zoltan's
slow-paced travel blog
Kite surfing… is it good fun?
0HELL YEAH! You have to be aware of the fact that the kite can easily lift an adult and that being dragged in the sand for metres will quickly grate your ass down to bare flesh. Otherwise, yeah, it’s a lot of fun. It’s like being a child again and having the chance to play with that impossibly massive kite that you were never able to build from newspaper and glue. I took 3 hours just to learn the basic controls but you would need 5 days at least to start actually surfing on water with it. I don’t have that much time or money, my Mauritanian visa is running out at the beginning of February, so I will have to make my way there slowly.
The Atlantic Route and Western Sahara
0
Some days ago (couldn’t tell you what day is today) I crossed the Anti Atlas Mountains from Morocco to the south and further into Western Sahara. From around Essaouira the road meanders over hills and mountains, you will see a lot of orange and oil plantations. Suicide sellers (as I call them) are trying to stop you by jumping in front of you, and sell honey, olive oil, fish, rocks or whatever else they have. The road surface is brilliant, I couldn’t believe how good the roads were all over in Morocco. They could be compared to secondary roads in Europe. But let’s just forget about the locals’ driving style, that’s something you get used to fast. After a long and enjoyable ride I arrived to the Atlantic coast and camped just before Agadir. You can see a lot of campervans pulled over on the shore and it’s pretty safe to stay close to them. The next day I went down to Agadir, a big industrial and busy commercial city. I was looking for oil for the bike, and it proved to be harder to find than I expected. In the end I just bought some rough oil for 4×4′s and got it changed for 2 euros in a few minutes by a mechanic. I would have done it myself, if I didn’t forget the 19mm socket at home. Anyways, it was good value, and on top of that I was invited for a tajin de poulet (chicken, spuds and some vegetables cooked in a clay pot) and tea. Free food is always good food 
I was set on getting to Tan-Tan that same day but I didn’t realize how far it was… about 350-400km. The road was really corrugated and potholed in places and about 150km’s away from Tan-Tan I ran out of daylight, too. You have to cross a highland from Tiznit through Guelmim to the coast, and it gets really cold at night up there. After a few kilometres I found out that my headlight stopped working No worries, I just started to follow a bus. These maniacs do 100-120kph on all kind of roads and they clear the road in front of you, great stuff. Except, when I finally got to Tan-Tan city, the bus stopped and I had to do another 25km to the beach in the dark. The city streets were lit up relatively well, so I was giving it. This is when I ran into a police checkpoint… Speeding, no headlight, didn’t stop at a stop sign… hmmm, they weren’t impressed. Anyways, they wanted 700 dirhams (70 euros), which I haggled down to 300 in the end and got away fast. Fortunately an old Land Rover was going the same way and I could follow that all the way to Tan-Tan beach. I went to a camping that night as I couldn’t see anything out in the desert, finding a camping spot at night is a risky business and without lights it would have looked stupid. 45 dirhams for a night, but I got a great hot shower and found some firewood on the beach so I could cook my pot noodles in the morning
I don’t really know what to say about Western Sahara and the Atlantic Route. It’s a long long long long road, just recently paved and is really a great surprise for those expecting a rough ride through the Sahara. It runs along the coastline and offers some incredible scenery. Cliffs, endless yellow, flat beaches, white surfs and huge swells, sand dunes and barren stony emptiness. For almost 2000km. Since there is a tension between some of the locals and the Moroccan, there are signs of a massive military presence everywhere. You come across police and military barricades at the gates of every city and at the main road junctions. You have to think in hundreds of kilometres here between cities. Finding a camping spot is not really a problem, finding a place safe from the wind is. I slept in a dry riverbed close to the coast some 50km from La’Ayoun but some other travellers told me, they prefer asking the fishermen if they can camp near their huts. Going along the coast you would see nomadic tents and stone bungalows, people fishing from up on the cliffs or down below in boats. I prefer the hiding method, I don’t like the constant attention of the locals.
This is probably the third day in Dakhla, I am camping on the beack some 25km outside the city and I am trying to give kite surfing a go today if all goes well. This place is absolutely surreal. You would need to be here, photos don’t do the place justice and I have yet to take one that could capture the colours, the vasteness and the feel of freedom here. Most importantly, tourism is minimal and still, security is not too bad. Well, I met an ossie couple just yesterday, who travel from OZ to Europe on two small Kawasakis and they had a crash helmet stolen here in Dakhla. I might just be lucky. I managed to find real bike oil as well, so that had been changed yesterday, I went for thicker 20w50 oil. It’s not great in the mornings, when temperature is around 10C, but midday the difference is noticeable. Gearchanges are much smoother now, especially when the engine gets hot in city traffic.
So anyways, I am having fun and I can strongly advise anyone looking for sunshine to try and find a cheap flight to Dakhla, Western Sahara. I will try to upload some videos and photos later.
The Moroccan Riviera
0Monday was funny in a way. There was a crowd of about 30-40 people at the Mauritanian embassy in Rabat, half of them just trying to apply, the other half trying to get back their passports – with the visa or not. After waiting all day, at around 4pm I got mine and straight away I just wanted to get out of there. So I went for it, took the main road through Casablanca all the way to El Jadida. I wanted to stay in casablanca, but feck that, it is the dirtiest and busiest city on earth. Half way into the centre I turned back and went out on the highway again.
After a fast spin down to El Jadida and after watching the sun set on the ocean I found the Camping International, which sits in a great spot, close to the coast. It cost me 46 dirhams, but at least I got to take a shower, wash my clothes and have a walk on the coast in the morning. The city would have deserved more than just a walk, but I didn’t feel like staying in a city again. I just want to be moving, riding slowly along the coast and into the Sahara. So I went south on the small road following the shoreline and I found myself in Ireland! It looks exactly like the Atlantic coast in Galway or Donegal… except there is no rain or mist or anything cold. I went off the main road for a while, onto an old road which looked like it became too dangerous, and parts of it was splitting off and falling into the depth, in the sea below. I had breakfast there, and it was also a good spot for putting out my washing and the damp tent to dry on the sun.
I reached Safi around midday, had two fish sandwiches and walked around a bit in the Medina. Lovely city, lots to see there, but again, it’s a city. So I went on south along the coast. There were a few petrochemical and who knows what kind of plants here, all very very stinky, emitting suffocating sulphur and god knows what. I have seen villages covered in this permanent mist, coming from the plants. Other than that, this is one of the nicest places in Morocco you could see. Getting closer to Essaouira, you see a lot of new developments, fancy villas and riyads being built, you see money everywhere. It’s like the French Riviera without the crowds. Essaouira although expensive, is a perfect holiday spot for the winter. All you see is clean streets, order and nicely maintained buildings, well groomed american tourists and rich kids loitering around Too expensive for me, they were asking 250 dirhams for a room… 4-5 times the average price in Morocco.
I ended up in a camping, sleeping in a room for 65 dirhams with an internet cafe, restaurant and small shop right next door.
I woke up for a view over the Anti-Atlas Mountains stretching along the Atlantic coast, perfect blue water, no wind at all and not a cloud on the sky. I have never seen such a blue sky in my life. Around 20C in the morning… I could get used to this
So now I am going down to Agadir, to hopefully get oil for the bike, change the oil and filter and then continue on to Tan-Tan today, entering Western Sahara tomorrow probably.
Ideje félrehúzódni
1 Az utazás nem játék. Felkészületlenül, mindenféle utánaolvasás, általános tájékozódás és útikönyvek nélkül is bele lehet vágni, de az embernek ilyenkor számolnia kell a bizonyos, mégis szörnyű meglepetésekkel.
A motoron ülve, félúton egyik ismeretlen városból a másikba, minden előzetes jelzés nélkül jelentkezhet a magány, a honvágy vagy az átmeneti elmezavar. A legrosszabb esetekben elfelejtheti, mit is keres ott az út szélén éhesen, egy fél üveg buborékmentes ásványvízzel és egy zacskó dióbéllel. Viszketni kezdhet a fejbőre és kelések nőhetnek az arcán az ápolatlanságtól. Lábszaga már menet közben is érződni kezdhet, bekúszva a nadrág és kabát alatt, megkerülve a sálat, teljesen megtöltheti a sisakot. A vakmerő kiránduló talán elkezdi számolgatni a szétplaccsant legyeket, elmereng az útminőségen, a kátyúk elhelyezkedésének rendjén, az előtte haladó kisbusz rozsdás ajtajának szépségén. Zenét próbál hallani a szélzajban.
Két döccenő között az ember igen magányosnak érezheti magát. Néha annyira is, hogy megalkotja saját képzeletbeli társát, aki tulajdonképpen hús-vér, ott ül mögötte, combjait az övéhez szorítja, és öléből kellemesen sugárzik a melegség. Sisakja oda-odakoccan az övéhez fékezéskor. Kéjesen öleli át a rázósabb szakaszokon. Megveregeti hasát egyik kezével, amikor valami érdekeset fedez fel az egyébként teljesen idegen és érthetetlen tájban. Katonai bunker vagy juhól, nem lehet tudni, de tetszik. Szép. A nő zabolátlan szőke haja az utazó arcába csapódik és felsérti szaruhártyáját. Meg kell állnia, így képtelenség vezetni. Néha már azt kívánja, bárcsak otthon hagyta volna a nőt. De hát mennyit is látna az ismeretlen országból nélküle! Belenyugszik, egyedül utazni, mindenféle felkészülés nelkül ostobaság lenne.
Jeges-mézes teát rendel a csöndesen csodálkozó vendéglőben képzeletbeli társának. Az arrajáró morzsavadász verebek is megállnak egy pillanatra ilyenkor, elkerülhetetlen a lebukás és a botrány. A verebek általában is kíváncsi jószágok, de egy szokatlan beszélgetést vagy egy begolyózott turista nyílvános megszégyenítését ki nem hagynák semmi pénzért. Inkább félrerúgják a lábuk ügyébe került almafoszlányt, fülük körül ferborzolják egy kissé a tollakat, hogy jobban halljanak minden szót, és ártatlan fél-fejfordítással megállnak. Közvetlen a vendég előtt. Gonosz vicceket mesélnek egymásnak, amíg várakoznak. Az utazó oda sem hederít, társa botrányos viselkedésével van elfoglalva. Amaz széttett lábakkal ül a fonott székben, két kezével szoknyáját ölébe szorítva, dohogva, majd elégve a hőségtől, és flörtöl a pincérrel! A pincér nem veszi a lapot. A verebek idegesen mocorognak.
A leszámolás
0Unalmamban fát hasogattam. Órákon át szenvedtem, tompa pukkanások töltötték be a tájat vidám recsegés helyett. A szomszéd kutyája, egy mór származású eb is átjött megnézni, mi történik, ki ez az akaratos ökör, aki felzavarja az egész hegyet. Előző életében cirkuszi mutatványos volt, majd hat éven át koldult jó nevű belvárosi kávézók teraszán. Tökélyre fejlesztette a bukfencezés és hempergőzés művészetét, csodálói képesek voltak órákat utazni, csak hogy lássák amint két lábon tipeg és viccesen vakkant. Drága süteményekkel és szendvicsdarabokkal töltötte meg a bendőjét, amikor csak kívánta, és a pincérektől saját vizestálat is kapott. Nagy becsben tartották. El lehet mondani, hogy mindent látott már, de ilyet még nem.
Esetleg kiélezhetnéd azt a baltát. – mondta szánakozva.
Nem szükséges. Puszta erőre van itt szükség, nem valami trükkre.
Hátat fordított nekem, és megigazította a nyakára kötött pöttyös kendőt, amitől egészen úgy nézett ki mint egy andalúz cowboy. A többi kutyát nézte, a környék majd összes kutyáját, akik falkába verődve közeledtek. Egyedül Smartie maradt otthon; amióta megrúgta egy szamár, már nem volt a régi.
An administrative break
0After Marrakech, I have to say Rabat is a breath of fresh air. Quite literally. It’s a nice modern city right on the Atlantic coast with royal palace, mosques, a nice medina and signs of booming business and money everywhere. I stopped here to get the Mauritanian visa, found a Youth Hostel for 65 dirhams a night and I have to say I’m enjoying the stay.
I just wanted to say, drop by if you are in Morocco, it’s worth it.
Teasing the Sahara
2I left Fez on a very chilly morning, the first day of the new year. There was black ice and frost everywhere. I chose to take a secondary road through Sefrou up to the High Atlas Mountains, then crossed over a vast plateau. On the way there was nothing else than a few shepherds, a perfectly straight road for miles and miles and some local trucks that drove wherever they felt the road was better (no matter if I was there or not). I went out on a rough road to the Cirque du Jaffar for a few miles. Click on the picture to see full size.
Crossing the Plateaux Aride towards Cirque du Jaffar in the Atlas Mountains
I slept in Er Rachidia and it was just then that I had to realize, the desert is a feckin cold place in the winter. It was freezing and it only got bearable towards midday.
I made my way down to Merzouga, following the advice of some people in Er Rachidia. Merzouga has a few sand dunes, where you can hire quads, go for a camel ride or just try your luck on your own vehicle in the sand… which I did. Well, after almost boiling the poor thing and digging it deep into the soft stuff I had to surrender. I left the bike in an Auberge and went for a walk into the dunes, slept in a Berber oasis.
I didn’t rush to leave Merzouga and I was only on the road around midday. The road was completely deserted (pun not intended) towards Zabora…. and I soon found out why I took the wrong turn in some village and went straight into the Atlas Mountains on a side track. This part of the Atlas there are a lot of Berbers on the side of the road selling minerals. I bought some stuff from one of them and was invited for tea in change. We climbed up to a cliff, overlooking the valley and ended up in something like a nest, like the ones you see in movies where afghans fight the americans. They explained to me that the Mummy movies were shot here and they did good business at that time… I didn’t understand much more. Although my French is fluent (khmm), their dialect must be different Anyways, I carried on. Fortunately I had a jerrican full of petrol, which I needed as well. I turned back after my freezing hands signalled that I went up too high and slept in Tinehir, in a Rijad. If you just stop at the main square of any city here, someone will eventually come up to you, offers a hotel, you then haggle the price down to the quarter of what he asks for and follow him. 5 euros for a single ensuite with internet and breakfast… not bad. Better than camping out in the frost. The place is called Rijad de la Palmerie if anyone is curious about it.
Yesterday I crossed the Atlas again through Ouarzazate to Marrakech, where I am now. I had a bad time yesterday when I arrived, the whole place looked hostile and money-seeking, but it’s all good now. I just had to sleep a good few hours, eat well and drink a coffee. At 6 in the morning I was out taking photos and the city showed me it’s nice face. The actual people of Marrakech going on their own business, students going to school, washing up the streets, eating their breakfast at tenth the price of what you see during the day… and great light. I decided to stay one more day and wrote a short story as well, so all is good.
Next stop will be Casablanca or Rabat, where I will need to get the visas for Mauritania and Mali.
Check out my Flickr gallery on the right for more pics!
New Year, New Continent
2After spending the Christmas at home in Hungary and feeling like a stuffed turkey, I flew back to Malaga, Spain. The next morning I felt the time was right, packed up all my stuff, forgot all my clothes and left Alozaina. I had a look at Gibraltar to see if there really is a permanent English cloud over it… there was.
By the time I was in Algeciras, it started to get late so I went up towards the mountains and quickly found a spot near the N381 for the night. This was the first night I slept on my new sheep skin instead of the high tech Thermarest mattress and I can say it’s better. Plus it can’t be punctured. I am using this skin on the bike’s seat while riding so it doubles up as an ass-saver.
On the 29th I took a ferry over to Tanger (61 yoyos with the bike), went through the mysterious check-in procedure of the Moroccan customs, bought the feckin expensive compulsory insurance for my bike (80 yoyos) and realized that cheap traveling must be a legend… it certainly feels like a costly pastime to me. And I am not even at aquiring visas yet.
I spent my first night in a forest near Asilah, close to the sea. I went off the paved road and out on sand for ages, in to a forest for a few minutes and thought in the end that I was king, no one will come near me. I was wrong of course. A berber came out of nowhere just before sunset, lit his kiffa (marijuana) pipe and sat down comfortably to watch as I was going through my luggage looking for any possible useless bits. He was just talking in Arabic or whatever and gave me a few hints and tips apparently. Like I should put a rope around my camp so that I would hear if anyone was coming. He was set on the idea that I would be assassinated that night, he kept saying that one French word I understood.. “assassinee” and was showing how my neck will be cut and blood going all over the place. My sleep was uninterrupted by bandits or other bad spirits, and the oak forest proved to be a perfect and warm shelter.
I made a video there, just trying to upload it to youtube now… but it says it would take 611 minutes… can’t say I will wait that long. Not that cost would be a major factor, fast internet cost 5 dirhams (about 50 euro cents) here in Fez. Oh, yeah, I forgot the minor detail where I crossed the hilly countryside and rode up to Fez.
I decided to go to a cheap Hotel here instead of camping. In general, it’s way easier to discover a city when based in a hotel and you can leave your stuff in a safe room for a few days, don’t have to worry about your bike and valuables getting stolen. A windowless room with a bed and a handwash cost me 100 dirhams (10 euros) a day including a guy watching out for my bike day and night. It’s like a prison cell… but at least it’s in the centre.
I went to see the Ancient Medina (the old town) today, wandered around until I got lost and was shown out by local kids for some change. I have to say, every minute here is enjoyable. Life is very slow, drinking coffee, eating well and living without borders is what I am experiencing.
Ancient Medina in Fez
Anyways, HAPPY NEW YEAR to anyone reading this!
Just building away..
0I live a quiet and simple life in these days, and I like it. I wake up at 10am, make some breakfast, drink a cup of coffee and look for some work to do. I live on the side of a beautiful mountain.. it could be about 1000m high, we are at 500m. This place is owned by an Englishman, Trevor and it’s an isle of peace and happiness. So far I dug a hole for a pond (meant cracking big feckoff rocks), split some logs for firewood, build a sink from stones and today we have built an “internet cafe” with Jacob, an other guy who helps out here.
Nothing big is happening, just small projects, going easy and slow.
The Sink!
As Jacob arranged some stones in weird ways, I am getting some good ideas for photograms. I like this one in particular…
Death mask
It will be some time before I make photograms.. or any photography for that matter…. but I’m collecting ideas in the meantime.
Update: Here are two pictures from the day when I left Alozaina after xmas.
…and one of the vegetable gardens we built with Tom:
Further South..
1Barcelona is an exciting place, packed full of weird people, culture and lots of other stuff I would be interested in… but it was not the time to stay there and discover. So I woke up on a quiet Saturday morning, the city was still sleeping in a ditch with a bad hangover, the Sun sparkled on the modern office buildings and I couldn’t find a bike shop open.
I have a new theory, it must be the ignition coil that is getting weaker in my bike, so I thought I would go and buy one… it’s a cheap part anyways. But I had no luck, so I left Barcelona. I followed the secondary road, N340 up on the hills and onto Tarragona. Bikers love this patch of tarmac, it has some great wide bends as you leave BCN. After Tarragona I decided to get a good few miles in. The weather forecast was bad for Northern Spain down until Alicante, so I wanted to get there as fast as possible. I didn’t get off the A7 motorway until Valencia, where I had a quick look around (forgot about the MotoGP track) and left to go towards Alcoi. Not much happened that day. I slept between Alcoi and Alicante in a VERY cold spot on a field. I was high up in a valley in the mountains and I was freezing all night… no matter what clothes I pulled on, towel wrapped on my legs.. I was about to crawl into my backpack when the night was mercifully cracking up, giving way to an other bright day. An other day when I was busy riding. I went down to Cartagena, did some shopping and decided to call a HelpX host near Malaga. After I talked to him, I started a crazy ride down through the Sierra Nevada, and who knows what other sierras, went through Grenada, Malaga and climbed up to this mountain where I am at now. Andalucia was definitely the best part of Spain so far… it’s a pity I haven’t seen anything of it yet.
Now I am in a nice and cozy caravan, looking at the cliffs towering above me, the top of the mountain is lost in the clouds. There is an off-road track that led up here, it goes all the way up to the top they say.. I might just get myself to go up one day, who knows.
.. update: I went to see what’s at the end of the path here… This is what I found, dead end.
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