{"id":13906,"date":"2017-05-09T12:33:18","date_gmt":"2017-05-09T12:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/?p=13906"},"modified":"2017-05-09T12:33:18","modified_gmt":"2017-05-09T12:33:18","slug":"day-205-tiagounite-to-mhamid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=13906","title":{"rendered":"Day 205 – Tiagounite to m’hamid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Day 205                                                        9th February
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24 miles (Tiagounite to m’hamid)  Average speed 10.8 mph Top speed 31 mph<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Awake at 6 and up at 8. A great start to the day. I got the stove going at the second try and made tea. Said good morning to Georges who liked my stove.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Georges with his land rover<\/p><\/div>\n

Then the guv asked if I would like brekkie next to my tent in the sun and delivered a table and chair for me to sit at and drink my tea. Brekkie arrived and George took a photo of me being treated like a king. After a lovely brekkie of cheese, bread and jam and marmalade with coffee pot, and hot milk pot and fresh oj too.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I went to see some Germans who had some serious desert trucks and wish one a happy birthday. He offered me some champagne but with 20 miles to go I declined the offer. I still can’t believe I turned down alcohol! We chatted and birthday boy gave me a puncture repair kit. I gave them 5 oranges that had been weighing me down. Then went into town for the Thursday souk where I had coffee and wifi so booked a tent for tonight in m’hamid. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I made my way to the first climb of the day and was feeling good. It turned out to be quite easy and at the top I got my first view of the desert proper and a great run down the other side. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Desert<\/p><\/div>\n

I stopped for orange under a tree and noticed camels wandering free behind me so went back to watch them crossing the road and take photos as they looked both ways before crossing. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Camels that look both ways before crossing the road<\/p><\/div>\n

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Well, hello, lovely!<\/p><\/div>\n

One came up real close and said hello. The one with the white face looked pretty but I think I’ve been alone too long! Then I rode through palm trees and farmland and eventually into M’hamid. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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On the road to M’hamid<\/p><\/div>\n

A few people asked if I needed anything but I told them I’d got a hotel booked. When I found the address there was nothing there, so I went to the Petit Homme Cafe for wifi and coke and emailed that I was there. A few minutes later Mohamed turned up and explained that the camp was 50 km into the desert and that the price of 200 dirham didn’t include travel there??(I was somewhat surprised!) The GPS didn’t show the true destination and he explained my options, which basically meant staying in town and getting him to take me there with a 4×4 tomorrow. I followed him 3km to Kasbah Aladin and then he explained that if I didn’t stay here he would lose his bookings.com fees, so we settled on a price of 100 dirham with brekkie and I had a twin room and shared wc\/shower. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Kasbah Aladin<\/p><\/div>\n

Then I met Marie Claude and Christian from Quebec who did lots of translations for me and told me about their camel trekking. Then she said that they were going to buy beer at 4.30 so after a shower and a swing in a hammock we set off with Ahmed in to town. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Brian sunbathing in a hammock<\/p><\/div>\n

I bought water and bread and houmus, then we went to the Azari hotel to buy beer, but they would only sell it on the premises, so we had one and checked out the plush hotel. We sat and talked to Ahmed and paid 35 dirhams each for the beers. Back at Kasbah Aladdin  Marie Claude made couscous while we had tea. I tucked in to my bread and hummus but I soon discovered semal* is not hummus and when I asked Ali the cook what I had bought instead it turned out to be a rather strange smelling type of butter used in cooking.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

*(Ermintrude: is this smen? a kind of fermented butter)<\/strong><\/em>
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Dinner was served and there was too much for the three of us but once again I did my best, followed by smoothie for dessert. Then we all joined in a singsong with percussion accompaniment except Marie Claude who Christian had locked in their room. (!)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Mohamed was there too, to ask if I had decided what I was doing tomorrow and if I needed the trip to the desert. Ahmed had already quoted me 1500 dirham to take me and the bike to Foum Zguid and camp on the way, which made Mohamed’s earlier 1100 with tonight’s hotel seem quite reasonable. It’s weird having to make so many decisions in such a short space of time but I’m still not sure what I will do tomorrow. It’s late now after all that singing so I’ll sleep on it.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Goodnight!<\/p><\/div>\n

Kasbah Aladdin 100 dirham incl brekkie<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Day 205                                                        9th February   24 miles (Tiagounite to m’hamid)  Average speed 10.8 mph Top speed 31 mph Awake at 6 and up at 8. A great start to the day. I got the stove going at the second try and made tea. Said good morning to Georges who liked my stove. Then the guv … [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":[773,774,772],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13906"}],"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=13906"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15365,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13906\/revisions\/15365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}