Archive for the ‘morocco’ tag
Atlas Descent Video
Well here is my attempt at capturing the flavour of my recent Atlas mountains mountain biking trip in a 3 minute video…
Devices used in recording the video/stills were a Tachyon XC Micro helmet camera, Cannon Digital Ixus 70 and an Apple iPhone.
Day 6 – Atlas Descent to the coast
Day 6 had just a single 4km climb – on which by attempting to keep up with Steve I think I found some totally new higher heart rate and (later) exhaustion zones. Finally – to finish out the trip, a 35km descent, dropping 1500m all the way down to the sea – fantastic!
The gallery below is the best of my photos from the whole Atlas Mountains trip – unashamedly featuring lots of me!
Day 5 – Up and Down
Day 5 was a good combination of up and down with 3 main climbs and lots of down hill – all of it fairly technical offroad stuff – the kind we mountain bikers like!
Some tricky downhill - just after a fall!
John arriving in a remote Berber Village
Day 4 – Cycling Shopping Game and split chain ring
This mornings bike maintenance time entertainment… “I went shopping and I bought: an axle, a brake, a chain, a derailer (front), an elastic band, a front wheel, a gear cable, a handlebar, an indexing system (Shimano), a joly nice front fork, a Kona frame, lube, a Mavic rear wheel, a nut (large)”….. Etc… And some people here call me a geek!
In other news I split my small chain ring today, I am now competent at pouring mint tea from height and the riding was great.
Split and bent small chain ring
Mint tea - yum!
Day 3 – James Blunt in the mist
Typical morning greeting on this trip: “Morning – how are your thorns?”
Most people have at least one still in their tyre from the night before…
Anyway day 3 included some barely rideable single track, some ‘good’ climbs and an awesome fast offroad descent. Also a broken shoe, some James Blunt on a misty hilltop and some ‘falls’ on the singletrack – see photos and video…
Our trusty support vehicles
Tim with helmet camera at the ready
Juliette's bike after her crash
Emergency shoe repair
Day 2 – 11km climb
Well no-one did the extra bit today because again it was dark by the time we got back. It was a full on day – including a long long offroad descent, an 11km road climb and a 12km road descent. That’s it for now. I’m off to see some carpets!
Start of day 2
My (hired) bike for the week
In a gorge contemplating the 11km climb
Day 1 – rocky descent in the Anti Atlas
Im mountain biking in north Africa – the scenery is dramatic, the riding technical and fun and the hotel has wireless so I’m able to blog from my iPhone – can it get any better?
After a very late arrival Sunday night (3am uk time) in Agadir we started with a 3 hour transfer by 4 wheel drive to start the first days riding. Then proceeded the setup/checking over of the bikes – 15 hired Specialized hard tails and 1 non hired Specialized hard tail. This took a long time as all the bikes needed to be adjusted after they’d been in transit and a number of people (including myself) had brought their own saddles and pedals. There were also several stripped threads to deal with.
Once we got under way the riding was excellent. A rocky, fairly technical descent becoming smooth and quick towards the end. We did suffer from punctures though and after riding through a village almost every bike had at least one thorn induced puncture so we arrived at our hotel in the dark. I loaded up on pasta and meatball tagine which was excellent. 1 beer and 1 glass of wine later I headed for a fairly early night as I was still recovering from that late flight into Agadir.
Day 2 is to be a 70km ride with a mix of road and off road. 80km if we add on the section we missed on day 1 due to the fading light. If you’ve cycled with me before you’ll know I’m unlikely to turn down the chance to do a bit extra!
The following are two photos of the scenery during the day and the last is the view out of my window in the hotel!
First Descent of the trip
Evening sunlight on the hills
View from my window
Off to the Atlas Mountains
I leave tomorrow for my first bike trip where I’m not the organiser! It’s a week mountain biking in Morocco with Exodus – check out the trip details.
Here’s the route:
Internet connection allowing, I will be attempting to post/tweet from the trip so check back here or follow the RSS feed to keep up to date. If I’m without internet access for the whole trip, then expect some bumper posts after the 10th October!