Morocco - Mehdya to Rabat

Day 16 - Sunday 12 May, Mehdya to Rabat, Morocco

I was awake pretty early and decided to get up. Someone had rung the front door bell like crazy during the night. There was no-one there when I investigated, but my sleep had been disturbed. We went out for breakfast and found a cafe open at about 9.30 just across the road, Mehdya was pretty quiet with not many people about. We had decided to definitely give up going to Ouarzazate and Badger was keen to rest up in Mehdya for a day or two - mainly to give me a rest. I wasn't really very keen staying in a private house and thought we should move on.

When we went back to the house after breakfast the guy looking after us was already tidying the place up. We called the owner in Rabat to discuss a few extra day's tenure, but he informed us that the house was already let and he had people coming in and could we clear out by 11am. That clinched it - so we decided to head to Rabat and see what that was like. Badger went off for a walk with the cameras and I got myself ready.

Mehdya Plage

We were ready to go by 11.00 and set off south for Rabat. We had only really seen one bit of Mehdya and maybe missed the best bits. We took it easy going into Rabat - it was only about 30 miles and not too busy at all. As on the previous day I was amazed how many people were walking by the roadside - including one guy walking with a full-sized mannequin, which looked weird - until we passed the shop selling mannequins a mile or two down the road. There seemed to be quite a lot of small enterprises both manufacturing and retail by the road-side, I guess Morocco hasn't discovered the out-of-town retail estate and business parks yet.

By the time we got into Rabat it was lunch-time and pretty darn hot. Rabat is on a river mouth and is really two towns - Sale on the north side and Rabat on the south. My guide book described Rabat as an easy-going cosmopolitan place and that's pretty much what we found. Once we had crossed the river we headed for Rabat station, which is a pretty modern place. Badger went into the station to enquire about hotels. There was a 4 star place just outside the station, but was far too expensive for us - so we checked with some locals, who recommended a place across the road. This is in turn was more than we wanted to pay, but had a young doorman who was incredibly helpful and we got in to a place round the corner for 150 dirhams for a double room for the night - about £12.00. Our young doorman was wearing a Fez and Badger just had to get his Saracens flag out for a photo opportunity. The doorman's name was Smaylie and as you can see from the photos was very aptly named.

Smaylie, Badger and a Fez

Once we'd unloaded our bikes Smaylie very kindly helped us to leave the bikes behind his hotel - he really couldn't have been more helpful. We had lunch in a next-door cafe and after lunch Badger decided to go for a wander round Rabat, whilst I settled down at a local cafe with the PC. I couldn't get a decent connection so headed back to the room for a read and a nap. In the evening we went to the station to have a look round and find somewhere for supper. I took some cash out from a cash dispenser - there had been none in Mehdya and I had been relying on Badger for Moroccan cash.

We settled on a fairly modern place by the station for supper. I tried another tagine and was again a bit disappointed it was OK but nothing to write home about. After supper we headed down to the Medina for a wander round. Compared to Fez or Marrakesh it's tiny, but it's still a decent size. The Medina was pretty quiet, lots of places were closed or closing up - perhaps Sunday is just a quiet night. Badger bought some reading glasses and was looking to find some leather slippers - there was plenty of choice but nothing that took his fancy. Shopping in Rabat was very pleasurable as the shopkeepers were very helpful without being at all pushy.

We headed back to our hotel and ended up the night at the cafe attached to Smaylie's hotel with a couple of beers while discussed our route for the next few days. We decided to skip Marrakesh completely, pop into Fez then head back up north to complete a small anti-clockwise loop of the north of Morocco.

Day Summary

Day -	16
Miles Covered in Day	30 approx.
Miles Covered in Trip	2530 approx.

Spain and Morocco - Gibraltar to Mehdya, Near Kenitra

Day 15 - Saturday 11 May, Gibraltar to Mehdya, Near Kenitra, Morocco

After a noisy night - especially the street cleaning maching at about 6am - we got up and dressed without bothering about breakfast. We were worried about the bikes getting a ticket or being towed away and wanted to make an early start to avoid any potential problems. In the event the bikes were OK so we ran them back to the hotel, loaded up and headed out. I was all for just heading back the way we came but Badger wanted a quick tour of the rock, which only took about 20 minutes or so. I was struck by how small and cramped everything was - after nearly 10 years in the Scottish Borders I like plenty of space and you don't find much of that in Gib. Quite a few of the roads are tunneled out of the rock itself and look pretty ancient, the whole place reeks of British Military history. We stopped for piccies at Europa Point - this proclaims itself "The most southerly spot in mainland Europe". I wanted to fill up in Gibraltar as petrol is pretty cheap there, but we were crossing the airport runway and into border checks before we knew it.

Loading Up in Gibraltar

Loading Up in Gibraltar

Badger at Europa Point

The Straits of Gibraltar

Part of the Rock

The Straits of Gibraltar

As it was still pretty early we cleared customs and immigration in seconds and headed off for the motorway to Algeciras and the ferry. We stopped at the first motorway services for breakfast and to fill the bikes up. I felt quite relieved to be back in Spain proper. It didn't seem to take very long before we were at Algeciras following the signs for the ferry to Ceuta. I'd seen loads of offices selling ferry tickets at all the motorway services between Gibraltar and Algeciras and had wondered why - I was soon to find out.

As we got to the ferry terminal I spotted a sign for the ticket office but someone had flagged Badger down to go straight into the ferry queue. The guy motioned for Badger to follow him to get tickets. I had very bad feelings about this but foolishly let Badger proceed. Needless to say these guys were touts and Chris ended up paying €85.00 for tickets that only cost €57.00. I also got approached by a very pissed Irish bloke who did the have you got a fag? no. Have you got the money for some fags? routine. Both Badger and I got conned out of a couple of Euros each.

We were joined in the queue by a couple of German guys on off-road bikes who were also going to Morocco - they got conned too. It didn't take long to get on the ferry and it was off to Ceuta on what should have been a fast 35min crossing. In the event the crossing took a lot longer as the straits were covered in mist and visibility was down to a few hundred yards even though we were in bright sunlight.

Algeciras Ferry Terminal

Relaxing on the Ferry

A Misty Straits of Gibraltar

We got into Ceuta and just drove through customs - weird! Then I remembered that we were still in Spain - so we started looking for the Moroccan border crosssing. This was not that well sign-posted and we got lost but a local on a scooter led us to the Border Post. The Ceuta side didn't look too bad - there were basically just a few money-changers hanging around, but the Moroccan side looked chaotic - to say the least! Badger changed some Euros into Moroccan Dhirams, I held back, firstly because I wasn't sure if I would get a good deal and secondly I wanted to just withdraw Dirhams from a cash machine using my debit card.

The Ceuta Side of the Border Crossing

The Ceuta Side of the Border Crossing

The Ceuta Side of the Border Crossing

Once Badger had changed his cash we crossed the Spanish part of the border post and headed into the chaos of the Moroccan zone. We were immediately flagged down by guys wearing dishdashes. Basically crossing into Morocco is a 3-part process. You have to fill in a form and get your passport stamped, you have to fill in another form and get a stamped form for your vehicle, you then have to cross into Morocco itself. There are a whole bunch of Moroccans who make their living assisting you in this process. They have blank forms, which they fill in the forms on your behalf. We had been warned about this and as the whole crossing area is so chaotic with cars and people everywhere we just went along with it, however what we should have done is to negotiate any fee or tip in advance, which we did not do. In reality it isn't really that difficult a process and you don't really need their services, you end up queueing and presenting your own documents anyway, which felt weird. In the event we just went along with the flow and gave them a tip of a few euros and crossed over into Morocco. Once you are in Morocco you then have to sort out your insurance, I had had to pay for additional insurance to cover Morocco and had received a "Green Card" for Morocco - our "guide" was satisfied that was all I needed. Badger's insurance gave him full cover in Morocco anyway, but he hadn't requested a "Green Card" and ended up paying for very expensive Moroccan insurance, which is available on the Moroccan side of the crossing.

The Moroccan Side of the Border Crossing

The Moroccan Side of the Border Crossing

Badger (and "Guide") Buying Some Very Expensive Insurance

Badger got ticked off by the Border Police when attempting to video the border crossing, luckily I had already grabbed a few snaps. Once the insurance was sorted out and we had paid off our "Guides", we both breathed a huge sigh of relief as we were able to head off into Morocco and leave the chaos of the crossing behind us. Badger's plan was to ride down the West side of Morocco then head south to Ouarzazate and the Kasbah Ait Ben Moro hotel, which he had seen on a TV show when holidaying in Sri Lanka and which was his initial inspiration for the trip. He hoped to spend a couple of days at the hotel then head back up on the East side to make a circular trip of 6-7 days.

We had been warned that Moroccan roads could be a bit dodgy and that one particular problem was lorries overfilling their tanks and spilling diesel on bends and round-abouts, so it was with some trepidation that we turned right at the first roundabout to take the road across the top of Morocco towards Tangier. As soon as we exited the roundabout the road was covered in gravel, which was a bit off-putting fortunately it seemed that it was just that corner was dodgy, with big trucks spreading gravel over the exit and first bend. The road turned out to be reasonably decent, however there were plenty of bumps and pot-holes to look out for and the side of the road was often very dodgy, but nothing dangerous. As soo as we crested the first hill we stopped to take some piccies. Badger went off for a little wander with his camcorder whilst I stayed with the bikes and took a few piccies. The place felt very similar to the terrain we had encountered outside Estepona.

Our First Picture Halt in Morocco

Due to our concern with the road quality we kept out speeds well down to legal limits and it was a good job we did. We'd only gone a few kilometres when we passed motorcycle Police in very smart white uniforms with a radar gun just waiting to fine any speeding offenders. This was a site that was to be constantly repeated throughout most of our trip in Morocco. We soon crossed over to the Western - Atlantic - Coast and got onto the A1 motorway. Just like the national roads, this featured regular police speed traps so we stuck religiously to the speed limit. We didn't go into the old City of Tangier but went past the Modern Port and a huge new Renault car plant. Afer about an hour and half we pulled into the motorway services outside Asilah and stopped to fill up and have out first Moroccan lunch. This turned out to be a pleasant but slightly disappointing experience. I had a tagine and it turned out to be OK but no more than that. I put this down to being a motorway services, but it other tagines I tried were only so-so as well. The Moroccan flat-breads were fantastic so that made up for it a little bit.

Motorway Service Station outside Asilah

After lunch we filled up and headed South. We stuck to the motorway, which was pretty decent. By now we had left the hills behind us and were in much flatter terrain. It was obvious that we were in a non-European country. Northern Morocco is very green and fertile and feels almost medieval. The fields are predominantly small strips and worked by hand. There are tractors and farm machinery, but what we saw was all much smaller and older than the massive agri-business stuff you see in Europe. Everywhere you look there are horses, donkeys, mules and lots of people in the fields. The other immediately obvious feature is that Moroccans live their lives by the roadside - even on the motorways you see people and animals crossing the road and walking or waiting by he roadside. There is not the same feeling of alienation you get with motorways in Europe, there are people at the side of the road and they will waive to you - and in the case of some kids pretend to shoot you!

As we were riding along the motorway I was following Badger when a plastic bag suddenly ballooned from his rucksack and disappeared into the distance behind us. I could see his all documentation and was terrified he lost that too, in particular his stamped vehicle form, without which there was no way he could get out of the country. So I started flashing him and beeping my horn furiously - no response. I accelerated and drove up right next to him and kept beeping - he was miles away as usual and in the end I had to drive in front of him and virtually force him onto the hard shoulder. "Why didn't you flash or beep me?" he asked - "AAARRGH!" was all that came out! Fortunately for him the only thing that he had lost was an empty plastic bag, but we agreed that if anything similar happened the other one should immediately get in front of the other.

By late afternoon we had put another 100 or so miles on the clock and pulled into another service station. I had my first mint tea - or "Moroccan Scotch" as it's known by some - it's extremely refreshing and could get quite addictive in a hot climate. In the service station we bumped into a local with perfect english and ended up having a chat about football - there was a local game on the TV. Suitably refreshed we got back onto the Motorway having decided to get off at Kenitra and head to the coast to look for a hotel.

We had to drive through Kenitra, which is a quite large town and this was definitely an interesting experience. Apart from stopping for red lights it seemed total chaos. There were all sorts of pedestrians, animals and vehicles on the road, donkey carts, tractors, 3-wheeled trucks, conventional trucks and loads of old Mercedes and a few modern french cars. The 3-wheeled trucks were pretty popular - looking like a cross between a trike and a pickup, they looked locally made and pretty slow, but I guess pretty handy for moving people and goods. I was struck by just how many people were walking or waiting along the roadside. There seemed to be vehicles stopping to let people on or off all the time and whilst it seemed pretty chaotic it always seemed good-natured and not in the least frantic. The other thing that struck me was how polluted it was - not many of the vehicles would have passed the UK emission tests. Badger was, as ever, in charge of navigation and eventually got us to the coast by late evening.

We were now in Mehdya, which is apparently the trendy resort for many Moroccans. Mehdya starts in the North at the mouth of the local river and there is a big fishing port and fish processing plant, which was changing shifts as we went past. As we followed the coast road south towards the beaches we stopped outside the ruins of the Kasbah to take pictures and ask about hotels. We met an old guy on a push-bike out with his grand-daughter, who told us just to drive into the resort area and ask about hiring a house for the night rather than a hotel - he reckoned the going price was about 200 dhirams - less than £20.00. We drove a couple of kilometers into the resort area and asked at the local taxi stand, which seemed to be the centre of things. Various people were summoned and eventually we were lead to a bungalow just round the corner. It seemed OK, but the guy wanted 600 dhirams, we settled on 500, we were too tired to argue or look elsewhere so unloaded the bikes and got changed. The guy lived in the capital - Rabat about 30 miles down the road, this was his weekend place so having appointed a local waiter to look after us he returned to Rabat with his family.

The Ruins of the Kasbah at Mehdya

Badger was getting concerned that I was knackered - my shoulders by now were really sore and suggested that we chill out in Mehdya for a few days. He reckoned that going down to Ouarzazate was not practical - it would simply take too long and was rethinking the Moroccan leg of trip. I suggested we go for dinner and think about it on a full stomach. We went to the fish restaurant where the guy looking after us worked and had supper. I don't know if it was early in the evening, but we were the only ones in the restaurant. The food was pretty good, but there was just too much of it - it was pretty cheap too. We went back to the house and decided to sleep upon it.

Negotiating a House for the Night

Mehdya in the Evening

Fish for Supper

Day Summary

Day -	15
Miles Covered in Day	170 approx.
Miles Covered in Trip	2500 approx.

Spain - Granada to Gibraltar

Day 14 - Friday 10 May, Granada to Gibraltar

Badger and I were up and dressed early to get to the Triumph Dealers as soon as they opened at 9am. Our aim was to have breakfast at a cafe near the dealers, then I would run Badger back to the Hostel, we would pack, then run Badger back to pick up the bike, load up and get away by lunch. Naturally the plan went awry from the off. The dealer's staff didn't arrive until after 9am, then they had to park all the bikes on the street and do a first service on a local customer's new Suzuki before they could look at Badger's bike. The English-speaking mechanic said we should ring at about 1.30pm. He at least was able to recommend a local cafe for breakfast.

It turned out to be a decent place though at 9.45 they hadn't even set out tables and chairs, however after a bit of banter a decent breakfast was had. I then ran Badger back to the hostel and we packed and checked out. I sat in the lobby and had a couple of hours to update the blog, while Badger went out shopping for bits and pieces. Badger got a cab to the dealers at 12.30 only to find that the bike was ready and waiting for him - needless to say the dealers never thought to ring him and let him know the bike was ready. By 1.30pm Badger was back to the hostel and we were ready to set off.

To be perfectly frank, there was a bit of me that would have been perfectly content for some excuse to come up and manage to avoid Morocco altogether, however as there was no reason to put off this leg of the trip I decided just to try to make the best of it. This meant getting a bit of a wiggle on and trying to get some serious miles in after such a late start. We got onto a very windy motorway as soon as we cleared Granada and tried to keep to 90-95 mph. I was still feeling the after-effects of the previous day's massage and found the going a bit tough.

By mid-afternoon the sun was out and the skies had cleared by the time we got off the motorway and headed into the hills towards Ronda. The riding got much more interesting and challenging and my back pains were soon forgotten. We stopped for a late lunch at about 3.30 at a trucker's place just as we entered Ronda - the food was reasonably priced and of decent quality. We then went through Ronda itself, which I wasn't overly impressed with - it was pretty enough but far too touristy for my tastes. The road through the town was very narrow in places and subsequently very slow and time was pressing - Badger wanted to spend the last night before Morocco with a pint of Guiness in Gibraltar.

By about 5pm we had cleared the Ronda area and were in the hills leading down towards Algeciras and Gibraltar. These were serious hills and there was no room for errors - we were also up in wind turbine country so had to be very aware of the cross-winds. The bends got tighter and the road-surfaces poorer and as we crested yet another rise we got our first glimpse of Gibraltar, the straits and the hills of Morocco beyond that. It was breath-taking and we stopped for a photo session - only to rebuked and told to get on our way by the local police.

Our First View of Gibraltar and Morocco

Another View of Gibraltar and Morocco

The Roads Above Estepona

Once we finally cleared the hills the roads started to straighten out and we blasted down on fast roads toward San Roque and Gibraltar, which we finally reached at about 8pm. We had to get through a full passport and customs check, which was totally weird - British Police and Border officials - except that many of them were Spanish rather than British. We finally got waved through only to be prevented from entering Gibraltar properly as a plane had either just landed or taken off - the runway bisects the only road into and out of the rock. When the lights turned green pandemonium broke out as hundreds of scooters, cars and bikes all started crossing together - we used the power of the bikes to get to the front and were suddenly in the strangest, most schizophrenic place I have ever been to. It all looks very British but you drive on the right - there are loads of warning signs in English stating that over-taking on the right is illegal, it just felt plain weird.

It was pretty darn hot, we were tired and sweaty and just wanted to find a decent place for the night. The first place we tried was the "Bristol Hotel", but this was rather expensive and unfortunately full. I stayed with the bikes whilst Badger went off to find a place for the night. This was the first place on the trip I was worried about parking the bikes, France is very free and easy about motorbikes - you can park almost anywhere including on pavements and Spain fine - you can't leave the bikes just anywhere, but there are loads of bike bays. While Badger was off I took some piccies and got talking to a bloke at the hotel who recommended a couple of watering holes.

Main Street Gibraltar

The Bristol Hotel

Gibraltar

Cannons Lane and Hotel

After 20 mins or so Badger came back - he'd found a place called "Cannons", which he thought was just about OK, but it had shared loos and showers. I got more than a little grumpy as my minimum requirements were a clean bed, shower and decent loo - en-suite. Unfortunately he'd already coughed the money for the room. My new acquaintance pronounced the place a "dump", so it was with a great deal of reluctance on my behalf that I went off with Badger to the hotel. After much confusion we eventually got the bikes to a quiet back street within a few yards of the hotel. A local had warned us to watch out for the police and wardens - there were lots of no-entry, no parking and tow-away zone notices.

We got the stuff into the hotel and I nearly had a nasty accident on the stairs, which were ancient and totally dodgy - the last step was about 12 or 14 inches - no wonder I tripped. The place looked like it was built in Nelson's day and the facilities were at best adequate! There was no way I was sleeping in the bed - on top perhaps, but under the covers - no way! We found somewhere to put the bikes overnight and went off for supper and a beer.

As we walked down the main street there was a rugby club on tour and I began to worry that Gibraltar might be a stag and hen place. I was then surprised when we went to the "Clipper" pub for supper to find that we were virtually the only patrons. Badger was after a pint of Guinness, but had to settle for Murphy's. I had burger and chips and Badger had a steak pie for supper just to complete the experience. As we were by now the only customers and the staff wanted to clear up we finished our pints outside and then wandered down to the Amin Office cafe / restaurant for a nightcap and some advice about Morocco from Amin himself, who is Moroccan. We then wandered back to the hotel and settled down for a not very good night's kip. We left the window open to keep the room reasonably cool but it was a fairly noisy night - the Rugby Club perhaps? The whole place felt totally incongruous to us after our experiences in Spain.

Day Summary

Day -	13
Miles Covered in Day	230 approx.
Miles Covered in Trip	2330 approx.

Spain - Granada

Day 13 - Thursday 9 May, Rest Day in Granada

My only worry about getting up was to be up, dressed and breakfasted before my masseur turned up at 10am. We paid our €2.50 to the hotel reception and had our breakfast at the cafe next door to the hostel, which has no restaurant. This turned out to be OK, but felt a bit skimpy. Badger has bought new fork seals in Barcelona and was trying to get in touch with the English-speaking guy at JMoto - the local Triumph dealer. He'd had no joy by 10am, but my masseur - a tiny Spanish bloke called Carlos turned up with his portable massage table prompt at 10.

I was surprised that the hostel were able to find a masseur on spec, but they had and I had ordered a 30 min massage for €30.00. This turned out to be a bargain, Carlos knew his stuff and set to work on my neck, which was in pretty bad shape. He also did some work pn my damaged left arm. Chatting to Carlos I reckon that he was glad of any work he could get as the recession had affected him badly. Anyway both parties seemed happy with the deal and my neck felt very sore but a lot better.

I caught up with Badger, he had ridden down to the dealer, but much to his consternation the guy could not work on his bike that day, but agreed to look at it first thing tomorrow i.e. Friday. Badger was a bit annoyed as he had been emailing and texting since Barcelona without receiving any reply. It was decided we would go off for a walk then that Badger would go off sight-seeing and walking while I returned to my room to chill and catch up with the blog and emails. There was no way we could get tickets for the Alhambra as they are sold out weeks and months in advance, however you can walk round the gardens and go round some of the buildings, which is what Badger did.

Granada Piccies

I didn't get too much done that afternoon as my neck and arm were too sore for typing blogs, but Badger tramped round a large part of Granada having worked off some of his frustration over his bike. He had found a non-tourist bar for us to try Tapas. This was down the same alley behind the hostel, but in the opposite direction to the tourist attractions. This was opposite a square and adjacent to a huge Moorish gateway, which of course had modern grafitti scrawled on it. We took pictures of the arch as the last of the evening sunlight caught it and turned it a beautiful golden colour. We met a young english girl who lived in the Sierra Nevada who was waiting for a German friend of hers to turn up. He turned out to come from Chemnitz in Eastern Germany and had huge dreadlocks. He was studying Philosophy for a year at Granada University so naturally Badger showed him Monty Python's "Bruce's Philosophers Song" on youtube, which he thought was quite fun. During our chat the local Granada Scooter club - about 100 of them - turned up in the square, parked up, came into the bar, had a quick drink then zoomed off to do the same thing in another square. Some of them had "Who" roundels on the bikes or helmets, so Badger downloaded a picture of Keith Moon onto his iPhone and insisted on asking all the scooterists (in English) if they knew who this was? Amazingly one of them replied "Keith Moon" immediately, our young companions didn't have a clue what was going on.

Moorish Gateway

Granada Scooter Club

After supper we went for a final drink in the same bar we'd been in the previous night and made new friends with a local who was impressed that I was familiar with Koko Taylor, Howling Wolf, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker.

Day Summary

Day	13
Miles Covered in Day	0 approx.
Miles Covered in Trip	2130 approx.

Spain - Hellin to Granada

Day 12 - Wednesday 8 May, Hellin to Granada

After a noisy night and not much sleep I was pleased to get up and get ready for the ride to Granada. Breakfast was included in the hotel room price, but was a bit meagre by comparison with other places so we suplemented that which was laid on with a few shop-bought goodies. By 9.10am we were ready to set off. Almost as soon as we got out of Hellin the roads started climbing and were soon crossing the Sierra de Alcaraz. The scenery was terrific - so much so that we stopped just to take pictures of the wild flowers off the A322.

Heading towards the Sierra de Alcaraz

Once we got to the Sierra de Alcaraz, the scenary started to get dramatic and the ride up to Elche de la Sierra and subsequent descent got the adrenalin going again particulary where the roads narrowed and the bends tightened. Luckily for us it was cloudy and much cooler as we did this last section with Eddy. By about midday we finished our descent and had reached the T junction with the A322, where Eddy was to turn right to start his journey back towards Bilbao / Santander and Badger and I were to turn left for Granada, however before we parted there was time for a last coffee together and a final photo opportunity in a village somewhere near or at Alcaraz.

Saying Goodbye to Eddy

After coffee it was back on the bikes, time to say "goodbye" to Eddy and off to Granada for Badger and me. We still had a fair way to go and didn't want to arrive at Granada too late so we had to put a bit of a wiggle on. We were basically following the A322 west towards Linares then turning south for Granada just after Ubeda. The day was definitely starting to warm up and we kept up a high speed on some quite challenging roads. We stopped for lunch at about 2.30 in a town called Jodar and managed to order lunch all by ourselves. A local biker who had worked in London got chatting to us and wished us luck as we set off of the final drag to Granada.

A few miles after Jodar we crested the Sierra Magina and got our first glimpse of the still snow-capped Sierra Nevada, in 30 degrees of heat it felt surreal to say the least. I had thought they were clouds upon first view! We naturally stopped to take a few piccies.

The Sierra Nevada in the Distance

We kept up a fast pace on the last 20 or 30 miles of the A road that we were on and watched the Sierra Nevada slowly get bigger. We then had to get onto the motorway for the final blast into Granada. This turned out to be quite an exciting ride - the motorway into Granada goes over some very hilly terrain with very steep ascents and descents and - for a motorway - some pretty tight turns; when combined with a hot but very strong crosswind this kept things interesting shall we say! Badger got off at the first exit for Granada, but the excitement was not over. We had to drop into the city via some quite a major descent. We had a panoramic view of the city and surrounding landscape in front of us, but no time to admire it as we descended hairpin bend after hairpin bend. Just to rub salt into our wounds a local with his girlfriend on the back zoomed past on a scooter making us look awkward and clumsy.

We finally got into what I thought was a suburb, but was actually the centre of the city - Granada is not that big at all - comparable perhaps to Edinburgh in size. Following our experience in Lleida our plan was to head for the station and check out the station hotel. This turned out to be a bad strategy as the station was new, small, architecturely boring and had no hotel. Time for a quick piccie of a frustrated Badger at the station then off in what was by now searing heat to search for a hotel.

A Frustrated Badger as Granada Station

It didn't take long to find a hotel, we found the Hostel Athenas on the main drag in about 20 minutes. The prices were reasonable so we got separate rooms as we were staying 2 nights. Unlike France we found that you can't just leave your bikes anywhere, the hostel had a garage, but instead of stumping up the 13 euros per bike per night, we found moto parking bays 2 streets along and left the bikes there. After a cooling shower and a change of gear we set out for supper. We didn't know beforehand, but the Alhambra is Spain's single largest tourist destination and Granada is a tourist town unlike anything else we had experienced so far in mainland Spain. We were pretty much in the centre of things touristic and it felt a bit like Montmartre - interesting but not real. locals.

We had a drink in a bar in the alley behind the hotel, which was pleasant. Badger did his eccentric Englishman thing, which I was starting to get used to. Basically he goes up to anyone and everyone and starts talking at them in English and whatever he thinks the local language is. Usually this involves snippets of French when in Spain and bits of Spanish when in a French-speaking country. Fortunately he usually manages to charm whoever it is and ends up with new friends for the evening. He always carries maps and a highlighter pen and will discuss his future route and places to see in great detail much the considerable confusion but amusement of the locals. After making friends with the waitress and customers we went off to find supper. We ended up in a square outside the Alhambra, which was tourist central. As I have mentioned before we have yet to get used to the Spanish idea of grazing on Tapas so whilst it was just about the last place I wanted to be they served Pizza so I put up and shut up.

We headed back to the hostel at a fairly reasonable hour - I was knackered. My left arm was still sore and my neck was killing me. I had spoken to reception and they had found a masseur who was coming at 10am the next day to try to sort me out and Badger had to get to his Triumph dealer so off to an early bed.

Day Summary

Day	12
Miles Covered in Day	200 approx.
Miles Covered in Trip	2130 approx.