Gear
This is a post about the gear I took on our Morocco High Atlas Traverse by MTB trip – further down is a list of the gear. All three of us were on 26″ full-suspension MTBs, and used various bits of bikepacking gear. All in all this meant we were
Day 9 – Imlil to Marrakesh
Our last day of riding. All smooth tarmac and almost all downhill. It starts off warm and just keeps getting hotter and hotter. We make good time and push on to try to finish before the hottest part of the day. We look for shade when we stop for food
Day 8 – Oukaïmeden to Imlil
We’re on the road at 8:30am, after I lose the key to the bike locks for half an hour – doh! Everyone is pretty annoyed, me included. Despite the rest days, this has been a very testing trip to say the least, and occasional frayed tempers, while rare, are inevitable
Rest Day – Oukaïmeden
Shaun and Steve go for a hike up the nearby peak, Jbel Oukaïmeden, while I sleep for the morning – despite feeling better, yesterday had still been tough day when I wasn’t feeling great to start with. The tiny town of Oukaïmeden is very quiet, it being off-season after all
Day 7 – Aghbalou to Oukaïmeden
Shaun’s birthday. Yay! Being both a keen mountain and road cyclist, he is especially excited at the prospect of what lies ahead because it’s a real bucket-list item if you’re a roadie. Normally, I’d be excited too, but after a dodgy tummy all night I’m back in survival mode. Straight
Rest Day & Transfer – Anguelz to Aghbalou
When I wake I feel quite weak still but am ready to eat. Hussein rustles up some pancakes, which taste a-ma-zing! Shaun and Steve are also feeling the effects of yesterday – even though they could probably have ridden today, we decide it would do us all good to have
Day 6 – Toufghine to Anguelz
The big one. Wow, this was a hard day, one that almost broke the trip. At 8am it is already hot and windless, the sun blazing down from a cloudless sky. We climb for a few miles up a road, accompanied by a friendly dog that appears from the undergrowth
Day 5 – Near Ichbbakene to Toufghine
As day dawns I’m struck by just how magical a place this is: the valley is wild and spectacular, with towering peaks either side and no other dwellings. There’s a stream running over the bare earth, just a couple of feet from the house, where we all washed our socks
Day 4 – Agouti to near Ichbbakene
It’s an early start, for this is going to be a big day. After a few miles, we leave tarmac and navigation is initially tricky – back in the UK I’d been forced to use satellite imagery to plan a route through the scrub, because there are no tracks on
Day 3 – Zawyat Ahansal to Agouti
“I almost sat on a scorpion!” exclaims Steve, a little shaken. We’ve just reached the top of the day’s first pass (over 8,500 feet) and stop to feast on tinned sardines, bread and dates, our staple food. The day began less eventfully, with a seemingly endless 6-hour climb up to
Day 2 – Anergui to Zawyat Ahansal
Despite our comfortable room we awake early, not feeling that well rested, knowing we have a big and particularly remote day ahead. Having checked with José on arrival, we’d determined that the Assif Melloul river gorge was passable, just! The word ‘river’ in Berber, the local first language of the
Day 1 – Imilchil to Anergui
We’re pedalling – wow, this is really happening! As we ride clear of Imilchil, climbing steadily towards Lake Tislit on a paved road, the landscape opens up, feeling remote and empty straightaway, with steep, scrubby slopes teetering up to sizeable mountains either side of us. We are in the Haut
Arrival & Transfer – UK to Marrakesh to Imilchil
Touchdown! Blimey, we are actually in Morocco! My first time in Africa. After a lengthy wait in the endless queues at immigration we meet our drivers: we are in one vehicle and our hefty, boxed bicycles in a small truck. French is the second language in Morocco, as much of
About this Trip
“Guys, I’ve broken my arm!” Oh no! Two months before we planned to leave the UK for our trip to Morocco, Steve, one of our group of three, gave us the terrible news. Our trip could be over before it even started! Steve had taken a tumble on his mountain
Day 7 – Brecon to Cardiff Bay
And so we come to the final day of our (mainly) off-road trip from the north coast to the south coast of Wales. Our fantastic accommodation for the night (possibly topping the Elan Valley Hotel for me) left us nicely rested, if still somewhat weary after 6 days of hard
Day 6 – Elan Village to Brecon
Unbelievably, we’re the only people staying in what is a moderately sized hotel (in the Elan Village). I’m struck once again by the remoteness of central Wales, travelling as we are out of prime holiday season and mostly mid-week. How do hotels and B&Bs keep going year-round? It must be
Day 5 – Devil’s Bridge to Elan Village
With no shop in the Devil’s Bridge village, and, faced with a particularly remote day where we couldn’t see any obvious food shops en route not to mention that we were starting to get a bit tired of cold toast half-inched from breakfast we ask if the proprietor of the
Day 4 – Machynlleth to Devil’s Bridge
After a lovely cooked breakfast with home-made bread we set off along the Afon Dulas valley, climbing gently on tarmac. It’s not long before we’re climbing more sharply, on gravel and then grass and finally more gravel toward the top of Foel Fadian. The climb is monumentally steep in places
Day 3 – Coed-y-Brenin to Machynlleth
That morning we load up on extra toast from breakfast, spreading it with a healthy dollop of jam and squirrelling it away under the table ready for lunch later. There was no shop nearby – not being too enamoured with the prospect of just cold toast for lunch, once under
Day 2 – Penmachno to Coed-y-Brenin
Rain, rain and more rain. It barely stopped raining today. From the moment we left Penmachno the heavens opened. At first we tried to ride up the loose quarry slate which festooned the path up the back of Cwm Penmachno toward the Manod Mawr quarries, but, it was in vain
Day 1 – Conwy to Penmachno
Our trip began on a sunny Saturday in May 2014 in the town of Conwy after a lengthy railway journey with our mountain bikes and kit, the latter being contained entirely in our 20 litre backpacks. Our rail journey hadn’t started well after we were told “No bikes on this
About this Trip
“Well I think I’d quite like it if he marched past me with no clothes on!” exclaimed Myfanwy, the village matriarch, much to mine and Paul’s amusement! Later in the Week – Jon and Paul late in the day at Bwlch Nant yr Arian trail centre. © Paul Bonwick It’s the second day of a …