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……