Morocco: Imperial Cities, Atlas Mountains and Sahara

Nineteen nights to Morocco and back overland from Plymouth, on a fully paved route that suits any motorcycle rather than only adventure bikes, with a support vehicle throughout.

The journey out is part of the trip rather than a transfer: down through Spain to the crossing, which means the group arrives in Africa on their own bikes having ridden there, and the return is made the same way.

Morocco’s imperial cities are the first theme, the historic capitals of successive dynasties, each with a walled medina at its centre and several centuries of building inside it. The Atlas is the second, where the passes climb above two thousand metres on well-surfaced roads and the villages on the slopes are Berber rather than Arab, with a different language and a different look to them.

The Sahara is the third, and the edge of it is reached where the tarmac runs out among the dunes, which is as far as a paved tour can go and a good deal further south than most visitors ever get. The route is explicitly paved throughout, the support vehicle carries the luggage, and riders bring their own machines. This is the operator’s flagship Moroccan trip and the longest in its European range. Twenty days including the ride down and back is a significant block of leave, and the reward is arriving in Africa on a rider’s own bike rather than collecting one at an airport. Because nothing on the route needs knobbly tyres, a tourer or a roadster is as welcome as a GS, which is unusual for a Moroccan itinerary.