Claudia had to fly back to Germany, depart from Malaga on June 29. We cross the strait of Gibraltar from We went together Ceuta to Algeciras and biked 10 days to Gibraltar, the Atlantic coast and back inland to Màlaga. She just flies away and I will now continue biking alone !
Today, July 1st, I am on the Ferry to go to Morocco ! I want to discover the country when it’s not Ramadan.
We land in Africa by the end of the afternoon, on june 16th. We are in Melilla, a Spanish port on the coast of Morocco. We get a map of Morocco and we look for the border post. Some locals show us the road, we follow a car through the mess of the city… The border is full of people, noisy… A gay wants to help us, he speek german and talk with Claudia. He told that with no help we would spend houers here… he want 2€, Bah ok. We pass the Border and go away quickly on the bikes, he asked for 20 more, he did nothing, no ways !
We are in now in Beni Ensar I Aït Nsar, Marocco !
We clinb up the hilles to tourn around the city and join the road of the mediterranean coast. We are in an urban area, no places for tents… we continue on the road. It’s Ramadan… people doesn’t eat or drink during the day. The night is falling. Suddenly, songs cames from all the minarets around. Its the time for the prayer, and time to eat. We continue the road. It’s night now. We get lost in the urban areas, we ask for directions, some peoples speekes a franch, some german… The streets are full, peoples live at night during Ramadan. We are offered a sweet coffee with milk in a small shop. It’s about midnight in Europa (10 here)
We continue and sleep in a small wood after the cities… too tired
Then, we spend five days along the Rif mountains, along the see. Up and down on the « rocade méditérrannéenne ». It’s so wild here ! No tourists, only pastoral activities, some small vilages, sometimes people selling frutes along the street…
After the Rif, we arrive in the area of Tétouan, a big city… with cars, concrete building, noise…
A old man came and told us we may follow him… He wants to show us something… what ? We follow him… He introduced us in a old building. And other man told us « welcome, let me show us this old building, I will guide you »… By the end the end he asked us to buy stuff… We had to get a bit, but we was not good customers… By the end, it was an interesting experience.
North of Tétouan, the coast is full of touristic complexes (empty during ramadan). Not anymore the wild areas of the Rif…
We biked 130 km per day from two weekes… We are now taking a day off in Grenada with a host from the WarmShower community.
We just made plans for the next week : going to Morocco !
We follow the mediterranean coast, direction South !
We cross the city of Valancia…
We bike from wild rocky coast and agricultural areas with olive and mandarines plantations, to ghost towns with empty and too big buildings waiting for tourists. Those towns are near white beaches… some building have been abandoned before finished… We are tried of cities and touristes and we wand to see the real Spain ! In Altea, we decided to go through the mountains and reach the inland plateaux. We climb the mountaines…
Maybe I will have time to write something if we are slower on bikes…