From Atlas to Atlantic | some go east

Here's the second part of our time in Morocco. We were joined by a good friend, visited a couple of iconic cities, defied the Atlas mountains one last time, milked a cow and we started our long way back home along the coast.

Marrakech

I think it's full

Marrakech was our halfway point in Morocco. It took us about a month to get there, and we would need about a month to go back north to take the ferry. This most famous city sounded like a good place to take another long rest. We stayed four nights in an amazing riad that was offered to us through someone from Warmshowers.

Our private riad in Marrakech

Rooftop at our private riad

A riad is a traditional Moroccan house. Nowadays however, a lot of these are renovated to be a hotel or guesthouse for tourists. This one was privately owned by someone from the Netherlands who founded a social project in Marrakech to promote the use of bicycles and offer jobs to the youth. In exchange of staying in her super riad we needed to help out a bit in the project. There was not so much work to do for us at the time, but we did learn how to change the bottom bracket on a bike and rebuild a wheel from scratch. In between helping out we had enough time to explore the city. All in all not a bad deal!

The Pikala Bicycle atelier

We were a bit afraid to be met with an overcrowded city full of annoying hasslers but everything turned out really well. Sure, when night fell it got quite busy on the iconic Jemaa el-Fnaa and every street restaurant had pushers to lure people in. They kept calling me "Ali Baba". But, apart from that, it was quite enjoyable to walk around the Marrakesh medina. There's the touristic part around the square, but if you venture out a bit further it remains busy but the mix of tourists/locals changes a lot. There's cheap restaurants and friendly people who're interested in just having a talk.

Eating at Jemaa al-Fnaa

Before we left Marrakech we first went to the airport to pick up our good friend Tomas and help him put together his touring bicycle. He was going to join us for two weeks.

Welcome Tomas 👋

Instead of making it comfortable for Tomas and choosing the easiest route straight to the coast we instead prepared him to go straight to the Atlas mountains. This way we could make Tomas' two weeks as diverse and interesting as possible, cycling through mountains, plains, coast, cities and villages. The plan almost worked perfectly until his knees indicated that it might've been a bit too intense. Luckily, hitchhiking with a bike didn't seem to be a big problem.

Also, it didn't break his spirit or interest in bicycle touring: in the meantime he left on his own trip, from Belgium to Istanbul! You can follow him on his Polarsteps blog.

Tomas on his first gravel climb, not bad

Atlas, one last time

Our last passage through the mountains was more than worth it! We crossed two big mountain passes of 2 200 and 2 500 meters, we stayed with a couple of families and slept in a few cheap hotels on the way. It almost felt like a summary of the month that had come before, so Tomas got a good idea of what we had been doing.

On top of Col du Tichka

It was amazing to have Tomas join us for a bit and it made for some funny moments along the way. Before we knew it he was discussing serious international politics with restaurant and hotel owners and, in the mountains he was found milking our hosts' cow or helping out some workers on the street loading gravel on donkeys.

First time milking a cow

Helping out with the workers

When we arrived in Amassine, a small mountain village just before the pass where the tarmac road stopped, we ended up with Mohammed and his family. Not everyone is called Mohammed in Morocco, but there sure are a lot. He ran the mechanics / grocery shop in the village. It was going to freeze quite hard that night so we were glad we could sleep inside. In the guest room we had to cuddle up under the blankets and try to talk with Mohammed and his friend Mohammed while they were watching "funny" video's on their phones. Tineke got lucky and spent her evening with the women in the kitchen. It was a strange and funny evening.

Staying with Mohammed and his family

Tineke in the kitchen

A few days later, late in the afternoon, we were crossing a ford (a kind of river crossing) when Tomas and Tineke called out to me to try and talk with a passing car with some enthusiastic people. I managed to stop them and we started talking and they very kindly invited us into their home in Ouled Teima. It turned out to be a really kind and warm family. Where the women were allowed to sit and eat with us. We met their son, who was also a fervent biker, and chatted the whole evening about our trip and their lives.

Casse-croûte at Ouled Teima

A few photos from the trip

Checking out the goods

What a view 😄

One last flat stretch before heading in the Atlas

High up in the Atlas

View from a window

Nice

Very nice wild camping sport

Morocco right, Atlantic left

After we finally succeeded in wild camping one night in Morocco, we said our goodbyes to Tomas in Essaouira. From there, we started our long way back home along the coast. For the next two weeks, the road was flat, the Atlantic Ocean was always on our left and Morocco on our right. And the wind mostly from the front.

Luckily some of the towns along the coast were interesting, such as Essaouira, El Jadida, Rabat and Asilah. And we still managed to stay with a couple of nice families along the way. But the appeal of the mountains was gone and the roads were very busy. So, we went quite fast! And because we were going north, the weather got noticeably colder each day. It felt like we were experiencing the seasons in reverse.

Decorative port in Rabat

One of the world's biggest mosques, in Casablanca

Tangier, another elusive Moroccan city, was our last stop. From here we would take the ferry back to Europe. We stayed in a comfortable hostel in the old town and enjoyed our last walks in the winding streets of a Moroccan medina. We bought our last flat breads, ate our last harira and visited the closest souq to Europe before getting our exit stamps and boarding the ferry to Tarifa.

Look, Spain!

Morocco was worth it. It proved to be the perfect place to go for our plan b. We enjoyed the mountains, villages, people and the weather immensely. After two months here and 14 months on the road it was now time to go back.

And yes, most of you will know that we've already arrived back home by now. How we experienced Europe is for the next post.