Day 221 25th February
12miles (Errachidia) Average speed 6.5mph Top speed 20 mph
A day of rest of sorts.
I was up at 8 and across the road to the pizza restaurant for coffee. I didn’t like the look of their omelette so moved on to find food elsewhere. I went to the souk and looked round the shops where I bought some veg for tomorrow’s dinner and tried to find gaffer tape without success. I bought some beer when I found an offie by chance. Then had a beef sandwich and more coffee.
I met a policeman who gave me directions to a hammam and admired my bike before showing me a picture of him in lycra on his bike. Then I met a Spanish guy from Valencia who lived here and he asked if there was anything I needed. As Kamal keeps ringing me I thought I’d ask him how much it would cost to ring a Moroccan mobile from a public phone and he said I could use his mobile. What a nice man. Unfortunately, Kamal didn’t answer but it was very generous of him.
I discovered a bike shop that had my tyres but not the right size. Then I went in search of the hammam but couldn’t find it from the policeman’s directions, so went to one I’d found online. There are lots of shops selling car boot type stuff and I enjoyed looking around these but didn’t find anything of use to buy. Found the hammam and paid my 11 dirhams for a good wash. As it was Saturday there were lots of fathers washing their sons in there and quite a few washing each others’ backs. I kept myself to myself and enjoyed the heated tiles.
On the way back to the hotel I found a shop with pasta and a doughnut and then set myself up to change tyres and clean my bike in the garden after I’d had a cool beer. The dogs were barking, but I could still hear Orient losing to Cheltenham while I worked on the bike. Then I had another beer and got ready to go out for dinner. On the way out of the hotel I bumped into Dris the owner who, after a long chat, invited me to smoke a shisha when I came back. I had dinner of Berber omelette at the same place I had brekkie and then joined Dris and his nephew for shisha and chat while watching TV. A good way to round off a relaxing day.
Hotel Meski