Casablanca Getting Ready

Tuesday - drive to Vancouver early afternoon. First challenge - to get a COVID test within 48 hours prior to getting on the airplane in Paris for the flight into Morocco 19 hours after checking for the flight out of Vancouver and you have to get the results and upload them to airline before leaving Vancouver. So tight scheduling and extra cost for the quick results.

Overnight in Vancouver, first flight to Montreal, tight on time between flights, then to Paris for the flight to Casablanca. It all worked and the bags and bikes arrived with us. 

arriving at the hotel about 24 hours after checking in at Vancouver - little real sleep in between

The priority for Thursday was to get checked in, meet some of our fellow riders, have dinner, and then sleep.

Friday morning - cross the road to the beach for a dip in the Atlantic - beautiful beach, pure sand that went way out, water cold but not desperately so.


Friday afternoon was bike re-assembly and a competent checkover by Micah, the tour's bike mechanic, whom we know from previous tours and also from a visit he made to us in Squamish a couple of years ago.  


After which Rae had to do a couple of test flights - after all those years in that business, you'd think he'd know that testing has to be done in a realistic environment wearing all the appropriate safety equipment!!!

Tomorrow (Saturday) is briefing time and an early night in prep for an early departure on the first leg of the trip - a bit over 100 km from Casablanca to Rabat where long ago (1950s) the RCAF had a base in support of the fighters that we had in France and Germany as part of our NATO commitment. AFter Rabat, four more riding days up past Tangiers and around the northern tip of Morocco that points at Gibraltar. We're camping, so no great expectation of another post until then.

  

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