V2XS

Mid-January 2026 and I’m now back in Alvor after my Maroc trip. The weather here is rather cold and wet, but that seems to be the norm this year. Anyway, I got straight back into my daily routine of a morning beach run followed by a late second/third breakfast in the Plaza café, during which I plan the rest of the day depending on the weather, tide, wind strength and direction. I still haven’t had the opportunity to get out on the wing foil – I’m a beginner and don’t want to risk going out when conditions are less than ideal. There are plenty of other options though : walking, cycling, paddle boarding and the latest discovery – e-foiling !

Heading to Maroc in December has become a bit of an annual pilgrimage for me and I’ve now being going for several years. Usually I take a car or van, but a few years ago I did the trip on a Honda CRF300L and decided to try the motorbike experience again this year, but on my GasGas SM700.

I came up with a rough overall plan to head South to meet Felicity for Christmas in Marrakech and then push on further, but the terrible weather this year in Maroc has forced some replanning. I am attempting to do more video creation on this trip and will post links to them in the appropriate places.

Alvor to Jerez

Made it to my first overnight stop near Jerez in Spain. Beautiful sunny day and around 16 Deg. But travelling at 90 km/h the wind chill was a shock. I did 325 km. which is far more than I would normally choose to do on the bike and on major roads which required a reasonable speed. In spite of all my layers I got very cold – had to take a hot shower when I arrived to warm up. Apart from that the journey went well and the bike ran perfectly. I’m rather concerned about tomorrow as I have to leave early to catch the ferry, have 140 km to cover but the forecast is suggesting a temp of 5 Deg. Will be a case of just trying to survive…

Trying to work out the best way of getting to Marrakech on Monday. Looking at routes/distances and weather forecast (temperature and rain). So far I only have tomorrow night booked in Tanger and no plan beyond that. Keeping things flexible has it’s advantages but puts the pressure on your last minute planning sat in a bar somewhere…

4 weeks’ worth of luggage packed into two roll bags, the orange one has my waterproofs (not needed so far…)

Jerez to Tanger

Early start to get to the ferry. It’s 6 Deg !

Made to the port in Algeciras. Very cold ride down. Judging by the frost on the fields it must have been below freezing in places. Managed to squeeze 8 layers of clothing on including my waterproofs and was warmer than expected. Only my hands got cold.

In Tanger. Ferry was nearly two hours late. Quite busy, but I was the only biker – which meant I was first to disembark. Really helped because getting through customs in Maroc normally takes ages.

Travelling light means you have to do some washing – using the bidet in my hotel room in this case.

The night I was in Tanger was the final of the FIFA Arab cup, Maroc playing Jordan – and Maroc won.

Tanger to Kenitra

Yesterday I took the coastal road from Tanger Med Port into the centre of Tanger, rather than taking the motorway. Both about an hour. It was a lovely road with sinuous bends and great views. But what a speed limit nightmare ! The limit varied from 40 to 60 to 80 every few hundred metres – lots of villages and junctions. Loads of speed cameras and police speed traps. My phone was constantly warning me about changing limits and some of the speed traps. But it didn’t always match the signs at the side of the road.

I had originally planned to use more minor roads rather than the motorways, but this experience combined with trying to beat the weather has forced me on to the autoroute.

At the first péage coming out of Tanger today the machine wouldn’t give me a ticket – probably not detecting the weight/size of the bike. What to do ?

Intercom button not working. Tried the other lane but same problem. Gave up and just scooted around the barrier. It remains to be seen how this will work out at the toll booth when I leave the autoroute at Kenitra…

Stopped at Larache services for a break – this is the place that gave me food poisoning last year – and bought a badge for the tolls…

The guy in the toll booth was fine, probably happens a lot with bikes. The Marocains have scooters and little commuter bikes and won’t use the autoroute – probably why the system wasn’t set up to deal with them.

Kenitra to Benguerir

Having arrived in Kenitra I studied the weather and decided I needed to head inland to avoid the storm that was about to hit the coast. It rained heavily overnight and was still showery in the morning, which delayed my departure – not great as I had a long way to go.

As I set out on this Maroc trip I had intended to avoid the main roads/autoroutes and stick to the quieter country roads. Two things have conspired against this plan – the need to make reasonable progress to outrun the rain and the obsession the Maroc authorities seem to have with speed cameras and speed traps ! As a result I have been using the motorway toll roads, these have a speed limit of 120km/h. However, I have found that my preferred speed is 80-85 which produces less wind blast and less wind chill.

Benguerir to Marrakech

This was the last leg of this phase of the trip as I would be meeting Felicity in Marrakech and spending a few days there over Christmas. This was a relatively short journey, but I delayed setting off to wait until the early morning mist had started to clear, even so it was a cold start.

Arrived Marrakech and (eventually) checked in to my hotel. A scorching 18 Deg here. We’re booked into here for the next 7 days (Felicity arriving tomorrow). The booking was complicated as I made multiple reservations – this was protection against the scam apartment I had arranged with booking.com (long story, but I got a refund). They eventually worked it all out and I suggested paying for the total. But they wanted cash (not unusual here). We tried the card machine but it didn’t work. Had to try a couple of banks to find one that would give me the requisite amount of Dirhams. Got the key and checked out the room – possibly the nicest one I’ve seen here (and I’ve stayed a few times). On the sunny side with a decent balcony. The only slight issue was that it hadn’t been made up and was in disarray. Back to reception – no big deal and the receptionists recognised me from previous visits.

Now drinking tea in the sunshine while I wait…

Tea on my balcony in the sunshine. I can just see the snow covered Atlas mountains in the distance.

After travelling every day for five days and staying in different accommodation every night, it’s quite nice to be able to unwind and spend a few days in the same place. Beautiful weather in Marrakech today, but there is rain forecast over the next few days.

Marrakech

The original plan was to spend 7 days in Marrakech at the Hotel Assounfou, but the cold and damp weather forced a review. I decided to cut the visit short by a couple of days to take advantage of a break in the weather, and head for Essaouira on the coast. I’m always happy to spend time here and spent four weeks there last year. Plans beyond this stay will depend on the forecast…

Marrakech to Essaouira

Having spent a few days in Marrakech over Christmas I took advantage of a break in the weather to head for the coast at Essaouira.

Arrived Essaouira to warmer temps and a bit of sun. Non stop rain forecast tomorrow but should perk up after that. Thoughts update… I’m finding riding the bike quite tiring – the constant wind blast, the penetrating cold, but also the obsession with speed limits and enforcing them. On A/B roads today and the limit was changing from 40-60-80-100 every few hundred metres. There were signs but they didn’t often agree with Waze. Lots of fixed speed cameras, which Waze mostly identified and at least two police radar traps, which Waze also flagged. I found the best approach was to identify a local and tail them as they knew where all the traps were. I’ve also become increasingly conscious of the fact that when I get to a place my options are limited – I can go for a run or walk, or take the bike. I’m missing having my other toys to play with, especially the mountain bike. My host is a kitesurf instructor and has been trying to persuade me to give that another go.

Someone suggested riding more slowly to avoid problems with speed limits but that highlights another issue..
Getting runover ! I was already putting up with quite a few unsafe overtakes. It’s like the Wild West out here, which may be why they are so keen on enforcement.

Trip Update…

Showers forecast tomorrow, but should be sunny through to Friday with temps approaching 20 Deg. Much more like it !
However, the rain returns next weekend. Bother !

My original plan/vague idea was to keep heading South. But my original “plan” has long been abandoned…

The rose-tinted idea I had was to do a similar trip to the one I did on the CRF three years ago. Using the back roads through the mountains, stopping off at various places and having an easy time of it. On that trip I never saw rain, it was only cold overnight and early morning and I’m sure the speed cameras/traps were nothing like they are now.
The locals are saying it hasn’t been this cold and wet for years, but this is what winter here used to be like (and they’re glad of the rain).

Fortunately I’m not tied to a schedule and have complete freedom, but I have to come up with some sort of plan beyond staying here a few days.

Given the weather I’m not inclined to head further South as I’m already 5 days travel away from my base in Alvor.

I looked at heading back inland to do my original planned route in reverse, but the weather gets colder and wetter in that direction.

I’m using two phones (Google pixel). My normal phone and an older phone I use for navigation. The normal phone is newer and enrolled in the Android Beta program. I set up two e-sims for the trip and they’ve been working fine. The last couple of years I’ve had one Maroc Télécom SIM card and hot spotted the second phone. Before that I just relied on WiFi which is available in most places, and remembering to download maps and routes for off line use !

My main phone did a beta update a couple of days ago and since then the e-sim has stopped working. Lots of resets and restarts and re-installs later and chatting with the e-sim tech support, it’s still not working. I’ve raised a bug report with Google and they have added to their bug tracker and emailed to confirm.

In the meantime I remembered I had packed my old Maroc Télécom SIM as a backup. But I couldn’t remember the PIN and struck out after 3 attempts. Doh !

Essaouira to El Jadida

Getting itchy feet and thinking of heading north tomorrow. The weather looks worse going South and just sitting here waiting for it to arrive doesn’t feel like the right thing to do.

Main phone e-sim still not working. E-sim provider (Ubigi) have been really helpful in trying to sort it out and have suggested many settings changes etc. But it seems the issue is the Android Beta update, which will only be resolved by another update (can’t roll back).

Plan for today is a four hour (or more) ride up the coast to El Jadida… Nothing yet booked beyond that so may stay more than one night or move on.

Now in Al Jadida. The first part of today’s ride was the best of the trip, in truth probably the only really enjoyable ride so far. Took the N1 “A road” from Essaouira to Safi. Very little traffic, decent weather, good tarmac with some nice sweeping bends, few speed cameras, no police and sensible speed limits that didn’t change every few hundred metres. And an opportunity to play dodge the pedestrian/donkey/cart/scooter/dog in every village I passed through.

Hotel is in the middle of El Jadida and has parking in the garden so the location is perfect. I first stayed here three years ago on the CRF and two years ago in the van (when it got covered in bird sh1t). The place was basic to start with but has gone downhill. Feels like I’m the only one here. And it rained a lot overnight and showers forecast today for my next ride. On the plus side I did get out for a run on the beach this morning !

El Jadida to Kenitra

Today’s ride is another c4 hours on boring but efficient motorway from El Jadida to Kenitra. Not sure I have enough credit on my toll beeper which is pre-paid but only a few places sell top ups. Locals use an app, but you have to have a Maroc bank account.

Nothing booked beyond tonight and I only booked that over dinner last night. I can’t find a way to avoid the biblical storm arriving this weekend, but I’m still looking. Best option is to hole up somewhere and sit it out, but depending on which forecast you look at it could last four days !

Arrived Kenitra. Contrary to the forecast – slight chance of a shower it totally pi55ed it down for the last half hour or so. Waterproofs did the job, but boots are not so socks a bit wet. Now got the heating on trying to dry stuff out. Whose stupid idea was this?

Kenitra to Tanger

Lots of rain overnight, damp but bright this morning. Heading to Tanger today, then either hole up there for a few days to watch the rain or move on a bit further.

Minor incident on the road yesterday. I was coming out of a motorway services and accelerating up the slip road to rejoin the main carriageway, when I met a car coming the other way ! Seems they had made a late decision to visit the services and just turned in to the exit slip road – what could possibly go wrong ?

After a damp start it was quite an easy ride today.

Had contemplated holing up in Tangier until the weather improves next week, but I’ve been there are few times so…

Plan is to get the ferry back to Spain tomorrow and spend the rainy weekend in Cadiz, apparently the oldest city in Europe and somewhere I’ve never been.

I did briefly contemplate Gibraltar, but have never liked the vibe of English communities in southern Spain.

Tanger to Cadiz

Got to the port at Tanger Med early as I know it takes ages to get through customs a security. Checked in on line and had my boarding card ready on my phone…

But the jobsworth at the port check in said it wasn’t good enough and I had to park and queue up at the ticket office to get the correct paper – I could see other people in cars had printed their boarding cards.

Bloke in ticket office says “you’ve already checked in”.

“Yes I know but that f-wit over there wants a bit of paper.”

He reluctantly writes out a “bit of paper’ for me…

Having a bike means I didn’t have to queue to be X-rayed and can push to the front of the line for boarding. Just need a boat now…

Now on board, seems to be on time. Trip thoughts…

Going to a “foreign” (non EU) country where they don’t speak English is always going to be a bit of an adventure. Morocco being part of Africa is probably more foreign and exotic than many destinations. This trip hasn’t (so far) dimmed my enthusiasm for travel and I’m perfectly happy doing it on my own.

But.

Doing the trip on a bike notches up the “adventure” rating quite a lot to the point where it can be quite stressful at times. A lot of that was down to the weather which was mostly cold and wet and not what I hoped for. In the van it would have been a bit disappointing, but on the bike it’s a bigger issue. My trip was completely flexible and I was only booking a day or two ahead, but the trip plan was dominated by trying to dodge the weather.

Was the GasGas the best bike to do the trip on ? No, absolutely not – but it did the job. A bigger bike with more weather protection might have helped, but I would still want to avoid the rain and the associated poor visibility, reduced grip, lower safety margins and feeling at the mercy of other vehicles.

Covering long distances on a bike, especially in poor weather, is not my idea of fun and was never the plan on this trip. I’d rather take the van (plus toys) and once at a destination I would have more options for things to do.

In Cadiz for this weekend with time to plan where to next…

SIM cards…
On my previous two visits to Maroc I have used a Maroc Télécom SIM, which worked fine. On getting back to Spain I switched back to my Orange SIM as I needed internet to get to the hotel. The first year I did the switch as the ferry was docking, downloaded a few WhattsApps and was suddenly faced with a €50 roaming charge. Last year I was more cautious and drove north through Spain for half an hour before doing the switch – the same thing happened – only this time I phoned Orange and ranted at them until they gave me a refund.

This year I downloaded the route in advance using Google Maps and didn’t swap the SIM until I got to Cadiz. And made sure I connected through WiFi first to download any messages in the pipeline. It seems to have worked.

My navigation phone with a Ubigi e-sim worked perfectly this year. My main phone was working with another e-sim until the Google Beta update bug – still not resolved, but my Orange physical SIM is working ok.

After a rainy weekend in Cadiz (Storm Francis) the weather was forecast to improve so I decided to head to Jerez, another historic city that I hadn’t visited before.

Jerez

This was a short 40 minute ride to my hotel right in the centre of the old town, which fortunately had underground parking nearby. What I hadn’t realised was that I would be arriving in the middle of a carnival – the 5th of January is when the Spanish celebrate the three wise men (kings) and have a “Cavalcade of Magi” culminating in the crowning of the kings. The kings leave presents for children (like Santa Claus). What it meant for me was that the whole place was buzzing and packed with people well into the night.

The next morning dawned clear and bright and I came to realise there was very little open and few people about, in stark contrast to the night before. There was a big queue at the Churros stand and I did eventually find a cafe for breakfast.

Jerez to Alvor

This was another horrible ride, 360 km and over four hours. Temps were in single figures for most of the trip and it rained a lot ! Waterproofs working ok but I dislike the reduced visibility and increased risk.

Trip Thoughts…

2500 km in 3 weeks.
The trip I did was totally different to the trip I had planned. It should have been covering shorter distances on minor roads with more stops in interesting places.

To try and avoid the weather it ended up being longer distances on main roads with fewer stops in bigger cities. Being totally flexible was good and my revised plan worked out ok, but was not particularly enjoyable. For longer journeys in all weathers the van is so much better and I can bring my toys with me. Much more of an adventure on the bike though !

Bike didn’t miss a beat and was acceptably comfortable, apart from the wind blast and cold hands. Was getting 250+ km from a tank.
My super lightweight packing worked ok, but required regular DIY clothes washing.
Need to come up with a quick release system for the roll top bag as removing and refitting at petrol stops is annoying.

Accommodation all sorted through booking dot com and ranged from €15 – €70 per night. Food and fuel are cheap, ferry was only €150 return – it’s not an expensive destination.

Highlights..
– The A road ride and donkey dodgems from Essaouira to El Jadida
– Breakfast in the sun at the corner cafe in Essaouira
– Doing the trip on a bike on my own

Lowlights
– Crap weather
– Long rides on main roads
– Too cold and wet for me

In early November I set off from Albas in France on my winter migration south to Portugal and Maroc. The van was loaded with boards and bikes and the 1500 km journey took 3 days with overnight stops near Vitoria-Gasteiz and Caceres. This year I am planning to go to Maroc on the motorbike in mid-December for a month, returning to Alvor for a further stay before heading back up North in mid March.

I have started creating more video material than I have in the past and this is published on my YouTube channel : https://youtube.com/@v2xs .

I have created a playlist for this trip which will show all the videos I have created, here is the link :

I am also now running a blog on Facebook which is here :
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61579873832792

In view of the above I intend to slightly repurpose this blog and use it mainly as a showcase for photographs relating to my trips and will endeavor to include a descriptive caption with each picture. I may include some additional written text, but not to the same extent as I have done in the past on the basis that I don’t think many people read it and I will try to manage the blog from my phone which doesn’t lend itself to typing long pieces.

My usual routine here in Alvor is to get out early each morning for a run on the beach and in the six weeks I’ve been here I’ve only missed two days due to bad weather.

Last year in Alvor I had some Wing-foiling lessons and even bought my own second hand gear. I have only done a few sessions but picked it up reasonably quickly as I have done a lot of windsurfing in the past. Until I got to the stage where the board wants to lift up on the foil, at which point I lose my balance and fall in. I had the idea of trying a few Efoiling lessons (foil board powered by an electric motor) to help me get to grips with the sensation of foiling. Additionally, in the six weeks I’ve been here I haven’t been out once on the Wing Foil as the conditions were never quite right – wind speed and direction. I did go to the launch site a couple of times in the hope of being able to go out, but the conditions just weren’t right. Having had a couple of Efoil lessons I was hooked and bought my own, second hand board.

Coming to the end of my six week stay in Alvor it was time to dig the bike out and do some preparation for my Maroc trip. I plan to be away for 4 weeks, spending Christmas in Marrakech and touring the Western side of Maroc. I will create a separate post on here about this but will also publish regular updates on my Facebook Blog and, hopefully more videos of my progress and adventures.

As with previous years September is the month that we head to Spain for some trail riding fun. This is usually organised around the VINCE off road navigation event that takes place every year at this time. For 2025 the trip was split up into three parts :

1. The VINCE in Llavorsi
2. VINCE Scouting in Ripoll
3. Trail riding in Burgos

The VINCE

In previous years we (Dougie and myself) have taken this competition seriously and committed to spending many hours studying routes and preparing maps. But this is a significant time commitment and with other trips and activities already booked we simply don’t have the time to do the necessary preparation. So last year we took the decision to enter “tourist class” as non-competitive participants. This worked very well and we decided to do the same this year, which gave me the opportunity to create some video footage of the fantastic scenery and trails.
I have tried to improve my efficiency at creating and editing video content. On previous trips I typically waited until the end of the trip and sat down in my office with a desktop computer to do the compilation and editing. Of course this was well after the trip had finished and was of less interest to any potential viewers. To accelerate the process I have started using my phone for editing, which does have some limitation, but I think the compromise is worth it for the much more rapid turnaround. With a bit of practice I was able to collate the day’s video clips and produce an edited video by the evening of the same day.
I have started publishing these day by day videos on YouTube and have created a playlist for each part of the trip. There follows a playlist featuring the three days of the VINCE event.

VINCE Scouting in Ripoll

Following the VINCE event we moved much further East in the Spanish Pyrénées to Ripoll. This is the area that will be used for the 2026 VINCE event and we had offered to give Austin a hand with scouting out suitable trails and setting some checkpoints.

The following video is a playlist of the five days of trail scouting.

Trail Riding near Burgos

Having completed our VINCE Scouting work we drove back westwards, covering 600km to our next base near Burgos. We stayed in a character property called La Morera, which was very comfortable and provided a perfect base to explore the region and visit the sites of the Sergio Leone film “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”.

Following on from the family visits I embarked on a two week motorcycle tour of the Outer Hebrides with Dougie, Martin and Sam. Here are two videos about the trip…

I set off from Sara’s caravan near Keswick and met up with Dougie and Sam at the Devil’s Porridge Museum near Gretna. This is the route we followed…