Morocco

Tanger surprised me! I expected an Egyptian like city, but Tanger had clean streets, looked organized and even the many lawns were all meticuously cut by teams of gardeners with bushcutters.

The soukh in the old medina still had the old Arabic atmosphere, but other than that Tanger was much like Amsterdam🙂

Sunrise, daybreak starts in january at 0830 in Morocco. They should be on Greenwich time, their Atlantic coast is at the same longitude as Cornwall in the UK! Well, ok, you get sunset in return at 1900, it is all give and take.

I left for my first Moroccan cycling day at 9, after 10 kilometres I cleared the hussle of the city. I navigated the national routes to avoid the real highway, so you pass through villages and settlements.

I was heading southwest, looking forward to be stopped by the Atlantic Ocean. But I stopped for supplies first, as you never know.

Hardly any wind, so the Atlantic was at ease. I parallelled the ocean for many kilometres,

ducked under the highway again and was passed by a TGV train overhead. The first high speed train in Africa, now connecting Tanger to Rabat, but to be continued to Casablanca.

I really enjoyed the high quality biking route, 4 lanes, shoulders to bike on and hardly any traffic.

My navigaton had given up though;  as a Dutch cheapskate I bought a Moroccan simcard, with limited internet data. MapsMe helped me out – it is a standard practice for me to download map data for the country I visit which you can use off line. Be autonomous!

Unlike Tanger, villages were messy and full of garbage. A matter of priorities I guess, they were probably more busy surviving this environment they were living in than cleaning it up.. The economy in this areas is driven by horses, horsecarts to be exact, the only thing moving seen.

It became all more rural, cows and sheperds appeared in the scenery; along the road fruit, vegetables and pottery were sold. Tempting to buy, but I really couldn’t take anything any more on the bike.

I was guided off the coast for a small detour – and climb – in the Atlantic hills, very much like the Limburg gradients. Zooming down from the hills I passed the (former) saltpans of Lagrange.

Larache, a city I never heard off, but still pretty big and selling upgrades for simcards.

With the navigation problem solved I could continue to Riad des Oiseaux, a very small hotel in the middle of an agricultural area with those awful plastic greenhouses.

The 6 room riad on the lake was some nature thing for birdwatchers; when I arrived I was the only guest – and not even a birdwatcher!

Worst of all however was the entry road; 2.5 kilometres of sand and mud… I did not expect to end up in the middle of nowhere, with nothing around me but nature.

The lady caretaker – who only spoke Arabic, not even a word of French – cooked me a tahin meal, solid Moroccan food. My lucky day in the end when I found some wine…

Breakfast ready at 8, so I could hit the dirtroad by 0830. More workers were walking – and biking – this road, it took me 20 minutes. A quiet sundaymorning but foggy unfortunately. Roads were ok again, the bad parts you found in the villages.

All in all it was relaxed biking, especially when the sun finally beat the fog by 12. As I progressed well I decided to continue to Rabat which extended my trip to 140k, still within my (flexible) limits. And met my first camels!

Nearing Rabat the coast is a mix of beaches and rocks, impressive. Many seashore apartments are being built ( some go for 75000 euro) but this area is not for me.

I booked a riad in Rabat, actually it was Sale, the older part of Rabat next to the busy traditional soukh

and the very upscale marina with lots of restaunts. Found mysellf a great place with one of the best steaks ever!

The view from the riad was great but I gave myself little time to enjoy is. The French riad owner wished me luck with 2 days of rain coming up. How pessimistic can you be..

Toured royal Rabat as a tourist for a few hours, also looking for a bike mechanic to do some break maintenance (in vain) biked the boulevard, before continuing the 100 k ride.

It was not until coming up Casablanca I joined the ocean again. Tried to find a bike shop on the way to my hotel and found (sounds easy) a guy, Karim, who promised to fix it next day, my rest day. Hotel – not by chance – in walking distance to the soukh and main square, my evening was filled!

Bike is now fixed, front break pads were gone completely, rear 50% left, after less than 1000 k. As you don’t find brake pads at every corner in Casablanca the repair took time, it was a good time though with Karim and I practised my French. Bike got a good cleaning as there was still a lot of Spanish mud in the nooks and crannies. Now having lunch opposite the bike shop, Karim looks after the red camel.

Still no rain leaves plenty of time to bike the city. Especially here, as a biker, you have to claim your space, else you never get nowhere. I like the roundabouts which might look daunting, but it is great to beat the traffic🙂

Now a day of planning for the rest of the trip, heading south, that has already been decided.