Further to my Moroccan trip in May 2005, together with a few other BMW GS owners I went to Lisbon just before New Year to see the start of the Dakar Rally. We were supporting the BMW riders in particular, plus other UK riders. After watching some of the stages in Portugal we then crossed to Morocco to watch other stages, then took time off to do some tracks and cross the various mountain ranges. In total I covered just over 5,500 miles. We took the boat from Portsmouth to Bilbao, arriving as dawn broke. BMW party: Russ Malkin, Charlie Booman, two mechanics, unknown guy, Matt Hall (camerman member of BMW team) There were support vehicles parked all over Lisbon--great city by the way! Met up with another couple from the UK at the scrutineering The 'Race to Dakar' team bikes Nick Plumb's entry Sightseeing in Lisbon Special stage in Portugal Moroccan motorway Barbary Apes: I was made a right monkey by this guy. He suckered me with a manoeuver to the single nut in my right hand, then with his other hand he snatched the whole bag of nuts from my left hand! 50+ miles offroad near Er Rachidia Offroad near Er Rachidia Steve asks why Simon's bike is facing the wrong direction and upside down... An unnamed shortcut past a feldspar mine cost several hours Truck competitors near Er Rachidia Messing about in the Gorges du Ziz Our helicopter support found some other GSers: Si Pavey, Matt Hall and Charlie Boorman Nick Plumb near Erfoud (Nick was my instructor on the BMW offroad course) Nick Plumb near Erfoud Charlie Boorman near Erfoud Pistes near Erg Chebbi Car competitors near Erg Chebbi Valley of the Roses Valley of the Roses These four little sweeties stopped us to warn about a fierce dog around the next corner End of Valley of the Roses What do you do whan the GPS points in the middle? M5 piste and camels Getting colder as we ascend Previous night's snow Start of the descent Middle of nowhere Shipwreck at Tan Tan Plage And again The food was generally excellent, here a tagine of prunes, almonds and chicken Moroccan salad, cheese omlette (with laughing cow triangles!) and Berber omlette Bad week for sheep With another 600m of altitude to climb it was turn-around time The Moroccans reckon they're the ones who invented snowmen. It was a long ride back through Spain and France. After suffering wet and cold feet the previous day, this was my patented solution. It lasted about 150 miles, as did the dry weather that day. The plastic had disintegrated by the time the rain started. Tim
Great report -- thanks for sharing such fantastic photos... BTW -- the ol' bag on the boot trick works better if you put the bag INSIDE the boot...
Video preview clips OK, this is 18MB and only a minute long, but it shows offroad riding on a smoother part of what's known as the M5 piste. Camera held in left hand whilst riding. Please right click here and 'save target as' to your machine, then run from there. Tim
Holy crap, those were awesome pics!! That's amazing to see you guys right up next to Dakar competitors! Any fear of being struck while near the course? Did you guys do all the planning for this trip on your own, or was there a tour organization involved? Looks like an adventure rider's heaven over there...
Great pics...makes me want to leave for morocco right now...the valley of the roses looks sublime !!! Thanks for sharing!