Final Ride in the High Atlas

April 19, 2024

Biggest climbing day of the trip

Wow - I was tired last night. And I’m coughing. The question is, dust or virus? I think virus, but it's not awful yet. Wendy is further along the path.

There's good news though, the wind died down overnight, and it’s a very pleasant temp for our last day on the bikes. We started riding right from our nice hotel. Today was a climbing day with more amazing views of the Atlas Mountains. We had big switchbacks to our break spot, with the faster riders walking back along the road and cheering on us slowpokes at the back. What a positive and supporting bunch of people.

We rode through villages badly damaged by 2023 earthquake. Some people are still living in tents after seven months.

It was a pretty tough ride, despite not being very long. We rode up 800 m or so up total over 35 km. One section near the end looked downhill, but it was uphill. What's up with that?

Betty is all smiles on our last day of riding.

The only thing painted in this village is the mosque.

The donkeys and mules work hard. We saw them carrying gravel. At least this load would be lighter.

Our biggest uphill of the trip. Not steep, at least.

It just looks like landscape. But there are well camouflaged buildings too. The new town is only about 50 years old, replacing cave dwellings.

Signs of the 2023 earthquake. The Moroccan government was quick to ask tourists to return.

Leslie got chased briefly by a cute young girl on a bike who dashed out of her yard. She asked for a helmet, but we couldn’t donate ours yet since we had another 15 km or so to ride.

The best news of all - everyone finished the ride! There were no crashes, and no injuries. Hicham said he was very happy not to have visited a hospital with any of us - he's done that before.

After biking, we drove about one hour through the High Atlas. We stopped for lunch at touristy but very good spot with excellent service. I had a Moroccan salad and my first fries of the trip.

On our descent to Marrakech, the road detoured around a big rock slide on the highway. It had happened about two weeks ago.

We made an ice cream stop en route to Marrakech, arriving to our hotel in the late afternoon.

Our Canadian crew at the end. Tricia, Anne, Wendy, Leslie, me, Robyn, and Betty. All in one piece!

I’m not a big fan of these bikes. But they got us to the end.

This beautiful woman had henna on her hands. Betty had some henna put on her legs a couple of days ago too.

The high point of our drive to Marrakech was Tizi n Tichtka Pass at 2200 m. The route was built by the French to access mining locations. It's a nice road with many switchbacks and a paved shoulder - fine for bike tourers. But I’m okay with driving it.

We went out for dinner as a group to a restaurant about a five minute walk from the hotel. It was a nice place with white tablecloths and a menu that could have been in any city in the western world. I'm sorry that we didn't go for another Moroccan meal, because I've really liked the food on our trip, and I'm not at all tired of it. Wendy and I had pizza and split a bottle of wine. $60 CAD total. That's expensive for here, but cheap by home standards. We celebrated Aussie Anne’s birthday with a nice cake and then called it a night.

Our final ride had a good bit of uphill. My computer showed less vertical than Wendy’s. Hers is newer, so I’ll agree with its 830 m estimation. (Always go with the higher number 😀)

Today's ride: 34 km (21 miles)
Total: 391 km (243 miles)

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Rachael AndersonYou made it! I hope you don’t get sick.
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