Marrakech announces itself with a smell before it shows its face: woodsmoke, orange blossom, leather, grilled meat, with mint and diesel in the mix. The city, founded in the later eleventh century by the Almoravids, grew from a camp of tents at the edge of the Haouz plain into the capital of a series of Berber dynasties. Its walls and many of its buildings are built of local red clay, giving it the nickname of the red city, and behind them sits the old medina, a maze of lanes where mopeds, donkey carts and tourists push through together. The Koutoubia mosque, whose minaret rises about seventy metres above the roofs and dates from the twelfth century, is the landmark you steer by.
Jemaa el-Fna, the great square at the medina's heart, wakes up in the late afternoon, when food stalls roll out and the smoke begins to rise, and storytellers, musicians and snake charmers draw their circles of onlookers. It is theatre, and it is also a place to eat well: grilled lamb, harira soup, and fresh orange juice for little money. For something quieter, the Majorelle garden, with its cobalt-blue walls, and the old madrasa of Ben Youssef, offer relief from the noise.
For a rider, Marrakech is the doorway to the High Atlas. The Tizi n'Tichka pass, at 2,260 metres, carries the N9 road over the mountains to Ouarzazate, with a long, steady climb through red hills, then a series of hairpins, tunnels of cloud and views over terraced villages with flat-roofed houses. It is the main route to the south, so it is shared with trucks, buses and shared taxis, which overtake with confidence, and the surface can be broken at the edges. In winter, snow and ice can close it for hours, and the weather changes fast, so look at the forecast. Start early, because the mountain air gets bumpy and cold by the afternoon, and the descent toward the desert side is dry and bright.
Marrakech is a city of more than eight hundred thousand people, so fuel and workshops are easy to find, and the main stations are along the ring roads. Town riding is wild, with scooters appearing from every side, so ride defensively and park the bike in a guarded lot. Spring and autumn are the best seasons, because summer heat can top forty degrees, and the cold nights of winter can surprise you. Take some cash, and agree on prices first.