Day 8: Zagora – Tamnougalt

Ride: 72 km Climb: +620 m / -490 m

Up between 2 and 4 a.m. with cold symptoms but managed to get back to sleep.

Meh breakfast and out the door by 8 a.m. first to visit a medina under restoration.

Lots of work still needed on it, quite dark passages but because of the construction is cool inside.  The medina is a labyrinth, with 6 families who are direct descendants of the original medina still living there; some are temporarily out for restoration and will move back in when their dwellings are finished.  There was a museum to tour around, with artifacts and info posted.

These have not changed substantially in centuries – we were shown this in the Atlas Mtns and still making delicious bread.

We emerged from the dark (and cool) medina into a blast of heat and walked uphill a little to retrieve our bikes. We headed off uphill in 29C. Ugh.

it was cool amongst the date groves

Cycling was fairly easy with gradual ups and lots of undulations and there was a bike lane on both sides! Granted you still had to pay close attention to the road as there was vegetation, sand, rocks and potholes intermittently but generally it was pretty good surface and we made rapid time.

view over Daar valley from the top of an undulation

An inevitable snack stop after we turned off the main highway saw dates and bananas scoffed in short order. We followed this secondary road for some time, bunching up to go through villages. Although there were a lot of kids on the road (apparently a half day and school had just let out) they didn’t seem as aggressive.

By now it was 31-32C and the hills were pretty deadly going up without the breeze created on the flat and downhill. Although I pushed fluids (despite the unappetising option of warm water or electrolyte solution) it was very dehydrating work. I rode with Dan and Yousef who rode pointguard through villages when there were kids on the road – Dan was like the goodwill ambassador calling “salam” to all the kids who stopped and watched us (many just wanted a greeting).

After 42 km with the temps drifting up to 33C I was done. Fortunately it was lunch time, and there was some shade. There was only 25 km left to go for the day, but between the cold virus, the heat and lack of sleep I elected to hop in the van – riding in that is really no fun and the scenery wasn’t super interesting. In fact, it got more arid and less and less grew as we rolled out after lunch – I found I saw more in the van anyway as riding requires concentrating on the route ahead.

the mountains loom ahead, looking like they support little life – perhaps with rain in the spring they would look less hostile?

At lunch, we discussed getting cold drinks once a day using the registration fund, as it was so hot, and warm water wasn’t so inviting. Today we stopped at a gas station enroute for the first installment and it was delightful. This date tree in the parking lot shows the stages of ripening of the dates, which are starting to be ready to pick. I thought they would ripen all at once, but apparently not, which makes picking more challenging. Nice to be able to pick dates though and eat them in a gas station parking lot!

As we neared the Kasbah for today the mountains looked more like heaps of slag – not supporting much life of any kind.

Today’s Kasbah, Itrane, apparently has a pool though it is currently raining and windy. We saw clouds gathering as we came up towards the end of the valley – the rain will be as welcome here as it was at home; it certainly has relieved the feeling of being in a furnace that we had during the day today. The dates look quite dry so will happily accept a watering. Washing is done and hanging up to dry, a double lot as I didn’t feel well enough yesterday aft. to tackle it. This Kasbah has ac, showers with good pressure of water and lots of plug outlets in the room as well as places to hang wet clothes. All important things!

At dinner there was an actual vegetarian dish… good food! May have been helped by the fact that there was another group in the hotel with 5 vegetarians… might have gotten results quicker if I’d had company. Then the Moroccan women on the tour (friends of the leader) arranged for a troupe of musicians to come in to play some authentic local music as a surprise for us. It was lovely, complete with some sword work. Very enjoyable way to end the evening. During dinner I was asking the guides what the hottest temperature they’d cycled in was; 56C. They then asked me what the hottest temp I’ve cycled in was, as it’s become a bit of a running joke that I don’t tolerate heat, and I now have a new record – 39C (the first day, though I didn’t last long). They are very amused by the inability to tolerate those temps which are mild for them. I told them my Scottish blood has a low boiling point 😬