sqeeezy
Well travelled
- Location
- Southern Spain
12th November. On a dirt track in a nameless palmerie south of N'kob. Woke early as usual before dawn having slept well on the floor of the spare room shopkeeper Mohamed offered me yesterday. Mohamed and his pal Ahmed, who's a freelance gold prospector and ace guy, appeared and we had tea. I refused bread n olive oil, as I'm on my 10-6 diet, then packed, gave Mo 20dh which he was happy with and headed off north to the tarmac main road. Stopped before Nkob for petrol and bought bread, water, sardines, tuna, cheese for the piste. Nearly shot out of Nkob but decided to have a proper breakfast of omelette, delicious Moroccan flat bread and tea. Mental note: tell them to hold the mint next time, I prefer it without. The guy made the usual Berber whisky joke. Groan. Paid and off up the road and turned off onto the MS15 Agdz to Kalaat M'Gouna piste. At first it was a nice valley ride but then I started having difficulty riding through fine riverbed gravel like rowing in porridge. The doubts. Oh no. I'm 67, I shouldn't be doing this shit. Aaargh. Fell over and then delighted a boy who helped me up and pushed me onwards by giving him a 10dh coin. The track then left the valley for stony awful track, like ascending basalt steps with no-don't-look-scary drops into the cirque to the side. Just use the torque, don't feather the clutch, keep a good line and just grunt on through. What a bike! Amazing scenery. High mountain country. Huuuuuge views. Three Nepalese-looking (?) guys passed from the other direction. Looked like hired bikes and they had helmets on, not turbanned like local guys. It was energetic work steering the bucking bronco over the rocky stuff so I was down to my Foot Locker wife-beater shirt and baseball hat. Jacket and crash hat roped onto the stern. Ten km in, the track's not rock steps any more. Much more fun. Stopped at one of the many cols for views, sardines, bread and mandarins. Mind blowing vistas of naked geology as far as the eye can see. On and on....
Got dazed and confused after coming down into Tamagoute just before sundown and a dim-looking guy came up and insisted on 200dh for a room he wanted to show me. I'm Scottish, mate, no way, that's 20 euros. I offered 50dh. He said come and drink tea. Uh-uh. I motored off, scraping the centre stand and nearly falling off as I urged Basmati over some excessively lumpy ground. Don't fall off till he's out of sight. Phew. Made it. After sunset found a sandy oued just wide enough for me, just off the track. Still quite a way south of Kalaat but no hurry, no worry. Nice soft sleeping ground. Filled my stove with petrol siphoned from tank and made cocoa. Twice. Yes. Life is good. Free as in beer, free as in speech. The stars are my roof tonight. My best piste so far.
Got dazed and confused after coming down into Tamagoute just before sundown and a dim-looking guy came up and insisted on 200dh for a room he wanted to show me. I'm Scottish, mate, no way, that's 20 euros. I offered 50dh. He said come and drink tea. Uh-uh. I motored off, scraping the centre stand and nearly falling off as I urged Basmati over some excessively lumpy ground. Don't fall off till he's out of sight. Phew. Made it. After sunset found a sandy oued just wide enough for me, just off the track. Still quite a way south of Kalaat but no hurry, no worry. Nice soft sleeping ground. Filled my stove with petrol siphoned from tank and made cocoa. Twice. Yes. Life is good. Free as in beer, free as in speech. The stars are my roof tonight. My best piste so far.
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