Episode 39. Riding to Rabat and then north east to the hill-side town of Moulay Idriss.

Oh And hello the internet and hello to my subscriber you’re looking exceptionally well today and I’m back on the road and I’m heading north to a a place called moule Idris I’ve forgotten what it’s called now but it’s near a place called V I’m hopeless at names volubilis volubilis

Volubilis anyway there’s a big Roman ruins a whole an old Roman town there lots of Ro Roman ruins so I’m um heading to a place called moule which is nearby and I’m going to stay there for two maybe three nights as uh hopefully tomorrow or the day after I want to go

And look at some Roman ruins so I left the campsite this morning and um I’m just heading to reat because I’ve got some exceptionally sad news in that my blowup mattress has died the mt500 b in Spain I’ve finally worn it out there is no sleep left in

The mattress so I need to get a new one so uh the night before I woke up through the night and had to blow it up again I thought uhoh so uh so yesterday I had look at my mattress and I tried to listen for a

Leak couldn’t find it went to bed last night then again I woke up about 2:00 had to blow it up again woke up about 5:00 again had to W to blow it up so that’s it so it’s gone in the bin so I’m heading to rat first and I’m going to

Buy a new mattress hopefully um got to buy a new cushion as well because the cushion I’ve got it’s a bit it’s a bit Mankey it’s a bit dirty um I don’t even think a would use it to be honest so I’m going to get a new cushion as

Well uh and that’s it and then um once I’ve been to rat and got me bits and pieces I’m going to head east but it’s slightly Northeast really and it’s not fair probably about two 2our ride something like that and um I’ll go to moule

Idris so I’m going to have some a roads at first once I get out of Rabat then I build rur R roads so going through the countryside so here I am um on my way to rat then after that I’m heading north and the bike has been fine when I left

The campsite this morning there’s a big roundabout nearby as soon as I started going round oh the back end went I thought oh now here we go what’s wrong now so I kept going and then CU once you get into this into the of the towns of Morocco they do like the roundabouts

Nothing wrong with roundabouts I like roundabouts uh but the next roundabout I was going around it again the back end drifted out and I thought what’s wrong here so a little bit further down I stopped had a look at my nozzle well no I could see straight away what was wrong

The side of my tire was covered in oil so I looked at the nozzle which puts oil on the chain and somehow it’s moved and instead of putting oil onto the chain it was putting oil onto the back wheel so that’s why I was slipping well actually

Had a as soon as went around that roundabout the back end and I straightened up straight away and I it was a bit of heart stopping moment to be honest um because the traffic Air does not give way and it’s not survival of the fittest it’s survival of the

Fastest and so anyway that was the issue right I’m heading north and then I’m heading east so I’ll catch you later Bye-bye A Oh A [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] Yeah No Yeah [Applause] [Applause] oh Yeah [Applause] Oh Do Do do do do do do do do do do do Do Oh A Yeah Oh Yeah Oh He [Applause] Oh [Applause] he [Applause] yeah Oh He [Applause] and hello the internet and all my followers and hello to my subscriber the hair looks a little better today anyway I’m here I made it um I’ve got all the way to moule Idris and the journey today was about 142 145 miles it was really easy um went

To Rabat first and again I had to I went in the F it’s strange in Morocco every major city has a de Catlin um I know you get them in the UK and in Europe but I didn’t realize you could get there were so many um in Morocco and uh

So yeah popped into the first um the cathlin had a look and I thought this a bigger one down the road so I went right into the center every back went to the big one and that’s where I got a new blow up mattress and a

New pillow so next time I go camping I’ll be okay and the old blowup bed and the old pillow I put into the nearest bin put into the nearest bins so but uh had be money’s worth I mean I got that when I first came on this trip I had a an expensive

Blow up bed I think it cost me 60 70 something like that and on the third night I used it he kept going down so I called into a Decat in Spain bought the new one the mt500 and I must admit the mt500 has really done me well and for

Four months now I’ve been using it for four months continuously it’s not like I just use it every couple of weekends or just for a few days in summer I’ve been using it continuously and it’s really took a battering um and I think it was

Me because in my I’ve got a little like toilet kit with my soap and things like that and also in there I’ve got a needle and cotton now yesterday I was doing something and I had my took my kit out and at one point I snagged my finger and

I think when I put it on the needle was sticking out and I think it’s put a small um small hole anyway but um it’s nothing nothing worse than waking up at 2 o’clock in the morning and find of your mattresses lost all its there so um so

That’s sorted now so after left reat after a while the r roads become Rural and the scenery just transforms and I suppose the scenery here is quite similar to rural Spain and Rural Italy as well um because I as I started goinging Eastward everything’s green trees Fields massive Fields just green

Fields and it’s beautiful absolutely beautiful and I know that as you go further down Mor to the south of Morocco it’s more arid and it’s a struggle to grow things because it’s more desery H but when you come to Northern Morocco you just don’t appreciate appreciate how

Green it is you just always assume Morocco is arid and full of mountains and desert but it’s not Northern Morocco is is really green it’s Lush there trees and Fields everywhere although I do know that they’re struggling for water at the moment and um anyway the reason I’ve booked into a

Hotel and I’ve arrived at the Casper seni and I found it on booking.com and I’m here for three nights and it cost me what did it cost me now I think I think it cost me it was 414141 and the reason why I’m here is tomorrow

There’s going to be a whole day of raining it’s going to start tonight about 2 o’clock in the morning and it’s going going to continue all the way through to Sunday afternoon Sunday evening so we’ve more or less got two days of rain and tomorrow there’s going to be some heavy

Rain now the main bit of my tent is okay no problem at all but the ground sheet are suck a a real batter in um I’ve got two holes in the ground sheet and I think before long if I was to stick out in the rain I think before long I’d have

To call for a Lifeboat um because the water would get in no problem at all but um so I thought well had a look around on booking.com and I found this place now it’s maybe on maybe the day after tomorrow or the next day as soon as I

Get some dry weather I’m going to head for head to um volubilis volubilis that’s the name volubilis and it’s a huge Roman town that has been excavated um and it’s about 10 kilometers from here so that’s on my list of things to do um as soon as I get

A dry spell but I know that tomorrow and most of the next day it’s going to be wet so and that’s why I’ve come to a hotel because there’s just no way I’d survive if I stayed in the tent maybe if it would have been the start of my TR of

My trip but not now because the ground shoot on my tent is just shot is shot to hell it’s um anyway so let’s give you a walk around let’s let’s show you where I am and this is the patio area and if we had Sunshine tomorrow it would be

A nice place to sit but the town is very it’s one of these towns that uh is built on the side of Hills so that’s my view and as you can see it’s already starting to get quite murky out there quite dull it’s starting to mist over and there’s a really strong

Wind today it’s very warm it was 25 it’s been 25 degrees all day which has been lovely but it’s a really strong wind but all of a looking the sky it’s starting to Cloud over now but I know that the rain is going to start about 2 in the

Morning so I’m going to be safe I’m going to be snug I’m going to be warm and this is my bed this is going to be my bed for tonight because there’s no point me sleeping in that one so that’s going be my bed and I’ve got this lovely

Little room there I’ve even got a shower and let’s have a look at the front look through the window oh we can’t do that we can’t do that but uh yeah beautiful isn’t it beautiful and it’s lovely I love I love this it’s really all the dark wood and we got this beautiful

Veranda so it’s beautiful isn’t it absolutely beautiful I feel so at home it’s lovely it’s so comfortable and I feel so at ease it’s great and it’s a great price even if it would have been more expensive I would have been quite happy to pay because it’s beautiful but

Um the landl asked me if I wanted some food and I says no because I’d already eaten although I’m going to go for a wander in a little while um maybe just get something little snack to e or something but I’m GNA have breakfast tomorrow I’m G have the evening meal as

Well and um it really is not I would love to stay here for a few more days but I can’t because I’ve only got six days left in Morocco I have to leave in six days so three days are here and then once I leave here I’m going to look at

My Roman town my Roman ruins then I’m going to head for CHF Chowan spend two days there then once I’ve done that I can head to Tanger and then catch me fery over to Spain and the journey continues but the last few days has been great um the campsite was really good

And from there went to rat rat I didn’t know what to expect from rat I just thought it’s going to be one of these places which is just a city and in many many ways it is just a city but there’s some really nice places to see and there

Was a lovely old quarter and an Old Fort there and some Gardens and I was really quite surprised but also there was the um the mosum for King M Muhammad V 5 it’s just beautiful I just cannot find the words to describe the beauty of this mosum and

It was built in n in the mid 1960s and it took them about 10 years to build it and it’s on the sight of an old mosque and the tower still exists and that that mosque dates back is probably about nearly a thousand years old oh the

Tower is nearly a thousand years old um but all the old um walls of the mosque of there that’s where they built the mosim it was absolutely stunningly beautiful and I just can’t find the words to describe it and um well that was Rabat I was really impressed and if

I’m ever this way again I’m going to spend more time in Rabat because it was nice had a real nice feeler to it as well um where Marakesh was good it was full of excitement and noise and everything where Rabat was just nice chilled it was it was lovely went to Fez

As well and what a beautiful Place Fez is and in Fez you’ve got the new city and then you’ve got the Jewish City and you’ve got the Muslim City so there’s three cities in one and the new city is a little bit like agade big wide boulevards big mod buildings lots of

Palm trees and still got the the Moroccan feeli but the Jewish city has got its own individual style um and even though the Jews don’t live there anymore the architecture remains and and and the style and the feel for it remains as well and what a big Palace and the King

Has got a big Palace there which was hug these massive gates with this beautiful intricate tiling all around the gate doorways beautiful and then you’ve got the old Muslim city which is surrounded by the old fortifications and there’s a vantage point there you could look down and it

Was beautiful a beautiful site and I went down then to the old city um to the leather works so where the leather has been made in the same place for 900 years 900 years theyve been doing the same thing and the leather is beautiful once you seen the from above there’s

Like a a balcony above and they’ve explained how it all works and the process U because it takes weeks and weeks it takes months to to process the leather they took you into a shop and you could buy all sorts I mean there was a whole area for handbags a whole for

Purses and shoes and there was another big room there for jackets and I fell in love with the jacket now there’s three types of of leather um commonly used um there is cow leather then there is camel leather which apparently is really really tough and resilient and really

Good um and then his goat leather and I thought goat leather and they showed me something it’s really soft and S and supple and I looked at the jackets and I saw a jacket I fell in love with I was looking for a motorbike jacket and I was

Looking at them and and then thought I’ve tried on try it on sir and that’s where you’ve got to be careful soon as you say TR try try it on try it on that’s when you start falling in love with something isn’t it so I

Tried it on and it fitted like a glove and it was so Supple oh and I fell in love and it was it would have been great on the motorbike and it was 2100 dams which is about 180 quid and I was this close this close and I thought I’ve got enough

Stuff to take back with me because I’ve already bought I’ve bought two little I’ve thought one panid is almost full of things that I’ve bought to take back with me um I thought I can’t buy anything else and I thought the next time I come to Morocco I’m going to buy

That jacket but it made out of goats leather and it was absolutely beautiful so that was Fez Fez is beautiful absolutely stunning and that is another place I’m going to visit when I come back to Morocco so that was it so from there Saw robat s has made tracks today went to

Decn got my new got my new bed oh you you got to laugh when I was packing up this morning there was a guy on the next bit to me uh with a tent on a bicycle so I just before I was packing the bik I

Got last last cup of tea and we started talking and he flown down to the Congo with his bicycle and all his kit and he was cycling back from the Congo back to Germany and he was 72 wow 72 now part of the reason for these videos is because I want to and

Encourage you lot all the couch potatoes out there to get off your backsides get your panise packed and go out and and travel and see more places I’m 65 if I can do it you can do it but this guy 72 years old and his Cycles from the Congo

Wow amazing absolutely amazing but um but that was it but we were talking and he says you snore quite loud last night as also I’m sorry he says if I was staying longer I would be moving my tent today when I go into a deep sleep I do

Snore quite loudly as my family will play Testament but uh but that was that so anyway I said my goodbyes this morning um next to me there was a couple from BR from Swansea that was D and Karen um did loads of chatting yesterday had something to eat as well put the world

To rights so goodbye to them we had a real had a good chat last night and also to Jen now Jen I met Jen back in maresh um and I met her again when I came up here um we did a few little day trips together going out getting the

Taxis and jumped a few trains and it was great because sometimes when you’re on your own it gets a bit traveling on your own sometimes if you jump on a bus or a train it can be a bit low but when you got someone else you can talk to uh it

Just makes the journey easier doesn’t it so um but yeah we had a few Cups of Tea together and we’ve um solved all the world’s problems many times over and a bit of a laugh and a giggle so I said goodbye to her to this morning oh she’s

Got a fantastic camper them I would be sit there I would be sitting there in the doorway eating my drunk CET and just looking at her Camp van and she did it all herself and it was superb I felt so jealous and I thought I could go for

This I could really go for this a real big um nice comfy bed in the in in the corner and she really finish it sometimes when you see the conversions you look a l okay not quite perfect but her camper van was perfect she’s really finished it off I think it took her

About a year to do so um Anyway said goodbye to her and I got on the road and uh and that was it but it was a really easy Journey today it was about 25 26° it was nice and where we are now we’re in the Hills but we’re not as high

I mean going back into the mountains further down it really was high so um you could feel the temperature drop in the night time it was terribly cold but we’re only about maybe four five 600 feet so it’s just like Rolling Hills the air is very soft here and it’s quite

Warm um which I’m quite happy to be around uh next also that other campsite I was at because it was right next to the coast it would get a little bit chilly in the evenings because the the breeze and the the Mist would come in every morning wake up and all the tent

Would be wet through because of the the overnight Mist but here the air is soft it’s warm there’s a little breeze and it’s very pleasant so that’s me I’ve I’ve I’ve rattled on long enough I’m here I’m going to have a good night’s sleep tonight I’m going to go around the

Market first um might buy some fruit buy something to drink and then I’m going to come back put my feet up and have a really good sleep on a proper bed so from my little beo Hotel it’s honestly it really is nice this place so um ever want to come

Here it’s the um Casper sanhaji Casper sanhaji and it’s in moule Idris and it really is beautiful and the land lady is an absolute treasure and she’ll cook for you she’ll cook whatever you want as well I think I found home I think I found home but I’ve only got six days

Left so there we go anyway I’ll speak to you soon thanks for watching and thank you for subscribing and goodbye to my subscriber I’ll catch up with you again soon bye-bye then

28 Comments

  1. Hi Ian. I wouldn’t worry about overstaying the insurance by a few days,. Barring any misfortune, I doubt you have been , or will be asked to show it. That was my experience for last October and my online research showed the same. The 2 occasions I was stopped , 1 just wanted to chat & offer directions & the other was not interested because I only spoke English, but, if you are not comfortable with that , I understand.
    I’m enjoying your videos.
    Ride safe. Cheers Barry. UK.🏍

  2. I've only recently brought my V-Strom 1050, however one thing I noticed watching your vlogs is just how good the V-Twin engine sounds, in all the bikes I've ever owned the v-strom sounds the best!

  3. Ian , watching your videos has helped me a lot in seeing someone do what I hope to do.
    Can I ask a couple of questions please
    is there a limit to the time your allowed in Morroco ?
    Also how are you getting around the 90 day rule since Brexit.
    Many thanks
    Gazza

  4. Great vid and info – you’re almost turning into a holiday rep for Morocco 😂🤣 I use to use those self oilers – until it stoped self oiling as was blocked the. It just made me paranoid so I took it off – I use the oil grease with the brush on the end – Motul glad all good drive safe 👏🏻👏🏻

  5. This was such a great part of your journey, which we look forward to continually. You have opened our eyes to Morocco and I think will now see before clogs up ….😮. Love the little natter at the end and the warm stillness comes over in droves.
    Will be in Portugal mid March and would love to buy you a beer for the entertainment you have given us over winter. Stay safe.

  6. Just finished watching. Possibly the best video you've uploaded to date. So, so informative. The change in scenery on the way up was remarkable and I must admit, I did think the increased cloud cover was a pre-curser to some poorer weather. Hats-off to that 72 year old guy on the bicycle heading up from the Congo back to Germany. I'm breathless thinking about it and I'm a mere slip of a lad at 65!!! That hotel was such a gem despite looking a bit precarious getting to the front door! Loved the stories about the leatherworks and that fabulous mausoleum. Something tells me the next time you're seen in Morocco, you'll be driving a fully kitted-out camper van, wearing that goat skin jacket😊. Thanks again for the entertainment and take care for now.

  7. As usual, it is a real pleasure to stay and listen to the beautiful sensations that Morocco is offering you. Your Suzuki V Strom 1000 is beautiful and also seems very lived in from the many journeys made, how many miles per journey in total?

    Greetings from Italy

  8. Gosh, you brought back the memories of when I was in the tanneries at the exact spot you were in Fez. It was 1983 & i must admit, I succumbed and bought a goatskin Travel bag. Well done so far & I am still envious.

  9. Hey Mate, I am really happy to see you are really doing great so far!
    I hope to hear from you again via email, I just wrote you one like 7 days ago.
    I still love to see how you are doing in the vidoes.
    Stay healthy and ride safe!
    -Lenny

  10. Congratulations, time for unbridled bragging! You are currently my favorite adventurer on YouTube. Your travel videos are very professionally made and extremely fascinating. A wonderful mix of Road Movie mixed with enthusiastic monologues from your travel experiences. Love it! And the music that accompanies us? Wonderful! I am truly one of your most loyal subscribers 🙂

  11. Ian, thanks very much for sharing your experiences. I am truly impressed with your travels and I'm hitting the road again in May for a tour around Britain on my V Strom 1000. Kind regards, Mal.

Leave A Reply