Michael Tyler

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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On the bike. Again.

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.

Tangier

I’m taking a roundabout journey to the frontier town of Tangier.

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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.

Bummer.

A bit of bad planning by me.

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Where I’m going to stop for a couple of days.

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!

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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!

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