UnitedBikeco No Foreign Lands - Morocco

MOROCCO

WORDS AND PHOTOS : JASON ‘FOOMAN’ COLLEDGE

Agadir, a city located along the Southern Atlantic coast of Morocco and victim of a devastating earthquake in the 60’s; resulting in a complete rebuild. Vast open stretches of nothing but up turned land instantly followed by its many downtown streets then broken up with wide spread residential suburbs, overlooked by the remains of the Kasbah with its white stone script spread out on the hillside face reading the Arabic phrase “God, Country, King.” Agadir seemed to span out extensively.

As the country’s main coastal resort there is plenty to offer in the terms of activities along the vastly stretched beach. Woven sunshades grouped together from each hotel establishment offer you shade while you sip cocktails and look out at the Atlantic. Restaurants line the coast, images of the local cuisine plastered over the facades and billboards to taunt you in to try their specialty dishes.

Famous for their markets, Agadir’s El Had Souk boasts up to 6000 boutiques catering for pretty much everything your heart desires. The perfect place to practice your bartering which everyone seemed to pick up fairly quickly. The miss matched brand collaborations such as Louis Vitton x Adidas x Nike trainers are a common sight whilst weaving through the hoards of people out to grab a deal.

Morocco is pretty attractive for sun seekers. With 300 days of sun yearly this a perfectly understandable thing, however the weather report that greeted us showed 100% rain for the week on all but one day. The weather report in Morocco seems to be different to England as there was only one day of actual rain. Maybe a cloudy sky counts as 100% rain?

On arrival, greeted with a two hour customs wait, and what felt like a 45-minute rally stage to the hostel it was quick to see that the road laws were pretty much non-existent. Pick-up trucks with wooden pallet side extensions loaded up with families was a regular sight from the get go. The amount of pedal and go mopeds was insane too.

It wasn’t long until the whole team had chance to burn around on these either.

It was hard not to notice the amount of stray animals scurrying around everywhere; countless

amounts of dogs and cats. Each spot we would get to we would find ourselves with a new furry companion for the day. The dogs loved to follow us about and enjoyed our scraps of food that we couldn’t finish and had tossed to the side.

The Lunar surf hostel was our residence for the week and a 17 seater bus was provided to travel to the spots each day with the guidance of the locals Adir, Jawad, Jamal and Gopro. We had next to no plan to follow but no plan is often the best plan.

We set off each day from the hostel, eager eyed, scoping the landscape through the tinted windows as we made our way into the city. Joking and laughing between us with the dominant sound of rap music coming from Fernando’s speaker. Big bottles of ice-cold water were passed around as the heat began to soar early on in the day. With local stories from Adir as we passed through different areas, and info on the local hot spots to eat and drink at. The description of spots we were on route to often be interrupted with a “YEWWWWWWW” out the window at passers by at the side of the road.

This was almost like clockwork every day and the excitement kept building throughout the trip.

The week went smoother than could have even hoped. Beautiful weather, amazing food, more than enough street to ride and a never-ending echo of laughter resonating through out the crew as we ventured around Agadir.

The following pages of this zine can’t really give you the full insight of what Morocco is like in the flesh. You really need to book yourself some tickets and get out there. Feel the heat, smell the aromas that waft around in the sea breeze, explore the never-ending landscape, engage with the locals and try the bounty of food that is on offer. You will not be disappointed. Agadir really is the gem of Morocco. The locals are so hospitable and always have a smile from ear to ear. The inhabitants have to be the most welcoming people I have ever encountered.

A big thanks from myself and the team to everyone who helped us along the way. Ali, Adir, Jawad, Gopro, Jamal, Achraf and all the locals.

Shukran.

JU S T I N CA R E “Let’s start by saying I’m the most extreme level of being a picky eater.

I wish I could eat anything but it just doesn’t work that way.

I think the food might have been a favorite part for everyone else on the trip but for me it was a struggle. I think most of my meals consisted of items from a convince store. My eyes were always looking for some kind of Americanized fast food.”

BE N G O R D ON A KA LI L’ SH RI M P

“Being English, my first thought to the police being called was “fuck it, let them come and kick us off” but after speaking to Adir he said that the Moroccan police are super sketchy, and we needed to run to meet the driver with the van. I was already a few hundred meters down the road... ”

S E BA S TI A N A N T ON “Take your old BMX parts you don`t need with you and give it to the locals. They don`t have a local shop and will appreciate it more than everyone else. And make sure you eat some fresh fruit.�

F E R N A N D O L AC Z KO “ I can’t remember anything too crazy apart from almost getting into a fight with some English guys who slammed a little kid to the ground during a party. Jawad had it under control and those assholes took a cab after just twenty seconds of arguing.”

HA R R Y M I L L S - W A KLE Y “All the local riders we hung out with were absolute shredders and really sound dudes too. Jamal stood out for me in particular. The guy had a pretty sketchy bike made of bike parts from riders who have visited Agadir. He is an animal on a bike. We would literally just be chilling at a spot then you’d just see him pedalling at something and just sending it.

Pretty scary to watch, but he always got up after every heavy slam.”

TOM DE V I L L E “Ou la la! The last night in the disco with the homies was insane.

We got back to the hostel at 5am and I had to be awake at 6am to catch my taxi to go to the airport. Big thanks to Sebastian for finding me on the roof and waking me up!�

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