Today was a challenging day of cycling. My target was to travel 60-80km, but the climbs were absolutely epic today. I tried to ask Mustafa, the guest house owner, whether the route I had planned was viable to cycle, and he strongly suggested I take another route. I couldn’t understand what he was saying when he was telling why I shouldn’t take my planned route. Obviously, I ignored local wisdom and went for it anyway. I ended up only travelling a little short of 40km, but climbing 1400m. To put that into perspective, that’s the kind of climbing I would do in 100km in the peak district!
My plan was to cycle from Ouirgane to Imlil. The road route that Mustafa was recommending would be to cycle north east to Asni (pretty much the road I had taken down to Ouirgane the day before), and then south to Imlil. Instead I decided to head east and see if I could make it that way. Within 5 minutes of leaving the guest house, I was off my bike and pushing it up a narrow path.
After the initial hike a bike, I was able to get on my bike and cycled through rural villages. Kids playing, donkeys, it was a beautiful cycle! After around 5-10 km, I was back on a main road, well tarmaced. It turned out to be a ridiculously long climb from that point onwards. As I climbed, I saw two ladies collecting straw (I think? or something similar). One of the ladies dropped an apple she was carrying, picked it up, and when she saw me approaching she handed me the apple 🙂 I accepted, and carried on cycling. Half way up this mountain, I saw a man on the side of the road selling random things from the back of his car. All his goods were sprawled across the ground on a sheet. I asked him if he had any water, and he kindly filled up my bottle from his own. I asked if he had any left for himself and he pointed to his home on the side of the mountain. I took this opportunity to stock up on snacks from him, and ploughed on.
I thought I would never reach the top! I was elated when I saw a water tap on the side of the road! I decided that would be a good spot to regain some energy and chug as much water as I could. After a few bottles downed, I carried on.
After a while, the garmin informed me I had gone the wrong way. How could I? It was just a meandering road! Thankfully it was just a short distance I’d gone off route, so I turned back to where the garmin was directing. When I got to the point where it was directing me, there was nothing obvious. It was like a little makeshift village on the side of the road, people living out of tents. I asked some of the ladies there and they told me to go the way I came. I explained I am trying to get to Imlil, and then they understood what path I was looking for and directed me. It turned out the route the garmin was trying to get on is basically a gravel path carved out of the side of the mountain!
It was an epic path! A bit hairy at times, but wide enough for the most part. When it got a bit too bumpy and narrow, I hiked, but it really wasn’t bad.
Eventually, I summitted, and obviously that was followed with an awesome decent – bumpy but fun! I reckon it’s likely that this is where I cracked my rim (see later posts for that!).
Unfortunately, this route has two major peaks. I had just summitted one and descended. Now it was time to climb up to Imlil. This road was decent enough, not too steep. I made it to Imlil by around 5 30 PM, found a hotel and checked in. As I was checking in, two hotel guests spotted me and sounded excited. I was too tired to understand what was going on, until I spotted their Ortlieb pannier bag – more bike tourers! I chatted to them for a bit, and we decided we’d go for dinner together. We grabbed some pizza (I know, their choice of restaurant…) but that didn’t touch the sides for me. After we walked back to the hotel, I told them I’m going back to hunt for more food. I found a small eatery still open and grabbed some meat and bread. I did end up regretting my choice the next day (more to come on that!).
In Imlil, more people speak English. The village shouts tourism! It’s a small place, not much going on. It’s mostly geared towards hikers climbing mount Toukbal.
The day was a tough day, but once again, it was worth it in the end for the stunning views.