Seven days of Motorcycle riding in Southern Morocco - 0 of 7

I learned about The Adventurists on a hot, dusty afternoon at Burning Man 2017. Brad was talking about doing The Mongol Rally, an insane six-week event that involves crossing the old world in a mediocre car. It really piqued my interest, and upon returning home, I fired up the Google and started my research.

The Mongol Rally was too much for me at the time. However, I stumbled upon the Monkey Run, one of the stupidest events I’ve ever heard of. Riding across either Morocco, Peru, or Romania in a Monkey Bike? I was instantly in. Eighteen months later, I was on a plane to Marrakech on my own — not entirely sure what to expect but extremely excited nonetheless.

Day 0: Marrakech

A bumpy bus ride across Marrakech took us to Kasbah Le Mirage, a hotel on the eastern outskirts of the city. We were all giddy to finally give the bike a look.

Eventually I got the chance to ride my Bike…Number 20, which I warmly named The Not So Powerful.

Before this trip, I had never ridden a motorcycle with manual gear shifting. I spent a couple of hours learning to do that in a variety of terrains. After feeling comfortable, I signed the waivers and went back to the hotel to start talking to folks about routes.

I had a vague idea of a route I wanted to do, so I set out to meet people that were interested in doing it or had a similar idea. Seth ended up having the same route idea as me, and he was cool with me joining his crew. Rich and Keith ended up joining us that night too. As the night came, we dined, drank, and celebrated the beginning of what would be an incredible adventure.