Meeting Up

"So you must be Tony"

When I came back from the Mauritanian embassy with Joep & Angelique, I discovered that Tony Gahegan found the campsite I was staying in. I have been following Tony's blog and mailing with him for some while. By pure coincidence his name is also Tony,  his site is also named Tony 's travels, he is on the same route as me and he is doing it in the same period, so this could get confusing. 

The next day I showed him the embassy, so he could also hand in his passport and off we went, inland to see the 'cascades de Ouzoud', the most famous Moroccon waterfalls. We stayed at camping Zebra for a day where the Dutch owners made us feel welcome and Paul showed me around on his old Yamaha tenere. In the meantime Tony was trying to figure out if he could loose some luggage for the difficult roads in West Africa. I was amazed what he was carrying around on this little bike, there was a guitar in there, a knive sharpening set, a complete syllabus English, a Haynes manual, a tyre compressor for trucks and some other bulky stuff. In the end he threw away some clothes and is considering to send some stuff by mail.

I left to Ouarzazate the next day, over the High Atlas, with Tony returning to Rabat for his visa. It took me 5 hours for the 200 km to Bikershome, but the 2200 meter mountain passes where spectacular and not too cold.

Once I drove into the city of Ouarzazate, I stumbled upon two BMW drivers, so I stopped to say hello. When I walked up to the black and yellow GS 800, the guy said 'so you must be Tony'? As I looked at his face, I recognised him as Charlie, the American RTW traveler, which I was also in contact with and was planning to meet in Essaouira.

The internet is a funny thing, it makes the world a small and cosy place! Charly was teamed up with Ryan, an Irisch guy on a 1150 GS. As they where going to Zagora first we agreed to meet up in Essaouira in a couple of days, where  by now about 5 bikers would congregate for the trip down Western Sahara and into West Africa. It's gonna be a lovely christmas!