Roscoff to Essaouira in 7 days ?

[Ian Peachey]

Hi,

I'm looking to travel from Roscoff to Essaouira in the Summer (mid July). This is my first bike trip, and I'm hoping someone might offer their experience of a similar trip.
I'm hoping not to rush it .. but then again not too slowly I was thinking about 200 miles a day ... would 7 days be about right for this trip ?

I'm riding a Suzuki GS500F with some soft luggage strapped to it, trying to keep things as light and simple as possible

Any advice / experience would be very gratefully received.

Thanks, Ian

[damien1985]

hi im heading to ghana around that time from limerick ireland through roscoff.
from what i can see that time frame is no problem at all, i havnt done any trips outside ireland. il be doing alot more milage through france and spain which im not really that interested in and heading to the atlas and towards Essaouira etc. i hope to do all this is around a week.

[Wheeee]

I reckon that you would need two days through France, two through Spain and maybe up to a day for ferry crossing and customs. I've not been to Morocco yet and guess that you could make it there in 7 days without seeing anything.

200 miles a day is OK and you need to allow time for finding places to stay and eating in unfamiliar places etc. Doing this for days on end is tough -unless you are an iron butt rider. You need to be committed mentally.

Morocco in the summer will be hot hot hot and this will increase the discomfort significantly.

As with all road trips, be aware that mechanical problems or illness will play havoc with your timetable.

All the advice from the sages is to reduce the mileage and explore the places you are passing through -that said, sometimes you have to cover a lot of miles in order to get there in the first place.

There needs to be some reward for all the pain. What are you planning on doing when you get there?

[Ian Peachey]

Hi,

thanks for your thoughts, that sounds like fun Damien - hmmm.. it is quite tempting to push on a bit through France...
Wheee, I've been looking at some maps and i think I agree with your times for France and Spain. From what I can gather it's about 1700miles to Essaouira from Roscoff ... so hmmm... 250miles a day might be the thing ... but yes, this would mean not seeing much. That's a good point about Morocco being hot, I was in Marrakech for a week last summer - might have to invest in a light weight jacket. That's also a good point about the mental commitment, I've done quite a bit of trekking - so can understand this :-)
My plan is.... we (partner + kids) have rented a house for August in Essaouira, they're planning to fly there - I'm planning to head off a couple of days before they leave and meet them there.... I've not worked out whether I'm biking it back or will somehow freight the bike back - I guess this depends on work commitments. Once there, I think, the plan is to spend 4 weeks kite / wind surfing & drinking mint tea.
I think 7 days is the max amount of time I've got, I've been thinking about starting in Santander - but that means an 18hr Ferry crossing, and missing out the Pyrenees.
hmmmmm ... I think I'll need to prepare a bit for this :-)

[motoreiter]

FYI, I rode Tarifa in southern Spain to Essauira in one day, but kind of a long one. Customs was pretty quick, but that was going through the old customs in Tangier, not the new Med facility, but I 've heard that is pretty quick.

[Ian Peachey]

That's really useful, thanks

[motoreiter]

Forgot to mention that I caught the first ferry in the morning and got to Esssaoiura just before dark.

[Ian Peachey]

yeah ... it is quite a distance ....

Did you have to book the ferry in advance ? - I've read in the Lonely Planet it can get really busy.

Also, it looks like the route is pretty straight forward - straight down the coast ?

[motoreiter]

I got to Tarifa in the evening and bought a ticket for the first boat in the morning (not very early, I think 8 or 9). Once in Morocco I stayed on the freeway down to about Rabat and then took a smaller road along the coast all the way to Essaoiura. Generally pretty easy although I got turned around in one or two of the towns due to lack of signage. Garmin's maps of Morocco were completely useless.

[Ian Peachey]

that's really helpful, thank you