After a couple of nights in Marrakesh, doing a bit of sightseeing and rediscovering the ubiquity of tagine and couscous, on Sunday morning we set off.  Getting out of Marrakesh was not as hair raising as I though it would be, and after wending out way thorough endless back streets in the old city, we came to a main road that led us out of the city.  Perhaps because it is Sunday, there were lots of second hand markets selling anthing and everything, from old clothes to second hand liquidisers, a sort of down market flea markets. It was busy, but we had a good margin on the main road, which made it fine for cycling.  Around Marrakesh is pretty flat so it was easy riding, although always aware of the traffic and the unpredictable motorbikes and scooters that abound here, as well as a noticeable number of donkey drawn carts, usually overloaded with whatever.  Motorbikes will have father, mother, and a child or two on board, father with a crash helmet but the rest of the family without.   We had planned on staying around our day's destination,Touama, and had heard that there was a place which would be open and suitable, but when we got there it was closed, so our only achievable option for our first night was a rather high class hotel a little away from Touama, where we appeared to be the only guests, and were given a very nice suite with two separate bedrooms.  We ate there as well, a couscous with beef dish, and a very nice mixed salad, and sparkling water !  The two lads who were looking after us were from the Cote d'Ivoire in West Africa, and, yes, they really wanted to go to the UK rather than stay in Morocco !  They said because they think that they can earn good money there, and people are nice to immigrants.  I wish them well, but...?  All in all, a succesful day, and proof that cycling in Morocco, even in Marrakesh, is possible and safe.  I like the fact that their main roads, the Routes Nationales, are generally well maintained, and with a wide shoulder.  They are busy, however, especially when in the mountains, I guess because they are the only route through the challenging geography.  The government has evidently invested in road infrastructure, as they have in internet connection, which is generally very good.  Better than at home, where if I take the train from Birmingham to London for the majority of the route the signal is dire.  Here you see red and white painted mobile phone and communictions towers on top of hills and mountains, and even in the countryside where the villages look like they have for the last 1000 years, and people are herding goats and sheep and hauling forage from the valley floor, you will still get very good G4 or even G5 signal.  The woman herding her goats along the side of the road will be speaking in to her mobile phone and catching up on the gossip from further down the valley.  Wonderful

You can follow my route via my Garmin satellite tracker at  https://share.garmin.com/chrismarsden1954    Choose "View All Tracks" in the top right hand corner of the map to see the full route.

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