Morocco Trip - Ouarzazate to Agadir from Bikes in the Fast Lane

Custom Search

Morocco Trip - Ouarzazate to Agadir

January
2005

  File under Personal Travel
  Author: Mike Werner
  Location: Normandy, France

The hotel was cute, but FREEZING !! The only heating system they had was an airconditioner that was set to blow hot air, but the airco was mounted in the ceiling, and temperature did not move above 15 °C during the day. At night, I had to put all the bedclothes from the other bed on my bed....

But it was enjoyable experience. At breakfast there were all these movie types, technicians, aithors, etc who were working on some movie...

We were told that the road to Agadir was not in very good shape, specially the first 100 kilometers.

And they warned us for sand drifts on the road ! That was going to be interesting with all those trucks...

Agadir was going to be our Southern most point on this trip, and also the last city before heading back via the coast.

Total Distance: 360kms
Road Condition: Bad to Reasonable (lost of sand banks on the road, often quite narrow)
Time: 6 hours

	Initially, when we started riding we it looked like we'd have to climb some mountains again, but the road turned towards the south further on. We only had a few hill to climb.
	The road started out fine, straight and clean.
	The usual villages to cross.
	The land was getting bare again, occasionally a cluster of trees.
	Now, the road was getting more narrow by the kilometer. And the sides were starting to get sandy.
	Until the road more or less disappeared under the sand. It wasn't dangerous, but not so fun when there was a big truck coming up towards you (sand blast and slippery when moving aside).
	When you did see trees, it would be an oasis, with a small stream or little lake.
	And the road continued....
	Several hills to climb and descend.
	This is the moon, not Morocco ;-)
	A couple of clouds, but the temperature held at about 10 °C.
	The road is almost gone here....
	And you had to climb the hills with these roads, watching out at each corner that there was not opposing traffic. We did see a lot of cars and trucks alongside the road.
	Several towns were selling Berber carpets. No space on the motorcycle, so we didn't buy any...
	Nature call.
	This thing looks like a fort. Surprise !! It is a fort. It's used by the military and by the police. Beau Gest move over...
	And to prove the point, here's a Hummer !! One of many we encountered.
	Your guess is as good as mine what this building is. Looks like another fort.
	We stopped as suggested by Gilles (the Frenchman we encountered in Ouarzazate) to buy Saffron. This is the world capital of Saffron (a cooking spice). It's normally very expensive to buy, since they need 40,000 flowers to make 10 grams. We bought 10 grams for 17 Euros...
	And we continued on the road to Agadir.
	Lunch break at a roadside restaurant.
	And on the way we go again.
	I got stuck behind an orange truck (not a truck colored orange, but one that was transporting them).
	30 kilometers from Agadir we assumed that we'd no longer have the risk of not having any petrol stations, so we off-loaded our jerricans (big mistake, since I did run out later on the following day)
	We've arrived at the outskirts of Agadir. It's a reasonably rich city, designed for tourists.
	Another old fortified wall.
	Irrigation aqueduct. The pipe the water in from the mountains.
	This is Agadir from my hotel window. It's modern and touristy.
	This is the Agadir beach. There's a very long promenade alongside the beach full of restaurants (even a McDonalds and Pizza Hut) and discos. Yuck !