March 9, 2023
Day 22: N'kob to Tazzarine
“Plenty of rocks for the garden,” Patrick says as we are riding out of the town. Rashid fixed a nice breakfast ready at 0800 and we are quickly on the road. We are already wearing our sunglasses as we are riding east into the sun.
The landscape is very rocky with scattered trees. We are riding in a valley between a sloping upward escarpment to our left and on the right a continued view of cliffs. We are in the area of Jbel Saghro many come to do trekking. Periodically see small clusters of palm trees and almond trees blooming and mosques. “I keep thinking it would be nice to see a giraffe,” Patrick says. “I can’t believe you just said that,” Rachel answers and continues, “I too was thinking it would be nice to see some animals when I know it’s all snakes and scorpions out there.”
| Heart | 2 | Comment | 2 | Link |
The landscape is very rocky with scattered trees. We are riding in a valley between a sloping upward escarpment to our left and on the right a continued view of cliffs. We are in the area of Jbel Saghro many come to do trekking. Periodically see small clusters of palm trees and almond trees blooming and mosques. “I keep thinking it would be nice to see a giraffe,” Patrick says. “I can’t believe you just said that,” Rachel answers and continues, “I too was thinking it would be nice to see some animals when I know it’s all snakes and scorpions out there.”
“Look at the soccer fields,” Rachel says and Patrick adds, “Can you imagine learning to play football on these fields?” The fields are dust, sloped, and with rocks, would be good learning to adapt and react to changing direction of the ball.
Today is an easy ride, only about 35 kilometers. This sets us up for a 65km day tomorrow to Alnif. Our other options were doing about a hundred k’s today and again tomorrow (not a good plan) or riding as far as we can and camp in the desert. We don’t fancy that either.
We arrive at Hotel Bougafer before noon. This is a huge complex with a beautiful garden, a pool, restaurant and bar. It has seen better days, but is obviously set-up for higher paying tourists. There is some room for negotiation though, the owner knows there are no other hotel options in town, and Patrick can see the place is empty. After some back and forth on the room price, with or without breakfast or dinner we settle on total 650Dh, which includes a 120Dh per person to dinner (Chicken Tajine) and breakfast tomorrow morning at seven (10Dh = $1).
After settling in the room and a shower and shave, Patrick rides to town to find a store for bread, chips, yogurt and coke. Rachel finishes the laundry by the time he is back. The rest of the afternoon is spent being comfortable. We’ll camp under a desert tree somewhere if we really have to, but these days our preferences are more comfortable options. How our travel style has changed over the years.
Today's ride: 35 km (22 miles)
Total: 731 km (454 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 13 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 2 |
1 year ago
1 year ago
1 year ago