HEADING FOR MUSIC

I was in Morocco to see the Sahara and a music festival at M’Hamid al Ghislane. It’s a three-day event in October, when the desert nomads gather once a year to play their music and celebrate their culture. I had spare time, a nearly new KTM Duke 690, some dodgy secondhand throwover panniers and a map. I felt like Lawrence of Arabia, but without the fancy headgear.

After riding across Spain, I caught the ferry to Melilla. Multi-cylinder BMW riders festooned with widescreen GPS, Bluetooth headsets, hard luggage and probably desert-proof underpants into the bargain, looked sympathetically at my small, floppy, paper map-equipped bike as we queued for the on ramp.

Undaunted, I disembarked and