With pics by Richard Fincher

After leading a couple of fly & ride groups around southern Morocco, in late November 2024 I met up with Rich and Henry in Marrakech.
They’d just ridden down from the UK on a near-new Ducati Desert X Rally and one of those 1250GSs you hear a lot about, itself just back from a UK–Tibet tour.
Together we rode down to Tazenakht to pick up Stage T of the Trans Morocco Trail and followed it west to the ocean.

A week or so earlier my group had struggled on the last stages of T from Anissi village on 390s – most of us fell over at some point. With the unproven bigger bikes, Rich, Henry and I instead headed to Amtazguine – now half tarmaced from Mawas village, but still a great ride through the Anti Atlas.

We head out via the Amtazguine valley.

Then west across ‘Acacia Avenue’ – a fun alternative to U, though you don’t want to miss the Aguinane valley.

We go up into amazing Aguinane to try out some new lodgings (added to the TMT map).

Next day I was even less keen to hack across the ruined stage from Ibn Yacoub to Ait Kine. Good call as later we met a rider who’d cracked his engine in the churned-up riverbed before Ait Kine, and another who’d got lost there – the TMT tracklog we logged a year ago in a Duster must just be an expanse of baby heads now.
Instead, from Akka Ighane (left) we took a trail to Akka Iguirn which itself was in a bad state. At one point a ford had been smothered in a broad swath of stones. We recce’d on foot and saw a new crossing to the west by a well.

We then bombed along the border highway to Tata and did a stick-up at the servo east of town.

Then snagged some bargain rooms off Booking at Le Relais des Sables – a real treat after nights in humbler lodgings. Get this: a bathroom where everything works, is present and is fixed securely to the wall. You don’t see that often.

Next day no excuses: I was looking forward to Stage V, a beautiful ride along a desert valley with big mountains all around, before ducking into the Tazegzaoute canyon which amazingly, appeared little damaged by the floods.
Once out on the plateau I forgot the TMT takes the haul road south. We took to the tarmac crossing the serpentine Timkyet switchbacks (below) to Afella Big Block (right) where the TMT comes back in.

Then past Izerbi and down into the Smouguene canyon which got hit hard by the floods, but is all easily passable now.

Sundown we pull into Amerdoul auberge in Icht for a brew. (On the map).

We left late as usual next day, skipped W, and got stuck into Stage X, part of which I’ve avoided for over 25 for years. Soon I remembered why. Out of Aouinat Lahna (Torkoz) they were finishing storm culverts under a new track, probably to nearby Taskala village (not on the TMT).

We forked off that and were soon belting over the pristine chotts or clay pans, still lined with stone piles marking a Dakar Rally from the mid 1990s.

That all changed into one of the roughest tracks I know in Morocco. We’d done this in the late 90s in a leaf-sprung Land Cruiser which explained why I didn’t rush back. On a bike the hammering only lasts less than an hour to Hassi Dellouine by the Draa river channel (below). But we heard later some young bikers snapped off a rack with top box here and had to go back for it, extending their misery.

Back on the bitumen, we flipped up and over Jebel Rich to the start of Stage Y near Ighomane. The BM and Desert X disappeared off into the dust, I caught up near the ever more weathered ruins of the fort at El Ayoun du Draa which crumbles lower on each visit. Bizarrely it’s now reoccupied by casually dressed soldiers living in hovels. For reasons of national security, pictures by the tattered flag are now forbidden.

It was getting late if we were hoping to catch an Atlantic sunset, so following our beating on X, we took what we hoped was an easy way out along Greg and Rick’s diversion northwest to the N1 highway, though I think by now carrying on along the rest of dried up Y would have been no worse and less time.

Just 2km from the highway Henry picked up an irreparable split in his Mitas – 3 plugs could not fix it. We limped to the road, missed the turning for Ksar Tifnidilt just in time to meet Richard in the dark with news that the 6km access track to the lodge had long stretches of deep sand. It was the last thing we needed at the end of a long day. We rolled in sweaty and knackered around 8.30pm.

In the clear light of day the sands were much easier and just before reaching the highway I am positively gagging to lube my hard-pressed chain. From here it’s all road back to Marrakech.

In Tan-Tan it took an hour over a couple of nous-nous coffees to fix Henry’s flat properly. His GS had covered about 60km at 40kph with zero psi. Good to know.

All that all that remained was to light out to Cap Draa for the end of the TMT. We’d only done 4.5 days, skipping rougher stages, but it felt like weeks. However you get here, it will sure feel good to see the ocean.
And me, I’m not sure I’m going to be able to use the phrase ‘unsuitable for big bikes’ ever again!