From Greece to Morocco & Pyrenees motorcycle trip (part 4)

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Errachidia - Merzouga

Right in the middle of May I find myself having my breakfast by the pool at a hotel in Errachidia:

Not a bad scene at all. However, Alan from the group couldn't enjoy it as his stomach became one more in the statistics of Morocco visitors: 40% of them face such issues. We start questioning our plans till he insists that he is OK(ish) to ride and follow us. By looking at him I wasn't exactly convinced but hoping he really is I started packing. Downstairs at the reception I find John looking at some stickers a guy from the hotel was (pretending to be) offering so I stopped by to have a look. When he finished picking the guy asked him something like the price of an overnight for only a few stamp sized stickers. That cracked me up. Guy then tells us "OK OK give as much as you want" so John turns at me "how much should I give him?". Proposing a tiny fraction of what he asked initially I leave the transaction to deal with something more pleasant, meaning loading my bike. Then I adjusted John's rear suspension as it was bottoming out on every single bump with all his and his wive's load. He was super happy with the result and...of we go.

Curious how the route going South on the N13 looks like? Have a look:

We soon arrive at a view point offering as a great chance to see the largest  oasis around, kindly offered by the river Oued Ziz:

No image of the above can tell the whole story - the vegetation there is absolutely insane. It really looks impossible to walk. Feels like the soil is so rich that in the first chance of water it goes full green. I find myself stuck watching this for... don't know how long till Pete asks me if I'm OK. I respond: "I'm fine - it's just so therapeutic to watch this that I can't take my eyes off. We had to move on though so I take one last picture of my iron horse under the extreme penetrating sunlight...

...and off we go. As we are about to leave the N13 and turn left for Merzouga I stop to take a couple of pictures. Riding in the dirt with the Sahara sand dunes in the background was impossible to miss:

The first houses of Merzouga are soon in sight:

We drive through the village till the end of the road and the beginning of the sand dunes. I can't describe the feeling of finally putting feet and rubbers (for a little while) on this astonishing sea of sand:

Pete talking with a Berber Me feeling like on top of the world while being not even close to it

After all this excitement we head to our hotel where... I am impressed to find Greek letters on the bottom of the pool:

I go to the top of the building for some pictures. The mud houses around attract my attention:

They might look poor and rough (and they are!) you can't believe how well they manage to keep the heat out. Otherwise it would be impossible to survive there. Late spring and it was already worse than the worse heatwave in Athens.

Second to join the "bad stomach" list was Pete. This would keep him from joining us for a tour in the Sahara next day to watch the sunrise. We go to bed early in order to wake early enough and after 5am we put ourselves in a Toyota Prado eager for that experience in the desert. First thing that impressed me was the Toyota. That thing was eating the sand dunes effortlessly even with 5 adults inside. I start thinking "he's gotta have really good tires" but when we arrive I step down and I see... this:

Not even proper knobby ones! Good job Prado! You deserve at least a couple of images:

Before I proceed with more images of Sahara, I'll put a few words trying to transfer to you the feeling I got there. It is easily one of the highlights of my travelling career. I could put quotation marks on the word "career" since I am not paid for this but I didn't cause it makes me richer even though I pay for the whole thing. And Sahara is totally one of this cases:

We leave the car and we climb a sand dune in order to have the best view possible to the sunrise. Climbing a sand dune is a thing - you make two steps up and it brings you one step down. As soon as I manage to make it to the top the happiness and excitement are beyond words and expressions. Minutes before sunrise we see convoys of camels bringing tourists for the same reason. From far they look like ants on a perfectly synchronised parade in this sea of sand - that's how Sahara looked to me: A sea of sand with paused waves.

Enjoy the sunrise step by step:

These tiny black dots in line are camels! Windy and happy me

This sand is so thin that we kept carrying bits of it in our shoes for the next week regardless how much we tried to clean them. See Kim's piles of sand to get an idea:

After such an impressive experience I was like "OK, worth the journey even if that's all we had to see". And we still were less than halfway!

See you in the upcoming part 5 for the rest of the adventure!

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