Faces of Scram - Gotz Goppert
On this year we're starting here on the "Fuel Diaries Blog", the "Faces Of Scram" a good way to know what's happens on a Scram Africa through some testimonials from people who had been there in Moroccos with us.
They gonna tell you how they face the day-by-day struggle to finish each round safely and enjoying to #LeaveTheMainRoad by our side!
To start this new section nothing else less than Gotz Goppert, the guy behind the photos of the Scram Africa, take a look at his words and some eye-catching photos made by himself.
I’d been to Morocco for work in fashion shoots, and the people are great, very helpful. Wherever you go they try to help you, sell you things and offer you drinks. On this trip we didn’t get to see a lot of people though, we were always on a bike.
We started in Tangier and visited the largest souk (market) in the world, we had half a day off for that. With lots of little villages in the middle of nowhere, when we finally stopped you’re happy to get off the bike and sit by the pool for a while, and in the morning you’re happy to get on your bike and get out of there!
“Some of these bikes were 30 years old, so it was a real adventure, and real work on these street bikes; they were heavy, it was very soft sand, and it was hard work. Some were basically stock BMWs with knobby tires, and the riders had no experience riding off-road like this. They were heavy bikes, they’d get stuck in the sand, and it took 2 people at least to push them out, in the middle of the day in the heat! But you meet a lot of great people. We’d all take turns pushing each other.
They’ve been doing the trip 6 or 7 years now. We began on the Barcelona-
Tangier ferry, then we crossed the countryside into the desert, where there’s nothing dangerous but the occasional goat. On the flat areas, you could see 100km in front of you, there was so much empty space, and then the mountains in the distance. If there was a house, we’d stop, have some tea and dates, and go off again!
The lowland areas were really soft sand, and the mountain roads were made of big rocks. It was really hot in the desert, 35-38 degrees, while in the mountains it was chilly, like 7 or 8 degrees, so you needed warm clothes and cold clothes
You can’t go over the sandy parts too fast, as you don’t want to break your bike, and if you break yourself it’s a long way from the hospital. In the Atlas mountains it’s all green, and very pretty; then in the Sahara, you’re on the sand. I never used the tents, just slept on the sand, on a mattress, and in the morning you shake the scorpions from your boots. You don’t see anything but the stars, there’s nothing else out there. It’s something you can’t forget.”
“The desert was really hot, you ride all day, there’s good food in Morocco – it's really nice.”
“In some places, it’s all flat, and you go straight for 100km, and there’s nothing. You see the mountains at the end, and you keep going, and there’s nobody.”
In the evening you are happy, dead tired and die for food and beer. then you fall like on your sleeping bag, look at the stars above you and you are just in love with life. when you wake up in the morning just make sure you check your boots for scorpions!
