Treats for the dogs

What do you do when its another wet day in the Pyrenees?  Do some baking!  I know, make the dogs some biscuits :)  They turned out to be such a success with Harry and Buster so in preparation for the next batch Phil is going to make a cutter in the shape of a bone, which they will prefer!

Bacon dog biscuits

Recipe 
12oz brown flour
12oz bread flour
salt
2tbsp sugar
3 eggs
240ml oil
240ml milk
2tbsp bovril
Option bacon or cheese


Mix all together well, roll out to 1/2" thick, cut into shapes.  Bake at 190 for approx 40 mins.

Harry and Buster not sure what do do with the whole tin of biscuits on the floor

Morocco 2013 - day seventeen Marchena

Kept moving all day, stopping only for fuel and a quick bite, perfect conditions for travelling and even managed to buy a tagine and get it home in one piece.  Crossed the Pyrenees on Col du Pourtalet and were met with flooded sections of road due to the rain in the previous few days - the adventure continued right to the end.  Arrived home by 9pm, 1050km to a great welcome from Belinda and two very excited dogs.

Belinda very happy with her tagine that made it home in one
piece all the way from Morocco

All clean and ready for another adventure

Final mileage 5573km including about 1000km off road.

This was my second trip to Morocco, last year was on my Tiger 955i which proved to be far too heavy for the difficult terrain, so bought the Yamaha which at about 100kg lighter fitted the bill.  Really enjoyed the trip, we had a random selection of  'players' and those that I rode with were great company and good friends .....

Morocco 2013 - day sixteen Asilah

Brief trip from the hotel to the port and a speedy progression through customs was no help to us. Will and me had a four hour wait for our ferry whilst the others were all off in the hour but that is the disadvantage of buying a return ticket, wouldn't do that next time.  There was one rider, who shall remain nameless, that managed to fall off his bike on a roundabout within the port and claimed it was diesel on the road, we have all heard that old chestnut before ....... haven't we Keith!

semaphore in stereo 

The long wait begins

Lost my rear damping and found a hole in the
hose that goes to the remote gas cylinder

All aboard

Crossing the Straights of Gibraltar 

Got to Spain at 5pm and reached a small town called Marchena, very picturesque (sorry no photos) and the street we were in was lined with bars and one of them was a tapas bar, so that suited us fine.  Parked the bikes on the pavement outside and nothing was touched.

Tapas

Morocco 2013 - Day fifteen Khenifra

Did a mountain route which was chilly but enjoyable and dropped into Volubilis to see the vast Roman ruins there, entry fee under one euro.  On our way to Asilah we stopped off at a roadside restaurant that we used last year and it was still excellent food and service.  Didn't get to Asilah until late but everyone else was there and we had our last meal together.

UNESCO World Heritage site - Volubilis

In its day there were fountains on this arch

Church in Volubilis

Trick shot by Will

Will wanting a souvenir his garden

Refuelling stop

Morocco 2013 - day fourteen Marrakech

Last day in Marrakech for me and Will, we made our way over to Khenifra, first part of the day wasn't so interesting and was busy with trucks and police checks but things soon improved for the afternoon.

Our route in the afternoon

My bike

Table for two for the bikes

The manager of the hotel kindly let us keep the bikes in the restaurant.  In the evening we had a walk around town but felt very visible being the only Europeans in sight.

Morocco 2013 - day thriteen Marrakech

Back in the arms of Will again at the campsite outside Marrakesh!  The previous day, while we were crossing the Atlas mountains, Will had organised transport for Paul's sick KTM that the garage was unable to repair.  They had assembled the engine with new/secondhand oil pump but the oil light kept on and Paul decided enough was enough, he had been very patient with them but must have wanted to move on days ago.

A good nights sleep apart from being bled dry by a squadron of mosquitoes, Keith sustained lots of bites to his top lip and looked a bit like Homer Simpson, unfortunately another photo opportunity missed :(  That evening we went to the local supermarket for supplies and were pleased to find a McDonald's plus wine and beer at a reasonable prices.  I managed to get lost on the way back to the campsite, this was the first time on this trip :)

Pool and tree houses

Roger hanging out his smalls

Alistair, our well organised man from Birmingham had
even bought along his own backup crew 

Gordon and me chilling

Alistair hammock test dummy

Not a bad way to spend the day

The Stig reveals.......

Morocco 2013 - day twelve location unknown

Today was our best off road section of the whole trip, where we crossed the high Atlas mountains.  Off to a slow start as Gordons tyre had gone down again but that fixed we had a stunning ride on single track, big drops, loose stony hairpins, fantastic views and remote villages often marred by random rubbish tips normally down the nearest ravine.

The rest of us are admiring the view while Tomasz is clearly suffering

Tomasz

Views to die for, talking of which it was necessary to
stop to take them in safely

Beautiful weather for the great days ride

Met a boy with a donkey who was clearly scared of us but we turned off our engines and took off our helmets to try and gain his confidence.

We were definitely off the tourist route.

Morocco 2013 - day eleven Taroudant

Our night in the posh hotel went down well, more off road but not much progress was made today and we ended early after Gordon got a front wheel puncture on his 990KTM.  A beautiful spot for camping looking down onto a small village, several locals came to inspect our site but all communication was done with nods and smiles as they spoke no French.  A group of children also came by each one shook our hand and each time after shaking our hand they kissed their own hand.

Where shall we camp? Just here will do fine!

Trying to take an arty shot

Tube inspection

Ready to put the tube in

Wild camping again

Alistair's well organised tent .....

Morocco 2013 - day ten Igherm

Good morning campers

One happy Moroccan

Our first good deed of the day was to mend several punctures in the front tyre of a BXM Buzz50cc motorbike belonging to a farm worker who just happened to pass, he seemed to be quite surprised that we wanted to mend his tyre.  We also gave him some money for new shoes.

One happy Phil :)

Puncture repair team

Another off road day so Will decided to pick a tarmac route.  We had an awesome day on the trails, some technical and some fast.

 

Its alright I got city and guilds and everyfink!

Second good deed of the day was helping a family who's Yamaha 50cc Buz had partially seized, we helped him load the barrel but the engine wouldn't turn over, on disassembly we noticed some piston material still stuck to the bore, once this was cleaned out away it went.

Getting stuck in

Anyone know where this bit goes?

Henna tattoo's, lots of women wear these

Hotel in Taroudant

Luxury hotel for tonight, we are all in need of a shower!

Morocco 2013 - day nine 20km short of Tissint (Tis)

Will riding the TT600R

Not so easy over the rock strewn terrain, I swapped bikes with Will and then managed to wipe out his sump guard on a rocky incline, adventure bike ..........?

Me (Phil) riding the big GS

I've just broken the big GS

Will looking concerned, as he should be, look who's working on it! 

Nothing that a jubilee clip and two lengths of wire won't fix

We made our way to Igherm where we didnt find anywhere that came up to our low standards of accommodation and so we wild camp on the outskirts of town in a perfect spot that we came upon by chance.

First class camping ground