Michael Tyler

This was supposed to be to a town called Larache, about 30km North. I booked the hotel for the wrong day, and unfortunately, when I turned up at the hotel, it was closed. I messaged them through the booking app and they notified me of my error. Nothing I could do now, the hotel was closed.

Being fairly early in the day, I thought it better to book a hotel which was on my way to my next stop, Rabat. And the best place happened to be

Riad Des Oiseaux

Or ‘hotel of the birds’. Hotel for the birds it should read. Another shady hotel in the back of nowhere.

This is the reason I’m a day behind. The hotel says, on the list of amenities, it has WiFi, but the owner has forgotten to pay for it. It was survivable though, quite a pretty location, down a 2.5km sand track.

The village was super rural and the host was fairly friendly, unfortunately, he saw guests as a material worth. Not really hospitality as such. More profiteering.

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The main road was the busiest I’ve been on. Still not busy by UK standards, but lots of nice cars and lorries dumping their exhaust fumes in your face. Still, I’m here now.

Been in Tangier for a couple of days. Tonight, I’m just packing my stuff up.

Apartment

Was super nice. Right behind the Castillo fortifications 5 min walk from the port.

Had 4 different rooms, a TV with English channels and nice fast WiFi. Showers were hot and I managed to do some laundry.

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Turns out the campsite owner being weird was the luckiest thing that happened all holiday.

The alternative accommodation, Maison d’hotes Cara Iris wen through my plans to get to my next destination using Google maps. We established some of the hills were going to be pretty drastic, the journey was 155km and there was no stop in between, (at least with bookable accommodation). Based on this, I decided to cycle up to the nearest gas station, (on the main road), and wait for a taxi. I’d been advised that this would cost €5 to El Jebha, a town half way.

Gas station

Easy to find, on the main N16 road. Had a litte supermarket and a few other travelers there waiting for lifts.

I pushed the bike slightly out of view and set about flagging down cars. This didn’t prove difficult, my fair skin and novel outfit probably helped, the only problem was the bike. As soon as I indicated this would be a passenger also, my potential traveling partners had second thoughts. After a while, I limited my recruiting efforts to vans and taxis. After about 3 hours, (12pm), I managed to grab a taxi. I had to persuade him that the bike would not be a problem to get in the back. We dropped the seat down, took the wheels off and it went in without any problem.

The road to El Jebha

Was 55km of Moroccan engineered mountain pass. Steep curve following steep curve, either going up or going down. It was a good idea not to bother cycling. At no time did I think I might have enjoyed it out there… I reached El Jebha in one piece. I had to pay the taxi driver double because I had left let seat down and it had taken up space which would have been generating a fare. I ended up paying 100, which is about £8.

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Bit of a weird one. Considering the jurney was half te previous days, the stress and exertion was double or more!

Campsite

Due to the fact I was planning on staying at a campsite, I hadn’t booked ahead. I’d looked at their website and according to that they had various types of accomodation available.

Bear in mnd, the last time I started a trip without a room, it ended in the worst hotel ever!!

The journey

I’m not sure what made this difficult. A combination of factors. Lots of hills ✅ Long day the day before ✅ Wind in my face✅ No coffee with breakfast✅ A range of things made it difficult to get the motivation. Also, it was a fairly short hop at 60km, possible in 2-3 hours.

Once I came away from Al Hoceima, the main road came away from the coast and went into the mountains. That’s where I stayed for 80% of the journey. By the last 2 hours, I was with the wind in my face, standing on the pedals to get up every hill.

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A full day of cycling.

Started at 8am, waited for breakfast for a bit. Set off around half past.

This is a picture of my hotel.

It was like a palace. Don’t think I’ve ever had as much clean living space for so little money.

They also let me take my bike up to the room, so I got off in the morning without any delays.

Had my breakfast, next thing to do.

Visit the market

I had some dates I used to use for snacks along the way. That and peanuts. Peanuts are filling and pretty heavy duty. More like a mini meal on the move. Dates are lighter, a more sugary affair that will just give you a boost, if you stop for a drink or a breather.

Anyway, I guess these dates fell out. The first thing to do after setting off was to visit the market on the way out of town.

500g of dates cost 12diram, or £1.

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Another easy day. Some slight hills.

The wind was a bit of a pain.

Blowing inland from the sea, it was pretty strong, although not too unpleasant in the heat.

The trip itself was more hilly and it took me from inland to the tip of a peninsula.

Here’s some nice pics from the journey.

The hotel of the good view

Was fairly entertaining.

My bed collapsed when I got into it, my hosts Dutch friends showed up and crashed out the beer and whisky.

Abdul, the guy who owned the place had lived in Holland for a while. These two guys had come to Morocco to visit. For supper, provided by the housekeeper, we had a fish tagine and some traditional hariri soup.

It was an ok stay but the rooms were not that great.

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