High Atlas Mountains

Six nights in the Moroccan High Atlas, guided, five days of riding on a lightweight scrambler or bobber, with the field capped at twelve.

The small bikes are the whole idea. A light scrambler on mountain tracks is more fun and far less intimidating than a big adventure machine, and the operator offers a bobber that can be ridden on an ordinary car licence, which opens the trip to people who have never held a motorcycle licence at all.

Roughly seventy per cent of the route is on winding asphalt chosen for its lack of traffic, with thirty per cent off it. The High Atlas supplies passes to 2,700 metres, green palmeraies in the valley bottoms and forests considerably larger than most visitors expect to find in Morocco. A hike to the Ouzoud Falls comes with it, a hundred and ten metres of water in a gorge with Barbary macaques in the trees around it. River crossings, green fields with the occasional donkey in the way, isolated Berber villages, local souks and lunch with a local family fill the rest, and the accommodation is a mix with pools at some of the stops.

A guide, a support vehicle and a smartphone loaded with the route on the Outdooractive app are provided, so riders go at their own pace and stop for photographs when they like. Alcohol is available every evening, supplied by the hotel or by the operator, which in Morocco is worth saying. The summer months are this tour’s season, since the altitude keeps it cool when the desert tours cannot run. The operator’s page gives a starting price of €1,450, which is worth confirming against the price on application recorded here. Scrambler riders need a full motorcycle licence; bobber riders need only a car licence.