Day 27 (2nd of March)
I think I have one leg longer than the other. Really. I am adjusting all the time the saddle, and when I relief the pain on one leg, it appears on the other. And so on. I kind of remember also that as I was 14 or so, a doctor told me that one was longer than the other. Anyways, I am reaching a point in which I start to get concerned about my right leg, and unfortunately a rest day is not attractive because I am in the middle of nowhere. So there is no other chance than making it to Fes, and rest there.
I cross huuge fertile valleys, with dozens of people, houses, donkeys and some field trucks scattered around the landscape. I read on the guide that these valleys have nurtured the Moroccan kingdom for centuries. It makes sense, the crops are endless. Anyways, I keep going and eventually looking for a camping spot, without much success. Everytime I get out of the National road and try to find a spot, someone in a donkey appears. Somehow the environment doesn’t invite to camp there. Fields equal to insects, and I have the feeling of being observed. Quite desperate for a spot, a motel miraculously appears, and for 9€, I get a room. Too tired to bargain. I regret a bit when I see the room: the window points to the inside of a car washer. WTF. I cook a “delicious” pasta on my cooking stove and go to sleep.
Day 28
The fields continue, although eventually their fertility disminishes and it gets drier. I make it to the entrance of the Medina of Fes – a 1 Million people city -, and quite easily for my relief I make it to the entrance of the Hostel Moroccan Dream. I find out that the hostel is under construction, but the crew helps me put the bike inside. It is quite full of foreigner backpackers, and I quickly get along with them. I visit the Medina with Basti from Germany and Mimi from France and decide that Day 29 is a rest day.
I heard that Fes Medina gets quite tiring due to the insistence of people, but I don’t find it so intense. Maybe I am already used to the atmosphere? I find a place with Tajin for 2€. I will keep it simple and eat there every meal until I leave Fes. The day ends with a great crowd on the terrace drinking and eating together.
Day 29
I start planning my next days and realize that I am quite tired of the National road. I want to go through secondary and off-roads. However, my mother, aunt and girlfriend (funny combo, eh?) are visiting me in Marrakesh on day 40 (15th of March) and that limits my “freedom” to go off the beaten track. Shit. Moreover, I see that, to go further east and avoid the National road to Marrakesh, which I imagine crowded, the first day I need to climb +1500 m! Fucjkkkk! That’s too much, specially now that I feel a bit of pain on my right leg! 😦 :-(. And then my rational side appears:
-“What if I take a bus and skip the climb? It’s anyway in the National Road, it’s not gonna be nice. Mmmmmm”.
+my emotional side: “But this is a bike trip. I said I was gonna cycle and avoid buses as much as possible.”
The dilemma starts. And it is quite deep because it has much to do with the ethics of the trip. I conclude that I don’t want to prove nothing to anyone, including to myself, with this trip and that the ultimate objective is to enjoy nature and local cultures in a true environment while cycling. And for that I have to be offroad. As I don’t want to let my girlfriend enjoy holidays with my mother, my aunt and without me (Just imagine the situation), I decide that, when necessary, I will skip national roads by bus to be able to enjoy the offroads. Decided.
I spend the rest of the day with Victor from Spain and Theodora from Greece. Really nice people, Victor writes poetry and Theodora plays music. With a tee on a rooftop very interesting conversations pop out.
Unfortunately I have to witness how Abdul, a young worker from the hostel with whom I had great fun the night before, has an argument with the owner, packs and leaves, with the owner chasing him through the Medina. Quite uncomfortable situation. Something prevents me from intervening, like my conciousness telling me that it’s not my battle. I go to bed with a weird feeling.
Day 30 (5th of March)
I wake up early to cross the Medina before it gets crowded (it would be impossible to cross it in rush hour with the bike) and take a bus to Ifrane for 2.5€, where my offroad begins. 1500m+ and 70km avoided. Wow.
Ifrane is weird. Super weird. It is a town at 1’700 m altitude full of Swiss-alpine-style chalets. I find out that the rich kids of Morocco study in the local university. I try to visit it to see how full of contrasts a country can be, but they don’t let me in. Whatever.
My offroad starts through Ifrane National Park, which looks more like Canada than like Morocco (except for the fact that there are monkeys). It feels SOOOO GREAT to not see (so many) cars. There are just shepherds with sheep and dogs. Oh dogs. If I only knew that dogs would be the only thing that would bother me more than people offering me weed. It got scary some times, really. Dogs freak out when they see a bike passing, specially when you go fast. They chase you and bark. Some of them even do the “Grrrr” that, at least on movies, comes before a bite. Scary sh*t, eh?
I cross to the other side of the National Road with the solid purpose of getting in nasty roads. It gets late and I find out a fantastic camping spot. The most marvelous star spotting of my life followed. I don’t think I will ever forget that sky.
On the way to the National Park
Day 31 (6th)
I go 70 km through the North East area of Jenifrah National Park. It is full of monkeys jumping from tree to tree and colourful birds singing. For hours I don’t see anyone, and cross some shepherd tiny villages, with kids coming to cheer me every time. OK, kids, this deserves a break for them.
[Break on kids: The first time I encountered kids, between Ouezanne and Fes, my first reaction was to play with them. When I faced them in groups after school, I would experience how kids can be. One tried to steal something of my bike. Another tried to pull me out of the bike when giving him high-five. Some of them even collected rocks and pretended to start throwing them to me!! It is quite funny how scared I got after, everytime I saw a group of kids! After Fes, once I was offroad, they were much much niiiiiicer -even super lovely – than those kids I encountered before. But yep, for a while, I was scared of kids in Morocco. So lame.]
Since kids know just Bonjour in French ( and my French is not much better), I found out that the best or only way to interact with them is to give them a bit of chocolate and to take a picture together.
The villages and forests I crossed this day I will never forget. The 500 m downhills neither. But what I will certainly never forget is the 2 hours it took me to push the bike up an endless and tortuous super steep road.
A woman called Suleida suddenly invited me to have tee and lunch with them. I was really looking forward to this kind of invitation. They were soooo nice. We had a good time together, despite the language barriers. They asked me whether I was married, and they joked around me taking her daughter, Saida, of 18 years old to Spain. Were they trying to get us married? Whatever, I gave them a hug and left to rejoin the national road again.
I found a motel were I got dinner and a room. While having dinner, I joined a group of locals who were having a crazy private party with tones of alcohol and cigarettes. A group was playing traditional Bereber music and three women on traditional dresses were dancing. Just for 3 guys and me. WTF. They invited me to everything. However, I fucked up when I took a video of the dancing. They got a bit upset, since alcohol is reaaaally taboo in Moroccan society and they are quite paranoid of pictures of them drunk spreading around. Literaly like if they were naked pictures. Yeah, I fucked up. I blamed myself quite a lot for this impulse we have nowadays to record or take pictures of everything around us. Whatever, I went to bed happy after the first Couchsurfing request worked for my next destination: Midelt, one of the gateways for the Desert.
Distance cycled: 1667 km
Altitude climbed: 13781 m+
Cycling Pirates 
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