Very quickly this morning we started to climb, and climb, and climb !  This was to be a day of climing, following the RN 9 up towards the  2200 meter / 7000 ft pass at the Col duTichka, following switchback after switchback.  The road was busy, I guess because it is the only road up and over the Atlas Mountains in this area.  However, it is a well built and maintained road, with a wide margin, so although noisy it was safe.  Worst of all are the motorcycllists, usually in packs, who disturb the peace.  The tourist motorbiker look, all beefy and hairy, is not a good look.  I think somebody should tell them.  Some of the lorries look as though they have seen better times, and belch black exhaust as they grind up the mountains, overly weighed down with precararious looking loads.  There is a lot of motorhomes, usually French or Italian, couples of a certain retired age enjoying the winter sun and maybe revisiting their hippy youth.  The riding was tiring and unrelenting, climbing up several thousand feet, until we reached the Col / Summit at 2,220 meters / 7,000 feet  where it was bitterly cold and windy.  Then a rapid downhill for a few miles into a valley, and along to Agdal Telouet where we spent the night at a rustic but charming auberge in the middle of nowhere, and were welcomed most warmly by host Muhammed, who provided us with mint tea and lit up the calor gas heater to revive us.  We had a meal of brochettes, omelette and salad, a welcome variation on the usual Moroccan fare of tagine and couscous.  So far accomodation has been, well, rustic, but with everything I need after a day of cycling.  Plumbing is a bit hit and miss generally, and the electrics a bit DIY, so good to avoid unconnected wires hanging from walls and ceilings.  The welcome is invariably enthusiastic, I guess because people like us provide a valuable source of income in what otherwise is a very subsistence economy out in the Moroccan countryside.  

Ramadan is in full swing, and so outside of the very tourist areas it is difficult to get food during the day.  Most locals look as though they observe the fast, and I've seen groups doing their daily prayers, but  I note that when passing through small villages, it is the men who are lounging around whiling away the day until they can break their fast, and it is the women who are in the fields still working and hauling stuff.  Maybe it's like that most of the time ?  I think in these parts, men rule and women work. Hey, if Trump, Vance and Hegseth et al get their way on diversity, equality and inclusion,  we all might go back to that way, presuming there is still something left given their idiotic and grossly irresponsible world view and foreign  policy. I could go on.

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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