8 May

We set off from deep within the capital but without a crazy old man on a moped to follow this time, in search of a main road or even a road sign!

Eventually we were on the road to Agadir and the first 50 miles out of Marrakesh were crazy. There are no more motorways from now on, it was a single carriageway but you would still see a coach overtaking a car that was already passing a moped, they would then start flashing any on coming traffic and expect us to move over onto the gravel!

After the first 50 miles there was a lot less traffic and things calmed down a bit, we were now heading for the high atlas mountains.

The mountains made a great ride with views we'll never forget.... which is lucky as unfortunately we forgot to take any photos! (there's always the ride back!)

Nearing the end of the mountains we could see a city under a large dust cloud, this was Agadir and this was where the wind really picked up and was carrying the sand with it so we really couldn't see far in front at some points. At one point a Fiat uno was in front, he moved over slightly and motioned out of his window to pass him.... he hadn't realised but we were already trying, it was just impossible to go in a straight line at that point because of the wind! We eventually got past him only for us both to nearly get blown over as we came to stop at a roundabout!

After 40 miles the winds eased off slightly and we were heading into some more mountains, when what we had been dreading happened, a puncture! I noticed the handling of my bike getting worse, then it went completely, I brought the bike to a stop only to find a hole in the rear tyre that was a good 3mm wide. We unpacked all the tools and managed to do a temporary fix and inflate it at the roadside, this got us to the next town where a small garage repaired it properly!

The last eighty miles were completely desolate all we have seen is police checkpoints and trucks that don't stop or even slow for anything except the checkpoints!

Tonight we are stopping in a town called Tan-tan and it is a little rough so we weren't too keen on leaving our bikes on the street but one of the shops next door had space and has kindly let us drive them in to his shop for the night!

Miles covered: 368