Last night we met our touring guide and group for dinner in the medina. We all rode in horse drawn carriages from the hotel to the medina that we visited the previous 2 days. Our guide, Reda Jabri, is a native Moroccan born in Casablanca, worked for Anderson Consulting for 20 and decided to change course and start his own motorcycle touring company. He teamed up with Phil Freeman from MotoQuest 2 years ago to provide this 14-day tour of Morocco. This is just the 2nd year he has provided this tour through MotoQuest but he has been guiding tours in Morocco for around 10 years, so he's well seasoned and very competent.
Today we took a bus from the hotel to Reda's business compound 15 miles out of Marrakech where we were matched up with our motorcycles. All of the group members are well traveled and have done a lot of motorcycle touring. There are a total of 10 people in the group, all from the US, plus Reda, a mechanic, a driver and a a nice van as a support vehicle. I think we lucked out with our group and Reda. All the group members are personable, good riders and interesting people. A fun group.
We took off this morning around 10am from Reda's compound heading towards Essaouira, only 114 miles due west to the northern Atlantic coast. It started our pleasant and warmed to 93 degrees with full sun, but low humidity. It was hot. We stopped mid-way for lunch, once for a panoramic view of Essaouira and then to our hotel, the Atlas Essaouira & Spa.
It was a late night last night and an early morning this morning. So by the time we arrived, Sooz and I were tired and took a short nap. I then crossed the street and swam in the very chilly North Atlantic and met Sooz at the hotel pool. All of that felt really good after a hot day.
And off you go!
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