| Málaga – the beginning | |||||
| Day 1 - Leaving Spain | Day 2 - Chefchaouen | Day 3 - Fes | Day 4 - Er Rachidia | Day 5 - Merzouga | Day 6 - Tinghir |
| Day 7 - Aït Benhaddou | Day 8 - Marrakesh | Day 9 - More Marrakesh | Day 10 - Cascades (Ouzoud) | Day 11 - Ifrane | Day 12 - Tarifa |
| Day 13 - Málaga | Day 14 - Torremolinos | Day 15 - Torremolinos-1 | Day 16 - Torremolinos-2 | Day 17 - Caminito del Rei |
May 5th – Sunday
Map Link (estimated route) – 212 Kms
Malaga (Coín) – Tarifa
* Caveat: despite the most careful attention I took when I downloaded my photos, I am still running into problems with “order”. I had three devices (plus a few pictures from other people on the tour), but despite sorting them by “date created”, they are still all over the place. I’ve done my best from memory and file names, but there is no guarantee that the photos are in the correct order.
Our day began with breakfast in Málaga at Brunchit, a cute little restaurant around the corner from our hotel. The portions were huge but they were so tasty, it was hard to leave anything on the plate. I highly recommend eating here if you get the chance!
The motorcycle tour officially started at MotoAdventour’s home base in the nearby town of Coín. Taxis brought everyone together from Málaga to Coín, where we made introductions or renewed Hellos. After a bit of social chaos, there was the distribution of motorcycle keys and the reallocation of luggage. A small truck and trailer would follow along during the entire tour, both to carry our bags and in case something happened if a bike couldn’t be ridden for whatever reason. Our bikes would only have to carry the humans and whatever one wanted to stuff in the provided top case.
On previous tours, Hana had allowed me to bring my own tank bag, as that is how I carry my “on the fly” camera set up. But this time she asked me not to bring it, leaving me at a loss as to how I would handle my bike-based photography. Desperate, I ransacked my boxes of old motorcycle gear and came up with a solution: my very old Wunderlich handlebar bag. It was ancient but it would do the trick. And best of all, Hana gave it her OK.
The bikes
There were five bikes and riders on this tour: Dan, me, our friends Ron & Sue (with Sue as a passenger), Gary, and – of course – Hana, the tour leader. Her husband David would be the lucky one to drive the truck. With the luggage stowed and gear donned, we jumped on our bikes and headed out. And so began our tour to Morocco!
We didn’t take the direct route to our ferry in Tarifa, but instead headed west towards the picturesque town of Ronda, before darting south towards the coast.
The road was very popular with motorcycles and, it being Sunday, “Sunday drivers”. It was a mad game of passing and making our way through corner after corner. This wasn’t exactly my ideal typing of riding, but the roads were nice and the scenery – when I wasn’t plotting my next pass – was excellent. I think that Hana’s innate knowledge of the roads in her “backyard” gave her more confidence than I felt.
As we got further into the day we left the twisty mountain roads behind, and the views opened up. Hana mentioned that the region had received rain recently and the wildflowers were in full bloom. The colors were amazing and my eyes drank in the beauty of it all. The camera, per usual, failed to fully capture the effect, but I will share the images anyway. The heady scents of the flowers, which I enjoyed as well, were completely ignored by the camera. Maybe the Next Generation Camera will be able to capture that!
The red poppies really… popped!
The Hidalga y Coca aqueduct, built in 1789 (not Roman as I wanted to believe)
We had stopped for lunch at a little roadside restaurant. This wasn’t the “usual stop” for Hana and David, as it happened to be Mother’s Day and reservations were required – oops! The replacement restaurant down the road was ok, but sort of hit-and-miss with the quality of what was served. The salad was good, the soup wasn’t that good. Oh well – it was still an enjoyable break.
After lunch, we were getting closer to our day’s destination!
More flowers
Classic warning sign
One thing that really surprised me was the incredible number of stork nests in this area. They were everywhere! And not just a nest here and a nest there, but they were stacked up on every surface possible! I’d seen my share of stork nests at home in Switzerland, but those were singular nests built high up on church steeples. This was something else!
Eight nests are visible in this photo alone!
The Mediterranean Sea
Our destination for the night was not Tarifa, but instead a hotel about 5 km west, called Hotel Punta Sur. The hotel was very spacious, with individual bungalows spread out amongst extensive gardens, as well as a large swimming pool surrounded by lush vegetation. And peacocks. I did not expect to see peacocks here!
Crazy design work inside
After a relaxing couple of hours by the pool and the bar, it was time for dinner. The delicious meal was prepared by the hotel’s restaurant and it was amazing. And true to form on a tour with Hana and David, the evening went much later than it should have. It was a good night’s sleep and I was looking forward to tomorrow’s adventure!