It could have been Wales, bogs, hills and rain, lots of it… it was a very cold day in the high Atlas Mountains as we rode up to 12,000 feet and down again.

We left the campsite early at 7:30am because we had a long day ahead of us and over the first pass was breakfast. It was already raining when we woke up so we packed sodden tents and sleeping bags into the land rover and hurried over the first pass to a lake, a very scenic lake but one that did not look anything like as enticing as it did the last time Mick and Steph were here because they had blue skies.

Pete and I rode together over the pass and all of us grouped up at a small Auberge on the side of the lake. The first objective was to warm up to some fast riding on a trail between this lake an another. Mick gave us a talk on how we were going to go in gently so that nobody gets hurt and then come out at speed for breakfast.

Mick also suggested I stay on his tail for this ride and sure enough, the gentle ride in turned into a Dakar type pace on this fantastic terrain. What a lesson, everybody came in fairly quick but my eyes were opened with regards to the pace Mick can do for 15 hours a day n the Dakar… it was a blast and I had no idea how I stayed on. We passed several off road vehicles on the way in and then waited at the beach and enjoyed the scenery as the rest of the riders joined us. Pete was in the front group and there was no shortage of grins as everyone arrived and proclaimed that it was a good job we took it easy on the way in!

After a group photo, we head out and Mick really turned on the speed. It was all I could do to stay almost in touch, falling 100m or or so behind occasionally and then catching up a little. Will who was riding behind me though did indicate it wasn’t the tidiest riding he had seen. Boy, was it fast. My arms and legs knew that I had been riding fast but that was for about 15 minutes!!! What would it be like after several hours?

As we grouped up close to the Auberge we realised that one of the riders was missing, and so Mick and myself went back in to look for him. Eventually we all were back tucking in to some fantastic  omlettes and Moroccan tea preparing for what was going to be a fun day.

Ahead of us were two gravel and rocky climbs up to 12,000′ and consequent descents. The first was quickly on us after we left the breakfast stop. We trundled along a valley and took a break where Mick said I would probably want to go fast so why not go with Steve up front while he stayed back with a few other riders. Great… I though I had done the fast riding and now we were off again. Steve is a fast rider who has done a lot of enduro’s in Wales and this was perfect Welsh bog conditions except, the drop off on one side of the trail was turning into 4,000′ the higher we climbed. With a few very thrilling moments, I managed to stay just in touch with Steve, but the hairy moments were getting closer together and I knew if I carried on at this pace something would happen, but there is something in the wiring in my brain that says try it anyway!!!

The first time we stopped, Pete was again one of the first riders to join us, hooting and laughing, clearly everyone was enjoying the fast riding but we were all enjoying the thrill of going fast but the conditions were extremely slippy and the result of an off would be a badly broken bike and a tumble downhill until you managed to grab hold of something!

We carried on at this frenetic pace all the way to the top and then slowed down a little down the other side. The views were great, but the clouds obscured most of the beauty that I am sure you would find on a sunny day.

After a short transit and a fuel stop we arrived at the next stage, another pass, but one that started in a river gorge and slowly worked its way up to a head wall to climb up to another high pass…

This time Mick suggested I follow him again… my muscles were telling me otherwise and I knew that I needed to be careful. Off we went… full Dakar chat, no holding back. Clearly MIck was going to be ahead of me now with my limited bike experience and knowing that I should be a little guarded. It was such a blast though. This time, Mick would gain 500m on me and then wait and at the first stop to make sure I was following OK, he looked back to see me come wildly around a corner, brake, drive up a rock pile and clatter off my bike right in front of a couple of goat herders who amusingly offered me their donkey to finish the day…. that would have been a smart move.

With nothing more than a bruised ego, I jumped back on the bike and carried on. The surface was lots and lots of loose rocks, 5″ to 6″ wide and we were going fast. My muscles were telling me to slow down, my head was telling me to be careful, and everything I saw with my wild riding style said, slow down, but…. you can’t see. It is not that easy… it is too much fun.

Mick and I arrived at a col with another fantastic view and chatted about the pace and the Dakar and how much fun it will be to get into the event again for him and first time for me.. I me. I am just glad I won’t be doing it on a bike!

Pete, who I felt for sure would be slowing down a little, kept arriving right after us riding like a pro enduro rider, smiling and laughing every time he got to the end. I think for all of us it was a form of positive affirmation trying to overcome what our head and muscles were telling us.

At the end of the day we transited to a small tourist town on the other side of Todra Gorge which is an amazing place! The food was awesome, the company was great and the sleep, well it was needed at least for me!

To put the day into perspective, whilst I had ridden at close to Dakar speed on perhaps 80km or more of offroad sections, a typical Dakar transit in Morocco is 300km to the stage with a 400km full paced Dakar stage and then another 100km transit at the end… I cannot imagine how you sleep after that, or more importantly how you get up again.

It is magic to be riding with Pete again and to have Jackie experience it in the land rover with us is very cool. She had a super day today and took all of the photos enroute!