2 december - Marokko

It is Wednesday the 19^th of November 2003. We have just landed at Malaga airport in Spain. Our luggage has arrived safely. After assembling the bikes and organizing the luggage we leave the airport for our first cycle day. We are heading inland to avoid the busy coastal highway. Gradually the landscape is getting prettier and the traffic less. The first night we find a nice spot on a grassy hill to camp.

The next morning we reach the Baranga del Chorro, a narrow gorge with steep walls and a spectacular kings walking path, unfortunally this path is closed. We continue through some nice mountain landscape and pass several pretty white villages like Ardales and El Burgo. Roads in those villages are often very steep, I estimate up to 20% gradient. Not easy at all with 30 kg of luggage on the bicycle.

After El Burgo we have to go over a mountain pass of 1190 meters. It is our first big climb and Saskia finds it a hard one. How will she cope with the much higher Atlas mountains in Morocco? Luckily the weather here in Spain is good, sunny and not cold.

We have cycled three days now and have reached the port town Algaciras. Here we take the boat to Cueta (Septa) a Spanish enclave in Morocco. 40 minutes later we arrive at the African coast. As soon as we have landed it starts to rain. We still have to cross the Moroccan border, easy border. We have to show our passport three times and receive a stamp and that’s it.

The road to Tetouan has a lot of traffic but after the town it gets narrower and less busy. However, the weather has deteriorated considerable. It’s cold, wet and miserable. While climbing that’s okay but in the descends we freeze to the bone. Chefchaouen, our goal today is situated on a mountain side. We reach it cold and shivering but we quickly warm up after a warm shower in our cheap hotel. Chefchaouen is a nice old little town with a funny Medina ( walled old center of town). The houses and streets of the Medina have been painted in several blue colors, looks great. It’s also a very religious town and, most men wear traditional garments, they look like monks. Maybe especially because of the Ramadan.

The next day we take a narrow road up into the Rif mountains, it’s only one car wide but there is little traffic.

It winds up into the mountains and we spectacular views on the surrounding landscape. Until we reach the clouds, mist and rain and all beautiful views have disappeared. On the way down we pass the village Mokrisset where we buy some food, the inhabitants are friendly and also surprised.

It’s late in the afternoon we have to find a place to camp, we ask a farmer and he invites us in his house where we can sleep and eat with the family. In the morning we enjoy a huge breakfast, great hospitality. The weather has improved a bit today. Only now and then light rain. We arrive at a huge barrage, the tarmac road stops here because it has been flooded by the newly formed lake. There is however another road but it is in terrible shape.

For 20km we suffer, stones and extremely steep parts reduce our speed to nothing. Saskia falls two times of here bike and we have to walk several parts. But later in the afternoon we reach the paved road again. Later we find a nice camping spot on a Sebou river side.

We have reached Fes today. Nice town with impressive city walls and a huge Medina. We do some shopping in the Medina which is like an enormous maze. We expected to be troubled by, so called, guides a lot but this is not the case. Just like we did not have much trouble with hasj dealers and stone throwing kids in the Rif mountains, we read lots of stories about that, maybe we where lucky.

We expected Fes to be a very traditional religious city, however this is not really true. For example: many girls an women wear trousers and don’t have anything on the head.

The following day we cycle to Ifrane, high up into the Mid-Atlas. It’s green here, lot’s of trees and also snow. Not at all how you would expect Morocco to be. The night are long and very cold in our little tent.

But the days are excellent, the weather is good, very sunny and a nice temperature.

Not many people live here up in the mountains, it is quiet but and beautiful. Saskia is doing very well here she seems to be getting the hang of climbing. I however have some knee pain, a relic from the cold and wet days in the Rif mountais. We reach the highest pass over the Mid Atlas, Col du Zad (2178m) and descend to the plateau the l’arid. It is a high plain with stunning views on the snowy peaks of the High Atlas Mountains.

We are heading to those mountains and have to go over another pass, the Tagalm (1907m). After that we cycle partly through a canyon with next to us the Ziz River. This River flows in to the Sahara desert. We follow it to a nice oasis in Meski, where we camp, swim and rest a bit.

Dirk