A Curious Tale of African Cycling: Morocco Part 2: Rabat to Tan Tan

And so our collection of Moroccan urban and rural sights continued.

Moroccan Car Insurance?

Roadside Tagine for Ollie

Roadside Fish Sales

Why pay a Franchise Fee when you have a Billboard

Old Medina Rabat

The rural pastime - roadside herding

Outside the butcher shop - some goat feet for teatime!

Peugeot 205 Taxi Rank

From Rabat we hit the big industrial city of Casablanca – smog and crazy traffic with a plush D4 quarter and an Irish bar that charged 6 euros a drink – same price as the hostel accommodation!

Then onto Marrakech, with a sleepover in a local school on the way. Abdraheem, the school caretaker insisted I join him in his hide away from family duties, for an evening of satellite TV.

Abdraheem - school caretaker

Marrakech lived up to its rep as a most intriguing city with miles and miles of souq alleyways and deep cultural vibe. However Arthur Daly himself wouldn’t escape from being fleeced at every turn.

And then onto the Atlas for some amazing scenery, more roadside tagines (causing a few Olympic toilet trips) and lots of donkey scenery.

Atlas Mts from Marrakech

Summit Tagines

Donkey Snacking

Some Rain Cover

Well Duties

Agadir, as expected seems the most Western of Moroccan cities. Impressive beachfront and bar strip with lots of fellow pasty people around and Derek departed from us again at this point.

Waka Waka Hostel Marrakech

Getting used of the mosque prayer sirens – kinda like the Angelus Bells – a portion of people take notice and hit the mat and a portion seem to take no heed. Impressed by how safe Morocco is – thievery just not part of the culture – also impressed by the developing economy – ecommerce doesn’t seem to have fully hit yet but with such a young educating population, all seemingly happy with the new King (Monarchy TV pretty funny) – seems like an economy to watch.

Trip total 3,903km – nearly 8 weeks on the road - Ollie holding the daily record of 185km!

Lost and Found – 1 passport, 2 laptops and 1 kindle – lets hope our luck continues!

Daily expenditure decreasing nicely to 15-20 euro levels (3 euro accommodation is current record)

Wind is new enemy now (4 hour struggle for 40k 2 days ago) and its starting to get sizzly too. On the edge of the dessert now – barren and dusty camel country – head turbans will soon in be use!

Entrance Guelmim

Roundabout Tan Tan

Other random photos:

Majorelle Gardens Marrakech

Miloud, a friendly tour guide in Taroudant, explained that to pick up a traditional girl - you watch out in the street and then when you spot one- you follow her home to see where she lives and then go talk to the father or the brothers - no chatting to the girl beforehand never mind a trial run!