Day 225 1st March
54 miles (Zaida to Boulemane) Average speed 9.8 mph Top speed 25 mph
Awake and up at 7 and over to the Soleil cafe for coffee and crepes. 5 dirham for a coffee and 4 for a pancake. So I had 3 and 2 respectively, but when trying to order the young waiter said why don’t I just speak English rather than my poor French. Back to my room to pack up and the lovely lady owner couldn’t wait for me to go so that she could clean my filthy room. She even carried all my panniers downstairs. I set off and there was no wind at 9.30 but it was very cold. I knew there was a good reason for leaving later the road was also much quieter.
The mountains to my left looked pretty good in the sunlight but I was going to have to make a decision soon and as I got to the junction to turn off for the R503 I stopped to consider my options. There was a guy waiting for a lift and as I was weighing it up I decided to ask him his opinion. He said to go right and as the wind was blowing that way I took his advice. It was a very long straight road alongside the mountains to my left with the snow covered ones behind me. I stopped in a small village to buy a drink and oil my chain. As I cleaned the grease off the cogs a small boy helped me and then as I left the village a dog chased me up the road for about a mile up a hill but thankfully I outran it.
As I went along the mountain range I came down a long hill with good road before it got much thinner and there were roadworks with a JCB across the road but no signs in advance.
They were laying down pipes and every 500 metres or so there were unmade sections of road which made the downhill a bit more interesting. Then as I turned left through the mountains it was a bit of a climb to 2000 metres
before a fantastic run down to Boulemane where the cabins were closed but after buying water I was about to wild camp when I saw signs for a gite 7km up out of the valley. I climbed up and asked a couple of sheep herders if it was open. They pointed me along an unmade road for 1.5 km and later I discovered that they worked on the farm gite I stayed at. Said welcomed me with tea and showed me a large room with no beds just bench seats but a wood burning fire to warm me up. He lit the fire and showed me to the shower which was very basic but had hot water. We had dinner of lamb tagine together and I enjoyed the views. It was really nice to stay on a working farm even if I had to make my own bed.
Gite Said farm 200 dirham
Expensive but a beautiful location