{"id":17110,"date":"2017-06-20T10:07:06","date_gmt":"2017-06-20T10:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/?p=17110"},"modified":"2017-06-20T10:07:06","modified_gmt":"2017-06-20T10:07:06","slug":"day-239-ksah-el-kebir-to-asilah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/2017\/06\/day-239-ksah-el-kebir-to-asilah\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 239 – Ksah el Kebir to Asilah"},"content":{"rendered":"

Day 239                                                      15th March
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43miles (Ksar el Kebir to Asilah)  Average speed 9.9 mph Top speed 25 mph
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A tough day on tired legs<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Up at 7.30 for coffee across the road in the sun. Back to the room for brekkie of hasher bread from Kamal’s with boiled eggs and cream cheese and coffee from the hotel cafe with BBC world service on TV. I left at midday and had to dodge a few close shaves with other cyclists and a couple of cars. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The Station at Ksar el Kebir<\/p><\/div>\n

I took the wrong road but soon got back on track but then road disintegrated as I left town. I was glad to get out into the country even if only for the fresh air as the road got worse. Eventually after a couple of climbs it ran out altogether and became a dirt track for a few miles. I took a path along the river instead and saw a few shepherds to say hi to. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Then I stopped to hand out some bananas at a bridge. I met some women with kids that I gave some to, then a couple of kids and a guy spraying chemicals and we had a great chat with about six people joining in. I returned to the road and it was back to normal for a while before more roadworks. The wind wasn’t really helping much either and was blowing from my right most of the day at varying speeds. I had quite a few breaks to get cover from the wind and rest my aching knee. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Dual carriageway?<\/p><\/div>\n

I made it up a big climb into the wind and got to the turn off to Arayach but as I paused for a chip butty lunch at a petrol station I decided the easterly winds were too strong and I carried on to Asilah. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Sheep on the way<\/p><\/div>\n

A long climb with the wind seemingly changing direction whenever I did, was followed by a good descent but as I looked forward to a run down into the town the workmen had other ideas. I hit a big hole in the road and for the first time my pannier fell off from the impact. I thought that I’d stopped in time to prevent too much damage but the pannier had twisted a few times. I managed to free it and fixed it back on by taking the tent off. As I continued it soon became obvious that I’d done more damage as the back wheel had a buckle; not too bad, but enough to cause concern and I nursed it all the way into town after dumping the food from the pannier.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I checked in at the same hostel as before in Asilah,  but didn’t know the staff as it’s been a couple of months since I was here. I asked if they knew of a bike shop, but the boss who does wasn’t there, so I went in search by myself. They were all closed so after listening to the sea and watching the waves crashing in I went for food at Ali Baba’s : seafood paella as it’s very Spanish here and I’ll be back in France soon. Then off for coffee and to watch Man City get knocked out of the Champion’s League. I’ll try tomorrow for a bike shop but ready for bed now at 11pm.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Hostel Mia 130 dirham<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Day 239                                                      15th March   43miles (Ksar el Kebir to Asilah)  Average speed 9.9 mph Top speed 25 mph A tough day on tired legs Up at 7.30 for coffee across the road in the sun. Back to the room for brekkie of hasher bread from Kamal’s with boiled eggs and cream cheese and coffee … [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":[876,875,874],"class_list":["entry","post","publish","author-ermintrude","post-17110","format-standard","category-spc_blog","post_tag-asilah","post_tag-day-239","post_tag-ksah-el-kebir"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17110","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=17110"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17281,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17110\/revisions\/17281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}