Morocco: Trip summary
26/05/13 04:02 Filed in: Morocco | Cycle Touring
Nearly six weeks in Morocco, Cycle touring.SELECTED PHOTOS just a sampling to get an overview of what we did.
TRIP SUMMARY SPREADSHEET this lists where we stayed each day and how far we rode etc.
For more detail look at the individual Blog entries which have links to the photos from each week.
We flew from Berlin, Germany to near Agadir on the of southern Morocco on Tuesday 16th April 2013. At the airport we put together our "Bike Friday Tandem Traveller XL" and set off. From Agadir we headed south to the Souss National Park then to Tiznit, Sidi Ifni, back to Tiznit and on inland to Tafrauote in the Anti Atlas.
From the Anti Atlas we returned to Agadir and then headed north up the coast to beautiful Essaouira before heading inland to Marrakesh. We rode about 60 km into the Atlas mountains before taking a few days off cycling to hike to the highest mountain in North Africa (4167m, Mount Toubkal) as well as some other hiking around Asni. Back in Marrakesh we disassembled our bike and caught the train past Casablanca to Morocco's capital: Rabat. We rode from here north to Kenitra before turning inland along a back road to visit Volubilis, the ruins of an early Roman City.
We spent a few day in Meknes trying to fix a bike problem, our three speed rear gear hub was not working well. The problem which had started when a "mechanic" early in our trip had pulled the hub apart to change some broken spokes and it had not gone back together properly, was only getting worse. We rode on the 60km to Fez and looked around this ancient city before catching a bus with our fully assembled bike, north into the Rif mountains.
From here in Chefchaouen it was mostly downhill to the Mediterranean Coast but the rear hub on our bike finally stopped about 25km from the coast. Amazingly after pushing about 2km we came to a small town where a BMX wheel was being sold a a rummage sale and with some modifications we rode on past Tetouan to the coast at Martil. The replacement wheel was great and we rode along the Med Coast to the Spanish Territory of Ceuta.
We had ridden less than planned due to our rear hub problems but still rode about 1800 km in Morocco over the 39 or 40 days depending whether you count the night in Spanish Ceuta before catching the ferry. So of the 39 nights, 28 were camping (with 3 not in camping areas), 2 nights were in a home stay and the remaining 9 were in hotel.
The costs of hotels for the two of us ranged from 120 to 330 dirhams (AU$14-36), while camping areas were 60 to 110 dirhams (AU$7-13 ). Meals, eating out was extremely varied from 20 to 300 dirham ($0.30 to $34) for two. Consequently our total costs including bike services, bus and train fares, accommodation and eating was AU$2040 (17600 dirham) or a bit over AU$50 per day.
TRIP SUMMARY SPREADSHEET this lists where we stayed each day and how far we rode etc.
For more detail look at the individual Blog entries which have links to the photos from each week.
We flew from Berlin, Germany to near Agadir on the of southern Morocco on Tuesday 16th April 2013. At the airport we put together our "Bike Friday Tandem Traveller XL" and set off. From Agadir we headed south to the Souss National Park then to Tiznit, Sidi Ifni, back to Tiznit and on inland to Tafrauote in the Anti Atlas.
From the Anti Atlas we returned to Agadir and then headed north up the coast to beautiful Essaouira before heading inland to Marrakesh. We rode about 60 km into the Atlas mountains before taking a few days off cycling to hike to the highest mountain in North Africa (4167m, Mount Toubkal) as well as some other hiking around Asni. Back in Marrakesh we disassembled our bike and caught the train past Casablanca to Morocco's capital: Rabat. We rode from here north to Kenitra before turning inland along a back road to visit Volubilis, the ruins of an early Roman City.
We spent a few day in Meknes trying to fix a bike problem, our three speed rear gear hub was not working well. The problem which had started when a "mechanic" early in our trip had pulled the hub apart to change some broken spokes and it had not gone back together properly, was only getting worse. We rode on the 60km to Fez and looked around this ancient city before catching a bus with our fully assembled bike, north into the Rif mountains.
We had ridden less than planned due to our rear hub problems but still rode about 1800 km in Morocco over the 39 or 40 days depending whether you count the night in Spanish Ceuta before catching the ferry. So of the 39 nights, 28 were camping (with 3 not in camping areas), 2 nights were in a home stay and the remaining 9 were in hotel.
The costs of hotels for the two of us ranged from 120 to 330 dirhams (AU$14-36), while camping areas were 60 to 110 dirhams (AU$7-13 ). Meals, eating out was extremely varied from 20 to 300 dirham ($0.30 to $34) for two. Consequently our total costs including bike services, bus and train fares, accommodation and eating was AU$2040 (17600 dirham) or a bit over AU$50 per day.