Biblical

Firstly two pieces of good news. No animals were harmed in the making of today's adveture. Secondly the tortoise was seen by someone behind me and didn't appear to have a headache.

We were up reasonably early as we had some long off road sections to complete today. After discussions we decided to skip one section as the locals were saying there had been so much rain that we couldn't get through. They also said we wouldn't be able to get to Erfoud, today's destination. However, very little of this information is first hand and has to be treated with some scepticism.

As we left Fez the skys were a leaden grey and the air was cool. We were going to get wet at some point and that point was only 40 minutes into the ride. we all stopped to don our rain gear and, after yesterdays events, became more cautions in our riding.

As we climbed into the Atlas mountains the air became colder. Even though it was no longer raining it was too cold to take this extra layer off. Near the top of the Atlas we found our first track of the day. Every dip in the surface was a puddle, but the surface was hard enough to ride on.

After a few miles the track began to climb through some stunning Ceder forests. Some of the trees were massive. There are, I'm told, monkeys also living in the forests, but I didn't see any.

We dropped out of the forest and went through a village in a valley. They had clearly had a lot of rain, and although the river was no longer in flood, large rocks were scattered everywhere.


Climbing away from the town we found that the trail was being 'converted' into a road. The heavy equipment used in this process had churned up the soil and the rain had turned the mud into a thick sticky clay. This stuck to the front wheel and then to the underside of the mudguard. Eventually the build up became so solid it would stop the wheel turning.

Then you'd have to spend 10 minutes or longer scraping every bit out, only for it to happen again a few hundred yards further on. Progress was extreemly slow and tiring - and muddy!


I then got my bike well and truly stuck. Along with Colin's KTM my bike had to be towed out (at one point on its side). This was becoming a nightmare. Still, look on the bright side we me one guy who'd been stuck in his truck for two days!

We decided that the best option was to remove the mud guards so that they could not become clogged. Once again my bike was on its side as there was no way it could be put on the centre stand in the soft mud. The back of Bills Landy war rapidly filling with bits off of GSs. We joked that he might be able to build a whole one by the end of the holiday!


Removing the mudguards did the trick though and we could now make some progress. However, we were now seriously behind schedule as we'd only covered about one mile in two and a half hours!

We were soon back on tarmac and heading as quick as we could towards our destination. I'd ridden this road before and knew, that whilst it was great on the bike, it was also long. We blasted along risking getting pulled at one of the police checkpoints that are outside most towns.

Eventually three of the more exuberent riders got pulled over. However, he took pity on them when Mark took off his helmet to reveal a broken nose. He'd done this on the last section of the mud fest, but not told anyone! Apparantly he's a fighter not a lover - so it's often broken!

As we got closer to our destination there were massive threatning thunderclouds. We put our rain gear back on. The debris from the recent flooding in the area is everywhere. Most town centres have massive puddles and patches of drying silt. The roads were often covered with water and more dangerously slippery mud or rocks. The rains must have been biblical.

The light was fading and riding in these conditions was not a great idea. As we neared our destination we were treated to an electric storm on one horizon and a massive rainstorm on the other which was coloured pink by the setting sun.

With the light completely gone we safely completed the last 10-20 miles to the hotel. A desert fox ran across the road in front of me at one point making me jump. It looked like a ghost in the bike headlights.

The hotel is great and we were soon at the bar telling tales of daring do.