back to the new forest

glad to be watching james cracknell back on the road again, this time showing his 45 day prep for the marathon des sables. having spent 3 weeks in morocco and trained in the same area as this crazy event (6 marathons back to back), i have some idea of the environmental conditions he put up with. anyway, there's a lot of press about his exploits and it was interesting to realise that i would have competed against him when i was rowing for the 1st viii back in 1991 (yes, that's 20 years ago!!!) and i think i would be right in saying that they never beat us that year ;)

so, back to my training. week back from morocco, intense week in the gym, which included a session with leah down at the lea valley athletics centre and ended with a day down in the new forest on sunday. bike had been washed down, but that was it, so my poor old steed still had 20-50 car engine oil inside her. the battery was still flat, and the rear tyre still had an over inflated 21" front wheel inner tube in an 18" rear wheel! so after filling the tank with decent fuel, i kicked the engine over and so began a day of fun and games.

rob gave me a hand to clean and dry the still very wet plug and lube the cylinder with some bike engine oil to help the engine turnover. with a few kicks later the engine burst back into life, we're a go! well not so fast, jago's bike was also having problems!! so basically repeated what i'd done to my bike, however, it did not start quite so easily and need to be jumped. within 200m i was riding the bike sideways, the rear end was swinging round wildy, thinking i was just riding like a lemon i carried on for a couple of minutes before stopping and taking a look and funnilly enough i had a flat, so i head back to base to replace the wheel which had a moose. all good practice.

zippy demon-strating how to ride a berm!














back into the woods, a particularly gnarly climb challenged us for a while and certainly got the sweat going, and after a few laps, it also blew the rocker cover seal with a puff of blue smoke and a loud bang! so jago towed me back to base!!

why am i pushing?!














desert rose teamwork














ross giving it some!!

the next bike was not in fine fettle either and with fuel problems, required me to be constantly remain on the throttle, but this was hard to maintain, so i was quickly back to kick-starting! but, it did not stop the fun and so jago and i rode in tandem, swapping the lead after each lap until the end of the day. coming in late in the afternoon zippy sent myself, jago, ross and ben for one last climb and this finished us off!!

suspension was a little soft!




















pats and zippy are back in morocco supporting 9 riders in the tuareg desert rally so wishing them all the best of luck!

and a big hand to hein, who's about to start the uae desert challenge!

blasting across the moroccan deserts

had a last minute opportunity to join a desert rose tour in morocco. i headed out to ouarzazate last week via my favourite airport, casablanca and i'm pleased to say it was a more pleasant experience than before even with a 3 hour delay!

in summary we had 6 awesome days in the desert.....

sunday, 80km blast with ben, playing around off-piste and familiarising ourselves with bikes, gps and terrain


monday, gentle start with the whole group, 14 of us in total, before burning off into the mountains with jago and ben, returning to our new hotel xaluca in dades. a quick 300km to start off the week.

loving the vista!

jago flying up the mountainside

ben in hot pursuit

hunting!

tuesday, back up into the mountains we rode through the previous afternoon, before making our way to goulmima for lunch and then onto erfoud to the hotel for the night. great morning riding, but suffered in the afternoon with a mega bout of stomach cramps.



slumped over my handlebars and jago plots an easy route!

i spent my lunch throwing up next to a tree, before heading off on our final 100km leg across camel grass, sandy river beds and bouldered plains. have to say it was darn uncomfortable so i had to leave the nav to jago and ben. i just followed lamely, slumping over the handle bars when we stopped, breathing heavily, trying to hold back the next bout of sickness, but ended up kneeling next my bike, shaking with fever and suffocating under my helmet. i could not stop for long however as i my condition was worsening and the light was fading. we finally pulled up right next to the hotel as the last rays of sun faded behind the cloud and i quickly checked in, showered and climbed into my bed clothed, trying to warm up and recover.


clive driving the support vehicle

woke up wednesday morning feeling a lot better, the dioralyte worked wonders, plus the other tablets i was given did the trick. i was a little light headed having not eaten for 24 hours, but managed a small breakfast before heading to merzouga and and a night in the desert.


the terrain is so varied

merzouga meant one thing and that was playing in the dunes of erg chebbi! we were in for a surprise this time though, as rather than play on the small dunes we took on the cathedral dunes, over 500 feet high!


spot the rider near the top of the dune....

an ocean of dunes....

nearly at the top!

the sky is the limit!

the last time i had been here, the temp was in the high 30's low 40's, fortunately this time it was a little cooler.


we met up with dave and his team from adventure spec and with their cameraman some awesome footage was captured as everyone climbed a huge cathedral dune 


again racing against the sun to arrive at our tents before nightfall, jago had a little scrap with the fesh fesh!!


the morning after

thursday jago, ben, ross and i headed off with patsy on a long ride to erfoud before circling round the escarpment behind erg chebbi, covering a total of over 300km. a glorious day, a huge variety of terrain, large and small dunes, fesh fesh river beds, long fast pistes, pushing down on pegs, leaning forward over the front wheel and driving the bike hard across the desert.....love it!!!!


route planning with patsy

a pattern was emerging as we arrived back in merzouga in the dark. fueling up from the hole in the wall - by jerry can from the local fuel stop - we headed to hotel tombuctu, for me i rode the last 2km in total darkness, having been left by the team as we hit the last section of dirt....meanies!!

straight to the bar for a few beers was the perfect end to a perfect day.


the final day was an adventure.....


the day started with patsy, dave from adventure spec, jago, ben, ross and i  and the mcn editor riding around the dunes again for the camera! some great stunt riding followed and will look great on film. having made it through the first hour without hiccup, we headed back up the cathedral dunes and things took a turn....


ben launched himself off the top of the highest dune and fucked his bike meaning he had to be towed out by quad and then hitch a lift, with bike, back 450km to oaurzazate, our destination for the day! as a result of the delay we hit the road to erfoud, then off-road to galmina for lunch, this time the food stayed down! having started to rain quite heavily warm coffees and teas were the order of the day. next leg to dades was very hard and fast in what had become torrential rain. only in cool weather gear - t-shirt/ armour/ thin top - we were fine off-road but as soon as we hit the road and stopped working the wind-chill was unbearable.


stopping for another coffee, jago noticed we had little or no engine oil, so we purchased all the was available, 20-50 car engine oil, lovely! didn't matter too much though as were not going far as my rear moose was fucked, heating up so much that the water on the tyre was evapourating! we only had a front wheel inner tube to replace it with. purchasing shpping bags to wear to reduce the windchill we headed 60km to dades by road, too wet and getting dark, so apart from my tyre the mountain route was too dangerous.


the famous 'cheese', a bizarre piece of contemporary architecture in the middle of the desert!

original, moroccan architecture!

didn't get far though, 40km later i ran out of fuel, which meant i had a fuel leak, enough to get me to dades.


zippy demonstrates how to empty a tank full of diesel.... yes, diesel!!

now almost dark, no lights, fuel leak, dodgy rear tyre and a garage full of vans for hire, there was only one option left for the final 120km of our 450km day, that was to hire a van, a driver and load ourselves and bikes that would take us to oaurzazate!!


arriving at our hotel at about 8pm we had enough time to shower, change, have something to eat and dry some clothes before packing and getting a few hours sleep. up at 5am we headed to the airport and what had been rain down below and been snow in the high atlas.

loads more to say, loads more photos, but suffice to say we had an awesome time, great training, great team!!

roll on the tunis rally in may.....

still here!!

the team has grown since we first arrived and funnily enough our plane was delayed 2hrs. plenty of jovial banter though to pass the time!

back in casablanca!

having said I'd never come back, I'm in casablanca waiting for a connecting flight to ouarzazate! (kevin and perry will remember!!)fortunately clive and vince were on the same flight so we've shared a few stories to pass the time at the airport. a little more pleasant an experience compared to last time, a couple of beers and a cheese and ham toastie.