After a year riding alone through Africa, I flew to Portugal to meet up with my girlfriend Laura.
After some time off together in Lisbon we would ride together through Portugal and Southern Spain and eventually Morocco. This was her first Bikepacking trip so we took things slow.
Being back in Europe and having access to all my favourite foods again, I went a bit overboard and probably put on about 15kg.
Riding through Portugal and Spain is definitely different than riding in Africa. You don’t get any attention and everything is a lot easier. Access to food, clean rooms, bike lanes etc.
I didn’t film or take too many photos during this time and it was nice to have some time away from the camera.
To be honest, I kind of missed the mayhem of riding through Africa and I was excited when we arrived to Morocco.
Once we arrived in Morocco we took a bus to the Anti-Atlas mountains where we would start riding the Bikepacking.com “Route of Caravans” route through the mountains and into the Sahara Desert.
It instantly felt great riding through the mountains in Morocco. It was my first time in an Arabic country and I enjoyed meeting the locals and trying their food. Berber omelettes and vegetable tajines were our favourites.
Wild camping in this part of Morocco is incredibly easy due to the wide open spaces and public land. It was probably the best wild camping opportunity I had in the entire time I was in Africa.
We also really enjoyed staying in a couple of different homestays along the way. The food was always absolutely delicious and the people were always kind.
Despite what some people told us about their own experiences, we never had a problem with kids throwing rocks or being aggressive. Sometimes they came up to talk to us but all of our encounters were generally pretty friendly.
The painted rocks and Ait Mansour Canyon were our favourite parts of riding through the Anti-Atlas mountains.
After riding through the Anti-Atlas mountains we made our way to the Sahara desert where we would be doing a desert crossing on the sandy paths. We were both carrying about 8 litres of water and a few days of food.
As a beginner, Laura found this desert crossing quite difficult. It was some of the most sandy and windy riding I’ve ever done.
However, with a bit of encouragement, Laura braved the long hot desert stretch and made it to the other side. Riding through the desert and wild camping were my favourite memories from my time in Morocco.
We camped in the desert and had wild camels coming right up to the tent some nights which was a really nice experience.
The last 10km before reaching M’hamid involved pushing the bikes through deep sand until we eventually made it to the town of Zagora.
We didn’t do too much riding after this and instead chose to take some busses to the more touristy areas of Morocco including Marrakesh, Casablanca and Chefchaouen.
Taking a bus with a bicycle in Morocco is super easy, you don’t even need to take your front wheel off and can leave the bike standing upright.
How do you think you would go riding through the Sahara Desert on your first Bikepacking trip?
After an amazing time cycling through Africa over the past year and a half, my time there has come to an end for now.
I probably won’t be updating this website for a while.
I made an effort to write blog posts and share the routes that I’d taken across Africa because as I was doing research for my own trip across Africa, I didn’t find much up-to-date information. Most of the blogs I found were at least 8 years old.
Three of the websites/blogs I found inspiring and helpful when planning my bikepacking trip across Africa were Pete Gostelow, Sweden to Africa and Nicolas Marino.
I hope that some of you have found these posts useful in your own planning.
I guess these days blogs are an outdated form of media and most people use social media to share and consume content.
Now, it’s time to go back to Australia, get a job and edit all of the videos taken from my year and a half cycling through Africa.
I can’t wait to share my video series with you all on YouTube.
Be sure to subscirbe on YouTube and follow me on Instagram to stay up to date with future plans…my next big trip is just around the corner.
Bikepacking across the sahara desert (Morocco) Leaving africa After a year riding alone through Africa, I flew to Portugal to meet up with my girlfriend Laura. After some time off
Reflections after bikepacking 15,000km across africa(1 year) Arriving in Angola Well I did it! I finally made it to Luanda, Angola which brings a close to my year cycling across
Bikepacking the Democratic republic of congo (DRC) Introduction The following is a collection of stories from 5 weeks bikepacking through the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). I continued riding through