How a new motorcycle route is opening up Morocco’s badlands

“A good traveller has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving,” wrote Lao-Tzu, the founder of Taoism, 2,500 years ago.

That concept of self-sufficient, nomadic travel lies at the heart of the holidays provided by Legendary Motorcycle Adventures (LMA), a new company with a millennia-old ethos. Its portfolio of wilderness motorcycle safaris includes a 10-day GB Heritage tour and two-wheeled adventures in Spain, Morocco, Corsica and Sardinia.

Founders Sam Pelly and Ed Talbot Adams have distilled their maverick charm and practical knowledge into devising these unique and stylish expeditions built around the concept of “good travel”.

Key to their appeal is the iconic kit – not just classic Royal Enfield motorcycles imported from India, but Outhaus canvas dome swags from Australia (for portable accommodation) and Kelly Kettle stoves from Ireland that require no fossil fuel but burn anything from sticks, pine cones and dry grass to camel dung and driftwood.

The Royal Enfield is a good-looking, retro-style bike – easy to ride and tough enough to cope with any terrain; the swags are quick and easy to erect anywhere and surprisingly comfortable to sleep in; and the Kelly Kettle is a true lifesaver, capable of boiling a cylinder full of water in just four minutes for tea, coffee, washing and making couscous, say, while leaving behind hot embers with which to make a slow-cooked tajine.

Despite a deep aversion to camping, and not having ridden a motorcycle for several decades, I was sufficiently tempted to sign up for an LMA trip from Andalucia in Spain to the Rif Mountains of Morocco. First, there was some more pressing business – acquiring my motorcycle licence.

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A good motorcycle training school can get you qualified in just a few days, but waiting lists for a test can be months long and it’s hard to know which facility to choose. Luckily, LMA has a good relationship with Phoenix Motorcycle Training, which has 17 schools dotted around the country. They fitted me in at short notice, giving me a test date just in time for the trip. With the departure date looming, there was no room for error: I had to pass first time.

My instructor Marcus had just the right balance of patience and push to get me through the test, and there was a genuine thrill in qualifying. Passing the first exam I’d taken in decades gave me a real feeling of personal triumph, as well as a licence allowing me to ride any bike anywhere in the world for the rest of my life.

A few days before flying out to Gibraltar for the start of the trip, our group met for a briefing in the atmospheric Voyager Room of the South Kensington Club in London. Sam Pelly explained how LMA’s trips provide an opportunity for guests to “get some real distance from their busy everyday lives and completely embrace the great outdoors”. Recurring phrases included “getting back to basics”, “stripped-down travel”, “wild-water swimming” and “conversations around a campfire”.

Pretty quickly, I grasped the company’s philosophy of serendipitous adventure travel that treads lightly on the earth. “We prefer to wear open-face helmets so that, when we ride into a Moroccan hill village, we can make eye contact and smile. It’s more likely to ensure a friendly welcome than roaring in looking like alien ninjas in aerodynamic full-face helmets.”

Talbot Adams, meanwhile, was keen to emphasise that these trips are not for hardcore bikers but “a non-macho version of a motorcycle safari open to all, designed to appeal to women, novice bikers and anyone with a taste for good company and gentle adventure on a vintage bike”.

Afterwards, to get into the spirit of the trip, I took advantage of the discounts offered to LMA clients, by Belstaff and Malle London respectively, to buy some designer biking gear and expedition luggage.

Looking the part was one thing, feeling the part another. For someone like me, with an incurable nostalgia for the long-gone days of British bike manufacture, the chance to ride a Royal Enfield 500cc Bullet was irresistible. Made only in India, the bikes still conform to the original Fifties design and have a powerful emotional pull. Keen to tap into new markets beyond India, Enfield has recently opened dealerships in Europe, so LMA is able to order brand-new models from Madrid without the hassle of importing them from India.

Compared to the Kawasaki speed machine I’d ridden for my test, the Royal Enfield was a relief. It felt like swapping a neurotic racehorse for a laid-back cart horse, so easy to ride that the test hardly seemed necessary at all.

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By the end of the first morning I felt liberated by LMA’s style of relaxed, unhurried travel, relishing the uncluttered simplicity of a land free of worldly goods, Wi-Fi and phone signals. Mind you, it is not to everyone’s taste. On the way from Gibraltar to the ferry port of Algeciras, we pulled into a petrol station where a group of Czech bikers, riding huge hi-tech BMW touring bikes, studied our Royal Enfields and our Belstaff attire with a mixture of amusement and mockery.

The dilapidated ferry that took us across the eight-mile strait separating fortress Europe from the vast African continent might as well have been a time machine. At Tangier we turned left and headed for the hills, entering a remote, little visited part of northern Morocco that seemed like it was in another century.

Climbing up to the pass that curves around the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, we were suddenly immersed in thick mist. We slowed down and rode sedately behind the Range Rover that served as our support vehicle, like outriders returning to the safety of a mother ship. By the time we arrived at Tamouda Bay, where a very swish Banyan Tree Hotel has just opened, we were in bright sunshine again.

From here on, the roads were blissfully empty and biker-friendly. Most of the 310 miles between Tangier and the Algerian border is a wilderness of empty coast and mountains. Guidebooks used to warn readers to give the badlands of the Rif a wide berth as they were notorious for hashish production and most people on the road were drug dealers. All this seems to have changed, with the area becoming more tourist-friendly while at the same time remaining unspoilt. There has never been a better time to visit.

Soon, places like the surreal and visually stunning “blue town” of Chefchaouen – full of secret squares, lanes and alleys painted in vivid hues ranging from cobalt to indigo – will be major tourist attractions. Beyond the towns and cities, however, the region has a timeless charm almost untouched by modern life.

On our first night, spent in the rugged hills of Jebel Bouhachem, I was initiated into the practice of swag camping. My bed for the night was a very comfortable egg-crate texture mattress, enclosed in a spacious cocoon with a PVC base, an inner skin of bug-proof netting and an outer skin of waterproof canvas. It was assembled in seconds using three collapsible hoops and a couple of guy-ropes. Just add a sleeping bag and – hey presto – a good night’s sleep is guaranteed almost anywhere.

The night was warm enough to undo every zip of the swag and sleep in the open under the stars. It was bliss. Next day we headed along the coast to Al Hoceima National Park, then inland to the gorges of the Beni-Snassen Mountains – a shortened five-day version of the 12-day Spain to Sahara tour available next spring.

Among the highlights were wild camping under a dark sky full of stars, swimming from deserted beaches, haggling for ingredients in ancient souks, washing in traditional hammams, learning to cook with argan oil and saffron, and – best of all – riding off-road, sans helmet, with the wind in my hair. What better way to start the day than waking to the aroma of freshly brewed coffee on a ridge high in the mountains, then watching the sun rise over the mist-filled valley below?

By the end of the trip, I was in agreement with Lao-Tzu. I found myself more elated by the experience of travelling than I was by the thought of arriving, and my eyes were opened by this raw, simple, authentic, but joyful form of touring.

As we cooked our last meal over embers near the ferry, Talbot Adams summed up what makes LMA touring so special. “What our guests love most,” he said, “is sharing the experience of freedom and simplicity but doing it in style, riding gentle motorcycles through humbling scenery while making new and inspirational friends.” I couldn’t have put it better myself.

The essentials

Legendary Motorcycle Adventures is offering a 10-day Spain to Sahara safari from March 23 to April 4 2018 for £3,620 per person. The price includes hire of Royal Enfield 500cc motorcycle plus all fuel, kit, food, drink, ferry crossings, accommodation (both camping and in hotels), plus support of backup vehicle and guides. Also available for 2018 are the company’s Andalusian Odyssey and Corsica to Sardinia tours, costing from £1,800 per person.

British Airways flies to Gibraltar from London Heathrow with fares from £89 return; easyJet flies there from London Gatwick from £69 return.