Between Chefchaouen and Fes

April 12, 2024

A Day in the Rif Mountains

It was super windy overnight - the windows kept smashing open and closed, so it wasn't the most restful sleep. We were up and on the road by 8 am after an uninspiring breakfast. Then we drove about 45 min before starting our ride.

We continue to find the people here very friendly - lots of people shouted greetings to us, especially the kids, who are off school for the Eid break. We biked through an agricultural area with lots of donkeys and a few sheep.

Our snacks are dates, figs, and delicious nuts, plus oranges and bananas most of the time. We had our first stop at about 10 km, then another after 22 km at a gas station. This was our first encounter with squat toilets - at least they were very clean.

After our break, we had quite a long uphill - solid up for 4 km. Hicham traded his e-bike with Wendy for the last part of the up.

The very green Rif Mountains are a nice place to ride.

Rivers, greenery, and blooming poppies sure aren’t what I pictured Morocco to look like.

I don’t read Arabic, but I know these signs from a similar message at home: don’t start a forest fire. 🔥

The Intrepid crew trying to fix Leslie’s lemon of a bike. Eventually, she ended up on Youssef’s bike and he endured the clunky gears.

But occasionally we shared the road with other users.

Then we had another few km uphill into a sad looking town with lots of litter around. It was noticeable because we've seen very little trash so far on the roadsides or in the cities. We gathered as a group, then enjoyed a great 10 km downhill to the end of the day. Total was 1350 m down and 650 m up over 50 km. That's a nice ratio!

We all piled into the van for a very bouncy road to our lunch spot on a nice lake formed by a dam. The reservoir is down 40% due to five dry years in a row.

After lunch we had a very long and once again bouncy drive to Fes. We had one motion sickness victim. I'm sure glad that I don't get car sick and don't mind spending time in the back of the van.

Fes (sometimes spelled as Fez) was founded in the 8th century, making it one of the oldest cities in Morocco. And it's the second biggest city. (Casablanca is the largest by a long way). The city includes both the historic car-free Medina, a UNESCO world heritage site, plus the surrounding (and much larger) Ville Nouvelle set up by the French in the early 20th Century. Fes was formerly the capital of Morocco. The French moved the capital to the current location of Rabat in 1912 after riots in Fes, about the same time they were setting up the 'new city'. We're touring the Medina tomorrow, so will learn lots more, I'm sure.

The Fes hotel is the nicest yet. But we didn't have time to linger. We got into our rooms at about 6:30 pm, and had to be ready to go out for dinner at 7:15. It was a mad dash to shower, wash some clothes, and drink a cold beer that was delivered to our rooms.

We went out for dinner to a riad home in the Medina. Like most of the houses here, it was not special from the outside. But it was gorgeous inside. The family lives in the house (grandma, son, his wife, and their kids). Hosting meals is a family affair, but we met only the son because everyone else was at a family wedding, and he too left to attend that party. It was a delicious dinner. The starter was six cooked salads - spinach, smoky eggplant, carrot with orange blossom water, beet and apple, fava beans, and pumpkin with cinnamon. Then we ate pastilla, a chicken pie with ground almonds, onion, and egg inside, sprinkled with powdered sugar and cinnamon. Then we finished things off with homemade cookies, tea, and fruit. All yummy. It was a great experience.

Although the roads are in good shape, the safety standards aren’t quite the same as home. At least these adults have helmets, I suppose!

Dinner in this lovely home was a terrific experience.

The cooked salads and olives were delicious.

I’d never eaten pastilla before - but I hope to have it again. It was a huge meal, and I was stuffed.

All the Canadians, plus Jordan from Blackpool, UK, who was a good sport about eating his veg and sitting with us oldsters.

It was a long but fabulous day.

Today's ride: 50 km (31 miles)
Total: 128 km (79 miles)

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