March 20, 2023
Day 33: Azrou to Imouzzer Kandar
“Look for monkeys,” Audrey says as we say goodbye and Thank you. “Come visit us in Boise,” we say.
She rode with us showing the back way out of Azrou to the main road. We have a 20km hill climb and we are much slower, she rides ahead saying she’ll wait at a viewpoint. The landscape is green and trees.
We re-join Audrey at the turnoff onto a secondary road. As we reach the edge of the forest, she stops to say goodbye she will continue to Ifrane then loop back to Azrou.
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While we were taking a selfie of the three of us, a car passes and stops. A man comes over to take a picture for us all together. “Where are you from,” he asks as he takes the picture. “America,” we all reply. “What state,” he continues to ask. “Idaho,” we say. Then he says, “I have a brother who lives in Boise, he is a fire fighter.” Small world. We exchange information and encourage him to have his brother contact us when we are home in June. He also took Audrey’s information about her NGO.
The ride through the forest is delightful, no traffic. We see a mother and baby monkey on an overhead log in the sun.
“I almost forgot we were in Morocoo,” Rachel says as we stop for a break after riding through most of Ifrane. Now we understand when Audrey said Ifrane is a different world. Very European feel with red tiled roofs on standard houses. We ride past the Royal Palace.
Then we start the downhill to Imouzzer Kandar. It’s not all downhill, but pretty close. A tailwind keeps us going without pedaling, and Rachel even gets into her big chain ring briefly. Until the road shifts direction and we have some ups and downs. But we make it to our Hotel Les Truites by 1230.
Patrick chose this hotel because of the restaurant and we hoped to have trout. We ask for a menu, and see that trout is very expensive, almost what you would expect to pay for it at home. We are not used to prices like this in Morocco. This is a nice hotel though. Since our route to Tanger will now be along the coast, we defer having seafood until then. We decide on another option of a fish sandwich but they don’t have that. Instead, we decide to have a bigger meal now and later walk back to town for a smaller dinner. The chicken with mushrooms and potatoes is okay, but not great.
Today's ride: 48 km (30 miles)
Total: 1,294 km (804 miles)
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