The second order of business was to get all the riding gear and accessories we’d need – protective suits, helmets, bags, etc… – I won’t be wrong if I say that we got the best on the market, Touratech.
After that it should be straightforward: load everything on the bikes, twist the throttle and start the trip. Well, here is where we got it very wrong. It was a headache trying to stow all of the kit onto the machines, like some sort of cruel puzzle. It didn’t look that much when we had everything spread out, but when you try to put it on a motorbike…You know, you see your inflatable RedPaddle there nicely packed in its rucksack and you think “Oh, it’s so light and tightly packed, let’s take it on the bike!” And then the same thing happens with your kite gear, “Oh, should I take one kite or two? Well, let’s pack two in one pack each!” Oh yeah, and don’t forget all the cameras, lenses, GoPros, stabilizers, tripod, camping gear, tents, etc…The result is the yard sale what you see in
the picture.
I had ten days to get to grips with my motorbike, starting from scratch. The first days were spent in a quiet place away from traffic just learning the gears, and then we started going out into regular traffic. Our next mistake was that we didn’t practice riding wearing the motorbike jackets, boots and with the bikes loaded. We just didn’t have the time. Although now I think about it, it was probably a good thing because if I had the chance to try it, I don’t think I ever have left in the first place.
We took a ferry from Barcelona to Tangier and a whole day later we were in Morocco. I would like to say that the first days were the hardest because we were getting used to the loaded bikes, but the reality was that the whole trip was a tough one. At the beginning, it took us three hours each morning to pack everything back into the motorbikes. After a few days we got better at it but the cold temperatures of the Atlas Mountains were insane for that time of the year, at one point we had to keep going just to descend a few meters instead of free camping where we had planned because it was so cold. And right after that, boom! We left the snow of the Atlas for the melting heat of the desert. And the real fun began!
