Oh no! I've hit feche-feche

I know that things on the world horizon aren't too dandy at the moment and perhaps forgive me for breaking the doom, but here is a little story of a funny, unexclusive and normal travel to places far away, of rich culture and accepting people. Theres no room on the pillion seat for you, my clothes and a nice bottle of Glenmorangie given to me by a dear friend take that place, but, let me tell you the tale....

I suppose I best explain myself. Feche-feche is a something any motorised desert traveller will include in a tall story as they fight to get to the last oasis in the wadi. Consisting of an almost dust-like sand, it is nigh on impossible to drive or ride on and will cause much heartache. Now if I am going to encounter any such material is highly debatable. Some have said it is inevitable where I am planning to go, others, whom I am a little more trusting off say it is a load of baloney. However, in any travel blog that I write a good 80% mix of baloney is needed to carry the whole thing through to the end so bear with me. Feche-feche is going to need much blame applying to it. Puncture – it was the feche-feche Broken tent pole - feche-feche Can’t find me passport -you get it Feche-feche experiences on last trip?

Feche-feche? No I fell off.

Feche-feche, no deep sand and no appreciation of sand riding

Feche-feche after doing the Bolivian marching dust. Should I say or should I go? Enter the guitar rif…… It’s been a couple of years since a big bike trip and the itch has not gone away. However, life has been hard for the family of recent and I appeared to have developed a rather elderly, flabby and shagged out body. However, If some things can hold out, there is still a good chance I can reach some fantastical places without breaking the bank. The thought of on my birthday waking up on the edge of the Sahara on a mesa to watch the rising sun, all by myself was giving me the squiggles, so I guess I had to do it. I really need some time by myself and testing things a little bit. 2-day ferry to Bilbao, 1000km across Spain, cross to Maroc, down to Marrakech, over the Atlas mountains to Ouarzazate, and then the southern desert crossings to with a couple of nights camping in the desert. Looking at meatior craters, lost cities and smoe fantaist fossil sites. On to Merzouga where I may go all touristy and take a camel trek into the dunes, and then a slow boat home through some of the less travelled pistes of the Jebel Sahro Anti-Atlas. Over the High Atlas with my last day in Tangier. Here, I can buy a carpet and, as long as I chose the correct merchant, pick one up that will fly me back home. I may need to let the carpet do this by itself and retrace my steps on the bike but, as everyone knows, I am a total sucker for mysticism. Gear Well, what do I need to buy…. Nothing. I already have a bike, the very angry airbed (VAA) with the most reliable motorcycle engine in the world. It’s a bit lardy but any bike that can do the speed limit on the motorway with all the camping gear, cookers food et all is better than a wonderfully capable off road skinny little thing that will make your arse explode somewhere near Salamaca with another 1000km to go before you reach the pistes. The compromises have been carefully worked out and after 32 years of doing these things, I know what works for me. The biggest problem is temperature differential. Crossing parts of Spain where I will be at the same hight of nearby ski resorts and higher altitudes in the Atlas is going to be a bit cold especially that within a few hours I will be in really quite warm territory. However, after spending a bit of money on heated socks, gloves and body warmer I am happy to ride in proper brass moneys weather. Might be a bit cold in the desert at night too. The biggest worry is tyres. To really do a good job on hard gravel track and desert sand you need a very aggressive tyre which is frankly totally bobbins when you are on the road. The worst thing would be to fit a tyre for more off road that you wear out on the way down so it doesn’t work well in the desert and have a knackered/ worn out tyre to ride back on. Worst of all worlds. The idea would be to ride to Maroc carrying new tyres to fit ready for the pistes, but that takes half a day in my garage and perhaps a lot longer with tools I have for roadside. So I’m going for the last option and fitting a Mitas XT+ 80% off road tyre and ride it like a granny all the way to Marrakech to try to preserve them. If they wear out, it was because of the feche-feche. So lets wait and see.