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Cycle Tour 2025 - Western Europe and East/Southern Africa

Home Page > Bicycle Touring > Cycle Tour 2025: Western Europe and East/Southern Africa > Part 5




Part 2 - Morocco

Well, we had two fabulous days in Algerciras. We actually felt pretty rough the first morning, but neeeded to get going to get the laundry done so amazingly we had walked there a few blocks away by just after 08:00. Wow, our legs felt wonky, it was crazy! The laundry was so good though. The quality of the public laundries we used last year hiking and this year so far is outstanding. That is, we have used laundries in Italy, France, Spain and Switzerland in the past year and they are FAR better than anything we used in the US/Canada or certainly before in the UK. They all dispense washing detergent automatically so you never need to have it or buy it, the driers are amazing, as in all your washing is dried perfectly (not overdried) in 25 minutes. The laundry in Algerciras even did a softener cycle. When we opened the machine when the cycle finished it just smelt like heaven. We were so happy! Anyhow, once we got coffee and croissants inside us we were okay. Our hotel was brilliant too and we ate well at the breakfast which was included in our rate. There was even a bath with a plug (sometimes hotels do not provide plugs to encourage you to rethink your bath idea) and honestly I think I had earned a couple of hot water immersion sessions. Judging by how wet we have been in the last three weeks, the water shortage is surely a little improved? It rained a lot that first day and the wind really blew hard that night, so safe to say Gibraltar would have been a washout. Second day the weather was better and we were out and about a bit more. There is a lovely plaza with brillant tiling to admire.

Today we left for a ferry to Ceuta, but as we only did around 18 km riding it was pretty much a rest day too. We slept in, had a great breakfast and left the hotel at 10:00. It was a 3 km ride to the ferry port and we had to queue from 12:00 with the vehicles for a 13:00 departure. The ferry trip across the Med to Ceuta (Spanish territory about the size of Monaco on the North African coast) took an hour. The weather was really good - so much better than we have been used to. We had a few things to do; pop into Decathlon as we each needed a pair of loose but still reasonably technical pants to cycle in in Morocco. We are cautious about dress standards here, particularly in remote areas and even more so as this is the holiest part of Ramadan (ends 30/31 March). We will never blend in of course, but it's nice if people can see you are making an effort. We needed to stock up on a few staples and then we also wanted to ride around the Ceuta peninsula.

The pants shopping went well, we each got something suitable. Stocking up went well. The ride was okay, lovely views, very pretty place, crazy busy streets packed with cars and a HUGEly steep cllmb, then we were turned back as the navy/army were conducting a military exercise. Thank GOODness it was all downhill back. We were stamped out of Spain and into Morocco. The Moroccans were very welcoming. We have learnt two Moroccan words; hello and thank you which we used a few times. They only asked us if we had been to Morroco before, if we had a drone with us (we don't and they are illegal here) and what the animal on the left of the Australian coat of arms is (a kangaroo). It was an easy border crossing. Australians get up to 90 days visa free. It was only 3 km from there to our hotel in Fnediq which is on the coast. There is a beautiful Mosque, white with blue tiles, roof and decorations. We were surprised to see a booming market across from our hotel. People were shopping up a storm, amazing bread, all kinds of pastries, a man roasting nuts by turning a crank really slowly all the time, a guy parked right outside the hotel selling samoosas and other baked goods out of his car boot. We checked in, it's a really nice hotel, basic but clean and freshly painted, has everything we need. They allowed Mike to leave the bikes in the passage.

We took a walk to the nearest money exchange to change euro to dirhams. We will use cash while we are here, especially shopping at markets etc. We got some samoosas from car boot man who clucked like a chicken to explain what kind they were, and also fruit juice. We don't know how to ask how much something is, but the prices were very reasonable, even cheap. Our bedroom windows open onto the street and there was just constant chatter and vehicle noise as people streamed passed. Then it was 18:38, sunset and iftar time, that is the time the fast is broken. We heard a man chanting or singing over a loudspeaker, we assume from the Mosque. We know there is always some sort of signal that it is time for the meal. Suddenly the street was just completely empty, not a soul about, and not a sound. Absolute silence. Everyone gone. Until about 2 hours later when it started to busy up again. All the time we hear the singing over the loudspeaker. Tomorrow morning will be interesting as we might be up really early having breakfast if we fall in with the schedule here. We are pretty excited to see how this next adventure unfolds.


It was a pretty noisy night, much loud car and motor bike revving and children shrieking til the early hours. We just kept thinking that we would soon be in the mountains away from the hectic town life. Ramadan probably has it's own rhythms. Eid is about 11 days away and so maybe many people take holidays now? There are three publlic holidays for Eid. Not sure how this applies to the shrieking children, could be school holidays? Anyway, it settled down and we got some sleep. We still enjoyed the buzz though, much excitement, special time to be here. There is daylight savings here during Ramadan so that the iftar is an hour earlier in the evening, meaning that we gained an hour yesterday. So this morning we woke naturally around 05:30 which is our usual 06:30 wake up time. Our room had a little tiled balcony, partially walled so we boiled water for our oats and had coffee and tea. The street was deserted anyway, but one keeps a low profile. We set off around 08:00 or so, the morning was fresh with a sea mist which slowly wore off.

We used the coastal road through M'Diq and Martil. It was beautiful riding, the roads are dual carriageway with a good cycle lane or shoulder. The coastal route is packed with some pretty fancy resorts eg. The St Regis, and you can imagine it in a busy period. There seems to be so much space though, everything is clearly sign posted and there are wide green verges kept neat by the many workers we saw along the road, weeding, sweeping and trimming. The whole place is spotless. Everything is blue or white. We stopped at a beach promenade at M'Diq and later at Martil. The beaches surprised us with their big waves. Although this is the Mediterranean is feels wilder. A Frenchman who is holidaying with his wife in their motorhome came to speak to us. At first we felt worried about eating and drinking but got over it. The locals understand that we are not fasting.

Tetouan was the town of the day and riding into and out of it was a new experience. We were keen to explore the UNESCO Medina but it was not possible with the bikes. We walked them up a ramp to get through the main entrance but once through there were confronted with too many steps. An elderly man camne to greet us, was pleased to hear we are Australian, and indicated the medina would be too difficult with the bikes but we could leave them in a parking garage nearby. He was amusing as he said, "See you later alligator, in a while crocodile!". Some other men outside the Mosque also asked where we are from and people here all seem to like Australia. We rested for a bit in a nearby square and had some fruit and samoosas for lunch. There were many cats. One went to sleep on one of Mike's bags. Leaving Tetouan was CRAZY. We are learning that the traffic goes crazy when people are needing to get to and from Mosque. There are a few prayer times during the day. In between the streets are less busy. There are many taxis and as they drive in the outside lane like us we are always stopping behind them while they pick up and drop off fares. You have keep your eyes open for pedestrian crossings too, although many cars ignore them. Leaving town we saw many "Yumukazi's" which are like tuktuks but for transporting stuff, so like three wheeled trailers. One ahead off us dropped a large bucket in the road in front of us and stopped to collect it. He then tried multiplle times to squeeze around us or between us and other traffic to get ahead. Having left the town we headed into a semi-rural area, mix of car repairs and then cows grazing an open lot, later small groups of sheep. We met a German cycle tourist who has spent the last three years cycling from Norway to Cape Town and then back again. He even rides through the dodgy bits. His take on the "dangerous" countries is that there is no such thing, every country has areas which are safe to travel through. So he has riddden through Africa twice! He says it is hard but he no longer wants to live in Europe as Africa changes you. We turned off at Azla to head into the mountains after picking up water at a petrol station.

We had 14 km left to ride which included about 600 m of climbing to the top. We set off and to start the climb was okay, not too steep. It really heads for the hills following a river upstream. We passed a few houses, mostly subsistence farming up here, a cow or two, some sheep. The sheep wander in an out the streets and laneways. One small group was chased by some little children. There are a few dogs around, some in groups, none of them bark or chase you. We even passed a small hut with two tiny puppies outside who looked at us so curiously, too sweet. Then out of nowhere the hill kicked, super steep. We ended up walking. It is beautiful up here though. We reached the pine forest and found a flat area to camp. Quite a few people passed us on the road, they are all friendly. Sitting at the spot where we would camp, on older man, possibly the village representative came to welcome us and shook our hands which was nice. We ate and put up the tent, two shepherds walked by with a herd of goats and quite a few dogs. The dogs all came into our camp area to have a look, but no aggression or bad behaviour. We heard the cannon shot to signal time to break the fast and chanting afterwards.


We had a very windy night, strong gusts. Mike got up in the middle of the night to put up the guy ropes as we had thought we had enough shelter from a stand of pine trees so didn't bother earlier. It was raining a bit when he got up and he had to traipse off into the bush in search of a hammer rock to knock the pegs in with. I eventually put my head out of the tent as he did not return for a while and saw him emerge from the bush brandishing a log to serve this purpose. No rocks around! The wind was still high this morning and indeed we had a strong, gusty headwind most of the day. It rained a bit as we got up so we decided to have brekky in the tent. We got going around 07:30, both feeling a bit like we had painted ourselves into a corner for the day. We could have stayed on the coast route instead of turning into these mountains, but we like the quiet of the mountains and the camping they provide. Now that we were in the mountains we just had to follow through with our route which we discovered was to involve a lot of climbing, much of it crazy steep. We were to be on a tiny road today which connected mountain settements like a string of pearls all through this valley. We determined that given the terrain, 40 km for the day would be reasonable. We hoped!

What can we say? Only that this was the toughest day we have ever had cycle touring. We walked many kilometres off and on, pushing our bikes up crazy inclines until our arms, chests and hands ached from the effort. We were out there from 07:30 to 16:30 and took regular breaks but the effort was constant. We could ride from time to time when it went downhill or the gradient lessened uphill. By the end we could not walk more than 5 to 10 steps, pushing the bikes until we needed a break.It reminded us a lot of that first day out of Adelaide on the Mawson Trail a few years ago, but this seemed worse as it was just so unrelentingly steep.The road started out sealed but after about 8 km it was gravel. Not that this made much difference. Apart from the wind, the weather was good, with the sun out much of the time. The headwind sometimes made it impossible to get going or even keep going while riding.

The thing which kept us going were the views and the people. The valley was so pretty, with emerald green fields covering the hillsides. The villages came at regular intervals with dogs (wary but unaggressive), small children and a Mosque. In fact, by the time we had climbed to the very highest point, Mike counted 6 Mosques in our view. The local villagers were shepherds with flocks of sheep and goats, sometimes only a cow or two, sometimes riding on horseback or donkey towing another horse behind. Ladies wearing red skirts climbed the hillsides between settlements with hoes, harvesting greenery for eating. They carried huge bundles of twigs on their backs along the roadside. All the people were friendly. They would talk to us, by their gestures this was clearly about the steepness of the road or the rain which might come later. Moped riders (the only road users besides us) would give us the thumbs up sign as they passed. One bloke looking after a cow assured us our legs were strong enough when we both had to stop riding and push as we saw him. We saw sheep, cows, goats and chickens and these round hay stacks set up for the sheep to eat from. Everything about the place was highly organised and purposeful.

It was amazing to get to the end of the climb and allow our gaze to move over the landscape as far as we could see and know the effort involved in that. We were right at our limit by then end. Even when we knew we could get on and ride, sometimes it seemed too much effort and we kept walking. Eventually we got to the top where there was a small marketshop where we bought eggs, biscuits, cheese wedges, fruit juice, cans of Pepsi. You had to ask the guy behind the counter and he would get the thing off the shelf. Somehow we understood each other enough to do this. A little further on was what looked like a series of water fountains, but they were not running. A man came out a buildiing we asked him for "aqua", he showed us that it was shut off but then took Mike down the hillside to where there was a spring for him to fill a bottle. The bloke looked quite old, but Mike said he was down and up the hillside like a mountain goat. We had looked forward to the downhill, but it was on a deeply rutted path, no longer a track at all, which was diifficult to ride and as slow as going uphill as result. We finally made it into the river valley, which was a canyon and very beautiful. There was ws a track leading off the road to the river itself and we turned onto that to camp. A number of men came up the canyon on horseback and one shouted encouragement to us and gave us the thumbs up. We ate our eggs and had tea and coffee and then put up the tent. A man appeared, crossing the river on foot. He had two sons, one very young, the other perhaps 12 years old. They had two horses and a donkey between them. The older boy crossed the river with the donkey and horses. There was also a dog. He was friendly and shook our hands. He said that they live in the mountains where we had come from, he used some Spanish words like "mi casa" but otherwise we just understood his gestures. People here seem pleased that we are camping and travelling by bike. I petted the horses and the donkey. They left and we had a shower using our shower bag at the river when it was getting dark.We have decided no more dodgy roads for us (our average riding speed for the day was only 7.3 km/hour!) however overall the exerience was wonderful and our campsite is great.


Some light rain this morning while we were getting ready, otherwise a sunny but very windy day, high gusts again. Lots of climbing also and we felt quite tired after yesterday. Beautiful road though and outstanding views of a very deep river canyon through Talassemtane National Park. Mohammed on a scooter came to chat to us. He is a school teacher and told us it was school holdays this week and then schools go back for a week and then it is Eid for three days. This explains why we have been seeing so many children about in the villages. He was very friendly and welcomed us.

We did not come across any open grocery stores to begin with but met some very friendly children who tried to communicate with us and us with them by using Google translate with limited success. We then did come across a village with about 6 general stores all selling pretty much the same things and stocked up a bit. No one sells bread though, judging by the mud ovens we see in the front of houses people must bake their own. We would have liked an early day, but ended up looking for a bush camp around 16:00 as not much had presented itself before. There was a quarry at the turn off to Chechaouen which we went to look at and a shepherd was there with his flock of sheep. He spoke English and asked if we needed a place to sleep, then told us we could pitch our tent in the field behind his house across the road. This was very generous of him, we would have been happy in the quarry but accepted his offer. We got to the grassy field and he arrived shortly after with his sheep and two dogs. The dogs were over excited at us being there and one, a large alsation just wanted to jump all over me all the time, even when I sat on the ground which got a bit intimidating at the end of a tiring day. We pitched the tent as rain started and they were happy just to lie down near us while we ate and so on. The shepherd went off to eat with the land owner but said he would be back by 9 or 10pm so we could chat, we said we would be asleep by then!


During the night there was a dog which barked nearby. It wasn't one of the two dogs we had met yesterday, and we opened the tent to try to see it. It was right at the house that we camped behind but which seemed empty. The dark started barking again in the early hours and there was something strange about it, it sounded desperate as if it were caught in a trap or something. We couldn't figure it out. The weather forecast was pretty bad today and it looked that way too. It rained heavily off and on and the wind was strong. We weren't sure what to do. We did not really want to spend another night here on the shepherd's property, but we also did not want to get a soaking. In the end we decided to stay and we saw the shepherd coming out of his cabin (he lived with the sheep in a cabin alongside the chooks). We went to speak to him and also ask if we could buy some eggs. He was very helpful, even willing to cook the eggs for us but we said we would boil them later. He was happy for us to stay another night. We sat with him in his cabin for a bit and asked him if he wanted our 1.5 l Primus fuel cannister which we no longer need as we received our new MSR stove and fuel cannister in Algeciras. He said he would use it. We asked about the dog and he said he keeps the dog inside the empty house for security. He encouraged us to lock our bikes as people could come up from the road and they might not be secure.

We went back to the tent and had a good sleep and then, lo and behold, the sun came out! We were pretty excited and checked the weather forecast again. It looked like it was improving, there would be fewer showers. We decided to pack up and go, and try to get 25 km or so down the road (and over a climb). We had last seen the shepherd, who is called Abdul, walking wth the sheep across the grass and assumed he was out. But when we were packed he came out the cabin and we explained with the weather improved we would go, and thanked him for his hospitality. He then asked us for 100 MAD (dirham, the local currency). We must have looked as confused as we felt, although really we had been warned about this when travelling here. The thing was, we had been happy to camp over the road at the quarry, but when he offered for us to camp on his property we felt it was a generous thing to do and it would be impolite to say know. 100 MAD is 9 AUD which is quite a lot for actually nothing ( just grass, no water or toilet or anything), when the option over the road was free and probably more suitable for us. We gave him 50 MAD as a compromise and he asked for more but we said no. The whole experience left a bad taste in our mouths. It felt a little off. We felt that he had invited us under false pretences, that is, not to help us but to help himself. Anyhow, lesson learnt. Next time we will just say no thank you, unless we seek out assistance ourselves. Then when we left the water which had pooled where the track joined the roadside was a river and both my feet got a soaking. The water was opaque with clay so you could not see the bottom and so we decided against riding through.

We were pleased to be on the bikes though. The road was pretty busy and the upside of that were many foodstalls. We bought bread at long last which we were very happy about. Eggs and bread for dinner sounded good! The 720 m climb up to Bab Taza was fair, not steep and we took it in our stride. We turned off the road onto a quieter one and unfortunately going along I swerved into Mike and he came off his bike. He has bruised his hand and knee, and snapped the end of one of his brake levers. It feels terrible being responsible for it. We descended on the road for a few kilometres and saw a place to camp in a bushy area, so we stopped there. It's quite difficult to find camping as settlements can spread out over a big area It is now very cold, freezing! No shower!


We woke to rain but the sun came out after a couple of hours and then later we had showers off and on. We felt lucky about the weather today in general as there was no wind and ending the day dry is a bonus. The other thing that came out were school children and that was not a good thing for us! It was back to school today and the kids hung around waiting for the bus in small groups. Later on in villages with schools there were droves of kids leaving school around lunchtime. Mainly they want you to stop so they will do anything to achieve this, they run at you while you are riding and yell, touch your hands on the handlebars and on two occasions they threw stones at us. That's not very nice behaviour is it? I don't think anyone has ever actually thrown a stone at my back while I am cycling, and the ratbag that threw a stone at Mike hit his bike frame. The other thing they like to do is grab at your panniers from behind so for that second you feel a weight dragging at you impacting your balance. They will also shout at you, often for money, one kid asked me for a bite of my baguette. They often yell, "Ola" assuming we are Spanish, or "How are you?" and then they all laugh. One kids just yelled random English swearwords. The whole thing mystifies us their behaviour does not fit in with the culture here. Adults are very friendly and welcoming to us, so why are the kids so dreadful? Sometimes they are quite sweet, like we stopped to make tea just in the middle of nowhere and a boy came along and just stood there and watched us. He was curious. I asked if he spoke French or English, he shook his head, smiling. Eventually we waved goodbye and left. Later Mike sat on a rock cleaning mud off his boots with an audience of four. This cannot be interesting can it, watching a man clean his boots? After running the gauntlet with this lot uphill through a village main street full of donkeys being ridden downhill, we hit the town outskirts and two little kids came running at us straight down the road. We were a bit over it and so I yelled, 'No, no, go away". Next thing an elderly man comes out of a gate and says, "They no worry, why?". He seemed to take offence to me yelling at the kids. The situation is out of control with these children. Welcome to Africa.

We had quite a lot of climbing, mainly over two climbs but it was just normal stuff on good roads, no complaints. We had beautiful valley views on both climbs and at the end of our day views of a lake that we camped near. It is clear that the rainfall has been high as rivers are inundated and there is mud everywhere. There was one stretch of road which was very muddy and deteriorated but luckily not very long. Early in the day, while having tea, a van drove by filled up completely with baguettes, as in the back seats were full to the ceiling, you could just see baguettes through the windows, so we were happy to know that at some point we would be able to buy some. We struck gold at the third store we went into which had a whole load of baguettes so we bought 4, also eggs.We are happy eating eats every night as you get good nutrition and can easily cook them. We really missed bread when we could not get it, the energy is so good.

It's amazing how quickly things change as you go along. At the start all the Mosques were blue and white, now suddenly they are green and white. When you come to a village you have no idea how people will respond to you, well, we are learning about the children, but the general reception. I always go into the store and sometimes the person is very friendly and sometimes not. We know only a few Moroccan words and I guess it's a bit weird for a person to go into a shop and just say, "Bread" or "Eggs". Probably I need to work on phrases. The shopkeeper will usuallly put the total you need to pay on his big screen calculator so you can read it. Thank goodness we use the same numeric system! I am starting to get the hang of the money, but even then the shopkeeper might say things in unexpected ways. Today when I took two tins of Coke to pay for them, the bloke was saying "cinque dirhams" (5 MAD) at least that is what I heard, so I was counting out 5 coins to give him. He then shook his head, so I added two more. Then he said no again and kept repeating the same thing about the 5 dirhams. Eventually I understood, he was saying 5 dirhams EACH. It was just a bit different. In the same village where I bought the Cokes, a man was walking a long with a bag of baguettes and I asked him where he bought them and he pointed back along the street. There was a group of men standing around the car and the boot of the car was full of baguettes. I bought two more. We have a phobia of being without bread.

On the second big climb we were up high in a pine forest which was so lovely, but we wanted to get further along our route, so headed for the dam. Around the dam there were some camping options but we continued and then found a brilliant spot off the road that cars could not get to. Of course, sheep can get anywhere and as there was a path through the bush there we pretty much predicted that something or one would use it tonight. I had just finished showering (we fill up our shower bag with 2-3 L of water and each one showers while the other holds the bag) and was drying off when I heard a radio and glimpsed a person right there through the trees, "Someone's coming" I muttered to MIke and took about 2 steps to leap into the tent, quickly zipping it up. Naked women running through the bush would I think be frowned on here? Anyway, he was a very friendly shepherd, a young guy who chatted to Mike and offered for Mike to take a photo of his flock of sheep. They disappeared into the bush but when I was dressed and came out of the tent there was a tiny lamb left behind with us, falling asleep in the sun. It's upset mother came back for it. It was the first night we had clear skies and could sit outside and just enjoy the evening as we boiled our eggs. We always here the chanting from the nearest Mosque to break fast.


Perfect day weather-wise! Sunny, clear skies and warm, no wind! We could not believe it. It was like a dream! We did not even have rain over night. It seems like spring is here. The first half of the day was spent in close proximity to the dam. The views were lovely, a patchwork of green fields covered every hill, the water on the dam was still and the sky a perfect blue. We had two super tough climbs and then followed a minor road all around the lake which was really nice, mainly good quality and quiet. It was much drier here too, the roads were dry, no mud and no flooded potholes or water gushing everywhere. We had the usual run of school kids, one small group of guys asked for a selfie which was okay, another threw a rock at Mike, which was not okay. Seriously, what is up with these kids?

At the end of the lake road we came into a small town and there was a bakery and general store. We bought our favourite; eggs, bread and fruit juice. The fruit juice is very good. All the towns or villages have water taps on the same sort of arch structure but most are turned off or piped elsewhere. I asked for water at a store and the storekeeper let me get it from the bathroom. We sat and overlooked the lake as we boiled eggs for later. Mike has been carrying the fresh eggs in his handlebar bag but as you buy them loose (the shopkeeper will put them into a plastic bag) one always breaks. That's okay, we poach that broken one in it's plastic bag and stilll eat it, but we have decided if we can we will boil them and still have them for dinner later. We had a great view of alluvial plain at the shallow end of the dam. There were sheep, cows and goats grazing there. We saw many sheep and lambs today. Most shepherds have only small flocks of around 10 or less. We see many donkeys. They are used to transport many things. They have thick saddles (look synthetic) over which a specially welded metal cradle is attached. This is then piled with baskets of food or bags of fertilizer or anything to be transported and a person climbs on top off it all and rides the donkey somewhere. The donkeys and horses are usually tethered by the roadside.

After leaving the lake, the riding was pretty easy with a few small climbs. The route today was really good, proper cycle touring stuff and we enjoyed the riding. We had a final pretty steep climb and then followed a gravel track along the river. There were a few shepherds and their sheep along the road. We found a lovely, flat, grassy patch on the river bank and decided to camp there. We were sitting under a tree, eating our egg rolls and relaxing when a group of 4 schoolboys arrived. They were walking home to the next settlement along the river from school. They were shouting at us in French, trying out some phrases. They ranged from about 7 to 10 years old. French is the second language here and they asked us some qustions. I can understand and speak a little French so we communicated a bit. One kid took out his French school workbook to try to show us something.Two of the kids were very precoscious, the other two reserved. They came right down to us from the road and were just really over-excited, demanding things or ordering us to do things, we couldn't figure it out. One was called Mohammed and he was out of control. He kept yelling "n'est ce pas" in a really high pitched voice and grabbing our things, trying on my sunglasses and passing me my own mobile phone to get me to do something with it. It was completely exhausting and they were all in our space. We just wanted them to go. We stood up and just ignored them, sorting out our things. They would walk back up onto the road and then rush back down and start the nonsense all over again. There were two girls now also walking along the road who seemed not to want to get involved. Thank goodness a three-wheeled motorbike with a large enclosed tray came along full of passengers and two of Mohammed's buddies jumped in leaving him and the other one to cycle home. We were really happy with that.


When we were in bed last night we heard a group of blokes walking along the road. There is almost no moon nearing the end of Ramadan and lying in bed it is pitch dark. We hoped we would not be spotted as our tent was in a little dip but one of them put on his mobile phone torch and shone it at the tent. They muttered and kept walking. We went to sleep. At 23:30 they must have been walking back and called out to us, coming right up to the tent, greeting us. I was fast asleep then but heard them at the tent. Mike had woken when he heard them walking on the road. He opened the tent and they talked to him, quite loudly, maybe asking him for something? He just smiled and said he did not understand. After a minute or so they left. They weren't aggressive or anything but it was a bit odd really, waking people up at midnight like that. We happily went back to sleep. Later still a dog came along and barked at us, right near the tent. We looked forward to being indoors in Fez!

We were up promptly at 05:30 to beat the kids at their game. We had around 6 km on the river track before hitting the sealed road. We did pass through a couple of villages and the children continue to stand in the road rushing at us, wanting to touch us or our bikes. A group of boys walking to school, seeing us coming along the road, raced up the hillside to get onto the road before us. We were also on an uphill climb, Mike was ahead, 4 of the boys rushed at me so I ended up on the other side of the road and then were grabbing the back of my bike. The next village had older boys hanging about the school gates who just shouted at us instead. No stones thrown today though.

As we headed to Fes the landscape changed, hills appear more barren and it seems flatter, although we could see mountains in the distance. We were on a busy road into Fez and took a shortcut which the mopeds were using, along a small sealed road which cars were prevented from using by large concrete blocks. We sat here for a while and had tea, laying our tent out to dry. Athough we do not have rain, camping near rivers and dams there is a high dewfall so it is still wet. Mike did some maintenance on the bikes as it was a quiet spot. The ride into Fez old town was good, the entry road had three lanes and it was easy to navigate. We could check in at 12:00 as our room was ready. Although we had mentioned our bikes when booking, there was an unexpected additional "parking" charge of 2 EU per day each and they would sit by the front door. Mike actually negotiated the rate down from 3 EU per day. A riad is an old guest house, the rooms have very, very high ceilings and downstairs is a dining area. There is a very narrow staircase with very high steps connecting the floors and quite a few floors. Our room opens up off a seating area and on the very top floor is outdoor seating. We could handwash our clothes and hang them out to dry here which was very convenient.

In the afternoon we took a walk to Carrefour Hypermarket to stock up for the next part of the trip. Fes is full of little red "Petit Taxi". We decided to walk to the Carrefour and perhaps get a taxi back The walk was pretty boring along the main road, but we did see many nesting storks again which was nice. We did our shopping and then tried to get a taxi back. We got into one but the driver was very confused about where to take us. The other passenger spoke English and it turned out he wasn't going where we needed to be. So we walked back. It was a warm, sunny day and the walk was nearly 3 km. We had a good sleep and headed to the Medina the next day. We walked through a lot of it. Fez is famous for it's leather tanneries and there are heaps of leather goods for sale. We ended up walking uphill right to the top of the medina. I bought a green scarf and Mike tried on a Berber woolcoat which we see the shepherds wearing. We enjoyed the medina. We walked through some nice gardens and then back to Carrefour and home where we relaxed.


We set off after 10:00 feeling relaxed as the weather is now reliably sunny and that makes a huge difference. Mike even wore shorts! We had a really good route out of Fes which took us away from the town centre very quickly so that in 10 km we were on the outskirts. Also no kiddies about which was the good thing about a later start, they were all at school. We were soon on a farm track and the day just got better from there. The day involved climbing about 1 500 m right from the get go, evenly spread across the 53 km. And the best thing was, unlike our travails through the Rif Mountains which brought us to Fes, we would not lose this height. We are starting to climb up into the Middle Atlas mountains and the high plateau. We stopped for a drink and then for lunch, boiling our eggs for dinner at the same time.The farmland was lovely, bright green with new wheat plants. Town of the day was Immouzer which had a great atmosphere, everyone very friendly. We bought some really delicious bread. Mostly we buy round flat breads which are commonly baked here but you do often get baguettes and if you can find a boulangerie, which Immouzer has, they make all sort of breads.

My right pedal developed a sqeak coming into Immouzer which is ominous with these One Ip pedals I started using in Utah iin 2023. The manufacturers ended up sending me a new pair when one and then the other pedal unscrewed themselves and fell off while I was riding. It all started with the squeak. As we came into the town I looked down and could see that the pedal was unscrewing itself by the thread showing. We immediately stopped and Mike serviced the pedal right then. It is the bushing around the spindel that becomes stuck and has to be replaced. Decision made :One Up pedals to be binned when we get back to Spain. Although it only took Mike 30 min to sort the pedal, it was already a late day for us, so it was after 18:00 when we found a place to camp, just off the road. We like the way it feels in this part of the country. One group of teeny kids ran up to the road barrier and one threw stones but they only hit the barrier, so all in all a good day.


We could feel the temperature drop during the night and woke to minus 4 point 5 Deg C, so pretty chilly. The tent and our bikes were covered in ice, but the skies were clear, happy days! We stayed on the main drag to Ifrane and couldn't have been more surprised when we arrived there. They don't call this place Little Switzerland for nothing! Perfectly manicured, lovely benches to sit on, dirt bins everywhere, it felt like we had ridden down the road and arrived back in Europe. We sat on a bench and made some tea and coffee as a few tour buses passed us. There is a ski resort and exclusive golf and country club in this town. You couldn't be further from almost anywhere we have been in Morocco. We haven't mentioned before that an overwhelming feature of Morocco so far has been the garbage situation. From Tetouane to Fes, so much garbage and litter everywhere. All those tiny poor villages, covered from one end of the main street to the other with filth basically. A lot of plastic waste, everytime you buy anything in the teeny stores we use, it is placed in a lightweight plastic bag and these litter the streets. Whenever we tour we will have a rubbish bag in the evening and all our garbage from evening meal to breakfast sits in the rubbish bag on the back of my bike until we find a bin next morning. Some countries are better at providing bins than others and also it depends on how remote the route is as to how long you cary your rubbish for until you can throw it away. There are large bins around here, you will find them just sitting on the main street or pushed aside somewhere, but it does not appear as if they are ever collected as part of a regular garbage removal service, so they are often filled to overflowing, the garbage is rotting. You often pass informal tips outside villages. In Fes there wasn't a bin to be seen, we handed our garbage to the lady who ran the riad we stayed at and she did not show any surprise. Spain had many bins but there was also a litter problem, with large stretches of road lined with litter and piles of garbage outside small villages. However here it has appeared up to now that there is no garbage removal. Until Ifrane. There is just no more litter, even in the next villlage after Ifrane, Azrou, litter free. Could be the population is smaller here as we move up into the mountains. Certainly people are more affluent, houses look newer and better built and cared for. Gone is the subsistence style farming with shepherds looking after flocks of 10 sheep, now the flocks are more like 50, and cropping has been replaced by fruit orchards.

We bought eggs at a small village store and boiled them up to eat later. We spent some time riding through the Parc National D'Ifrane which was beautiful woodland, very peaceful. We were high up now, over 1 600m. The forest is home to Macaque monkeys and there are many of them near the road. We rested at lunchtime in the peaceful forest. It was downhill to Azrou where we were able to fill up with water at the garage and buy bread. At first I asked at the little store about bread and the lady was vague but she seemed to mean I would have to go into the town below. A helpful man came along and showed us there was a flight of steps down to the street below where they sold bread, so I went down there. Things have turned a corner since leaving Fes, people are really friendly as they were in those first days that we arrived in Morroco. There are no aggressive schoolkids. We did see children going to school today (although it is Saturday) but they were friendly and waved. The people we see on the street are quick to greet us and seem happier. Maybe life is a bit easier here? Anyway, we cycled up into the forest again, beautiful country. We could not go passed the grassy area with a backdrop of cedar trees and called it a day just before 17:00.


We are really enjoying the ride through the Middle Atlas. There is a lot of climbing, but mostly the climbs are fair. The scenery is very beautiful, a lot of forest, mostly fir trees. Today we reached a high point at 1 800m, skies were blue all day and it was warm, even hot in the sun. The villages and settlements we pass through are interesting and the people friendly. As we trundled along the road this morning we spotted a tap attached to a plastic hose at a house. We wondered if we could get water and a little boy came out and called his grandmother. She said that the water was not for drinking but sent the little boy off with one of our bottles to fill up. Some of the settlements have water trucked in as you see those big water cubes sitting outside houses. We weren't sure what they had and did not want to use their supply. We asked the lady if we could buy eggs as there were chickens but could not understand each other. Up until yesterday the Arabic word for egg, "bide" was easily understood by everyone you asked. Suddeny today no one seems to use it and so I am asking for "des oeufs" in French. We thought the lady was offering us a place to stay and a meal. Afterwards we wondered if she was asking for something in exchange for the water, but as she ran a cafe this was unlikely. Perhaps she was asking us to eat there? Not sure. At the only village we went through with a shop we bought eggs and biscuits. The man who came in told us no eating as it was still Ramadan, but he said it in a joking way. I guess you don't want to start thinking you understand that people are sort of joking about Ramadan. Might be getting too comfortable. Everyone around this little shop was so friendly. When the lady behind the counter understood we wanted eggs she offered to make us an omelette which was nice but we went a way down the road, almost out of the village where there was a water point and sat nearby boiling the eggs for later. Will we ever get tired of hard boiled eggs and mayonaise on bread for dinner? Not yet anyway. At the water point two ladies were washing clothes. Another lady came along on a donkey with her child to do the same. Donkeys are everywhere here, carrying huge amounts uphill on sturdy little legs. While sitting there having tea after cooking the eggs, two small tourist vans passed us. It just seemed such a strange thing to do, sitting in a van staring at the people as you pass. A bit later we crossed a river and there were stalls selling crafts and so maybe the tourists benefit the locals. Very steep climb after that. We passed through a couple of settlements, Mosques are now so tiny, barely a little white tower attached to a house. Such a change. We hit forest again and turned onto another minor road after stopping to buy some fizzy orange drink. The altitude makes us very thirsty. We passed a beautiful shallow lake where a few women and girls were doing the clothes washing by standing knee deep in the water and stepping up and down on the clothes. The road turned to gravel, having been sealed to a high standard all this time. We passed through our final village before dropping down steeply to a beautiful river. Pablo, a bikepacker from Spain was going to camp along it and we had a chat. He was headed the same way as us, had started out from Tangier and had also had kids throw stones at him, which surprised him as it did us. He is headed to Senegal. We rode a short way up the next climb before finding a nice place to camp below the road. Tomorrow we head up higher into the mountains. A herd of goats walked through our campsite.


Eid Mubarak! Today is Eid in Morocco and there were blessings all round. We cannot believe the difference between where we woke up and where we are going to sleep! We climbed up and up from our campsite into forest so beautiful it might have been an arboretum. Massive, statuesque cedar trees towering over bright green flat grass areas. We were sorely tempted to call it a day at our tea break and just hang out in the forest for the day, that is how perfect it was. If we had had enough water we might have done just that! We climbed to over 2 000 m in the end and there was a little snow still about. A little further on we were able to pick up water from a spring and that area was open grazing land and also lovely. However from there we started dropping down and camping wasn't really an option. Groups of young men came towards us on mopeds, all of them happy and waving. People live in makeshift tents made of wooden poles and plastic sheets in the mountains and we passed some. "Eid Mubarak" we called out and they waved back.

We dropped down from the Middle Atlas into some settlements and finally onto a sealed road. Ahead of us in the murky haze we could almost imagine we had seen snow topped mountains, but they were so high you sort of wondered if they were an illusion. As we drew closer to Boumia they became clearer, the High Atlas, covered in snow! The world all around us was devoid of trees, all flatlands. With a loss of a few hundred metres the forest is gone and the land is bare. Amazing backdrop to Boumia, those mountains. As we dropped into the town on a fairly bouncy dirt road, it seemed so different from anything we have seen here before. Very solid, blocklike buildings, closed off from the outside world. You can imagine that they are beautiful and comfortable inside, keeping the harsh outdoors at bay. There was a shop near where we stopped but it was closed, so was the next one, but the third was open and I coul buy our standard flatbreads, eggs, Pepsi, Sprite, yoghurt etc. Greeting the people in the street, wishing them happy Eid. Everyone out and about in new Eid clothing. Mike and I sat in the shade of a building and everyone who walked by greeted us smiling, happy! So nice to just sit in the street and eat without worrying that you are offending anyone. An old lady came back, bringing a young girl with her to shake our hands and say welcome. A man passed with his family and told us we were very welcome in Morroco asking if we needed anything. We thanked him, saying we were fine, but a few minutes later he was back with a freshly baked flatbread for us, so generous. An old man walking by invited us to tea, but we had already been there for an hour and needed to get going. He shook our hands, then kissed his hand and touched us with it. Many people shook our hands. It was a great experence being in the town.

The ride out of town was warm, the air is so dry and with the altitude makes us very thristy, but evetyone who passes us waves and flashes their lights. We stopped a few times. We love the flat,arid landscape, we feel at home in it. We turned off onto a track and planned to ride along it for a couple of kilometres to camp. After nearly 3 km there was a water point which was very welcome and we filled up our showerbag and water bottle again. A man with his wife and child on a moped chatted to us and another man leading a horse with a huge load of firewood passed us. We backtracked a little to camp. After we had the tent up a shepherd came along with sheep and goats and was so engaging, getting MIke to take photo's of him and the sheep. We love the mountain areas, it is a different country.


We set off along our dirt track until it rejoined the road, which was also a dirt track. Happily a little later we turned onto a sealed road, looked like a single lane road. When it crossed two bridges the road was new and wide and amazing for about 100 m. There were signs that they are going to be upgrading this road, which would be a dream. When there was a centre line, it would be way on the right hand side like a cyclelane and the rest of lane had fallen down the cliff. We were downhill until the first climb of the day which was pretty steep, some 12 percenters thrown in for good measure. Then downhill again to a small village with very friendly people. The bloke who ran the tiny general store laughed as we carry an old 6 egg carton to carry our eggs in when we buy them. He was really helpful and when my broken French and even worse Arabic failed, he just said, "Say in English!" and we laughed. I was typing words llike "oats" into Google translate on his phone. I have never been so pleased to see yellow processed cheese slices in my life. He then told me that people speak Berber now in the Atlas Mountains, not Arabic and told me the Berber word for eggs. There are so many languages going on here, people will mostly speak French to us, but might try Spanish or Arabic. Hardly any English. He asked if we wanted oranges and unlocked the storage room next door. The oranges here would never sell in Perth, they would be thrown out as they do not look good, but boy they taste amazing and so mcch better than those we get at home. I asked about bread and he said to go to the auberge. We knew about this auberge as a man in a car had stopped me on the steep climb earlier and given us his businesd card for this place, trying to drum up trade. An elderley man walked us along the main street a little way and I went into the auberge with him. In the foyer was a wall collage of photos from Dakar Rally's from early-2000 which he proudly pointed out. He asked the lady working inside for bread and gave us a large flat bread, refusing any payment for it. A short way out of town we sat by the roadside and boiled our eggs for later and had lunch. As we did so a number of huge desert trucks, like Dakar Rally trucks passed us, each with the names and nationalities of the participants on the side. There was a Swedish truck, a Flemish one and I can't remember the others. They all waved and showered us with dust.

The scenery today was arid, however we also passed from one river valley to the next and these valleys are fertile and have crops and sheep. The hillsides are covered by stunted, gnarled fir trees, reminds us of Utah. The hillsides have magnificent folds of rock, very impressive. The children are back to being general irritations, holding on to your handlebars, trying to block your way in the middle of the road, grabbing your panniers, begging for food. I got off to push my bike through a stream and a young girl appeared, as I rode off, ignoring her requests, I heard her grab something off the back of my bike. It was the garbage bag so she did me a favour. The next climb was not as steep as the first but pretty long. It was quite a windy day and also cool, with some cloud so not as thirsty. Mike filtered water for the rest of the day at a mountain stream. We dropped down into another village and bought some biscuits at the general store. These stores are super cheap and I am amazed that they do not charge us inflated prices, they could do as nothing is marked and at the end the just add it all up. After this we reached our turn off to the end of the day where we were supposed to be cruising downhill following a river. The mapping program we use distinguishes roads; from tracks, to white minor roads, which can also be unsealed, to pale yellow, yellow and orange. Mike is lately only picking yellow roads, however there can be massive variety. As we checked out this road, supposedly the same quality as the one we were on, which was almost always sealed, it looked liked single track. We could see that there had been a massive river washout, and just then a motorcycle tourist came out of the track, struggling with the last massive rut. He came over to chat to us, told us the road conditions were so bad tht it had taken him 4 hours to travel 20 km on his motorcycle. The whole place was washed out and the water was still high. He had had to cross rivers on foot many times pushing his bike. He said the scenery was beautiful but he would never do it again. He did not recommend it for us on bikes and we were happy not to take that road. The alternative was the road we were on which came out at the same place and was the same length, but had some steep climbs and went to a much elevation. We didn't have a choice and off we went. The climbs were steep but the little road was very scenic. We reached the top of the climb at about 16:30 and an elevation of 2 405 m. We were a bit pressured for camping as now we would just go downhill steeply. Luckily there was a suitable spot right there. The road was quiet and a passing ute carrying sheep stopped, the bloke and his kid getting out to talk to us and take our photos. They are very nice and friendly, then as they were leaving the kid asked us something in French. The Dad explained he was asking if we had any food or sweets. We said no and they left. It feels a bit weird to be viewed as gift givers when we can barely carry what we need.


Chilly night on top of the Col. We get up early as everyone else does and our spot on the Col turned out to be a popular drop off and pick up point for the small buses/taxis coming from both ends of the road. The small vans/buses have luggage storage on top which is also used to transport sheep and humans in wool coats. So we were up, tent packed, having brekky when the activity started. We are now in Berber territory and this is particularly noticeable in the friendly women we saw today often riding donkeys and the bright colours they wear. The villages we pass through blend into the mountains with buildings now made mainly of mud and straw, still flatroofed. The first village we passed through was Anefgou where we crossed the river, many people were waiting around for transport. It seemed quite an austere place in the shady valley. The river area was full of garbage. We started our 700 m climb up to the high point at 2 648 m. The gradient was fair, the surface was poor and that made it more difficult. The route crossed through the Parc National du Haut Atlas Oriental. Along the way we stopped for tea and our vantage point overlooked a village above a fertile river valley. Many people were working the land below us. We see quite a few motorcyclists now on this route. Stopping for a snack on the way down the other side, which also had a poor surface so no fast descending, we booked into an auberge in Agoudal for two nights to rest the legs. We have cycled nearly 750 km in Morocco and climbed over 17 000 m which has been hard work!

The mountain scenery was outstanding.The colours of the rock and scree were very dramatic. We were happy to join an main arterial road at the intersection to Imilchil and for the first few km's at least it was good, until the inevitable deterioration to dust. There are roadworks underway here but we were tired and could have done without the rough road and the headwind. It was a pity as we could not really enjoy the ride to Agoudal even though it was only 20 km along a river course and through a few villages. No doubt we were impacted by the fact that we had not been able to get any bread today and so were low on food. The flatbreads are called "home bread" meaning they are not made for sale generally but for consumption by the locals. This is probably why we were given some yesterday. We met Andreas, a very lightly packed cycle tourist from Germany who chatted to us about his ride. He was doing a 10 day loop from Marrakesh and back through the mountains. It is amazing that he had a 3 hour flight from Germany to here and the places could not be more different! A few kilometres later I got a rear wheel puncture, which just goes to show that things can always get worse. Luckily the culprit (a big chunk of metal) was easy to find and Mike had the tube fixed very quickly. Some passing Berbers gave us moral support. The last few km's into Agoudal were into strong wind and then suddenly we were there and at our auberge.

The auberge is run by Ibrahim and is fantastic. The gates are kept locked and there are rooms which face a central courtyard, all on one level. We could just keep our bikes outside our room which we love. The room and en suite bathroom were perfect for us. Best working shower of the trip! We had a delicious chicken tagine meal for dinner and were given hot water bottles to take to bed with us.

We were both wide awake after midnight, must have been the shock of a dinner not comprised of egg and bread! There was a motorcycle tourist staying next door last night and also a French couple in a motorhome who came to have dinner. The motorhome is parked inside the courtyard. We had assumed we would handwash our clothes, but Ibrahim told us we could just use the washing machine and there wasn't a formal cost for doing so, so we did the washing and hung it out in the courtyard, giving a reasonable donation. Part of the reason for us having the rest day was the wind which would be a strong southerly today and boy did it get up as the day went on! Very strong gusts! We took a walk through the village to restock, particularly oats, which we managed to find at one of the three little stores. One of the store owners took us to a nearby house to buy bread, which we were very happy about. We needed more petrol for our stove and bought it at the coffee shop! There are no petrol pumps or anything like that here, petrol is just stored in 1L plastic cooldrink bottles in store rooms for purchase by moped riders.


We were really pleased to have taken the day off yesterday as the wind had been a raging southerly. When we woke today it was still and we boiled our eggs and had two for breakfast with bread and would save the other's for dinner. We are now entering a tourist zone if you like, so there will be plenty of food options along the road. By the time we left, thanking Ibrahim and his employee for the great hospitality, there was a slight breeze. On our way down the mainstreet we passed two bikepackers about to leave for the day. They were Moroccans and also going south but taking the other road. We left Agoudal and were immediately on our 23 km climb to the top of the Col du Onaou, which at 2 900 m is likely to be our highest elevation on the entire trip. The road to the top is beautifully paved, the scenery the best so far on this trip and the headwind PRETTY STRONG. In fact there were a few moments when it felt a bit dodgy to be on a bike but it was all good. We can't believe that we have never heard or read about this climb, the road is superb, but then again it has recently been realigned and paved, not quite sure when but it might have been as recent as 2023. Even so, already landslides have occured to partially block the road and you can see it is a challenge keeping roads in good repair here. The environment is so harsh. The landscape was rocky, arid but with beautiful dome-shaped scrubby bushes dotting the hillsides. Once again, the colours of the rocks were stunning. We rested at 10 km out of the wind behind a small wall and again at 13 km where we had tea. Then to the top. The wind was relentless and gusted hard, but the road was quiet, with only a few men with donkeys at the start and motorcycle tourists and some 4WD near the top. On a windy day uphill is is so much better when the road is quiet as you tend to get blown about a bit. The final 3 km to the top were amazingly sheltered from the wind by the high cutting so that was much better. We rested at the summit for lunch as it was already 12:00. We were soon joined by Antoine and Greg, two Frenchmen bikepacking Morocco for a month, also headed south. We all sat together and had a chat and it was after 13:00 when we got going again.

The pavement continued over the other side and downhill for us. Immediately the landscape showed evidence of the gorge that we are headed to, with layers of sedimentary rocks repeating and forming the canyon. The further we descended the more impressive it became, especially when road spread out in switchbacks beneath us. Barely a car passed us as we stopped regularly to take pictures. Down we went until we crossed a river which was flowing nicely so we stopped and Mike filtered water. This was near the Auberge Agouda and from there things got progressively busier with small settlements, villages and eventually a large town called Msemrir. At the first cafe we stopped for Coke to drink and Antoine and Greg were there having a coffee. Then a German couple arrived in a campervan and we chatted to them, they are touring Morocco for 3 months. After this we saw a number of cycle tourists. We continued passing through one settlement after the next. The buildings now are not natural mud-coloured but painted in various colours, most commonly a coral colour. It is beautiful. There is still hardly any litter noticeable and also no police presence which was very evident up until the Middle Atlas. After Msemrir the road started climbing again with switchbacks and we found a perfect campspot above the road on the old road.


We spent the first 55 km of the day meandering down the Dades Gorge. It is very pretty, lots of green in the gorge, even birch trees. The road passes through the tight gorge corridor for a few hundred metres and is single lane there. The whole road down to Boumaine Dades is geared towards tourists and there is one village after the other offering meals and accommodation. There are a few camping parks and we saw many campervans. We saw many cyclists as well, some tourists, others on day rides, all in lycra which was a bit of a surprise, but I guess that is what cyclists wear! We met a Dutch couple on holiday and they were lovely to chat to, knowing a lot about bicycles of course. Just after that we went down the famous Dades Gorge switchbacks. Man, they were tight!! We were pleased to have cycled the road in the direction we did. The road was not all downhill, there were some steep but short climbs, and there was a lot going on on the road. The scenery changed from moment to moment and the views were outstanding.

Generally the children have been easier to deal with lately, they show interest but stay away from our personal space, but as we rested in the shade of a wall before Boumaine Dades, a group of five boys came racing over from a nearby soccer field. They literally stood right in front of us as we sat on the ground there saying , " m'seur, m'seur" over and over, then one had a loud whistle or hooter that he sounded off for good meaure. It sounds so strange but you literally have to completely ignore them, no eye contact, just pretend they are not there and eventually they just go away.

The town of Boumaine Dades is a little chaotic, as all towns are here and the main street was uphill as is also always the case with every town. We needed to go to the grocery store and they had ones which you could actually walk around in, with aisles and everything. Also we wanted the bakery. Of course there are many many eateries, offering all sorts of things to eat and people trying to lure you in, it's too exhausting. We bought a cooked chicken and then ended up traipsing up endless dirt track alleyways to get to the supermarket. On the way we picked up bread at a store. At the supermarket we met Etienne and his girlfrend from Elsinore, Denmark who started their bike tour in Agadir, Morrocco and are cycling home to Denmark. Pretty cool. We told him we love Denmark and remembered Elsinore fondly. While I was inside stocking up, Mike was outside with the bikes being harrassed by ratbag kids. One of them picked up a few big stones but then ran away. The good thing about the trek to the grocery store was we climbed out of the town that way and turned left straight onto a magnificent dual carriageway road! We rested in the shade and ate our chicken and had Coke to drink. Mike also did some servicing on my Rohloff. Then we headed off, stopping at a petrol station for another drink and to use the toilet. When cycling through built up areas it is impossible to make weewee. Of course on quiet roads or open roads we just go in the bush, but in highly populated places you can't do that and there aren't toilets you can just use. So today, as an example we only used the toilet at 14:00 for the first time since breakfast!

We turned off the good road towards Nkob and immediately it was really relaxed, minor road, hardly any traffic, arid countryside stretching out in all directions, big flocks of sheep; exactly what we like! We climbed slowly and steadily and looking back Boumaine Dades lay in flatlands at the foot of the High Atlas Mountains and ahead of us lay another mountain range to cross. We ended up covering a bit more distance than we had planned, in search of a campsite. We were surprised by how green the area was. The settlements here are farming small crop and sheep. The flocks of sheep looked very healthy. A local man chatted to us and said that the area had had good rain in December and January and the last time people remember it being this green in spring was 10 years ago! We found a good camp spot but there was a family group nearby who had been harvesting wildplants (we see women in the bush all the time collecting huge piles of stuff and carrying them in large bundles, we aren't sure if this is for livestock, we assume so). They were all waiting by the side of the road for a lift it looked like and the older boy, maybe 12 years old, came to sit on the rocks nearby and just watched us for ages as we unpacked, ate, pitched the tent. It was just like we were entertainment for him. It actually rained a bit big drops and got a bit windy. Due to these people sitting nearby we only showered when they left, in the dark, around 20:00.


We continued our climb up Tizi 'n Tazazert Pass. The climb proper starts after the turnoff to N'Kob and Zagora. Prior to this we were climbing slightly through farmland by a river. It is amazing to see these fertile river valleys and how organised and perfectly neat everthing is. The villagers grow all sorts of vegetables and even wild plants in patches, all beautifully laid out. We often see women working the land. When we took the turnoff to N'Kob, the narrow road we had been on widened to a proper width road with centre line and road edge marked in white paint. We passed through a village and saw the water point so were about to fill up when a bloke came out onto the road and invited us to his home for tea. This was very kind and we like the sweet mint tea Morocco is famous for, so we leant our bikes up outside his home and went in. His name was Ibrahim. He made us welcome in his sitting room and brought a kettle of warm water, pouring it over our hands to wash them, while the water drained into a dish. He then came back with beautiful sweet tea which he poured for us and hot, freshly baked bread with honey and olive oil for dipping. Absolutely delicious! We communicated quite well in French and used Google translate for the trickier stuff! He had worked in Qatar and Saudi Arabia on construction for a number of years which he said was good for the money but not for the soul. He had about 5 children who were all very cute. He is an artisan and makes wooden and brass drinking mugs in his workshop. We loved the mugs and are always keen to buuy an item directly from the artisan, so we bought one which I will now carry but it was such a great momento of our time with him.

The rest of the climb went well, it was an excellent well-graded road and not too busy. The people are very friendly. The views were spectacular and the descent into N'Kob was amazing. The landscape is very rocky and there are groves of date palms and fig trees. People grow small fields of wheat and onions. The irrigation process is amazing, so many pipes to take water to crops, not a leak in sight! Arriving in N'kob it was like a scene from Arabian Nights, beautiful buildings in all shades of coral and peach, date palms and mud walls. There was a place to eat at the petrol station so we had omelettes with fresh bread and espresso. We chatted to Fozi, the manager who came to sit with us. Most people you speak to here will always start the conversation saying that you are welcome in Morocco. He is from the Sahara and was interesting to talk to. For example he told us that the King of Morocco had banned the slaying and eating of a sheep on Eid because of the ongoing drought so people did not celebrate this year as they usually would.

We left N'Kob with about 20km left to ride, it was around 15:00 and hot but the riding was flat and we are now in a pretty arid area, getting more so and camping is easy. We left the road on a little track and set the bikes up to shade us, drinking more Coke and waiting for the evening.


We had a strong tailwind ths morning, coupled with a long, slight downhill which meant we made excellent time! It was such a pleasure having the tailwind. We barely had to pedal on the downhill. Today we passed village after village and palm grove after palm grove as we followed the Draa River. Beautiful villages and bright green fertile valleys under arid hills. We stopped in the first village we came to and picked up water. The local supermarket was good and we bought bread, eggs and yoghurt. We sat near the water point on what turned out to be someone's verandah and boiled the eggs for later. We had tea and yoghurt. Many people used the water point, a lady came along with a wheelbarrow of mainly old washing detergent bottles and flled them all up. A young bloke came on his moped with panniers made from plastic crates and filled them up with water containers. The water points have all been beautifully tiled for a few days, brass taps and each has a drinking mug which people use. We assume that people do not have plumbing to their homes, at least not a water supply as they seem to collect many litres. This has certainly been a common sight. While we were sitting there, many secondary school children walked by but they were all just normal, saying hi and that was that. Later on the children at other villagers that we went through were once again really badly behaved, one group chased after us yelling, "money money", most of them try to block your way by standing in the middle of the street, but we are now old hands at ecaping their grasping little hands and quickly evade them. When we saw the number of 4WD tour vehicles coming along this road, it all made sense, these kids know when the tour groups come through and wait for them to try to get money, sweets or gifts. We have been told that these tourists give in to the kids and so they come to expect it. Ruined by tourism. Some of the tour parties were driven by guides with the largest turbans we have seen here on their heads. No one wears turbans that big, it's all part of the act.

We rested in the shade in a town just before Agdz. Earlier Mike had hit a gap in the bitumen on the road shoulder and the jolt was strong enough to turn on his hair trimmer which was packed inside a pannier. We stopped by he road side and he heard this buzzing sound and realised it was switched on. Anyway, he unpacked the pannier it was in and switched it off but after sitting relaxing for over an hour drinking Coke and having something to eat, we got on our bikes to rejoin the road and Mike's rear tyre deflated. Back to our spot in the shade, take everything off Mike's bike. When he took the tube out it had blown. Of course we assumed it was the jolt that caused it, but then it would have deflated back then, not waited while we rode for another 7 km or so. All a bit of a mystery. New tube required.

Turning off the main drag after all that, we took the Agadir road for the rest of the day. It was a beautiful road, pretty quiet and ever so slightly uphill. Bit of a headwind now. It is getting more and more arid, but as long as there are small settlements there are waterpoints. We rested for a while in an undercover busstop which was nice. We drenched our shirts a few times in water for the cooling effect. We admired the scenery. We passed our first road sign warning of camels.

We are camped out in the open on stony ground. You have to be very careful with thorns here, but this spot is good. We lay in the shade of our bikes for a couple of hours before the sunset and we could pitch the tent.


We enjoyed the riding today. We had a terrific tailwind again! Nothing on the road until Tazenakht at 60 km. The road was pretty quiet except for quite a lot of truck traffic, more than we have seen before. Gosh, they pile so much stuff onto these trucks, the load can be higher than the highsided truckbed itself. We saw a few camels today! We also passed some mining activity. The area was arid and quite hilly, we had three climbs, the first two before Tazenakht.

Tazenakht with it's Berber carpets is very much a tourist drawcard. From here we saw many campervans, all travelling towards Marrakesh on the main road. We stopped to buy some bread, eggs and biscuits etc. We needed oats and they were hard to find, after checking in a few little shops. While I was doing this, the shopkeeper from the first shop came to ask Mike what I was looking for. When he found out it was oats he sent a young guy to another shop to bring us a box! That's problem solving for you! After the town we had pur third climb and decided to camp short of the top on a handy saddle which was easy to get to. The wind was really pumping! It was nice to have a shorter day. The tailwind is set to continue tomorrow and the next day, fingers crossed.


We finished up the climb this morning and the ride was beautiful. Every day is different here, today we had small hills and orange coloured stone, yesterday the rocks were black. It feels ancient. We had a village after 15 km and stopped to buy eggs (what? that's a bold, new choice!), bread, yoghurt and I threw in Nutella as a special treat for Mike. Nutella used to be his staple when touring, but he has been a fence-sitter on this issue so far this tour. His face did light up a little when I walked out the shop with it! We stopped soon after the town to have tea and a snack and boil our eggs. Many cycle tourists would stop in town and buy tea at a cafe but we don't really like to be the centre of attention all the time, it gets exhausting. That sounds sort of grumpy, but at the end of the day we aren't here to be entertainment for other people. We are always cordial and greet everyone and when the old bloke comes up to you in the street and starts asking a million questions we are polite and happy to chat, but when it comes to eating we like to do it on our own with a lovely view of the hills and we are happy to carry our own supplies and water for this reason.

We clipped along on this enjoyable road, some up's and down's but always our tailwind. We came to a fork in the road and where you decide to go Ait Ben Haddoud, famous Unesco World Heritage site which you cannot really explore by bicycle and anyway, even if we could the place is always knee deep in tour groups. Also, we feel as if we have seen enough really. Other option is to take the Marrakesh road which in the end the Ait Ben Haddoud Road joins and then we all climb Tizi 'n Tichka pass together. We sat at the fork in the road, leaning against the concrete power line poles. The weather felt weird, still a strong tailwind but dusty with it and the skies had been murky all day. We had that indoor feeling, like we just wanted a break from the elements. Also, we are now ahead of schedule.

We booked flights from Marrakesh to Seville for Tuesday, 15 April when we were staying at Ibrahim's a week ago. We had decided against cycling back through Northern Morocco to take the ferry back to Spain as we didn't want to repeat that area. We could have taken a bus to Tangier and then the ferry, but it is always possible for bikes to get damaged in the hold of a bus. In the end we got really reasonable, even cheap air tickets, and that is taking into account paying for the bikes. The bus/ferry combo would not have been much less. Saves us a couple of Schengen days to, not having to cycle from the coast to Seville! Of course when you commit to air tickets you need to be sure you wil be at your departure point in time and now things have gone well for us weatherwise and we are ahead of time. We decided definitely to take the Marrakesh road and we booked into a kasbah just after the village of Amerzgane. It was a great decision to take the road we did as it was quiet and very beautiful. Amazing views of the valley before us. The wilderness in Morroco is very dramatic and views change all the time. Also the air has a different quality, it is often hazy or dusty so the view sort of reveals itself slowly. For us on a bicycle that is. Before we took this road, about 10 numbered white Toyota Prado's or Landcruisers drove passed us in convoy. Each one with two people only in it, all westerners. One wonders where the spirit of adventure has gone when people travel this way? Not everyone can or wants to travel as we do, but surely travel involves being a little closer to the country you are actually in? At least share a 4WD between 4 of you, go on, I dare you! Live dangerously.

We pulled into Amerzgane and did a spot of food shopping. Kasbah Imini would serve us breakfast, but we are running low on dirhams. Every village has Cash Plus, Western Union etc which are all cash transfer places, but no banks or ATM's. We initially changed 300 EUR to 3000 MAD when we arrived in Morrocco and have been spending about 80 MAD per day, so it has been looking like it will just work out without having to exchange again. We booked Kasbah Imini via booking.com as we have our three other accomodations in Morroco and the payment has been made that way. However we got a message from Kabah Imini suggesting they would prefer payment in MAD. We had the exact amount for payment in euro so decided to just pay like that and hopefully there would be no issues. Mike went into the local cash joint but they definitely do not do money exchange. However, when I looked online later I saw that one of the cash transfer companies does offer currency exchange at some of the branches. We set off to ride the 5 km to Kasbah Imini, after boiling our eggs of course. At the kasbah a delightful bloke greeted us and accepted our euro with a smile. We were able to park our bikes in the drying room. We have a lovely room off the interior courtyard which is undercover with an orange tree in the centre. We sat on the comfy carpet covered benches and had our sweet mint tea. We had a delicious breakfast next morning and spent the day resting, booking our flights from Brussels to Entebbe, Uganda and applying for a Ugandan tourist visa.