I started out from my rustic auberge de Muhammed after a nice Berber breakfast, and headed up to join the RN9 where it would pass over the Tizi n'Tichka. I started off at 1100 meters/ 3,600ft and it was a climb of another 1100 meters / 3,600 ft up to the Col de Tichka at 2220 meters / 7200 feet, so it was quiet a climb, but the weather was lovely and the road quiet.  I though that the RN9 down to Marrakesh was all downhill from the Col, but infact there is another climb along the way, the Tizi Barka, another 400 meters /1500 ft climb.  I think I've got my sums right there.  After Tizi Barka, it is all the way down, pretty fast, to the plain around Marrakesh.  I had thought of stopping at Ait Ourir, some 30 miles short of Marrakesh, but things were going so well I decided to carry on and get to Marrakesh that evening.  A ride of over 75 miles, a lot of downhill, but a lot of climbing up so that I could enjoy the downhill.  The scenery along the way was magnificent.  The French built the original road in the 1930s, which has since been updated and is a good road for cycling, with a large margin.  At one point I was aware of the blare of sirens and blue lights coming up the hill, the precursor police outriders to a cavalcade of very upmarket sports cars such as Ferraris, Porches, Aston Martin etc, all belting up the mountain road.  And then an hour or so later coming down again.  A local told me they were probably Gulf States Arabs, our Saudis, or other conspicuous consumption tossers that think its cool to drive cars like that in a place like that in a way like that.  It doesn't impress me.  God knows what the poor women carrying fodder on their backs up from the valley floor think,  Probably the same as me. 

I made it in to Marrakesh and through the chaotic traffic, not so bad when you begin to understand the tactics and the style of the traffic and drivers.  I'll stay a couple of nights at the Gallia Hotel, from where we started a few weeks ago, and spend tomorrow getting myself organised, packing up the bike and making sure I am ready for my morning flight on Wednesday.

I had hoped that Richard would catch me up and be in Marrakesh on Tuesday night, but it seems that he is taking his time in the mountains, not sure if it's because he's become attached to them or he is still a bit hobbled by the Marrakesh Belly. He's going to take a bus from Marrakesh north and then do some more cycling up north and then cross by ferry from Tangiers to Spain.  But, plans and buses haven't been working out recently for him, so I hope Plan E will be kinder to him.  I even bought a bottle of wine from Carrefour, and a cork screw from the souk (antique, very good price, Sir !), which I will have to enjoy by myself now, although only a moderate amount because I think my tolerance these days is not what it used to be. 

So, what are my thoughts about Morocco ?  Well, I've enjoyed it very much, the cycling has been challenging, but rewarding, and it is definitely a place of amazing and awe inspiring vistas and landscapes, from mountain passes, to oasis valleys, to rocky desert, to lush green river valleys.  The roads, generally, have been good, with the exception of some very fast and furious unimproved RN, such as the RN 9 of a few days ago.  The careless driving culture I've already reported on.  The Moroccans themselves have been invariably warm, generous and welcoming, and I have never felt in danger, or threatened, or taken advantage of.  There is a lightness about their Muslim observance, although it is all pervasive with the presence of mosques everywhere, and the call to prayer, and people praying in public, but you get a sense that it is not a prosleytising faith that sees anyone who is different as necessarily the enemy. It feels very different to the Pakistani Muslim experience I see in Birmingham, which has a aggressive edge it.  Morocco feels like Muslim Lite.  The history of Morocco is more complicated than I thought, and the enduring presence of the Berber people, culture and language, attests to the history of Morocco before the arrival of the Arabs and Islam.  I had wanted the food culture to be more enticing that it is in reality.  The reality is tagine, couscous, brochette and various omelettes, salads and breads. Cheese omelette here is an omelette with a square of processed cheese, La Vache Qui Rit / Laughing Cow, which I haven't seen or heard of in decades.  In Marrakesh in the big square I did see stalls selling snails, no doubt a hang over from French days, but I didn't have the courage to partake after my experiences last week.  There is a baguette culture which I have seen in some places, again from the French.  Overall, however the food culture is pretty predictable and not especailly exciting.  I've been intoxicated with the scent of orange blossom and mint along the way, but usually mingled with the stink of putrifying rubbish and sewerage, which I think is a motif for Morocco in many ways - beautiful, charming, natural, but also unkempt, disorganised and generally chaotic.  Marrakesh itself is a bustling, edgy, busy and chaotic city, and at every corner there are people hawking things, running little hole in the wall shops and workshops, food places, whatever they can turn their hand to.  Everybody seems to be  in the business of flogging something or other.  The traffic in town is a nightmare, not for the feint hearted.  In amongst it, there will be donkeys pulling loaded carts, and old men on bicycles, and people crossing the street.  Inshallah !

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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