle of nowhere, it really can be miles from any buildings, but there they are, always.   

Lots of Police roadblocks today, but all they do is wave us through and with a smile.  They are all very nice to us bikers, if you wave to them you normally get a salute in return.  

Picture on the way over the High Atlas

We stopped off for lunch a a caffe in the middle of nowhere

The best thing was it had spotless European Loos.  

Running repairs on one of the bikes (not me)

Still snow on the North side of the Atlas Mountains.   We had to drive towards them and it was quit cool


Another nice place we are staying at, but it’s a little too cold for a swim.