It was a toss up of taking a longer journey, (130km), or the short one at about 75km.
When I checked the weather for today, it said rain for this afternoon.
That never materialised, but it has been cloudy all day. This and the fact there were no hills made it pretty pleasant. I did of course plump for the easy option.
Oujda
Tangier
I’m taking a roundabout journey to the frontier town of Tangier.
This involved taking my bike on the bus from Fez CTM to Oujda. It was surprisingly cheap and easy, cost me 140 dirams for the 5 hours trip.
By bus. Whilst on the bus, I supposed, ‘what would be the best place to cross the border into Algeria’?
Hmmmm.
Not so friendly
It seems that Algeria and Morocco haven’t been friends for a very long time. The last time the border was open was in 1994. UK residents need a visa for entry also.
The trip was under ideal conditions. Mostly downhill and with the wind behind my back. 56 miles took 4 hours or so.
You don’t get any better.
Trip statistics
Distance: 91km
18.25kph Ave speed
Max temp 29°
-720.85m Elevation gained
2,317 calories burned
Time 4h 59m
In and around Fez Medina and Souk
For the last 24 hours or so, I’ve been here, in the old town of Fez.
It’s not really like anywhere where I’ve been before. There are no vehicles allowed in the Medina. Just people, hand-carts and the odd donkey.
It’s just a crazy place. Like a maze of alleyways. When you get into the souk, the alleyways are lined with shopfronts. So many colours, different items, some for tourists, a lot for Moroccan punters. They sell all the things you can imagine.
The food is pretty amazing.
It’s like internet shopping on wine, before the internet was invented.
Crazy.
If you lived here for a week, you’d need to buy your own mule to take all your stuff home for you!
Today felt like a much better day. Not finishing off at night and not knowing where you’re staying is not the greatest. Last night whenI finished, I could hardly walk because I was so exhausted. Tonight was more relaxed, and I managed to wander around to town do a few things that I wanted.
To start the day
From 9.30 am until roughly 12 was entirely uphill. I was climbing from the off. For the last half hour, I refused to do any more, and walked, just to save energy and give my body a bit of a rest.
It was around every corner is another hill. Most of them being upwards.
Still, it was quite pretty and the weren’t many cars on the road. Could hear the woodpecker in the forest, and at one point, a tortoise walked out into the road in front of me!
I’m gonna keep this short and sweet. I’ve had one of the worst nights sleep and I’m not feeling a blog is going to be adding anything to my feelings of wellbeing.
A holiday?
Aparently yesterday was some form of a holiday in Morocco, which I knew about. Not only that, the hotels were booked up along the way, I only tried one because there was only one.
When i reached to only town with more than one hotel, they were all booked due to a festival in town, and I had to cycle a further 8k to the hotel.
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