Arriving to Africa and cycling through the Atlas Mountains
The Strait of Gibraltar that separates Europe from Africa is only 14 kmâs wide, and the ferry from Tarifa to Tangier takes about 35 minutes. When I got off the ferry, a policeman asked if I had any weapons and if I was going to cycle through Morocco. I replied that I will cycle through Africa, he said âcool manâ and welcomed me to Morocco with a big smile.
At first, I felt a bit confused. I could still clearly see Spain on the other side, but I found myself in a completely different culture in only half an hour. Clothes, smells and the way people seemed to socialize were so different. In one way, it gave me an exotic impression, but on the other hand not, since it was so close to the rest of Europe. In South America it was different because I had taken a long flight to get there, where everything in between then feels like a black box with unknown content. This time I had cycled every single meter and knew exactly how people and nature gradually had changed to finally create what I was now looking at, and all this in only 3.5 months and 5,550 kmâs. The thought of spending the next 1.5 years or so on this new continent, and cycle all the way down to South Africa, made me very excited and filled with emotions!
The first things that struck me about Morocco was how helpful and kind people seemed to be, and how much men that were sitting in the cafés drinking tea and coffee. It felt strange to not have the usual mix of women, but this absence later became normal.
On my second day in Morocco, I walked out on the street only to find it completely deserted, except for a few men walking around with blood on their hands carrying big knifes. I knew that it was a Muslim festival called Eid al-Adha during these days, but at first I didnât make the connection and wondered what the hell was going on. It turned out these men are looking for jobs, because during this holiday each family traditionally slaughters a sheep. When I walked to the center in search for food (all the shops were closed), kids were running around with sheep heads that they later cut the horns off and burnt over open fires on the street, in order to remove the wool. The heads were later used for cooking a traditional couscous dish.
Jenny, who I cycled with in South America, was coming to join me for a few weeks in Morocco and while I was waiting for her I took the bus to the capital Rabat to arrange the visa to Mauretania. Unfortunately, the embassy was closed for a week even though I had called them in advance to verify the opening hours, so it was nothing else to do than going back.
I had been waiting for the reunion with Jenny for a long time and it was great fun to be back on the roads together! First, we went to Chefchaouen which is called the âblue cityâ because of its many houses and alleys painted in shades of blue, mostly inside the medina. I should probably explain what a medina is, because itâs very common in Morocco. A medina is the oldest part of many North-African cities and it contains many narrow and maze-like streets, usually with a big wall surrounding it. This is basically the place to look for cheap hotels, eat cheap food, and watch people while sipping on a glass of sweet mint tea. The medina of Chefchaouen looked almost like from a fairy tale with all the blue colors.
The road to FĂšs was nice and surrounded by a lot of olive trees. People passing always waved their hands and greeted us, and some gave us fresh pomegranates, apples and oranges. In one tiny village we encountered kids throwing stones at us, but fortunately for both of us, they missed.
FĂšs is a great city! The medina is a UNESCO heritage site and considered to be one of the largest car-free urban areas in the world. We got kind of lost inside with all the narrow alleys and I donât think I would have been able to backtrack, but following the crowds we managed to find our way back to the hotel. We saw everything from wedding chair carpenters to leather tanneries and what not. We went crazy on all the different types of food we could eat, and I found a new favorite dish called âpastillaâ, which is a kind of sweet and salty pie made of a crĂȘpe-like crust filled with chicken, egg, onion, crushed almonds and spices, and finally garnished with cinnamon and powdered sugar. I found a new favorite pastry too, an almond cookie called âghriybaâ that I bought half a kilo of before hitting the road. It is always a feast to come to the big touristic cities, because the small shops on the country side donât sell much more than canned tuna, canned mackerel, eggs, bread and laughing cow cheese. By now, I have given up all hope on finding oatmeal for the porridge and instead converted to couscous.
I got a new nickname here in Morocco because of my beard â Ali Baba. At first I found it flattering, but by now I am quite tired of hearing it because every time I enter a city the men on the street shout it out loud in excitement when they see me. In the tale where the character comes from, âAli Baba and the Forty Thievesâ, he is considered to be a good guy so it is actually a compliment and not an insult :-)
South of FĂšs we headed towards the mountains with cedar forests near Ifrane and Azrou. These forests are also home to Barbary apes, a special kind of macaque living only in the mountains of Morocco, Algeria and on top of the Rock of Gibraltar. It was mating season which meant lots of fighting and copulation going on.
In the city of KhĂ©nifra, we made an amazing discovery. I have always loved avocado, but donât know why Iâve never tried avocado milkshake before. Anyway, thatâs what we did, and it was love at first sight for both of us. You have to try this at home! Only avocado, some sugar and milk. Yummy!
We continued towards the mountains of Middle Atlas and a village called âEl Kebabâ, in search for what you would expect from a village with such a name. Unfortunately, we didnât find what we were looking for, but instead got invited to the home of a local family to have tagine â the best one so far! Tagine is the most common dish you see in Morocco and itâs basically vegetables and meat cooked inside a special clay pot, preferably over open fire.
When we entered the High Atlas, we made some detours and mountain passes on small gravel roads that I had been recommended by another Swedish cyclist. First, the road from Agoudal to Msemrir that took us over the 2,900 m high Tizi nâOuano. Epic mountain landscapes and big gullies created by the erosion caused by weather and wind.
From Msemrir we continued on a really bad but stunning road over the 2,645 m high pass Tizi nâUguent Zegasaoun to Tamtattouchte. Sometimes you couldnât see that it was a road at all, but just a riverbed with big rocks. The red mountains looked like they had been carefully carved out by the hand of a skilled artist, beautiful!
Most people that live in these mountains are Berbers, the indigenous ethnic group of North Africa that lived here before the Arabs came in the 7th century. They are very hospitable and almost every single day we were invited for a cup of tea, or Berber whisky as they call it. The kids on the other hand were troubling us. Often when entering a village, kids spotted us and came shouting and running after us. We tried to warn each other by saying things like âincoming three oâclock!â or âincoming from behind the mosqueâ. They beg for candy, money and pens. Some of them tried to steal things on our rear racks, and one time we noticed that Jennyâs map was gone. She was almost hit by a rock too, so this stupid behavior is very sad.
During our last cycling day together, we entered what started as a small gully that just grew and grew to finally form the impressive Todra Gorge, Moroccos most popular place for rock climbing. It was funny, because usually when I say that I am from Sweden people reply âZlatan IbrahimoviÄ!â. But in Todra, they replied âSaid Belhaj!â because he is a famous Swedish/Moroccan rock climber that has been here many times. It was very few people here at the moment so I didnât find any climbing partner, but did get to do some bouldering. Our three weeks together passed quickly and Jenny had to go to Marrakech the next day to catch her plane. We had a final avocado milkshake and took farewell. I hope that we will hit the road again someday, InshaâAllah!
It seems like I missed a cool and very beautiful pass when I was there! What a shame… :-)
A well written story btw – looking forward to more!
/Lars
http://www.lostcyclist.com
Amazing!! Love to read it, keep all of us updated. The way you are posing pictures with a little details is great! Enjoy and be safe.
Hej, mycket intressant lÀsning. Det lÀngsta jag cyklat Àr frÄn Lundsbrunn till norska ishavskusten vid Skibotten.
Jag önskar dig vÀlgÄng pÄ din fortsatta cykling.
Hans 79 Àr
Calle! SÄ sjukt imponerande! Var i Sydafrika förra veckan, Àven fast det dröjer innan du Àr dÀr, tÀnkte jag att jag vÀl inte direkt skulle bli förvÄnad om du dök upp. Du har ju för vana att dyka upp pÄ mina resor! I Uppsala har snön kommit och jag vÀntar ivrigt pÄ svar om jag kommit in pÄ barnmorskeprogrammet. Var försiktig om dig! SÄ otroligt hÀftig resa du gör! Och skÀgget Àr nice! Stora kramar Ingela
Tjena,
Grymt kul och intressant lÀsning, fortsÀtt skriv(och gÀrna mer frekvent) sÄ man kan följa dina Àventyr! Lycka till pÄ resan och var försiktig.
Bobby Lundqvist
African Society
Btw, en “Dela-knapp”? (Ăr pĂ„ mobilen)
Tack ska du ha! Nu har jag lagt in dela-knappar, bra dÀr :-)
KÀrt barn har mÄnga namn, Carl-David!
Underbara bilder och underbart berÀttat.
All lycka pÄ fÀrden.
VÀl skrivet, Àlskade marocko nÀr jag cyklade dÀr! I look forward to more good travel writing!
//Micke
Amazing experience! It feels like we are actually travelling with you :)
Keep exploring new world, Mr. Alibaba ;).
Well, Alibaba & Chalis Chor (Alibaba & Forty Thieves) is one of the famous story in India too…
Have a Safe & Healthy journey!
Jaklar vad gott brund du ar pa ryggen!!! Haha!
Harliga foton och kul att lasa!
Riktigt kul lÀsning! HÀr hemma Àr det fullt upp med att leverera alla projekt inför jul. Passa pÄ att njuta av resan
Hey man we met in Fontainebleau (i was the american with the bike) and i just got around to checking this out. awesome!!! i look forward to reading this more now that im home :)
Hi Jay, good to hear from you! Are you climbing in the valley now?
I climbed in the Valley for a month while the massive forest fire was going on which closed a small section of the park. Thankfully the valley only was smokey one or two days out of this whole month and most of the smoke stayed away due to the location and huge cliffs blocking the wind. Great times – I sure do miss traveling though at the moment so its nice to check up on your blog!
HI Carl-David
You stayed with us, Jenny and Miguel, in Spain ! Seems like ages ago. How are you ? I can’t see any posts past February this year. Everything OK? Blog is great, some amazing photos.