Ride: 71 km Climb: +1300 m / -1080 m
Glory be, I slept last night although the Neo Citran may have helped… made it through until 5:30.
Breakfast at 8 then we headed out for a major climbing day.
The riding started out fairly pleasant and undulating.
pleasant temps!
Castle above town, soccer field in foreground – like many, stones and pebbles are the surface of the soccer field. At least this one is level!
Then we hit the first hill which was 12 km and 700 m up (not outrageous, approx. Cypress Mtn?). At the start it was 23C which was reasonable, but it got hotter going up especially working so hard. The ebikes and superhumans disappeared out of sight fairly quickly and that put more pressure on the pace; I laboured up with Yousef gallantly accompanying me. My goal given my congestion from the cold was to get ½ way up at least, which I managed, and then bailed. To get up the rest would have taken a lot of time, though the grades after the bottom part weren’t bad so it was definitely possible but my pace vs ebikes/superhumans would have meant a lot of waiting around for the others. The problem I suspected at the outset.
a false summit near the top
The stop that Yousef had promised repeatedly appeared about 100 m up from where I bailed. Interesting rock formations around in varying colours although there didn’t appear to be much growing on it.
at the rest stop
there were vendors spread out at the rest stop, selling fossils amongst other things.
At the top I was able to retrieve my bike and ride down; not much traffic so lots of fun.
from the lower 1/3 of the hill we could see this town as well as the solar power plant, glinting in the distance; rain clouds were forming but we wondered initially if it was an optical illusion, a mirage in the distance. Apparently it is the biggest solar power plant in Africa, and feeds via underground cables most of Morocco.
Undulations next, never too big hills to complain and fun pedalling hard at the bottom to see how far up you can get – then lunch. It was hot there, feeling pre-storm like and menacing clouds were definitely building where we were going. The forecast had said rain by 2 p.m. Another excellent lunch – there are requests for Hassan to do a cookbook as this is by far the best meal of the day. Another can of tuna for me, and the local cat was very happy to lick it clean.
the fruit salads are always excellent!
At lunch we had some discussion about bike swapping; the Spice Roads rep (Kamm) had decided not to ride any more and had an electric bike. Johanna, one of the Vancouver Island grannies 4 Africa, had been given a bike that was too tall for her so the suggestion was for her to take Kamm’s bike and pass her ebike on to me. It seemed worth a try so with a few minor adjustments and swapping bags we were off. I had crossed to the dark side.
It definitely is a different experience on an ebike. Not sure I’m thrilled about it but at least when I saw a hill coming I don’t say “oh shit”. So easy….. I now see how everyone (but the superhumans) got up those hills the first few days. It took awhile to figure out some of the ins and outs, and you can definitely tailor it to make more work for yourself with the settings. I’m definitely not converted but will continue for this trip as the speed of the ebikes is incompatible with my uphill pace. The terrain after lunch was undulating, which is fun on a real bike, but can be sometimes ponderous with an ebike. The rain came down quite hard so after getting soaked we pulled over to shelter under a metal canopy beside the road and fortunately it stopped. However it was very noticeable both here and below, how quickly the washes and rivers filled up and the streets when we got below were reminiscent of flash floods in the southern states.
wet farmland
Fortunately, the rain stopped – we rode about another 10 km then stopped as the storm clouds gathered again and there was thunder and lightning. Bikes were loaded onto the trailer and we had a 1.5 hr transfer to our final destination for the next two days, Ait Benhaddoue. We had a stop at a carrefour in Ouarzazate and it was interesting to see there a plentiful collection of cheese and fish…. hard boiled eggs are still the only thing showing up as alternate protein in the evening. Not sure I’ll be able to look at an egg for a while when I’m done this trip….
storks nest on top of minaret
courtyard of the riad
Dinner at the riad was very bland – and cumin missing from the table as an add-on, unfortunately. It’s been there with the salt and sometimes pepper up until now. Vegetarian option was penne with cheese sauce – not a whole lot of cheese but nice to have a change of taste.
Tomorrow is a rest day; some touristing then a free afternoon.
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