The winter of 2022/23 had been a typical west-coast winter. It’s been wet, dark and cold, and I was restless and bored so I’ve decided that for the winter of 2023/24 I would leave Scotland and go where it was warm and sunny. But where…? I bought myself an atlas book of the world and spent many an evening looking at the atlas and dreaming about far-off places filled with sunshine. Looking at Google maps is one thing, but going ‘analogue’ and using an atlas means you can sit in your comfy chair whilst drinking tea, munching toast or simply reclining in your comfy bed while you look at the world and the thousands of possible routes. Most of all, an atlas allows you the freedom to daydream at your own pace… My first hurdle was to decide where.
Option 1 was to fly somewhere and rent a bike for a few months. My choices were between the USA, India or Thailand. I’ve always wanted to travel through the US, but after doing some research, it seems the USA is now very expensive – both to rent a motorcycle and for accommodation. To keep the costs low I did intend to camp but the uncertainty of camping in those states plus the cost of bike hire alone put a stop to looking at the USA. India and Thailand were now nudging ahead because bike hire and accommodation were much cheaper, but – and there’s always a ‘but’ – wild camping or any kind of camping in those countries would be a lot more difficult. And I like camping…!
Option 2 was to use my own bike and go somewhere accessible from Europe, and as I was already the proud owner of an adventure bike – this seems the easiest and most logical option. After more evenings looking at my atlas I narrowed it down to two choices of destination: Saudi Arabia or West Africa. Going to Saudi means riding through Europe to Turkey, into Iraq and then into Saudi – whereas Morocco is a short ferry ride from Spain. Also, and as much as I would like to visit Saudi, I just wasn’t sure how I would fare going through Iraq on a British passport. I’ve met Iraqi’s and they’re warm, friendly and hospitable people, but the situation in Iraq still seems quite fragile so after a lot of deliberation, I decided to use my own bike and go to Morocco and maybe further south. It just seemed easier. Maybe I can do Saudi another year…
Sooooooooo….. I’ve decided to travel to Morocco later in the year, so I’ve started planning. When I travelled around Europe I did make a lot of mistakes, but I also learnt many lessons from those mistakes, such as:
- It’s surprising how little you actually need when travelling.
- Before you go on a big trip, make sure you’ve spent time camping with the tent and actually like it, know how to put it up and pack it away quickly, and have used it in the rain…
- Always make some small trips beforehand with EVERY item of kit you intend to take on the big trip to make sure you have too little or too much kit.
- Once you’ve decided a route – always check the weather averages for those countries or regions you are visiting.
I soon realised this was a really big step for me. I didn’t know how difficult or easy it was going to be, and I really didn’t know if I was up to it physically – as I would be 64 going on 65 when I made the trip. Also, where would I stay? Where would I go? Is petrol widely available? What are the roads like?
Questions, questions, questions…
There are two types of travellers: The PLANNER and the ADVENTURER. The PLANNER will plan their trip like a military operation, whereas the ADVENTURER will have a general idea where they’re going and just head into that general direction. Because I am ex-military I can approach things with maybe too much enthusiasm, and at first I became the planner, starting to plan in too much detail with detailed routes, how long I would be travelling, how long I would stay in places, mileages, fuel stops, etc, etc…
A plan can be doomed from the start if you start putting too many obstacles in the way and very quickly I felt like I was floundering. It was all becoming a chore and and I soon realised I was planning too much into my trip, so I started to strip away the chaff and leave the wheat behind – meaning – to ignore the little things and think about the big things. But I still needed an outline, so I came up with this:
- Choose my kit wisely.
- Choose a good tent.
- Fix a date to leave.
- Have a rough idea of my route.
- Go to Morocco, and if things go well, see how far I can get…!
Yes: ‘See how far South I can get’… Initially I had thought about Morocco but then I came up with the brainwave that if I could get to Morocco, then what’s stopping me from going further south..? So that’s when my plan started to evolve: I would definitely go to Morocco, but if things went well, I would push into Mauritania, Senegal and then The Gambia – and if things were still going well, have a real try at getting to Sierra Leone, Liberia and maybe further…
TIME WILL TELL…
In terms of planning I had now become the ADVENTURER, as I had quite rightly ditched all my detailed planning and decided to keep it ‘general’, and most of all ‘fluid’ – meaning I’d have a rough idea of where I was heading but I could easily change direction while on the road. That seemed like a plan…
ROUTE: I needed a rough idea of my route so after spending many evenings with google maps I started to pin places in Morocco I would like to visit, and by joining up all the pins I had more of less worked out a route. And that was it. By simply picking all the places I wanted to visit and joining all the pins together, I had worked out my route for Morocco. Job done…!
My next problem was when to go. I had work booked throughout the year – work which was going to give me lots of ‘biker-beans’ and pay for my trip. My last job was on the 6th of October, so giving myself a week to make any final preparations I knew I was good-to-go from the 16th of October.
Because I wanted to get to Africa as quickly as possible, instead of riding through France I decided to book the ferry from Portsmouth to Santander in northern Spain. When you calculate the cost of the ferry against the cost of the fuel and the time to transit though France, it more or less works out the same, and as nice as France is, I was keen to go south as quickly as possible so I booked the ferry for the 20th of October 2023, which cost around £250. One of the best things about this ferry is that you get off the ferry in Spain at 7.30 am in the morning and once you are through immigration – you are fresh for a full day of riding in the wonderful country, which is Spain.
