Day 27: Hassilabied to Ksar Takhyamt

March 14, 2023

Headed North

“We are getting a W-assist, not an E-assist,” Rachel says as we are gradually climbing but with the help of the wind for the first 20km. Until the road zigged briefly into the wind and then zagged to a cross wind before returning to a good direction.

Today is a constant gradual incline with a few hefty hills.

We round a curve and see a shop uncertain if there is something cold to drink as it looks like a souvenir shop. We pull in anyway as there is shade. Patrick buys two small orange drinks. The man brings out a chair and places it by a crate that we can use as a table, a girl brings a second chair. Patrick wanders over to the table with the fossils as Rachel makes cheese and nutella sandwiches. The man brings out a straw bowl with dates. Then he notices Rachel’s cough and gives Patrick a half package of Halls cough lozenges. We keep being surprised in Morocco about how thoughtful and observant people are and how they will not hesitate to help you out.

A little later: “How did I get talked into this,” Patrick says as he buys a couple of fossils. “I didn’t go to the table to look until you bought something,” Rachel responds. She did finally look and liked a small serving dish with fossils in it that we buy. Our first souvenirs from Morocco. Unless we count the trinkets of a miniature Moroccan shoe for Rachel’s bike pannier and a Camel key ring for Patrick’s bike pannier. We usually wait to buy souvenirs until we can mail them home rather than carry for a long distance. Which will mean more like Fez or Chefchaouen. The man is so kind and he had a family, this is who we like to support.

This is the busiest road that we have been on, constant campers and tourist vans, trucks and cars. We reach Erfoud and cycle by the main square that looks like a busy market day. Patrick stops at a small shop to pick up bread and potato chips for later today. Further down the road, we stop at a gas station hoping for a cold drink, but only gasoline is sold. We find shade and eat a snack of tangerines and dates that the man at the fossil shop packed up for us.

Today is the first day we have had more than one “conflicts” with cars that don’t like to wait and don’t give us enough space. We also have some more run-ins with little boys. It doesn’t help that we are hot and tired and cannot find our hotel in Aoufous. The Gite we made a reservation for tonight seems to exist in two different places on google maps. One in Aoufous, one in a small village about 3km away in a palm filled valley across the river. Patrick had double checked and the booking website also showed it in the town. So that is where we went first, and that was not where it was. So we have to go another 3km. It is worth it though, the Gite (guesthouse) Tamlli is a nice old house with a large walled garden up against the palmeria. We settle in a room upstairs, rest for a while and work on our photos and yesterday’s journal.

Took some doing but we finally found Hotel Gite Tamlli. Google maps had the wrong location.

Pictures of inside the Hotel

Berber flag: the Blue is for the Ocean, the Green for the mountains and the Yellow is for the desert. The figure in the middle symbolises a person

In the evening we take a walk through the palmeria down to the river (even though the river is dry). Dinner is another chicken tagine, a safe and typically good choice of food. We are looking forward to different foods though.

Today's ride: 80 km (50 miles)
Total: 1,004 km (623 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	13
Comment on this entry	Comment	0