{"id":16088,"date":"2017-05-30T19:29:14","date_gmt":"2017-05-30T19:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/?p=16088"},"modified":"2017-05-30T19:29:14","modified_gmt":"2017-05-30T19:29:14","slug":"day-216-tazilarte-to-mssici","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/2017\/05\/day-216-tazilarte-to-mssici\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 216 – Tazilarte to M’ssici"},"content":{"rendered":"

Day 216                                                           20th February
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37 miles (Tazilarte to M’ssici<\/span><\/span>)  Average speed 10.1 mph Top speed 28 mph<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A day that started early at 7am, but looked bleak to start with, as the wind was blowing hard in the direction I was headed. A good brekkie of omelette and bread and jam with 2 coffees and oj cheered me up no end. Then when the bill came they didn’t charge me for the camping and said it was free. Bonus. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Setting out in trepidation of what comes next.<\/p><\/div>\n

I set off in trepidation of what lay ahead but with 2 options for the night – 33 miles with camping or 64 at hotel. I expected the former due to the wind, but as I left it wasn’t too bad and as I turned a corner it was more from my right than head on so all good. The sun was out but the wind was cold. By the time I got to the garage I had dispensed with the fleece. I put some air in my tyres and tried to wash the bike with a hose but a lorry driver sent me to the jet wash and called the operator over who did a great job getting my cogs clean. When I left it was like riding a new bike; the desert sand all but gone and good tyre pressures meant I was flying along with no squeaks. Soon I also had the wind behind me and was doing 20 mph plus! Then I had to slow down as there was a camel crossing up ahead with several of his mates in tow! Before long I made it Alnif where I stopped for a lovely cake and some fizzy orange. After a bit of a climb, I was so happy with the bike that the hills and the wind didn’t seem to bother me now. Then the surroundings changed with lots of palm trees and an oasis to my right.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Oasis<\/p><\/div>\n

I came through a village and the two tourist buses that had just passed me were stopped for the passengers to have a rest and quite a few clapped and cheered as I passed. I’d gone too far for the turn off that the lorry driver suggested I take, so I went back down the hill to check, but it was gravel, so I climbed back up to take photos of a footy pitch with breath taking views.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Never mind Spot the Ball – can you spot the pitch?<\/p><\/div>\n

The mountains on both sides were spectacular and as the clouds went over some were in shade which brought out the contours even more. After quite a climb I realised I’d not stopped for lunch so I stopped at a fossil shop owned by Hsain and he offered me tea. As I sat with my magdalenas and Moroccan whisky, as it’s known, I felt very English having afternoon tea .<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Afternoon tea<\/p><\/div>\n

Lots of French, German and Italian campervans passed. Hsain then brought me out a bit of his lunch tagine in a sarnie as a gift. I looked around his shop and then he showed me upstairs to his TV room where he proudly showed me his beIN Sport box. He took me up to the third floor and showed me the rooms he was converting into bedrooms and showers. He invited me to stay for free but it was early and even the temptation of Spurs in the cup couldn’t persuade me! He then suggested I come back next year with cycling friends when he had completed the work. As I left he pushed me off and warned me about the thick sand but I got across OK. He only charged me 10 dirham for the tea, two cakes and a large loaf of bread! Then it was a big climb into the headwind and I began to wonder if I should go back and take him up on his offer. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Big climbs and a headwind<\/p><\/div>\n

Knowing that I only had 10 miles to the campsite and it was only 2.30 I took my time and enjoyed the incredible scenery on both sides of me. There was, I discovered, one advantage of a headwind, if you leave your flies open it really cools you down and dries out your undershorts! <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Panorama<\/p><\/div>\n

When I got to the campsite the boss wasn’t around so a woman showed me a room, but she didn’t know the price, so I went off to set up my tent. I couldn’t find anywhere suitable as it was all hard standing with pebbles and stone everywhere. I said hi to the 3 Dutch vans that had passed me on the road and tried to sweep a patch clear with a palm leaf, – careful they have very sharp leaves. I managed as best I could and put clothes and bags as extra protection under the mattress. I went into the tiny village to look for a new towel, but only found fresh chicken shops and general stores. I did see a rag and bone man who was collecting scrap metal and exchanging it for goods inside the van before putting the metal on the roof. Then I went to a garage for a Coke in the sun and onto Restaurant Merzouga for lamb tagine and Moroccan salad watching the sunset. Back at the tent I borrowed a towel and had a lovely hot shower and was ready for bed by 7.30, so I read for a while on the bench next to my tent. It really makes a difference having somewhere comfortable to sit when camping! A really good day after what seemed as though it was going to be a tough one again.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Camping Azurite
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Day 216                                                           20th February   37 miles (Tazilarte to M’ssici)  Average speed 10.1 mph Top speed 28 mph A day that started early at 7am, but looked bleak to start with, as the wind was blowing hard in the direction I was headed. A good brekkie of omelette and bread and jam with 2 coffees … [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_total_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[813,814,812],"class_list":["entry","post","publish","author-ermintrude","post-16088","format-standard","category-spc_blog","post_tag-day-216","post_tag-mssicci","post_tag-tazilarta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16088"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16199,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16088\/revisions\/16199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}