I think we woke up everyone in the hotel with our breakfast routine, packing up and starting the bikes. Nobody seemed to mind though. Instead they popped their heads out and had a look. There was two or three people seeing us off with some thumbs up and smiles. 

We had been told that we would have a long stretch of tarmac to start off with. I decided to put on my earphones and listen to some music to ease the ride. I turned out to be a very good choice as the road climbed over some mountains. Armed with Airbourne in mys helmet, the boring tarmac section suddenly turned into supermotoesque tarmac thrashing.

We pulled over to a stop at some point. We were enjoying the sunshine and crisp morning when Manolo, our guide, told us to have a look at the ravine just in front of us. There was Kari, doing his thing. He had ridden down a steep water eroded slab in the canyon. He’d stopped in the middle for some photos, before climbing back up. It was pretty impressive.

After the stop and some more tarmac, we finally got off it. We were back on dirt. It was a very nice, long stretch with proper enduro in addition to the dirt roads. We were making our way to Agdz. There was a river crossing on the route, but unfortunately water was too high and we couldn’t cross. Instead we took a short cut on tarmac, again.

While refueling in Agdz we had to do a small service break. One of the riders had clipped their radiator during the enduro section and it needed some work done. Before too long it was sorted. Maybe because we had some local witch doctor pulling an outdoor gig right next to the gas station.

After Agdz, we continued south on dirt. There was a long stretch of road in the middle of desert that was perfectly straight. It was pretty wild going. I had the throttle pinned on high gear for several minutes. It must have been a pretty cool sight with all the bikes blasting through the desert, leaving behind only pillars of dust.

We pushed on and got off the dirt road and on to some proper tracks, before meeting the support crew at our lunch spot. Our lunch break was right next to a strange area with a couple of dunes. I mean they were just sitting there in the middle of rocky desert. Everyone was excited to get on to the sand and we messed around on the sand for a while before having lunch.

The road form Agdz to M’Hamid, on the edge of Sahara is impressive. Crossing the last chain of hills before the desert gives sweeping views over the vastness of Sahara. It looks like a maroon coloured giant ocean. The dunes look like frozen waves. It is very impressive. Unfortunately one of our riders had a puncture just before the hills and we lost some time changing the tube. After that we were racing the sunset, with no time for photos.

Continue to Day 4.