Spain - Conil la Frontera to Ayamonte

Day 20 - Thursday 16 May, Conil la Frontera to Ayamonte

Thursday dawned clear and bright if somewhat breezey and we were up for breakfast as soon as the hotel restaurant opened at 8.30am - we seemed to be the only guests. We had about 200 miles to get to Ayamonte, where Badger's in-laws have a holiday place so we decided to have a motorway day - Cadiz for elevenses, lunch in Seville and Supper in Ayamonte. My neck and arm were still pretty sore even after the rest day, so the first stop was a farmacia for some more Ibuprofen tablets and gel. We then headed off onto the motorway for a brisk spin up to Cadiz.

The temperature started to soar as the morning progressed and we were soon glad of the fairly stiff breeze to keep cool. The approach to Cadiz is quite dramatic there's a huge long narrow causeway that leads into Cadiz, which is situated on the southern side of a huge bay. Cadiz felt like a huge moderm town, but Badger had reconnoitered the route into the historic section the previous day. We stopped to take some photos of the place including a huge tree with massive trunk and branches, which is near the University.

Part of the Historic Quarter of Cadiz

An Amazing Tree

A Tiny Part of the Harbour at Cadiz

We got back on the bikes to search for a cafe for elevenses but before we had found somewhere with convenient parking for the bikes we found ourselves in the ultra-modern port district. Cadiz has a seriously big port and - like most big ports - has an equally confusing road system, we quickly gave up on the idea of stopping and just tried to find our way out - this resulted in about 20 minutes of going round in circles before we found our way to the motorway for Seville. We had to ride for about another 30 miles before we came to a service station where we filled up the bikes and stopped for a coffee. The motorway had started out reasonably empty, but as we neared Seville it started to fill up with traffic. About 20 miles before Seville there was a sign for a Pay Station so we attempted to get off the motorway at that point. This was a bad move - we had to pay to get off - then found that the easist way in was by the motorway and had to pay to get back on - DOH!

We were soon in Seville following the signs for the city centre. Badger asked a local biker for directions to the main station and he kindly lead all the way there. We were soon right in the centre of town on the South Bank of the Guadalquivir. Rather than mucking about we parked the bikes up and went for lunch at the local kebab shop, which was both cheap and delicious and much lighter than the kebabs you find in the UK. It was a real flying visit - lunch, a few snapshots and then head off for Ayamonte, but what we saw of the place it felt like a very young an vibrant place - definitely worth a proper visit.

Kebabs for Lunch

A Plaza

A Carriage Ride

Municipal Bike Hire

A Moorish Building

The Guadalquivir

Suitably refreshed after lunch we followed the road along the river looking for a place to cross and exit the City. Ayamonte is more or less due West of Seville on the A49 motorway, but Badger had plotted a much more circuitous route that took in a northerly loop that involved much more mountaineous terrain, however we really needed some local knowledge so we stopped at the first place we could find outside Seville. This turned out to be a bar in a sleepy little place called Castileja de Guzman. Badger found an English-speaking off-duty policeman, who strongly advised us against our proposed route, so Badger plotted out a much flatter route that roughly followed the motorway a few miles to the north.

This turned out to be a very pleasant afternoon's ride. We were now riding across a very fertile, rich plain quite often passing horses in the surrounding fields. The roads were mostly empty so we were able to make good time only slowing down for the many small towns we quickly passed through. I was out in front and shortly before we rejoined the motorway near Huelva, Badger suddenly stopped. I went back to see what the matter was. Badger had been listening to music on his iPhone, which was in his tank bag, when he went over a bump and the iPhone went flying. We split up to look for the missing phone, which Badger managed to find before another vehicle ran it over. Amazingly it was still working despite the screen being badly scratched. Reunited with his iPhone we continued on our way, we filled up at a nearby garage then got onto the motorway for the last few miles into Ayamento.

We pulled into Ayamento at about 5 o'clock and followed the signs to the tourist office. Ayamento is right on the border with Portugal and is a long narrow seaside town, which was built long before cars came into existence. The main street is a decent size, but many of the side streets are narrow cobbled alleys and the tourist office is in one of these. Badger had pulled his Triumph into about the only space near the tourist office and I was blocking access to a busy side street, so I went to find a better parking spot - unfortunately there wasn't one and as the street was one-way I ended doing about a 2 mile circuit of the town to get back to the tourist office. The only place to park was on the pavement, which was quite narrow and had a fairly high kerb and I got the front wheel onto the pavement, but didn't have enough momentum to get the back wheel on. I got my left leg down but the bike was at a bad angle, I didn't have the strength to keep it up and dropped it and went tumbling into the street with a loud crash. Badger and the Tourist Office staff came running out and helped me up, Badger and I got the bike up - fortunately the only thing that was hurt was my dignity, and the bike got a few more scratches.

Badger got us fixed up at a local hotel, so we rode round. They didn't have any parking nut let us park in front of the hotel entrance. This involved mounting another kerb and a ramp, but I was very careful how I did this and Badger gave me a hand to park the bike safely. The hotel was rather nice and reasonably priced so we got separate rooms, unloaded the bikes, got showered and changed ready for the evening. We had adjacent rooms overlooking a small park and Badger claimed he could see a Zebra from his room. As we walked into town to meet up with in-laws it turned out that the park was a zoo and Badger had seen a Zebra. We walked into the town centre to meet up with Badger's sister-in-law Jane and her husband Mark and a couple of their friends - Jane and Johnny.

Badger in Ayamonte

Apes at the Zoo

A Memorial in Ayamonte

We met up with everyone at a restaurant in the main square in town. It was rather nice to have some different company for a change. Mark and Jane had chosen an excellent place for supper and the wine and beer flowed quite freely. My memory of the latter part of the evening is very hazy, I am ashamed to admit that I rather overdid it on the booze, particularly the local spirits and needed some assistance from Badger to get back to the hotel and was very relieved to crawl into bed and instantly fall asleep.

Day Summary

Day -	20
Miles Covered in Day	200 approx.
Miles Covered in Trip	3130 approx.

Spain - Conil la Frontera

Day 19 - Wednesday 15 May, Conil la Frontera, Spain

As we were having a rest day in Conil, we had a slightly later start, but did justice to the breakfast laid on. I'd packed my trunk and goggles and had hoped to get some swimming in somewhere on the trip but the weather was overcast, windy and a quite cool so I decided to spend most of the day chilling out in the hotel whilst catching up on the blog and emailing people. Badger, who is one of nature's twitchers decided to go for a ride - possibly as far as Cordoba and back and went off at about 10am. I spent the morning with the laptop and caught up with a few people via email, Facebook and Skype.

Chilling Out In My Hotel Room

I decided to go out for an explore and some lunch about 2pm. The place was fairly quiet, at this time of year it's mainly Germans and Scandinavians in Conil, but they had had a rotten spring and visitor numbers were well down. I didn't see a huge amount of the town, but what I saw I liked and like many places in Adalucia has a strong Moorish influence - it's a holiday resort but still retains its own character and certainly hasn't been invaded by booze-swilling Brits. I wouldn't mind going for a week or so in June sometime. On my way back to the hotel I dumped into Badger who'd given up on Cordoba as being just too far and had been to Cadiz instead.

Conil la Frontera

We went back at the hotel, spent the rest of the day relaxing and decided to go out for Tapas for a change. We found a Tapas place in a side street and got in just in time to watch Chelsea on the box in the Europa League Final. Badger is not really that interested in football being a Rugby Union fan, but he is nominally a Blues fan so we cheered then on against Benfica - the rest of the bar were either German or Spanish and were supporting Benfica. Despite Benfica being the better technical team and dominating possession, Chelsea defended well and took their chances and deservedly won. Badger had a celebratory cheer as the final whistle blew and we ended up discussing the finer points of the game with some Germans in the bar. We had a final celebratory glass of wine and headed back to the hotel in high spirits.

Day Summary

Day -	19
Miles Covered in Day	0.
Miles Covered in Trip	2930 approx.

Morocco and Spain - Ouezzane to Conil la Frontera

Day 18 - Tuesday 14 May, Ouezzane, Morocco to Conil la Frontera, Spain

Badger and I were up for breakfast by 8am. The Rif motel didn't look quite so appealing in daylight - mainly because the pool was drained for maintenance and there were hardly any guests - I only spotted 1 other guest at breakfast, which was quite unusual but substantial and included olives, local cheese and bread. We decided to make a fairly prompt start, but as we were heading back to our rooms to load up, we spotted a bicycle and trailer, so we introduced ourselves and got talking to the other guest at the motel.

Erik's Bicycle and Trailer

He turned out to be a Dutch guy called Erik Sierveld and was on an epic bicycle ride from Madrid to Dhaka. He was just about to set off south to cover similar terrain to our previous day's ride. Naturally Badger got his maps out and started discussing routes with Erik. It turned out that the map Badger was using was much easier to read than Erik's Michelin map but totally inaccurate. The roads we had used were clearly marked as unmetalled on his map and he had already plotted a decent route south. We ended up having a good chat before Erik got back on the road. Badger took some pictures, which I'll upload in due course.

Badger and I checked out and headed into Ouezzane and then turned north-east for Chefchaouen. Badger had double-checked his route with Erik's map and had plotted a route on local roads avoiding the motorway. This turned out to be a fine morning's ride on decent roads and interesting terrain, which we took at a fairly comfortable pace. The climb into Chefchaouen itself was quite testing with some steep gradients and plenty of tight bends, however we got into the outskirts of the town without incident and stopped at a cafe overlooking the town for elevenses.

Elevenses at a Cafe Overlooking Chefchaouen

Badger in Bodger Mode

A Low-Tech Helmet-Cam Alternative

En route we had spotted what might have been our only camel in Morocco, which was lying down in someone's front garden. This was a fleeting glimpse at best and whilst I was adamant it was a camel, Badger refused to count it and put this down as a black mark on the Moroccan leg of our trip. Badger also tried out his home-made low-tech alternative to a helmet cam, which was a sponge with a hole for his camcorder bungeed to his tank-bag. Chefchaouen is famed for it's blue-painted doors and windows and we took some pictures, but to be honest they didn't do the town justice. As we were having our elevenses a shepherd turned up with his flock of goats, which he casually drove across the main road.

Chefchaouen

Goats Crossing the Road

We descended into Chefchaouen, which seemed like a rather nice town in the mountains, then got on with heading north for Ceuta and the ferry. We stuck with local roads until we got to Tetouan, where we filled up and had a coffee before taking the motorway to Ceuta. We got to the border crossing by early afternoon, it was much quieter than it had been on Saturday. We were immediately flagged down by local guides offering to assist us. This time I intervened and said very firmly that we did not need their help. This message had to be repeated many times but eventually they left us on our own and it took about two minutes to show our passports and vehicles forms and were waived through without any problems. I must confess that it felt good to be back in Spain - even if we were still on the African Continent.

Back in Spain

We changed our remaining dirhams into Euros on the Spanish side and headed up to the ferry terminal. We drove straight to the official ticket office and paid €61.00 each for our tickets. Badger almost got stuck in Ceuta, I paid for the tickets but the guy only issued 1 boarding card, luckily I spotted that Badger was stuck before I went through passport control and was able to ride back and get the guy to issue the appropriate document for Badger. The ferry crossing was much quieter for the return trip and Badger and I took the opportunity to have lunch on the ferry so that we could press on as soon as we docked at Algeciras.

We were heading north to meet up with Badger's in-law's in Ayamonte on Thursday evening, so we decided to head for Conil la Frontera, which had been recommended to us by the Tourist Office when we were in Granada. Eddy had warning us about the winds blowing in off the Atlantic in the bottom corner of Spain, but we whilst it was windy we found the ride pretty easy going. The road were excellent and we passed mile after mile of wind turbines reaping the full benefit of the atlantic breezes, I don't know how much electricity is generated by wind power in this part of Spain but it must be a huge percentage as the terrain is absolutely ideal with a chain of mountain ridges situated conveniently close to the ocean. It was nice not to worry about Moroccan radar traps and we were able to keep us a brisk pace. Apart from the wind turbines the only thing I remember about this ride was being overtaken by a huge white Honda Goldwing when we pulled over for a conflab. Once we got back on the road I was particularly keen to get a move on in order to catch up with the Goldwing and have a proper look at it, which we did. I must confess that if I had a spare £25K I might be tempted by a Wing.

Before we knew it we were on the outskirts of Conil, which is quite big. The tourist office was closed so we just followed our noses and found a decent 2-star hotel on the beach - the "Playa Conil". This turned out to be an excellent choice, the rooms were small but well equipped and comfortable so we took a room each and booked in for 2 nights having decided to take a rest day in Conil. We took the chance to catch up on our washing before heading into town for drinks and supper.

Hotel Playa Conil

View of the Beach from the Hotel

We had a beer in a Tapas bar, but decided to look around for another place to eat. We found a bar just around the corner and I persuaded Badger to try a Fino sherry instead of a beer. We got chatting to a German couple who had come down for the week. After a pleasant half hour or so we ended up in the restaurant next door for supper. We then headed off for a reasonably early night.

Conil at Night

Day Summary

Day -	18
Miles Covered in Day	190 approx.
Miles Covered in Trip	2930 approx.

Morocco - Rabat to Ouezzane

Day 17 - Monday 13 May, Rabat to Ouezzane, Morocco

We were awake early on Monday morning as the Rabat streets gently started to come to life. Badger had suggested that we head East to Fez for a very quick look round then turn north towards Ouezzane leaving an easy ride to Ceuta and the ferry back to Algeciras the next day. I had been away from home for 2 and a half weeks and I was starting to get a bit homesick so was more than happy to agree. We got showered and dressed and were ready for breakfast by 8am.

We went to the cafe next door to the hotel to get breakfast, but they asked us to come back in 15 minutes as they weren't ready to start serving, judging from the lack of people out and about, I'd hazard a guess that Moroccans aren't such early risers. We decided to have breakfast on the road and took turns to fetch the bikes round to the front of the hotel. Loading up took quite a bit longer than expected as a couple of the locals came over to chat about the bikes and our trip. I got talking to one chap who split his time between Calvados in Normandy and Rabat and we ended up blethering for quite a while. We eventually managed to set off at about 9am - just in time for the Rabat rush hour.

Getting out of Rabat proved quite tricky and we got a bit lost in the diplomatic quarter but eventually Badger got us headed towards the airport and the motorway to Fez. The skies had cleared and it was turning into a hot day. The traffic into Rabat was really starting to build up and I was pleased to get out of the congestion and fumes and onto a reasonably clear road. We stopped at the first services we came to for breakfast, which was pretty decent and reasonably priced. By 10.30 we were ready to set off for Fez. The motorway from Rabat to Fez is pretty decent and it was a fairly uneventful if rather warm ride. We stopped once for mint tea and biscuits and by about 12.30 we were turning off for Fez Airport and Fez itself.

Badger's plan was to head into the centre of Fez, check out the main railway station then head towards the Medina area, take a few snaps just to say that we'd been to Fez and then leave most of the afternoon to ride up to Ouezzane by a national road. However as we rode into Fez Badger got chatting to a guy on a scooter and before we knew it we were following him to a cafe. To cut a long story short the guy's cousin, who claimed to be a guide turned up and offered to show us round. Despite us explaining that we didn't have time for a tour we ended up following him to his house, we left our bikes in the street outside his house and went with him in his car to the Medina.

Badger and our Guide

One of the Main Avenues in Fez

Outside a Royal Palace

Initially this worked well as he took us to a hill above the Medina, where we took some pictures, which was all we wanted to do, however then he took us to the Medina itself and started doing a "tour". We went into one of the tanneries, I thought that we would just get a couple of snaps then head off, but no we had to have the guided tour - we of course ended up in the shop, where I bought a belt and Badger a pair of pointy leather slippers. By now we were starting to get anxious about the time and our "guide" took us to the Argan oil co-operative shop. By now I was getting seriously pissed off both by our guide and by the "hard-sell" tactics. I insisted that we head back to the bikes and get back on the road.

A View of the Medina

Another View of the Medina

Donkey Power

The Tannery

Badger and a Heavily-Laden Donkey

When we got back to the bikes our guide asked for a very large tip for his "tour". Badger quite understandably got quite cross as no fee had been mentioned and as we were arguing the toss the scooter guy turned up and joined in the "discussions". In the end we reluctantly paid a small fee and headed off in ill grace. I just wish that I had been much firmer earlier and said "No thanks" or at least negotiated what services were to be provided and what fee was to be paid. We both felt that the guy was trying to stiff us for providing a service that we neither needed nor wanted and that left a sour taste in everybody's mouth. Now Badger and I understand that people have to make a living, and are both happy to pay for a service, but we weren't happy about the way the whole thing was handled. The best we could do was write it off as "cultural misunderstanding". I hate tourist places at the best of times and Fez was not a good experience.

Once we got back on the bikes it was time to navigate our way out of Fez, which is quite a big town. As luck would have it we ended up going back the way we had been with our guide and then got lost trying to find the road out towards Ouezzane. We ended up following another guy on a scooter who did actually lead us out of Fez onto the right road and we were happy to pay him a tip. We stopped for water and an ice-lolly before finally heading out of Fez at about 3.30.

Badger's map indicated that there was a red national road - the D501 which would get us to Ouezzane without going on the motorway. The first few miles on this road were very interesting - tight mountain bends and narrow roads but a reasonable road surface, however after about 10k the road started to get a bit bumpy and on one descent I bottomed out the Honda's suspension on a large pothole, it was to get worse. Another couple of miles down the road and the road surface completely disappeared and for a few miles we were riding on compacted sub-surface covered in stones and pebbles. It looked like they were repairing this section of road and had stripped the tarmac off leaving only the compacted rubble foundation. We descended into a valley and the surface improved a bit.

By about 5pm we got into a small town called "Karia Be Mohammed", which felt very South American. We filled up at the local garage and stopped for mint tea at the adjoining cafe. We really felt like "7 day wonders" as the locals stared at us and the bikes as if they had never seen either before although the local mechanic was riding a Yamaha R1 race bike. I expressed a hope to Badger that we had done the worst of the road and the surface would get better here on in. Boy was I wrong! As soon as we got out of town the tarmac simply disappeared and we faced about 30 miles of unmade road. The surface was worse than a dirt track as it was so hard and covered in stones. We were struggling to do more than 10mph on this stuff. It would have been OK on off-road bikes with knobbly tyres and long-travel suspension but it was hellish on big touring bikes. The other hazard was dust - it was bone dry and soon both Badger and I and the bikes were covered in a fine white powder - my eyes were getting inflamed and all-in-all it was turning into a mightmare ride.

It was also getting quite late in the day and the sun was pretty low and we still had another 30-40 miles to go to Ouezzane. I took the lead and gradually started to speed up - out of sheer necessity. We were in the middle of nowhere - well somewhere in the Rif mountains and there was no choice other than to press on. After a while desperation started to kick in and as I started to get a feel for what I was doing I started winding up to 30-40mph, which felt seriously scary in the conditions. We went through a couple of small towns, but they were even worse as they had the remnants of what had once been speed humps.

One thing we both noticed is that there was a string smell of dope in every town and village that we passed through. I thought that it was just my over-active imagination, but we later realised that we had been riding through the Rif mountain region, which is a the centre of the Moroccan hashish trade and we had been smelling the smoke from the locals' joints.

By about 7pm the light was really starting to fade, but after a particularly horrendous section little patches of tarmac started appearing. There was between 6 and 18inches of tarmac in the centre of the road and we both just went crazy. We speeded up to 50-60mph, sometimes more, but had to be incredibly alert for oncoming vehicles. Luckily there were very few of these about and what there was moved over for us. We were amazingly lucky not to come off as 50mph round a tight bend with only a few inches for error in twilight is not to be recommended.

Just as we thought the worst was over the tarmac disappeared completely again as we came into a tiny village where we asked about the best way to Ouezzane or if there was a local hotel. It seemed like the whole village was watching us intently. After much discussion the locals informed us that there was nothing until just outside Ouezzane so we had to press on. We asked if this was the only road and the locals pointed us back down the road to a turn-off, which they said was the least direct route, but the one with the best road surface, so we turned the bikes around and headed off as directed. By now it was seriously gloomy - twilight at best, but we pressed on.

We crossed a steep valley and as we descended over the other side the road surface started to improve and we were able to press on at quite a frantic pace. About 10 miles down the road we came up to a t-junction onto a decent road and asked some locals where the nearest hotel was. I wondered why they gave us a very funny look when they pointed to the rather large sign we stopped by - Rif Motel 5 miles! So off we zoomed and sure enough about 5 miles down the road was the Rif Motel, which we pulled into.

Arrival at the Rif Motel

It's hard to describe how elated we were to get into the Motel, we were like a couple of kids with a new toy. The motel was quite new, had a swimming pool and a restaurant and they served beer as well - what more could a dusty, dirty biker need? We took a quick piccie - as you can see it was pretty dark by the time we arrived and we both hadn't sprouted white side-burns - that was the dust - we were covered in it from head to foot! We got a room each, showered and had supper, a few beers and turned in - exhausted but elated and with a genuine sense of achievement.

Day Summary

Day -	17
Miles Covered in Day	210 approx.
Miles Covered in Trip	2740 approx.