As I was Standing on a queue to pay the fees of the ferry from Algeciras, I have noticed two ladies in front of me wearing “Hijab” and I thought they could be tourists from the Gulf, but they looked more Asian, so I have tried to run a conversation with them to kill some time and get rid of the sea sickness that I started to get, which I don’t normally get on ferries. They were Malaysian tourists who were going on a Euro tour and decided to continue to Morocco and then to Mauritania, and if possible, for them they would continue to Senegal, we have talked about my struggles of getting all the visas for many countries, especially some countries that don’t have embassies in Qatar! and I gave my Silk Road trip as an example which I suffered to get some of the visas such as Turkmenistan. She didn’t have that issue as she said since she is Malaysian and her passport is considered as one of the top 10 strongest passports, that’s why, she said they would add more countries whenever they travel on a holiday. We continued chatting until they have reached to the window where they bought their ticket and walked away and the conversation actually helped me get over my sickness and few minutes later, I started observing Africa from distance saying to myself: Welcome to Morocco!
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the blue city
The landing to the port was smooth except that the system was off and we all had to wait until the system goes back online, so we struggled between trying to convince the officers to let us through before it gets dark and the frustration of the riders who couldn’t take it anymore of waiting for hours, so I had to get involved being the only Arab and it worked well, which enabled me to get into their office and shared a banana with the officer, who was shocked of how I could leave Qatar during that time when it was under the blockade! He didn’t understand that the blockade applied only on the land and partially the sea borders, I have flown to Germany and kicked off from there to reach Morocco. All of us were so excited to see the real Morocco and it felt great riding from Europe to Africa for the first time, except for Dom who was our tour lead. The first night we were staying in what they called the “Blue City” Chefchaouen.
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during the gravel ride
Day by day riding all around Morocco, exploring the gateway of the Magical Sahara through Erfoud and Merzouqa and ascending through Atlas Mountains until we had the real challenging day when we left from Erfoud to Boumalne Dades, which was an interesting riding day through lots of gravel, mud and a bit of water crossing! It was A spectacular route via the Todra and Dades Gorges. To me that was the most excited part of the trip as I was very well prepared mentally and physically, after months of working out and motocrossing, I found the ride easy to handle which caused me to get a bit overconfident doing some crazy moves and taking some big risks with speed and careless riding style. As we were approaching a sharp bend with lots of mud and deep track of wheels, I decided to stand up while turning right up to switch on my Gopro and I couldn’t handle the bike which went directly into the deep track of a truck’s wheel which threw me away off the bike! All what I could remember was seeing my wind screen smashing in front of my face, and one pannier flying away, I was sure that I got injured badly but I didn’t realize what was happening as everything happened in a second! It took me around 10 seconds to realize what was happening and that was when I realized I wasn’t injured but I had a pain on my chest caused by hitting the windscreen which was broken by my chest!
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this is how my broken Windscreen looked
This was a lesson to never be overconfident no matter what, especially in activities such as motorcycling and skydiving which could costs my life, that little crash got me so depressed the whole day, I was hoping I could end this trip with zero drop but it ended with a flying pannier and smashed windscreen! I was trying hard to get it fixed and couldn’t myself until Pete arrived and fixed it for me with his magical hands! I have spent the evening making some calls to Casablanca trying to get to ship and replace my windscreen with no luck, I have spent the evening missing the amazing view of the sunset over the valley of Boumalne Dades making calls here and there with no luck, I have even missed my dinner and decided to head to bed earlier than usual. I thought having a warm shower before bed would help me crash like a dead man, but I stayed awake until midnight and that shower didn’t help much, especially with the heavy guests around me, the mosquitos!
I woke up around 3 in the morning, which was even before calling for the Dawn prayers, I tried to move and the pain on my chest was sore and stronger, I could spot a purple mark which made me sure it was the windscreen, I got dressed up remembering that I have missed the sunset over the valley, and didn’t want to miss the sunrise, although it was too early for that, but I didn’t have anything else to do, and I didn’t want to continue thinking of my stupid crash the day before! I walked outside in the dark to check on the bike and record a video of the windscreen, while wondering how I would be continue riding without a windscreen, but it doesn’t matter, I would survive! I walked then towards the valley, as it was so dark, I couldn’t see anything down there except the lights of the mosque, some smokes coming out of the cottages spread around, and few minutes later the dawn call for prayer started! The sound of the call got me so emotional, it felt so musical with the echo around the green valley that was surrounded by the orange rocks! The smoke that was coming out of the cottage reached me and I could tell something very delicious was being baked down there, I totally forgot my phone and forgot about the accident and took it as a great opportunity to meditate during the prayers.
I was concentrating on the prayers which I could hear clearly through the speakers of the mosques down there, the way the “Imam” read Quran was so beautiful that I closed my eyes and prayed in my heart to get my wishes done which was back then, to go on the TransAmerica adventure! The prayers were over but they didn’t stop reading Quran on speakers, and continued their “Du’as” until the sunrise, to me it sounded so spiritual, musical and got me so into it, I closed my eyes, trying to forget about the crash until I heard a voice of someone singing in English approaching me and stood just next to me, I didn’t open my eyes, but I smelled his cigarettes as he was smoking! I was shocked of his positive energy from early morning. He spoke to me in German saying: Wie Gehts mein bruder? I looked at him with a smile saying in Arabic: Sabah Alkhair! He then said: oh, I thought you are German!? I saw you last night with a German lady! By the way I speak Good German my friend! Wow, I said, but I am not German, I am from Qatar, and I am riding my bike around Morocco for three weeks, then he asked why do I sound a bit down? Life doesn’t worth it. I have explained my frustration of trying to get the windscreen before heading back to Spain and Portugal, he told me that I still have plenty of time and no need to waste my day for nothing! He then said: I am a taxi driver; I chase westerners and I make my daily living from them just to feed my 4 diasbled children! 4? I asked? 4 kids of one child who is 4 years old? No, my friend, I have 4 children, 2 girls and 2 boys, all of them are disabled, if I come home with money to buy them dinner every day, this would be the best feeling ever, I have taken a bank loan to buy this mini bus, and I am very lucky I got the loan, other wouldn’t get it here, I would be thankful to just see them every day smiling and looking forward for dinner with me, just smile Akhi smile!
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Dom fixing my flying pannier
His piece of advice was a wakeup call to me, not just that, it was more of a slap than a wakeup call, look at this poor man who is carrying a responsibility of 4 disabled children, owning a truck that his bank actually owns, smiling and singing with full energy, he has nothing to fight for except making a living for the day, gave me the biggest lesson of my life, while I was being depressed only because I crashed on the trip and not able to find a piece of plastic which is called windscreen! How silly can we be? This has taken me back to few years ago when a friend of mine went into a deep depression and sadness when he ordered his Range Rover as a special edition and he got while leather seats instead of devil red! He switched off all his mobile phones and disappeared for a week, only because of seat leather! How unfair and silly those rich people can be, compared to people who own nothing, but happiness, the biggest lesson on that tour was just to be thankful no matter what, and as we say: Contentment is an undiminishing treasure!