Day 4: Imi n’Ifri – Aït Bouguemez 

Ride: 62 km Climb: +1490 m / -2142 m 

Breakfast at 7 a.m., with departure slated at 8 a.m.  (of course we were late).  At 6:55 I went to unlock the door to my room to start hauling luggage down and couldn’t get out – lock completely stuck.  I was able to raise someone in the room across the hall and they alerted someone at the desk; by detaching the key from its’ ring and passing it under the door it was able to be unlocked from the outside.  A new adventure every day!  We left “Happy Valley” which appears as a green strip from above and grows apples, bananas, pomegranate and other crops.  From the rain yesterday though some of the lower part of the valley had been flooded so the route had been adjusted to another which remained passable (there was an option for a technical descent on gravel however between the flooding and likely some road damage from yesterday’s rain it was ruled out).

as we started to climb, a village at the bottom of the second valley

Cool day today – sunny to start but we are high enough to need arm and leg warmers.  We had a transfer first so were in the vans for about 90 mins – the first part we navigated through another village with even worse roads, then turned onto a road that started climbing.  And climbing.  And climbing.  Not a great road, esp. after the rain yesterday – we passed a grader going down who had been doing some repair work but multiple washouts (age undetermined) were visible and the drop off quite steep.  Some of the grades on those hair pin corners were impressive.  We wound our way up, and up, finally getting to a pass where we disembarked and had great vistas of the next part of the mountain range which had fresh snow last night… it was very chilly up there @ 3000 m., about 10C.

first pass

this pass was about 3000 m and across the valley at 4000 m was the fresh snow

Down the other side we wound, to the next green valley bottom where we appeared to randomly stop for an advertised toilet break.  We thought it would be a stop “au natural” but after the guide knocked at a gate we were let into a gite where we were served welcome tea and were able to use clean washrooms.  We haven’t come across squat toilets yet, surprisingly, only Western ones but I am sure our locations are curated.

pleasant temps!

The enterprising owners of the gite also had a “boutique”.  The local bread served with honey and olive oil was declared the best ever by our group and the gite owner sent a messenger over the bridge on a donkey post haste to retrieve some more.  We were shown the clay ovens where they are produced – very rudimentary for such a lovely product.

the owner’s kids?

On our way again, we headed up the next hills and then finally caught up with the bike trailer which was still being unloaded.  Fairly chilly due to a wind so we had a quick snack and then headed out on a mostly gravel road, with ruts reminiscent of Mongolia.  It was a pretty gruelling ride up to the pass, and chilly as rain started to pelt down as we approached the final bit.  I had to walk a section due to the grade, and then when the rain came down steadily got quite chilly quickly despite the effort,  and abandoned ship.  Even some of the ebikes were behind and struggling and our tour organizer was already boarded on the van. 

A short drive later took us to the pass where group pictures were taken, the last layers were added and then there was a fairly nasty/steep descent on quite potholed and loosely gravel surfaced roads on switchbacks with lots of exposure. I caught up with the bike trailer about 1/3 of the way down, and got back on my bike as it had stopped raining & the wind had died down.  The rest declared the first part of the descent their least favourite ride segment to date, and two riders abandoned at this point.  I mostly enjoyed the remaining descent, with lots of caution at the corners, and it certainly was a long descent back into another green valley bottom.  We had an undulating section then the next ascent began in earnest with grades up to 16%.  Even a couple of the superhuman muscle bike riders were beginning to struggle at this point so it was time for me to hop on board the travelling train, with company this time. 

you can see us switchbacking up – this is about where the rain was becoming steady and it was cold with a chilly wind. What it doen’t show is the road surface on this part – rough and rutted making it extra special riding! grade, weather and surface, it had it all.

Shortly before it had started to rain again, and by the time the last riders had reached the top and the lunch stop everyone was huddled under a small cypress tree cold and wet, awaiting the hot meal being prepared by the kitchen staff.  The staff eventually managed to erect a tarp that they held up manually while we got our food – an amazing selection again (and this time I managed to purloin some eggs). 

across the top

The beans in a yoghurt sauce were excellent.  Cumin is a fairly predominant flavour in cooking here, which I love and it is ascribed several medicinal qualities according to the herb/spicologist we visited in Marrakesh .  As the rain did not let up, the wind was howling and there was occasional thunder and lightning, we abandoned the cypress tree and headed into the vans to eat – much better, and Redoin called off the next descent and ride due to the shivering that was pretty universal by now.  It was 10C and most of us had applied all the layers we had brought.

view from hotel balcony

So were driven to the next overnight stop at Kasbah Chems, unusually early and happily as the remainder of that cycle would have brought us in quite late given the late start and leisurely coffee stop.  Time for a shower, hang up yesterday’s clothes, wash today’s and have a cup of tea before sitting down to catch up the posts.  Unfortunately the wifi is again miserable but I managed to get postings up with the help of hotspot.

So our most evil day of cycling was greatly reduced by weather, and I think it was pretty unanimous that there was no regret.   There has been a LOT of climbing on fairly severe grades over the past three days and those are circumstances predisposing to an accident.  Tomorrow is a rest day from cycling, though we move hotels again to the Valley of Roses and have a hike planned.

The hotel is the nicest back country one to date, with all the amenities – hot running water (though no cold), drinking water provided and lots of plugs for charging as well as places to hang things.  Dinner was tasty – guess the menu?  Lentil soup, tagine (vegetarian without any protein) and fresh fruit salad for dessert.  I managed to purloin both cheese and eggs at breakfast, some of which I brought down to dinner, and the spice roads rep said canned tuna would be arriving (though didn’t and was replaced by boiled eggs at the end of the meal.  Tomorrow’s protein!!  The group is very happy to have eggs at lunch – I am hoping I won’t be presented with canned tuna for breakfast, lunch AND dinner as we were in Bhutan, kind of what is happening with eggs right now.  Doesn’t seem to be a lot of cheese used?

And so day 4 ends.  SURELY I will sleep tonight.  It’s raining off and on again but is forecast to be clear tomorrow.