I arrived in Morocco the night before. I won’t bore you too much with the details of that, other than to say that as soon as I arrived I unpacked my bike from the cardboard box and put it together quickly. I also realised that I had forgotten my tent footprint, oops!
The aim for day 1 was to cycle to Ouirgane from Marrakesh through the mountains. The first thing I wanted to do was look for gas canisters for my camping stove and maybe a tent footprint – so first stop, Decathlon in Marrakesh! I followed the maps to the nearest decathlon and enquired about both the canister and the foot print and they didn’t have either :(. They staff there suggested I tried a shop called Bricoma so I went there next, an I was in luck! I found a gas canister (they mainly have screw tops in Morocco so I took a screw in stove) and a cheap plastic mat.
After sorting our the chores, I set off south towards the mountains. By this point I was a bit peckish and spotted a bbq type place on the side of the road that looked popular, so I stopped for some lunch.
The roads were flat, well paved and the traffic didn’t feel too hectic. Drivers gave enough space for motorcyclist sand bicycles alike. Motorbikes and bicycles stick to the right of the road (they drive on the right in Morocco), sometimes even having their own lane. After about 20km I turned off the busier road and into rougher terrain, but nothing seriously rough.
I cycled through small villages with few homes and sometimes people living in tents. The people were friendly and at one point a man on a motorbike chatted to me for a while asking me where I was going. When I told him my route he tried to warn me that it was deserted that way and that I should go another route. In my naivety I insisted that I was going to stick to the route I had with me. We went our separate ways, but shortly after he caught up with me with a bottle of water and snacks, concerned that I was going to get stranded in the mountains. He wasn’t wrong…
The climbs were tough, the views lovely, the gravel perfect. Some 4 hours later, it was pitched black and I was in the middle of the desert with no one around. I planned to push through to get to my destination, only to find a massive gate blocking my path. Thankfully, I had the snacks, the water, and my tent. I pitched up in the dark (checking for snakes and scorpions!), cooked myself a snack, and got myself into bed. It was so still, no wind, and just me. I fell asleep to the sound of wild dogs barking in the distance.
I slept like a log, and when i got up to pee in the night i saw a clear sky full of stars, and could see clearly enough with the light from the moon.
Side note: I was worried I wouldn’t be able to communicate with anyone here. Moroccans speak a mixture of French and Arabic, or Berber. I can barely understand the Moroccan language. But from the moment i arrived in Morocco, people are just about able to understand me and I can just about understand them. They flip to an Arabic that’s closer to levant style. It’s pretty amazing. I managed to shop for camping gas and a sheet for under my tent in the morning, going from shop to shop. Ordering food in Arabic, getting directions in Arabic, chatting to locals in Arabic.