{"id":13898,"date":"2017-05-01T11:54:54","date_gmt":"2017-05-01T11:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/?p=13898"},"modified":"2017-05-01T11:54:54","modified_gmt":"2017-05-01T11:54:54","slug":"day-202-ait-souan-to-oulad-othmaine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=13898","title":{"rendered":"Day 202 – Ait Souan to Oulad Othmaine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Day 202                                                       6th February
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

46miles (Ait Souan to Oulad Othmaine)  average speed 11.5mph  Top speed 35 mph<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What a fantastic day. I thought the ride two days ago was spectacular but I think today’s ride is the best yet. I woke at 3am a bit cold and put on a jumper, and woke again at 6 with mosque calling but the birdsong was beautiful. I got up at 8 and made tea with the cakes I bought last night, watching the almond blossom fall and listening to the birds. I then washed in the stream and made a fire to burn my rubbish . <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Beautiful surroundings<\/p><\/div>\n

I had my first outside toilet experience in Morocco but a tree helped with the squat! I then had to carry everything up to the road, which was exhausting and took two trips, staggered at halfway up. I said goodbye to the frogs in the swimming pool (not so sure about swimming!) and the dogs next door. Then took on the challenge of a big climb, which I’d been watching yesterday as the lorries struggled to get up.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

View of the road across the valley<\/p><\/div>\n

It turned out OK but was hard work in the heat. Luckily I managed to get some cover from the mountains on some of the switchbacks. I made it to the top in about 40 minutes and saw what looked like meerkats on the way. At the top was a girl sat at a table preparing lunch, not for me unfortunately. She had all her lacy undies on the wall drying in the sun, but her boyfriend was in the campervan so I carried on. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Drying washing<\/p><\/div>\n

The view over the back of the mountains was even better than the one before and this time it was downhill all the way. I had to slow down as I was behind a truck and I didn’t fancy overtaking on the bends and its fumes were awful. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Road around the mountains<\/p><\/div>\n

It was an incredible run all the way to Agdiz where I stopped for lunch of chicken sarnie chips and tuna salad, at first I sat in the sun to charge my phone but within minutes I was burning and realised just how hot it is when you are not moving! I got some water and decided to continue on the N9 instead of turning off for Foum Zguid. I’m glad I did because the fresh tarmac and the route along the palm-lined river was tremendous. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Palm trees line the river<\/p><\/div>\n

There was the odd climb thrown in to keep me on my toes, but wonderful. I got to a town where a French guest house owner showed me around his place but tempting as it was, 300 dirham seemed a bit too much for me (the honeymoon suite with four poster also seemed a little too much!) so I bought some chicken and veg and carried on as the sun set behind the mountains. As I rode on the road disappeared again, but this time instead of a dustbowl I got covered in mud and water from the roadworks. I had been told by the butcher that there was a campsite on the right but I saw this place on the left and the guy showed me around and I asked how much to pitch my own tent in his beautiful gardens and he said I could pay whatever I normally would. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Camping in the gardens<\/p><\/div>\n

We agreed on 50 dirham including shower and use of kitchen. He made me tea while I pitched the tent and then I had a great shower . He offered to cook my food with his if I helped out. I peeled some onions and shelled some peas while he did the rest. While it was cooking he and a couple of youngsters entertained us with bongos.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I met the woman from Montreal I ‘d seen in the bar last night and realised that’s where I knew him from. Dinner was lovely and I chatted to her about our adventures in Morocco. They went for a walk and I went to bed.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Another truly wonderful day. Probably the best in Morocco so far especially in terms of ride quality, road quality and the incredible scenery.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Day 202                                                       6th February   46miles (Ait Souan to Oulad Othmaine)  average speed 11.5mph  Top speed 35 mph What a fantastic day. I thought the ride two days ago was spectacular but I think today’s ride is the best yet. I woke at 3am a bit cold and put on a jumper, and woke again … [Read more…]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[766,767,768],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13898"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13898"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14875,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13898\/revisions\/14875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}