27 January 2008: Morocco - Chefchaouen to Azrou
What a day. Riding the Rif was rumoured to be fraught with possible incidents. Well we're obviously lucky cos it was awesome. The roads, the scenery, the ride. All worth the irritations, and there were some. We (I) took the slightly more minor route of Quezzane to Moulay-Idriss and Meknes because of the green route on the map. Stopping to take pictures or go to the loo in a seemingly unpopulated area would prompt a handful of heads to pop up out of nowhere and make a beeline for us to try and bum a bonbon, a Dirham - fookin TEN Dhirams on one occasion! Anyway they got fook all.
Furs
Moroccan Shop
Moroccan Shop
The only hostile occasion was a group of kids - being alerted by Kirsten's bike, picked up stones and sticks and raced down the hill towards us. All to no avail , as it happens, as we were beyond the range of all but one. This imaginative chappie, who was a bit bigger than the rest, got within striking distance of me and, at full tilt, charging down the hill, let go of an enormous hawk of phlegm. In his excitement, or fear of us escaping unmarked, he mistimed his assault - which had no velocity to it - and ran right into it. The cunning little tyke nearly had me though, as I laughed so hard at the sight of him covered in snot I nearly fell off my bike !
We arrived in Azrou in darkness, and with the GPS reference from the UKGSER site, found the wonderful Gite de Charme Ras Alma, who due to a last minute cacellation had a room . A big thank you to Mehdi & Azizi, who gave us a very warm welcome and a most excellent dinner and breakfast.
Digs