Around Morocco on our Bikes

 29 April - Rest day in Ait Ben Haddou, also known as 'mud city', having had parts reduced to mud in a flood some many years ago.  The photos above are probably parts of the city that have been used most in movies that have been shot here The site has been used for movies over the last 70 years: In its earlier days, Ait Ben Haddou was initially a Berber community but Jewish settlers from Spain arrived in the 17th centrury. We understand that in thise days, there were around 20 Jewish families and about 60 or 70 Berber families occupying Ait Ben Haddou and the Synagogue and Mosque lived happily within a few hundred meters of each other. The two groups lived harmoniously alongside each other although they did not inter-marry nor did they share a graveyard. Below is the Jewish graveyard and Berber mausoleum. After gaining UNESCO World Heritage status, the UN funded this footbridge connection as well as water supply to the site. No electricity except solar.   After our walk through

 April 27-28 - 100 km to Skoura, then 75 km to a rest day at Ait Ben Haddou. This we never expected... smooth highway with a bike lane for many kilometers along this stretch of the journey... More great scenery... I love the snow-capped mountain backdrop or the parched hot desert. There are always more hills to climb. On one of the steeper ones as we climbed at single-digit speed on a rather narrow part of the road and limited forward visibility around a curve, a police vehicle came up and positioned himself just behind us and turned on his flashing lights until we got over the top. Movie studios have used this area for movies such as Lawrence of Arabia. Lots of beautiful pottery along the road - again, one has to feel for the effect of COVID on these businesses. Our rest day is Ait Ben Haddou, a UNESCO world heritage site owing to its past as the 'mud city' We get there after about 12 km of steady climbing that would have been okay except for the 40 km/hr wind that was right o

 April 25-26 - both 80-km riding days, first to the Todra Gorge, then the Dades Gorge, side by side gorges carved by rivers flowing out of the Atlas Mountains. First some more riding on the windswept sandy desert, with the wind again fortunately being on our backs... Marked contrast between irrigated land and the surrounding areas.... ...through the town of Tinghir... ...and into the Todra Gorge... In camp, our cook Mark is preparing a delicious lamb dinner. Next morning it is a back-track out of the gorge through Tinghir - we were amazed at the size of the town and especially the extent of building new residential buildings in a town on the edge of the desert - we wondered what the economic attraction would be for a growing population. On to the next gorge, the Dades Gorge. The lead photo in this post is a series of switch-bak in this gorge, but, full disclosure, we did not ride out bikes up or down that part of the road - we caught a lift with one of the support vans to do the sights

 April 24th - At 70 km out on today's ride, we pause to wish Ursula a happy 70th, then we get back on the bikes to ride the remaining 70 km of the day. It's a windy day - fortunately mostly tailwind...  ...and a lot of blowing sand...  Apart from wind-blown desert, the town of Rossani offered a more tranquil-looking scene - the remains of the older abandoned part with the modern mosque framed by palm trees. And Ursula's first coffee stop of her new decade later i the day. Coffee stops have been hard to find since it is Ramadan. At camp that night, they had tiramisu dessert for Ursula and another rider who shares her birth day.

 April 23 - on the edge of the Sahara very close to the border with Algeria... A schoolhouse at the edge of a small village... Dromedaries out on display for tourists, the young one about two months old... A nomad settlement... and their herd of goats... Once-abandoned Berber settlement, now being partly re-occupied by military personnel at a nearby post. A military post - the border with Algeria is well patrolled with camera and radar surveillance. Nearby villages make full use of the water with elaborate irrigation systems and controlled watering of different plots of land within walled-off areas... Water is carried in tunnels, marked below by the string of stone blocks between sectors of tunneling. And the area has been used for several movies,,, Finally, birds have proven a bit elusive so far on this trip, but I caught this one, not yet identified, on today's outing... The following day we were back on the bikes for five successive riding days... that;s for the next post.