A guide's Point of View: Magical Morocco

Hello everyone!

We have asked one of our guides to write an article about how it was for him his first time in Morocco. Here is what he wrote:

 “I always thought of Morocco as one vast desert. Truth is I was impressed when I got to know the dramatically changing scenery this country has. During the 15 days this tour lasted, I got to ride from the rolling green hills to the red sands of the Sahara Desert; I even rode through snow-peaked mountains!

Safety Briefing.

I met everyone I was going to guide through Morocco in the hotel. We had a safety briefing; we talked about the first riding day, answered all of their questions and covered the cultural differences that Morocco has. After the safety briefing we enjoyed the welcome dinner. It was fun as people starting talking and getting to know each other and I could see people that I knew would be lifelong friends after this tour. Next morning the adventure finally began, it was time to hit the road! On the first day we rode to the port town of Algeciras. On our way down there we rode through, what Spanish people call, “Pueblos blancos” (literally white villages) I would like to highlight one of those pueblos blancos specially: Ubrique, Due to the Muslim influence 800 years ago, the town acquired the leatherwork tradition and is world famous for having the best leather.  The Next day, we took a ferry across the Strait of Gibraltar to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. From where we crossed the border, it was an instant shock: Once the imaginary line into Morocco is crossed everything is instantly different! We kept riding until we reached the town of Chefchaouen where we spent our first night in a “Riad” Hotel located in the heart of the medina. I remember how everyone loved this town: it was very magical, the dim lights, the labyrinth streets, hearing the wailing from the minarets, the call to prayer 5 times a day etc. The next morning we left Chefchaouen. We rode to the roman ruins at Volubilis, and then, we crossed the green Northern Morocco filled with rolling hills and fields of wheat to the Imperial city of Fez. This mountainous landscape was not what I expected to find in Morocco.  The mountains were very green and I could have been back in Spain riding the mountains there.

Fez Medina

We spent our first rest day at Fez, where we took a special guided trip to the Medina. The Fez Medina is the largest in the world and boasts over  13,000 streets with ceramic shops, leather tanneries, food markets, and just about everything else.  You can really see and feel how life here has withstood the test of time and everyone is living exactly as their ancestors did 1000 years ago!  It’s a treat to be able to experience this “time machine” first hand.

 From the amazing city of Fez we put ourselves back on the road. This time we were heading to Erfoud. The scenery, changed dramatically from lush green mountains to brown-hued high altitude desert, to date palm trees and oasis, and finally to the Sahara Desert. I don’t think anyone anywhere has ridden so many changes in one riding day and it is fascinating! Atlas Mountains curves, the green is suddenly gone and it is a high plain desert, the air is still cool but everything turns brown and rocky some time later the oasis starts along an underground riverbed. Finally we see sand on the sides of the roads and sand traps to stop the sand from blowing onto the road. We spent our second rest day in this town. We had time to rest by the pool the pool, ride the sand dunes with our hotel’s quads and dirt bikes. We saw the fossil quarries where the locals get million years old slabs of fossilized rocks and make tables, sinks and art out of it, we saw the black desert with the characteristic black volcanic rock we saw camels roaming freely and even joined a nomad and his family for tea. It was a really complete day! I even took a camel ride through the dunes!

Riding through the Draa Valley

 From Erfoud we went to Zagora, located at the end of the Draa Valley-the largest date palm oasis in Morocco. To ride the southern desert was definitely one of the things I wanted the most. I do not thing any other company goes this far south but trust me, this is what you pictured Morocco to be like: the scenery is spectacular with beautiful Rocky Mountains and camels roaming. There are Moroccan boys offering orange boxes of dates for 20dirham (1.50€, it’s a bargain, best dates I have ever tried!)They even told us that The Draa Oasis is the largest and it produces 80% of the world’s dates (Cant really deny or confirm this stat, but it’s nice to believe it this way). Our RIAD hotel is located right inside the Date Palm Oasis; it is incredible to see something this beautiful inside the oasis! Most people were very surprised when they saw it. The following day, we rode the Jbel Mountain Range to the Moroccan “Hollywood.” The Jbel Mountains are a rocky mountain range typical in this desert region. The scenery is an incredible contrast to the azure sky, also the road is very curvy and the asphalt was new with excellent grip. The Movie Studios in Ouarzazate have turned out movies such as: Cleopatra, Lawrence of Arabia, Gladiator, and the Jewel of the Nile. We left Ouarzazate on our way to Marraketch. That was the riding day I enjoyed the most: 200km full of curves over the Tizi-n-Tichka pass in the High Atlas Mountains.  Once in Marrakech we visited the Famous Djemaa el-Fna Square and it was a sensory overload: tons of people and snake charmers, monkeys, jugglers, orange juice stands, veiled women offering henna tattoos,  people selling all types of things, food carts and rising smoke from the grills. It is something you have to see for yourself in order to be able to describe it. Later we had dinner in a typical Moroccan Restaurant in a 14th century medina house.

We spent the last resting day in Marrakech which is one of the most amazing places I have ever visited. Next morning we headed to Rabat which is Morocco’s capital. After spending the night in Rabat we headed back to Ceuta, but not without visiting Tanger first. From Ceuta we took the ferry back to Spain and rode some more through the sunny and green Andalucía.  But there was time for another amazing moment: the White Village of Ronda, which is known to be the home of the first bull ring in Spain and for being perched on a 300 meter gorge. We reached Seville later that day and still had time to do some more sightseeing before the Farewell dinner".

If you want more information about the Morocco tours please visit www.IMTBike.com and don’t forget to check out our Facebook for more photos!