Back to Casablanca

Thursday May 12 - 2700 km of cycling behind us and we return to Casablanca where e started five weeks ago...

The previous rest day was in Essaouira, a fishing port city built and fortified in its present form in the the 18th century. It was Morocco's major port through the 19th century.  

 

We had to navigate the narrow alleys of the medina to get to the hotel - happily the support crews handled the baggage that had to come in on hand carts

Reverse the process Tuesday morning, assemble outside the old city wall, pump up the tires, fill water bottles, and start the final three days of riding with a 120 km ride followed by two 70 km days.

Some very bleak scenery at times, some fields of stone and some very parched-looking stretches but on the whole a reasonable amount of well-tended agricultural land.

One very foggy start of the day, with stone-walled fields either side...

And then cows taking advantage of the ornate community fountain...

The final night and our tent which has served us well for ten years - everywhere from the Arctic to Madagascar, Australia and New Zealand - gets packed up for the final time, needing too many repairs to make it worth bringing back - and maybe in our advanced middle age years we are thinking that hotel accommodation will be our preferred style.

A delicious final night dinner, here being prepared by chef Mark, tour lead Doug, and Mohammed, one the Moroccan support staff...

The final day had a bit of everything, some headwind, some dirt, not much climbing though, and ended for the last three km on a beautiful bike path into Casablanca.

That afternoon, all the bikes got packed up into boxes for everybody's return home, then that night the wind-up dinner and... POOF... after five weeks of great camaraderie while cycling around Morocco, it was all over, some people leaving the hotel before tomorrow's breakfast to catch flights home.

We have a couple of days in Casablanca before flying out on Monday. The medina area has the narrow streets typical of Moroccan cities...

Casablanca is also a busy financial centre - below a modern tram in front on the attractive main post office.

There is some amazing art in the form of murals on apartment buildings...

 

...even on buildings that look like they need a lot more than paint on the ends...

 

The best-known landmark in Casablanca, aside from Rick's Cafe of fame from the Casablanca movie, is the Hassan II Mosque, the second largest mosque in Africa, built thirty years ago at a cost of nearly a billion US dollars on which dominates the ocean-front - built partially on natural rock and partially over the ocean.

The minaret is the second-tallest in the world and forms a nice background for kids out for Saturday morning soccer practice in the recreational areas along the corniche to the south of the mosque.

It is one of only two mosques in Morocco that allow visits by non-muslims...

 

That brings this adventure to a close. Five weeks, 2700 km on the bikes, challenging riding, some long tiring days, a great variety of beautiful scenery, friendly courteous people. TDA Global Cycling as far as we are concerned has once again facilitated our travel to another new place, and the support staff has set an even higher standard on support for very aspect of the trip.

That's it... thank you for following our blog, we hope it has entertained.