January 30 :: Boujdour, Morocco
January 30 :: Boujdour, Morocco :: 188km / 1202km total
Up and out of the hotel before sunrise for a 188km shot down to the next town, Boujdour. A flat road and a gentle tailwind made things quite managable, and at 11:30 a.m. I passed the "100km to go" mark. With things well under control I could ease up a bit and save my strength for tomorrow.
Traffic has dramatically decreased here, South of Laayoune, maybe to about 1/3 of what it was before Laayoune. Ofte I'm alone for 15 min at a time, just me and the desert. Over the past few days of cycling I'd been seeing the cars, trucks, and bikes of the Dakar rally driving the other way, they seem to be all through, now.
At Lemsid (km 109) I pulled into a cafe for lunch. All they were serving was meat tajine, sigh, so it was a veg lunch for me. At 135km in I came across a big water crossing; water from the 2 days of rain is still pooled everywhere in the desert, and in this one spot had flooded the road to about a foot deep. An overturned truck apparently had had a rougher crossing than me, and I stopped for a bit to watch the guys try to right it. A tow truck was parked in the desert, the winch being used to try to turn over the truck. The cable snapped on the first attempt, but on the second attempt they got it up, sort of. I sped off, now within 50km of Boujdour.
20km out a slow leak in my rear tire became apparent, damn, I really wasn't in the mood for a tube change this close to town. Besides, I wanted to do a thorough check to see what caused the flat. So I pulled out my pump and proceeded to pump up the tire; ride a furious 5km, pump up the tire, ride 5km...
Boujdour is larger than I expected, and I'm surprised to find internet here. I have a GREAT room for only 50 dirham ($7 CDN), and I feel... great! No aches, no pains, ready for another big one tomorrow.
Up and out of the hotel before sunrise for a 188km shot down to the next town, Boujdour. A flat road and a gentle tailwind made things quite managable, and at 11:30 a.m. I passed the "100km to go" mark. With things well under control I could ease up a bit and save my strength for tomorrow.
Traffic has dramatically decreased here, South of Laayoune, maybe to about 1/3 of what it was before Laayoune. Ofte I'm alone for 15 min at a time, just me and the desert. Over the past few days of cycling I'd been seeing the cars, trucks, and bikes of the Dakar rally driving the other way, they seem to be all through, now.
At Lemsid (km 109) I pulled into a cafe for lunch. All they were serving was meat tajine, sigh, so it was a veg lunch for me. At 135km in I came across a big water crossing; water from the 2 days of rain is still pooled everywhere in the desert, and in this one spot had flooded the road to about a foot deep. An overturned truck apparently had had a rougher crossing than me, and I stopped for a bit to watch the guys try to right it. A tow truck was parked in the desert, the winch being used to try to turn over the truck. The cable snapped on the first attempt, but on the second attempt they got it up, sort of. I sped off, now within 50km of Boujdour.
20km out a slow leak in my rear tire became apparent, damn, I really wasn't in the mood for a tube change this close to town. Besides, I wanted to do a thorough check to see what caused the flat. So I pulled out my pump and proceeded to pump up the tire; ride a furious 5km, pump up the tire, ride 5km...
Boujdour is larger than I expected, and I'm surprised to find internet here. I have a GREAT room for only 50 dirham ($7 CDN), and I feel... great! No aches, no pains, ready for another big one tomorrow.
posted by Graham Durrant at 11:20 AM
2 Comments:
All sounds great Graham! Am back from Holland and now following you with great interest. Can't find all the places on the map. Stuff like this was always my dream. Keep going strong!
Hey Marion. Hope you had another great trip!
I have uploaded maps of my route way back at the beginning of my blog. The only lissing section is where I am now, Mauritania, because the road I am riding is new. Thanks for the comment!
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