November 18th - Rambling from Rio

After a lush stay in the transfer hotel, including supper, breakfast, hot showers, wifi, clean crisp sheets... We left for the airport. We arrived in loads of time, but passport control/security took so long we actually only caught the plane by about 5 minutes.. This was really really stressful. I've always wondered how people manage to miss flights but after nearly missing two in two days I've got a lot more sympathy. I spent most of the 9 hour flight watching films and The Middle (jealous keeches?) and before we knew it we were in Rio. The immediate transition into the land of ORGANISATION was startling. So clean!! So many shops!! So little sand!!! There was a stand for taxis!!!! We got a taxi to a hostel. The drive was incredible, with a lit up Christ The Redeemer in the background, and the lights of Rio. We got to the hostel, put our bikes together to the amazement of the other guests who were all downing the mojitos and fell into bed.

November 17th - Christ through a cloud. 
We woke up and decided to visit Christ The Redeemer ASAP. I've been excited ever since me and my  fab cousins made a v realistic scale model out of sand. We had a lovely walk along the sunny beach with our feet in the sea, and then got the van to the top of the mountain. On the way up we had a tantalising view of the statue and the city below but when we got to the top we were in a cloud. Complete nightmare. I could barely see Mum let alone the statue. We waited for a while becoming increasingly despondent, and then to further our woes an annoying German man talked at us for a while. This sealed the deal and we left. It took a while to get back to the hostel, and then we had to pick up my bike which had been serviced. By this point it was getting dark so we went out to look for something to eat. The beach area of Rio is very touristy and most of the restuarants were overpriced Italian - so we bought a picnic, listened to the Archers and had an early night.

November 18th - Rainy Rio
We decided to stay an extra day in Rio because of the disappointing trip to CTR, and the stress of the travelling of the past few days. We woke up and had a swim before breakfast. Swimming in the sea is something we do as much as we can on this trip, and I always love it. It's not just the act of swimming in the sea, but the fact that the sea is same wherever you are: St Mawes, France, Barry Island, Sahara, Senegal, Rio... The feeling is so familiar it's comforting in a new place. We made the most of the breakfast buffet in the hostel (cake included) and then set off to cycle around the lake that was used in the olympic rowing. Within minutes the weather seriously deteriorated and we were hit by awful wind and rain and were soaked in seconds. We turned around and retreated to the safety of the hostel. After lunch I went to the Laundry to do washing in a machine!! I never thought that at the age of 21 I'd be this excited about washing... Not speaking Portuguese made this negotiations tricky but we worked it out. After washing we cycled around the lake. These views were breathtaking. Mountains appearing from nowhere with buildings at the bottom. CTR standing high above the lagoon. We stopped off to visit the botanic gardens which were beautiful, very green and lush with all sorts of exotic plants and a non-stinging bee colony. We even saw a hummingbird at touching distance.

Tomorrow we're heading South along the coast, following part of the olympic road race route to start with. We're hoping for no more rain... And less wind more worryingly.

P.S Thank you all for your lovely comments! We read them all and I know I don't reply but it's because wifi has been so rubbish and the process just seems unachievable. Please please keep writing and I'll try and reply more.

November 14th - Dakar!

I'm writing this in a really really nice (everything's comparative, the tap turns when you move it) hotel room in Dakar on the eve of our flight to Rio! Actually we're only flying to Morocco tomorrow, and then Rio the next day, but it's still the eve of the transition to our next phase of the trip. Our last day in Africa has been not fab, but the past few days have been great!

November 9th - stresst day in St Louis. 
By now we've learnt that we hate cities. It's a complete nightmare cycling through unfamiliar busy roads, particularly in Africa where people have no fear, and often no wing mirrors. We woke up in the morning and had a lazy breakfast, enjoying the luxury of having a room (hut) and not having pressure to start cycling before it is too hot. After this we ventured into St Louis. This was about a 5k cycle which isn't far, but it was on a pot-holey road with lots of traffic. As soon as we were stationary we were descended on by people wanting to "help" us or sell us something, or just talk. I like talking to people but it's a complete nightmare and really put us off standing still for any length of time, which reduced our enjoyment of the city. A typical example would be us trying to find the bridge, somebody coming and pointing out the bridge, and then asking for money because he'd "helped" us. This is incredibly frustrating and led to us being quite rude - not what we wanted. After a few hours of this we descended on a posh looking restaurant for lunch - this cheered us up a bit. After lunch we made friends with a man who claimed he'd met us before but neither of us recognised him, anyway we ended up going back to his house for a cup of tea with his family. His house was quite far away and at that point we were exhausted - so we went to the youth hostel and fell fast asleep.

November 10th - St Louis to Zebrabar (a true oasis). 
We tried and failed to leave St Louis early and head for Zebrabar, a campsite we had heard much about from other travellers. It turns out it was worth its fab reputation. A beautiful campsite in a national park, with hammocks strewn around the site, and cold beer in the fridge. We got there at around lunchtime and decided to go out in a boat and have a look at the birds. The guide seemed very happy with this plan but it turns out it was a big mistake as in the middle of the day all the birds are asleep, as he cheerfully informed us when we were halfway round and had only seen a seagull which could very well have come from St Mawes. I'm exaggerating slightly but it's very frustrating to feel like you're constantly being ripped off by people. He clearly would have known that we wouldn't see anything but still agreed to take (lots of) money, and didn't even seem very sorry. After the boat trip I fell asleep in a hammock for hours and then we all ate supper together with the european family running the campsite, and the other campsite visitors - two very friendly Germans heading for South Africa. They had only taken 11 days to get to that point! For those people riveted to the progress of my fish eating, supper was some delicious fish kebabs, which I ate with relish.

November 11th - Zebrabar to a tiny village north of Kebemer
We left Zebrabar earlyish and set off back towards St Louis and joined the main road heading south to Dakar. Most of this was riding through a national park, filled with salt lakes, and monkeys in the trees. When we joined the main road the landscape being less varied, but still green and lush which is such a contrast after the desert. Being able to stop and rest under a shady tree is something I won't take for granted ever again. After a beautiful day's riding we got to a village and decided we would stop for the night. We asked somebody where we could camp and were directed to the old police station, where a man lived to guard it, and he had a spare room. This was a weird evening, as he seemed to want to marry both of us, even though he already had two wives. He was also keen for us to watch TV with him in Wolof, which is the Senegalese dialect. Obviously neither of us speak Wolof but being English we pretended to enjoy it for ages, laughing on cue. Mosquitos are becoming more and more of a problem but luckily he had nets that we slept under (we've got one). This was an uncomfortable night as both of our thermorests have punctures so we've been sleeping on the ground. This is okay if it's sand but less okay if it's concrete floor.

November 12th - Kebermer to Mboro
We had a relaxed schedule this week because we'd booked flights to Rio with plenty of contingency. This means we could meander a bit, so we decided to go to Mboro, a small town on the coast. We continued along the main road to Dakar, and it gradually got busier. The hassleness is just constant in areas like this, and I'm really not sure why because they can't get many tourists coming close enough to shout at? But they all seem to really expect us to give them our bikes. Even quite fat women ask us for our food - one even tried to break off a bit of bread as we were eating it. We arrived at Mboro early enough for a beer and a game of backgammon in a european run campsite where we were the only customers. Despite this the owner could not have been less interested in us. I know I'm more nosey than the average person, but how can two women arrive by bike to your campsite and you don't even ask where they've come from? The campsite was lovely though, and had enough wifi for me to download the Joseph soundtrack. Mum and I sing when morale gets low and Joseph is a common choice.

November 13th - Mboro to Lac Rose
We left Mboro and headed along the coast to Lac Rose. This wasn't very far so we took a diversion to the seaside town of Kayar. Once we were there any thought of sitting restfully on the beach was destroyed because we were converged upon by enthusiastic locals again. In the villages further off the beaten track people are generally a lot nicer, but not less annoying. I love love talking to people, especially strangers with fascinating lives, but I also love sitting on my own and reading my kindle. This is impossible in Senegal. One person suggested we ride along the beach to Lac Rose, which in an uncharacteristic fit of adventuring we did! This was 10/10 would recommend. The sand was hard and the sea a glorious blue, and the beach mainly deserted. It also had that element of risk as occasionally the sand wasn't hard and it was scary. We got to the bit of beach *next to* Lac Rose, and it turns out that in between us and it were loads of sand dunes. There is NOTHING more frustrating than pushing a heavily loaded bike through sand. NOTHING. After an hour of this we were both seriously struggling, and then two locals came and took our bikes like absolute heroes. We got back onto the road and made it to the lake. My expectations of the lake were pretty high by this point and it was slightly disappointingly pink. By this time we both wanted to stop so we pulled up at the first place that said "camping". This was a campsite in name only - they didn't even have running water. The owner said we could pay what we want, and we agreed a price, and then he said he'd take us to his village for supper. These invitations are always met with both joy and dread - it's often really lovely and interesting to meet local people and eat their food, but it is also really hard work, both being polite and remembering to take your shoes off at the right moment, and speaking french for a long period of time. Shortly after this two other visitors arrived, one of them a British cycletourist called Robin who we had heard about from other people. He is heading to South Africa on a two year trip. Meeting Robin was unbelievably exciting. Not only was he a fluent english speaker but a fluent cycling english speaker!!! We had lots to talk about and it was really nice spending time with somebody other than mum (I'm 99% sure she'll never read this). We all went to the village and ate chicken and chips, and got a lift back (7 people in one car).

November 14th - Lac Rose to Dakar.
Before actually coming to Dakar I had a vague plan that I'd spend my medical elective (if I ever pass another exam) there. If I ever go to Dakar ever again I am not going by bike. Cycling into the city was awful beyond all imagining. I'd give us survival odds of about 4/5 so I'm quite pleased we're both alive. We had various small errands to run which were all stressful and took ages, and then we had to pack up the bikes. One of the hotel staff tried to help me, which at first I found very annoying as trying to explain what I was trying to do in French was v lengthy. Soon my stamina disappeared and I become very grateful as he moved our bikes around with ease whilst we were practically too tired to stand up, eventually we got the job done and collapsed into bed.

November 15th - Dakar to Casablanca (by plane)
I'm now at Casablanca airport in a free airport transfer hotel (who knew that was a thing?). We had an awful morning in Dakar, trying and failing to go to the Isle Goree (too tired for accents sorry Sally) and getting ripped off buying various things. The day only got worse as we got to the airport and found out we had to pay 300 euros to take the bikes on the plane. The people who told us this were seriously unhelpful and with 10 minutes before the flight was due to leave we were still outside the airport. Luckily it was running on African time and we made it with a whole 1 minute to spare...

PICTURES TO FOLLOW

November 9th - Beer in St Louis

Our rest day in Mauritania's capital was lovely. We had a swim in the sea (in all our clothes obviously...). We also saw the fishermen bringing in their daily catch in their long boats that they had to pull up the beach. The boats were all decorated beautifully. After that we went to a supermarket for the first time in weeks which made me surprisingly emotional. I can't believe all the times last year I didn't have a cup of tea because I couldn't be bothered to walk 300m to tesco. We had weeks in the desert of mainly eating cous cous/stale biscuits/stale bread and to be suddenly presented which such a vast array of food was very overwhelming! We spent lots of money. We also got taken (with Gaby and Werner) on a tour of the city by the campsite owner who spoke flawless english. We saw the country's only fire station, and got a flavour for the city. In the morning it was a very very sad goodbye to Werner and Gaby, who we've spent 6 nights camping with, in 3 countries. They're amazing people on an amazing journey and they've given us so many luxuries over the past few weeks! Their website is www.gabyundwerner.de

November 6th - Nouackchott to a police checkpoint - We left Nouackchott with a great plan to cycle round the coast and avoid the chaos of cycling through a city of 2 million people and lots of donkeys. Sadly due to a massive disagreement about which way we should go (I was right just sayin') we ended up not only cycling through the city, but cycling through a slightly dodge seeming slummy area where the road was mainly sand. We shouted at eachother a lot and eventually managed to fight our way round the cars/donkeys/goats/children and on to the main road south, out of Mauritania. Almost immediately the desert ended and we were cycling through Savannah, filled with small villages. As we cycle through the villages hundreds of children run to the road and shout "Donnez-moi un cadeau" or an alternative. Sometimes it's the very ambitious "Donnez-moi ton vélo". These shouts often seem quite aggressive and I doubt they ever have any success. It's lucky they're so rude because otherwise I would feel terrible as these children have nothing and I have so much. We spent the night in a police checkpoint with policeman who were exactly the right level of friendly.  Interested but no marriage proposals (this is rarer than you'd think, I'm absolutely inundated by proposals) They gave us goaty pasta which we all ate in a circle with our hands. I've really gone off forks.  It was a very interesting day of cycling, with lots of animals and a varied landscape.

November 7th - Police checkpoint to Senegal - We weren't planning to arrive in Senegal that day, so we had a very relaxed day of riding, stopping often to chat to people, making coffee, having a mid-day nap. The road was very bad with lots of patches of sand that we had to push through, until suddenly the road became absolutely beautiful - thanks to the EU for building it (EU <3 <3 <3). We made cracking progress and arrived at the border with loads of time to cross. Sadly this then became a complete nightmare. We'd heard lots about the Rosso border and it was all bad, but the reality is really really bad. We were dived upon by hundreds of men trying to persuade us that they would help us through the crossing. They grabbed our bikes, grabbed us, grabbed our passports, stood really close. The border crossing involves a ferry which would have been lovely in the evening light across the river, but instead all these people were pretending they were on our side. We got to the other side and it turns out there was only one place to stay and it was really expensive and really horrible. Really really horrible. BUT we always hate our first day in a new country.

November 8th - Rosso Senegal to St Louis - We left Rosso nice and early and had a lovely easy ride to St Louis through gorgeous green land. Grass!!! It's been so long. It was so easy Mum kept falling asleep and veering across the road. We stopped with some policeman and had biscuits, water and a very interesting chat. On our way into the city we bumped into two Canadian cyclists who were just leaving and heading for South Africa! They'd been in St Louis for 9 days. Everyone seems to have more fun than us. They told us where to stay and we headed for it, before venturing out to town for some food and sightseeing. Cities are very hassley and St Louis is no exception. We just stick out so much and everyone thinks they can make money out of us. It's a very interesting and diverse place though. My favourite bit was having our first beer in 6 weeks. So cold. So good.

Today we are having a rest day in St Louis, exploring the city and chillin' (not literally it's like 35 degrees) on the beach. Tomorrow we're heading south for some more rest in a national park full of birds.

Some desert photos

November 5th - Saying goodbye to the desert

So we're finally in Nouakchott after some of the hardest days of my life.

Monday 31st - Border to Bou Laminar Our first day in a new country never goes well, but even though we had remembered that we both felt irrationally optimistic about Mauritania. We got up before dawn and packed up our stuff so we were on the road at first light. The early morning light in the desert, when it’s still cool (25 degrees or so) is the best. We’d slept in an auberge just after the border, and felt happy that we’d successfully done the border crossing bit, which has the reputation of being a bit difficult. The visa cost 240 euros and was biometric - but then they all wanted to take selfies.. A nice man came to help us, and then asked us for a LOT of money - we gave him a fraction of that. Another man was persistent with a fist full of Mauritanian Ouriga, and we changed a tiny bit of money. We’d heard you can use any currency in Mauritania so neither of us was worried, and we felt that the man at the border had to be dodgy. This turned out to be a big mistake. Most people cross the border and go right 40km into Nouadibhou where there are cashpoints and banks. We chose to turn left, 430km or 4 days cycling, towards Nouakchott. 

Things started well, and the Mauritanian tarmac is much smoother and easier on the bottom than the Moroccan version. After 20km we found a tiny shop- looking like an allotment shed, but with “boutique” scribbled on a wall. When we got to the doorway we found the couple running the shop asleep on the floor next to the counter. They had tomatoes! But their bread was stale and disgusting. We stocked up on water, but as we got going again the unmistakable draft of a head wind was beginning to build. Within a few minutes our speed was down to 6mph, and we were seriously struggling. We’d had four days of this in Western Sahara, and it’s just unbelievably hard. Plus here the temperature was already 42 degrees at 10:30am, and there was sand  blowing all over the road (I suppose it is the desert!). After another 20km (at least 2 hours) we reached the only town marked on the map, which turned out to be mainly people hanging around, with a few tiny tiny shops in makeshift sheds or tents. We asked about a cup of coffee, to which the answer was “in Nouakchott!”, and tea, which they agreed they could find (surely we weren’t the first people ever to stop and want a drink?). In the end we had to skip the tea as it was about 30m away from our bikes - 30m of sand - and the effort to move our bikes to the tea was unthinkable. In Morocco we’d have happily left our bikes, unlocked, with all our luggage 30m away, and only once ever did we feel insecure about them. Incredibly through the sand we found an auberge, with bedroom, living room and bathroom, and amazingly effective air conditioning. Outside felt like an oven and the temptation was too great, and we dived inside. A disastrous first day with only 40km or so done. But we also still had the problem, which is the auberge cost almost all of our local money, and we are still 400km away from the nearest cashpoint. In the end we asked everyone we could find, and the auberge owner rustled up a friend prepared to accept dollars (at an exchange rate decided by him….). We spent the afternoon playing backgammon (the trip score is 54 - 36 to Harriet even though I'm the better player) and left again early in the morning. 

Tuesday 1st - Bou Laminar to a police checkpoint - I'm writing this on the 5th and I cannot remember anything about this day - I think I've selectively repressed it as it was absolutely terrible. The heat/wind/sand is unbearable and whenever there was any sign of life it would be a tiny disgusting shop selling biscuits (although obvs I love biscuits). The difference in Morocco is staggering - it makes Morocco look like Farnham. We spent the night in the police checkpoint where they gave us some goaty pasta which was delicious. 

Wednesday 2nd Police checkpoint to police checkpoint - We woke up in the morning full of optimism again, and again it was an absolutely horrendous day. I can't cope with headwinds at the best of times, on club runs with loads of people to hide behind and only in one direction. This was not the best of times. Lorries overtaking with sand flying up and hitting your face, all inside my mouth, clogging up my bike, nothing except biscuits to eat... Occasionally we have moments of joy, like the truck driver who stopped and gave us both a cup of tea. 

Thursday 3rd Police checkpoint to Police checkpoint - Again ANOTHER bad day, and this was even worse for me because we arrived in a village that seemed to be entirely made of fish. I had a 20 year gap from eating fish which has only recently made its first tentative steps towards ending and I was not ready for this. They gave us an entire fish for lunch, the water tasted of fish, the children all smelt like fish, it was hot, it was windy... Anyway this was not good. 

Friday 4th Police checkpoint to Nouakchott - Today we had 103km to do, and there was no way we weren't doing it. We set off very early and gritted our teeth. The wind wasn't as bad as the previous days, and as we got towards the end of the desert there was less sand and it was less unpleasant. We stopped for a quick break at a checkpoint and a policeman gave us 6 satsumas. I was borderline crying I was so happy. At about 30km to go morale was low again, but then like a mirage Gaby and Werner overtook us again! They waited for us at the campsite turning and we followed them to a lovely campsite right on the beach and had a swim. It's amazing how quickly you can forget and be happy again...

Saturday 5th - Rest day in Nouakchott! After a lovely meal in the restaurant last night, we had the famous Gaby and Werner breakfast (it's worth going to Africa just for that) with a swim before, and now we're feeding our wifi addictions in a posh hotel. And.. We've booked flights to Rio! 

I should say that although this post has sounded very negative, there have been real moments of joy and happiness, and the sense of achievement is massive. Plus, the desert is beautiful. 

October 27th - Some Sahara stories.

It's been ages since I've written but wifi is scarce in the desert (who'd have thought it) and so is charge.

October 18th - Tan Tan - After leaving Guelmin which is the "gateway to the desert" the landscape changed dramatically very quickly. While previously there had been lots of houses/people/dogs/goats/cats everywhere, almost instantly there was nothing. And I mean nothing. The stretch from Guelmin to Tan Tan was 120 kilometres or rolling hills of sand-dunes, the road snaking away into the distance before curving back down. The traffic was busy but the smooth road and tailwind made for easy riding. We weren’t sure whether we were going to make it to Tan Tan and we knew there was a campsite 25km before it. We got to the campsite sign and it was 6km up a dirt track. Proving that I’ve already forgotten how to learn, we set off up the dirt track… After about 10 minutes of mainly pushing we managed to remember the lesson we’d been taught lots of times – we hate dirt tracks!! We’ve got a lot of luggage, thin tyres, steel bikes, bad bike handling skills and it is always a mistake to go up them. I’ve learnt this now (who knows which medicine lecture it’s replaced in my shrinking brain). We managed to cycle the next 25km to Tan Tan before dark, and then we had to choose a hotel. In hindsight 1* is definitely too few. It was a bit dodge. We also got charged an extra 20 dirhams for no explicable reason. We should have definitely queried this but we’re both atrocious hagglers. I don’t care if they expect you to haggle – I just can’t.

October 19th - Tan Tan to Akhefiner - There aren't a lot of choices of places to go and Akhefiner was the next town, 111km away. This was more boring than the day before, with a lot of sand. On our way we got overtaken by a camper van who stopped down the road and talked to us. They were a German couple driving to Cape Town and then back up. We talked for a while and then they set off. We got to the campsite and they asked us if we wanted to eat, we set up our tent and then went into the living area, thinking we could peruse a menu. To our surprise there were tables of nibbles and alcoholic drinks and everybody else was sitting down around us (including the German couple). We all talked for a while and it got later and later and later with no mention of food at all. I was feeling slightly ill at this point, luckily Werner saved me with a chocolate biscuit. Eventually at 10:30 we all ate lasagne! So odd.

October 20th Akhefiner - Tarfaya - This was a nice ride along the coast, with dips into beaches. There isn't really a lot to say though.

October 21st Tarfaya - El Marsa - We rode along a new coast road, which was really boring, the only notable sight being a wreck of the ferry from Morocco to the Canary Islands. At this point we also crossed over the border into Western Sahara. We didn't even notice though because Morocco think they own it. The only exciting bit is the thought of scratching it off on my map when we get home... We got to a campsite but it was called "Nil Camping" and looked awful. There was nobody else there and the owner had a washing line with disposable nappies on - instead we went to quite a nice hotel.

October 22nd - El Marsa to Boujdor - Our longest day so far at 101 miles! (Roaring tail wind) but really really really boring. On the way to Boujdor we were overtaken by Gaby and Werner again and we camped next to them, went out to eat and were treated to breakfast in their camper van again.

October 23rd - Boujdor - Military camp - After a few days of beautiful tailwind, today marked the beginning of the end. The wind gradually came round until we were in our small rings and grinding. We weren't sure where we were going to camp but luckily we were being tracked by a policeman who suggested we stay in a military camp! This was absolutely FAB. We got there and they put our tent up, and then we all sat around drinking tea and talking (my french has got so much better in the past few weeks), and then they made this incredible meal of homemade bread, chips, bbq chicken and this delicious tomato salsa sauce. They all have nothing to do, they're supposed to be watching out for illegal immigrants but there clearly aren't any. They watch football and play football and laugh mainly. The campsite was right on the beach and the stars were incredible.

October 24th - Military camp - Military camp - Another day of headwind and it was pretty miserable, bad road surface, nothing to look at, 10kph... At about 4 it was misty and the policeman following us insisted that we stop because it was dangerous. We then stopped at another military camp and had a very similar experience to the night before.

October 25th Military camp - Commune - Another day of horrendous headwind. It's seriously tough mentally to keep going. Tonight we were taken by the policeman to a rural commune with one inhabitant who often hosts cyclists (he had a guestbook full of messages). And it had a hot geothermal spring shower! Literally so odd I can't even explain. After the shower, us and the policeman following us went to the local garage for tagine which nobody seemed to pay for (mum tried).

October 26th - Commune - Dakkhla - Today we had a target of reuniting with Gaby and Werner a week after we first met, in the campsite they were staying at in Dakkhla. This was 100k away which on a normal day would be absolutely fine. Mum went to check the wind in the morning and optimistically announced that there was no wind! Yay. Sadly we started cycling after a leisurely breakfast with our host and there was wind. Lots of it. From the South. I expressed surprise that mum had managed to check the wind from inside a locked house and she got very angry and shouted at me, and then cycled off. We made friends about 2 hours later. Our relationship has been quite fraught recently, mainly because I think we're both finding it really tough. And she hates it when I read my kindle all the time (I can't help it it's such a good book). The rest of the day was just a really really long hard slog into the wind, being leapfrogged by our policeman, but eventually we got to the turn off to the Dakkhla peninsula (look at a map). We said goodbye to the policeman, stressed about the fading light, but obviously he wanted selfies/videos and for me to write a message about how much I'd enjoyed it! The next 15km were probably the hardest I've ever ridden, but we arrived at the campsite to Gaby and Werner waving, and they made us a cup of tea and we ate in the restaurant. All was well again!

October 27th - Rest day in Dakkhla - Today we're having a much needed rest day in the beautiful campsite by the lagoon, and the city. It amazes me how there are kilometres and kilometres of nothing, and then huge cities, but there are. The sun is shining and the sea is blue, and my legs are happy!

I have lots of better photos but having problems - and sorry for the rambling nature of this post but in hurry!

October 18th - Quick update from Belmin

I'm writing this in Belmin, which is the last place before we enter the Sahara. After leaving the mountains we cycled to the coast and two very lovely cultural experiences where we were invited into people's houses. The first time was for lunch, and we went to this house with 19 of them living there! We were given a meal of cous cous which we all ate sitting round a circle and dipping bread into. Ideal for me as I hate knives and forks... That evening we were invited to stay the night in another huge family. When it was time to go to bed it turns out we were sleeping in this massive room on the floor with an ancient old woman, her daughter and two of her grandchildren. I went to bed after mum and it was a big surprise to see them all lying on the floor together...

The next day we arrived in Sidi Ifni after a beautiful ride along the sandy coast. We spent a day there, enjoying the beach and the town. We stayed in a campsite which had a "guardian" who was incredibly annoying and overattentive. He spent hours watching me cleaning my chain, he kept following me round the campsite with a chair to sit on, he found mum making omelette fascinating. I soon gave up on being polite in the hope that he'd get the message, but at one point I was lost in the town (v scary) and he suddenly appeared on his bike and gave me directions. I had to suck it up and be grateful.

After leaving Sidi Ifni we tried to be adventurous and do some piste. After a while we decided this was a bad idea, but were too proud to turn around so we cut across. This was a nightmare, with around 15km (it's just three parkruns) on pretty much uncyclable trail. We stopped for a drink in this tourist complex which was huge - it had three hotels and we were the only customers. We kept cycling until dark and wild camped down the road. During this day we actually didn't make any useful progress. Oh well.

Today we're setting off along the road we're going to be on until Mauritania. 1100 km away... I'm not sure how I'll cope with this as I'm easily bored and frustrated (needy) and like lots of variety. Mum's much tougher. Hopefully they'll be some camels doing tricks or something.

October 10th - Marrakech and a Morocco overview from Harriet

We’ve arrived in Marrakech. It’s feeling properly exotic here now, with palm trees everywhere and yesterday we saw a camel. Morocco has been amazing. There’s always something interesting happening - people everywhere! Everyone has been so nice to us. Even people passing us on the road shout “bonne route!” as they go past, and we get endless enthusiastic beeping of horns etc. We’ve also had lots of warnings about how careful we must be, but so far we’ve felt very safe. I think we’re an unusual sight, and lots of people look at us very carefully. We haven’t seen another cycle tourist, although there have been a few people on road bikes, and of course lots and lots of people riding ordinary bikes - mainly very decrepit looking machines with no brakes and buckled wheels - often with a second passenger, or laden up with enormous heavy cargo. 

We’ve had 7 days cycling in Morocco and each one has been different. We started by crossing the Rif mountains in the north. This is a poor, dry area, and a large number of people we saw were collecting water from the roadside taps, including tiny children. I don’t understand the water supply, but we were overtaken by several trucks that seemed to be carrying water up the mountain, and several of the taps seemed to have run out. There were also children by the sides of the road selling some nasty spiny berries, and we got the impression that life wasn’t easy for most people. A bit further along the road the water collection was done by donkey - either saddled, or a bit further still we began to see carts, and then some people had moped trikes, and even small trucks. I look around the dry landscape and wonder how anyone manages to farm anything, but I suppose they are expecting rain soon - and even winter, which is unimaginable in the heat we have at the moment.

After we’d left the mountains and travelled further south there  suddenly seemed to be proper irrigation everywhere and suddenly life doesn’t seem so hard. We went past enormous farms with big fields, and vineyards, although most places are tiny with small patches of olives, a few sheep, a few chickens. We see sheep and shepherds everywhere. I feel sorry for the shepherds who spend all day walking their scrawny sheep around what looks like non-existent vegetation - although they are always munching away on something. Whenever we stop cycling for any length break Phoebe whips out her kindle and starts reading, and I wonder what these shepherds can possibly be thinking about all day.

We’ve enjoyed eating in Morocco. There are often really delicious things being cooked by the side of the road, and the food is really cheap. When we don’t find food it’s not so good, because the shops don’t seem to sell the kinds of things that make a good picnic! Although we can usually find lots of nice fruit for sale, and in big towns there is sometimes a supermarket, but otherwise we are buying from tiny roadside stalls which all seem to stock the same ranges of nasty biscuits. Finding somewhere to sleep is less easy. We had heard that wild camping is easy in Morocco, but so far we have only used our tent once. We never find anywhere where we could possibly hide, and it’s quite difficult (probably worse because we are women) imagining who we could ask to camp on their land. The only time we tried this we were given a room in the farm buildings, which was fine for us. Hotels are far apart, but this is what we’ve been using most of the time, just because it means we can be sure of finding somewhere to sleep.

October 5th - First few days in Morocco.

Our initial entry into Africa (first time for both of us), seemed pretty anti-climatic. The ferry was only an hour! As we left the Spanish ground though, things immediately began to change. A very nice looking man was really friendly and welcoming as we crossed the border, and then it turns out he wanted to take us by taxi to the nearest city. This has been a common theme so far. Taxi drivers stop by the side of the road and try to persuade us that it would be much nicer in a taxi, they seem unable to understand that we actually want to cycle (most of the time anyway).

Day 1 in Morocco. Ceuta to a random village north of Cheftchouan - We quickly left the city behind and headed into the mountains (why are there so many mountains everywhere). I was quite concerned about where we were going to sleep but Mum assured me that we'd find somewhere - and sure enough, whilst filling our water bottles up I made friends with a lovely man who said we could come to his house and put our tent up in his garden, and he'd give us supper. This all sounded very exciting so we followed him to his house and sat in his garden. House was an exaggeration - it was essentially one room and there seemed to be hundreds of them. We sat in the garden (dirt square) and they brought us food. Then a woman came out and spoke to us in beautiful French, and then told us we couldn't camp in the garden but that there was a hotel 5km up the road. By this point it was quite dark and it all quite quickly went downhill (except the road). There were lorries overtaking us, dogs chasing us, children shouting... We eventually came across this very well lit up building and decided to stop there. It seemed to be some sort of cafe absolutely full of men. We asked them if we could stay and they said no, but there was no way we were leaving! Eventually we persuaded them to let us put up the tent in the carpark. This was all sort of okay until it started blowing an absolute gale, and neither of us got any sleep after that. I should say that although this all sounds quite awful, looking back it was absolutely fine.


Day 2. Random village to Ouezzane - We left early and set off for Cheftchouan. Our map has a chevron on it when the road is above 12%, and neither of us were looking forward to that bit. The climb was worth it though because the town was set high on the mountain and we got lovely views of  the sprawling village of red roofed houses. We walked through the market and had a look round, before setting off down the mountain. We went to a very french motel type place for some familiarity after the stresses of the previous night - it was lovely to swim in a pool, especially as it's so hot ALL THE TIME.

Day 3 - Ouezzane to Moullay Idris - Started with a traditional moroccan breakfast of flatbread, olives, cheese, honey and banana smoothie - delicious. We planned to make it all the way to Meknes but that was ambitious. It was hard going, draggy climbs with a bad road surface, and so so hot. We decided to divert and head to Moullay Idris, another mountaintop city which is in fact the place where Morocco was founded. The ride over the mountain through villages was beautiful, and we stayed in a hotel there and went out for moroccan streetfood.

Day 4 - Moullay Idris to M'rit - We had another lovely breakfast and set off south. The first problem was navigating through Meknes, cities are not easy. After that it was one road all the way to M'rit. Lunch was tagine. When we arrived in M'rit the city was packed with demonstrations about the general election on Friday. I'm voting for the far left party with the women in power.  Unfortunately it's not looking good for them.

PICTURES NOT WORKING SOZ x

October 5th - Quick Update

I'm writing this from Moullay Idris, which is very near Meknes in Morocco. We've had a mixed first few days here, it's obviously very different from Spain which has been hard at times - cycling in long sleeves/tracksuit bottoms is not nice in 40 degrees! The scenery is stunning and the people are mostly very lovely and welcoming - and it's nice speaking french again! Today we're heading South towards Marrakesh. Will try and write a proper post soon!

September 25th - Ceuta (guest post by Mum)

We’ve left Europe! At least that’s nearly true - we’re in Ceuta which is still Spain, but the border with Mexico is a few km down the road. And this is my first blog post, which I agree with Phoebe is totally shameful. She says she’s feeling the pressure, and has even started calling it “my blog” so it’s time for me to reclaim it.

Cycling through France and Spain has been fabulous! France must be one of the best countries to cycle through. We did a lot of it on traffic free routes (I love voies vertes!) , which were mainly perfect tarmac, and although we managed to get lost multiple times it was nearly always our own fault. Beautiful countryside, perfect weather, amazing food, and we could speak enough French to communicate. It was a shock to cross over into Spain and immediately realise how helpless we were with our pathetic Spanish. But we’ve loved Spain too! Even though the cycling and navigating has been more challenging. We’ve ridden on roads that we wouldn’t dream of cycling on in the UK with pelotons of tail-gating lorries thundering past us at full speed, and even a motorway - illegally and totally my fault. At the other extreme roads that stopped being roads and turned into rough tracks, and sometimes faded altogether, and also cycle tracks that were really much too rough for our heavy loaded bikes. Our daily mileage has gone down, but the daily effort has remained high, with quite a lot of slow progress and also pushing our bikes. I do have an uneasy feeling that Spain can hardly be the worst country for these problems! On the other had we’ve cycled on some fabulous roads, particularly when we ventured inland and up through the mountains, with stunning views and very light traffic.

We started in Brittany with fields of corn, and then the great excitement of our first field of sunflowers- sadly over - in fact we only saw 2 fields which were in full bloom. Then as we travelled South we went through the wine regions, and for days saw only vineyards. In France we could buy beautiful fresh fruit and vegetables straight from the fields Through Spain the agriculture has been amazing - we’ve seen everything being grown that we buy in the UK - acres and acres of peppers, courgettes, tomatoes, melons etc etc. It’s incredible that it grows from soil that looks like dry orange rock. When we camped underneath our first olive tree that was exciting, but since then through Andalucia we’ve seen SO many - I was very disappointed to find out the olives aren’t ready until November, and I’m very worried about how they can possibly harvest that number of olives. We were surprised to find ourselves one day suddenly in a very lush bright green area, which turned out to be rice growing, and then further south a crop I hadn’t seen before - cotton! Phoebe gets much less excited than me about what is growing around us!

I’ve got so much more to say! But it’s now light and time to get on our bikes! The weather has been so, so hot that we’ve tried to cycle early, have a long break, and then cycle late. We had a couple of long lunches sitting underneath olive trees waiting for the thermometer on my cycle computer to get below 40 before we carry on! We have no map for Morocco, and failed to buy one yesterday, so we haven’t even planned where we’re going today. Heading South……

September 25th-27th - Crossing to Còrdoba

We thought after we had left the mountains the cycling would get easier - sadly this wasn't the case. This was the beginning of our service lane nightmare. We read somewhere that all the motorways had service lanes that you could cycle along. We confidently set off along the service lane, and it was awful. The tarmac ran out and it became stoney/rutty/bumpy and took ages to cycle along - with quite a bit of walking. Sadly we'd now committed to the service lane thing for a while and were stuck. Quite often it would switch sides of the motorway without any indication. To try and avoid the service lanes we went down some "agricultural tracks" which were potentially even worse. We did cycle along some lovely roads along rivers and reservoirs, and mostly wildcamped in fields of olive trees. We arrived in Còrdoba in the morning and spent the day sightseeing - it's a fab city. We specially loved the mesquita.

September 21-24 - The mountains really start!

After a lovely night in Bocairent we hit the hills properly - and it was a bit of a shock. From where we were staying we could see the full height of the mountains, and we spent the next two days going up them. This was absolutely gorgeous and it felt like we'd arrived in real spain. We went through lots of tiny villages (and stopped for coffee in most of them) and had some breathtaking views. We wildcamped for a few nights and then after a seriously hard few days of cycling constantly uphill into a headwind we stayed in a campsite for two nights in a row. It was here we met the very lovely Leslie and Franz(sp?). On the first night we were there they offered us their hammer and then they continued to share the luxuries of travelling by car. It was really nice to spend time with them! (And they've got an awesome teepee).

19th to 20th - Valencia to Denia and then into the hills.

19th of September - We woke up in Valencia and made friends with a Polish couple touring with their 18 month year old baby in a trailer. They made us look pretty amateur. We had an absolutely stunning ride along the coast to Denia, where we stayed with three of my cdiff medic friends who are on erasmus in Denia. It was so lovely to see them in their gorgeous Spanish casa.

20th of September - Today we headed for the hills! We went inland from Denia, through Muro. It's pretty hard work dragging my bike and luggage up the hills but it's all worth it for the quiet roads and beautiful views.. We then came across a campsite in Bocairent where we're staying tonight. It's a lovely campsite - and we had a glorious view of the sunset. We're heading across inland Spain now to Seville! 

(pictures to follow).