Barrha to Rabat

The penultimate journey I’m going to do.

Barrha was an early start from the house of the birds. Onto the sand track, then once again, onto the highway.

Luckily, this highway was not such a major thoroughfare. It seemed to be mostly farm traffic, men on taps and donkeys delivering things to the many poly tunnel farms along the way.

Poly tunnel

As far as the eye could see. Conditions, hot.

This morning I properly covered up with the old sunblock. Every 2 hours, I took another stop to re-apply. Fortunately, by this time in my journey most of the parts that could be burned had already received their fare share of sun. With that and the protection, no problems.

Pushing too hard

When I got going in the morning, I was a little enthusiastic. To cover ground. I’d done 120km the previous day, my brain had forgotten, but my legs had not.

Before the first hour or so, I thought I would increase the place a little. This wasn’t a good idea. I could feel a cramp beginning to develop in my quads. As you may or may not know, once cramp sets in, it stays with you for the day. It’s a curse. You really want to avoid it, because if you can’t massage it away, you’re going to have to rest until it eases.

I felt it growing in my left quad, so as the next spot of shade approached, I parked the bike up and set about massaging the top of my leg and doing some stretching exercises.

On the bike it’s really an hour plus before you’re properly warmed up, it takes a while. This time I got away with it and I was ok.

Farming business

One thing I notice in amongst all these commercial farming operations was the exponential increase in the level of rubbish.

In fact, dumped rubbish was pretty much a permanent feature right the way along this road. It was lying in the sheep’s pasture; them eating around plastic bags and nappies.

Such a sad indictment on the state of civilization.

Stopped for lunch

Again, something you’ve got to do on the longer trips. Your muscles will thank you later.

Being Ramadan, there isn’t really any opportunity to take avail of any of the local catering or hospitality as it’s all closed. No tea. No coffee. No nothing. At least not sitting down where someone will serve you.

Instead, I decided that a stop in the shade with a cold drink, a few nuts and a sit down for half an hour would be just fine. When it got to around lunch, I stopped in a shop in the next village with a bit shaded terrace at the front.

The shopkeeper came out and started talking to me after he’d finished on his phone. Some of the time, Google translate could not give an accurate idea of what he was saying, so I showed him all the pictures of the places in Morocco I had been from the phone.

He seemed to think this was the greatest thing and by the end of the conversation, he was offering me free drinks from the fridge.

He even gave me this small bag of nuts, dates and raisins.

It took a while

But eventually I made it down to the coast on the outskirts of Rabat. As luck would have it, the last 15-20km were shrouded in mist. Cool sea mist. Very refreshing, and kept the sun off.

Chilling in Rabat

Due to my tiredness, I decided to have an elongated stay in Rabat. It’s a relaxed place, much more so than anywhere else I’ve been in Morocco. It has it’s own metro. There’s a fair bit to do and see. Looking at the forward logistics, it looks like the next trip will be the last on the bike. 😢

Here’s some pictures from Rabat.

Trip statistics

• Distance: 144km
• 17.7kph Ave speed
• Max temp 25°
• 745m Elevation gained
• 3,505 calories burned
• Time 6h 58m