Yellow sand and a faded sky, these are the colours of the snapshots I remember from my childhood. I was watching them with held breath, somewhere on the flickering screen of a telly. At the time, I didn't yet know what they meant, I didn't understand what Neveu, Auriol, Peterhansel or Gaston Rahier were actually accomplishing. It was enough, however, to initiate a thought in my childish mind that, now when I have such opportunities, has come to life and ignited my true fascination with Africa for good.
More than 25 years later, I'm sitting on the ferry with a sincere smile, looking at the approaching rocky shore, crossing the Strait of Gibraltar. I am thinking about where I'm going to spend the night, probably we'll decide to rally in the dark to Chefchaouen. It's all going very well, we've got an excellent pace, setting off from home on Friday evening, and it's early Sunday and we're about to touch land at Tangier Med....
Everything started with a very simple question to Kuba, Piter and Tom, three times "Yes" :-) That was quick. With a team of four proven friends sharing the same travel ideals, the rest was just a simple way to go. Yet, simple does not mean easy. We started preparations at the beginning of autumn, six months before the trip. It was intense! Many hours in the garage servicing bikes, finding valuable information on forums, groups and from friends, drawing the route, collecting equipment.... Nothing left to chance. Bike completely prepared, with improved filtration and cooling. Hardware carefully cherrypicked and spread out amongst each of us, that includes tools and spare parts. Four identical bikes. Lightweight luggage, only 6kg per side. Petrol stove, radio for communication, extra bags for fuel and water. Most items having at least two functions.... and most importantly - a full month of time!
This "Dakar" was supposed to be similar in some ways to the original rallies. I wanted it to be intense, hard, 100% off tarmac roads. That's why I have drawn a really ambitious track. From the beginning, we were thinking about bivouacs set at sunset and waking up before sunrise. We wanted to service the bikes and prepare food with headlamps. We wanted to feel actual exhaustion. And maybe, we just simply wanted to push ourselves to the limits. I remember this one statement about water at the time: "we will drink in small portions, sensibly, so that the water doesn't run through us, it won't be a holiday". Even before we have left, at the very thought of what awaits us, I felt such joy and a thrill of exotic excitement that is difficult to express, like this little boy illuminated by the glow of the telly.
We were soon faced with a true dilemma. Initially we wanted to go in a full expedition mode, on wheels from home to the port of Genoa and from there cruise to Morocco. We wanted to experience every kilometre. Unfortunately, the ferry takes a long time and leaves at an ridiculous time, in the middle of a week. Pragmatism won out romantic dream and we rent a bus. Our Dakar will start from Malaga.
We reach the starting point fast, without adventures, well, unless you consider Piter's eco-driving to be an adventure :-) We pick up the guys and after a while of wandering on the roads of Andalucia, we find ourselves in the port. There, the standard game with swindlers begins. The guys are thinking they will sell tickets for more than in the official ferry company's booth, geniuses! Of course, we buy tickets normally and catch the nearest ferry. A few moments of blissful rocking send us straight into the embrace of African continent. With widespread looks of fellow passengers we pour over the liquids that are known to be very helpful with making bivuacs even better :-), right then head for the customs and duane booths. Remembering what it's like in Ceuta, I'm preparing myself for some major impediments, but no, there are no special effects, in Tangier Med everything runs just fine. During my future trips I will always try to choose this particular border crossing. We are still about to reach the proper trailhead, our track starts in Errachidia. At the end of the day we decide to take the tarmac to Chefchaouen. I recently read somewhere that this is the most instagrammed point on the map of Morocco, well.... The evening does not disappoint us, we have a really atmospheric lodging, excellent tajines and other goodness. Falling asleep once again I am thinking how well we are doing, and how smoothly Greta is riding. After all the servicing received during the winter she is unbelievable and rides like a brand new toy!
Second day, we plan to reach the trailhead today. In the morning, we don't really know what awaits us in the mountains, but we see the first landscapes of Morocco, the evergreen Rif mountains, ancient Volubilis, we find some Hssoua soup, some tajin, we change money, so just an ordinary termac ride, nothing special to talk about... Until we meet some monkeys at the roadside. The snow is reflecting in their eyes. From now on, we catch a bit more altitude and ride in permanent snow, the temperature does not drop below zero, but there are many kilometres to click. The week before, Morocco had been hit by some sort of severe climatic disaster, everyone was writing about it and people were trapped often in places where they had been snowed in. At first we are quite happy with that, taking photos, but as time went on I began to wonder how much we could take of such a ride. Planning the trip, we obviously took this circumstance into account, but hey, we're going to the Sahara! 🙂 By the way, once again I am reaffirming my opinion that the layered apparel for a bike is way better than classic jackets. A high-quality down jacket over chest protector and a decent membrane jacket outside is superb.
Finally, after a few hours, we find ourselves on the other side of the small Atlas Mountains, the Midelt. It's dusk, it's windy and it's cold, and there's still the Atlas ahead of us! We talk, ideas are coming up, we are thinking of breaking through Atlas later that day in the dark and pitch tents near the start of the track.... All these ideas literally fly away with the wind after I take off my helmet in front of the shop, the wind wants to blow my head off. We decide that, since we are still on our way to the beginning of the proper track, we will have a bed with a ceiling. Last time, it's a liaison's rule :-)
We get together quickly in the morning, everyone feel that we have fallen a little behind schedule. Before we left, I had divided the whole track into sections so that I would know more or less how we were doing and whether we were to reach Dakar on time. We are still on the first of these stages. In the early sunshine we climb the mountains and bomb along it without even stopping. I notice, that there is ice lying on roadsides. We pull in Errachidia, where a real magic takes place in a street food when we order a breakfast :-). We take off our warm jackets, fill all tanks full, buy food.... And boy, now it begins, this is why we are here - the road to Dakar on tracks of the rallies! First, we ride the beautiful and varied Citroen track. The story behind that is that a century earlier, the car dealer form Casablanca lost his life here during a robbery. We are hoping for a bit more luck :-) I point Greta's front towards the desert. All the hidden emotions enter the scene, everything I have been waiting for. The open hamada provokes, lot of enthusiasm. The air is filled by the trilling braaaaaaaaap sounds, how beautiful is that! With the same track in the navigation, we all can have full freedom, each of us choosing his own line. This is also something what the radios we took are for, whenever we want to call up or check that everything is ok, we do it remotely, we don't have to see each other all the time.
Suddenly, we reach the dunes at Merzouga, that was quick! We stop, agree that this is only the beginning of the trip, that there will be time for playing around in the sand, that for now we just have to cross this swathe of dunes, keeping an eye on each other. I'm also not sure how Greta will cope, she has nearly 30 litres of fuel and luggage onboard. We set off, but I'm feeling somehow uncomfortable. So in order to remove the spell I decide to push it really hard. Next moment I get a massive high-side and land face down in the sand. I move on immediately, as this is the best way not to give up and start riding too conservatively. It works, I set the steering dumper stiffer a bit and turn towards the high tops of the dunes. Here we go... :-) About an hour later I try to call Kuba on the radio, he's somewhere behind the two dunes on the left, Tom and Piter are down below and I'm standing next to Greta, knocked aside, on the slope of a huge dune. I'm finding it hard to catch my breath but under my helmet I'm laughing to myself almost out loud. What magic is there in these piles of sand that they so easily charm a man? Ok, but we need keep going! We are going to set up the first bivouac, the sun sets almost suddenly and so the last clicks we have to cover in the pitch dark....
Track: Wikiloc - 2023 Dakar Stage 1 (The Rugged Rides)
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