What a completely exhausting day. The plan today was to ride to Icht, which was going to be a ride of about around 150 kms – before I decided to make a few diversions. Saying goodbye to Barbara and Howard I left the campsite and headed west. The campsite was pretty good. The water for the showers was heated by solar so you had to wait until the later afternoon before it was time to shower. The only downside at the campsite was the two people in the camervan next to me. They were Belgians and would argue from sunrise to sunset. Also, the campsite was between two Mosques, so at ‘call to prayers’ when they started making the calls it was quite loud and like living in stereo.
I initially headed west towards Tafraoute and then I cut south towards Ait Ouafqa. Then I headed west towards Tighirt then south towards Aoukerda. After visiting the Grand Canyon Park, I headed north again and west to Tighirt, and then cut south to Saghit and then east to Adai.
The reason I wanted to do this was to go through more mountains – and I certainly did…. Leaving Tata there was sandstone hills, then mountains, then mountains made of black volcanic mass, then rounded mountains then sharp and brittle looking mountains…. The scenery was utterly breathtaking.
Half way around I stopped to stretch my legs not long after a car stopped and an English woman jumped out…! She’s on holiday doing something similar to me, but on four wheels. Hello Emma, and safe driving. It was good to chat…
I also managed to stop at the Grand Canyon Park – which is a series of limestone river canyons, or wadi, in the eastern part of the High Atlas Mountains in Morocco. When you pull off the main road, the road down to the Gorge is about 10km and it was a superb stretch of road with some amazing bends.
The road ends at a small village called Aoukerda, where I parked the bike and a local took me to see the oasis – which you get to through a small tunnel. It reminded me of the film “the land that time forgot”. I also wanted to see a rock formation called the ‘Window of life’ but it was a bit of a hike and too much for my ankle so one out of two ain’t bad…
The road south from Tighirt had recently been resurfaced and for around 20km it was like a ‘death road’ to me. The gravel they had used was big and very coarse and it was like riding on marbles. I let half the air out of my front, which made a difference, but because it took me so long to ride this 20km stretch the day was getting late so I had to think of a ‘Plan B’ and completely by chance, I found a lovely campsite called Camping Amtoudi near Adai. I didn’t make it to Icht – but I still found a great campsite, and it only cost me 75 dms for the night.
It’s been a tiring day, around 250 miles, with lots of hairpins, gear changes and bumpy roads, and I’m seriously tired. Tomorrow I’m heading for Tan Tan. I don’t know what it will be like but if it’s full of hippies then I’m going to carry on south…
