Day dist.: 90.94
Time biking: 5:16
Avg Speed: 17.1 kms (in Tangiers I pushed the bike looking for a hotel for 2 kms which brought the avg down)
Max: 44.9
Total dist: 663 kms
When I got up I realized, partly because there were many more mullahs heard calling the faithful to pray, that it was Friday. Friday is the Muslim Sunday, which meant that the stores would be closed. Fortunately I was wrong and I was able to victualize before I hit the read at 12:00
Before leaving I took a couple of pictures
The scenery was different than yesterday
And this is the highway I am not allowed to ride on.
Yesterday the ride was flat, today, however, things were different. It was mostly up and down. There were a lot of ups, which made the ride considerably more difficult and took much longer.
The never ending road
At about 38 kms, I saw a line of trucks parked, for no obvious reason, at the other side of the road. I crossed because the shade was on that side and it looked the right place to stop for a few minutes. As I was walking by one of the drivers that was in the process of working on his fender said something to me in Arabic, which he repeated a couple of times when I nodded I did not understand. Finally I made out that he was saying “maim” which is the Arabic for water. He offered to show me to the “spring,” but when it comes to water I’m really careful, so I thanked him and left.
At 40 kms I entered Assilah, a beach resort. All this time when I saw the town’s name on km posts I read it as Asliha and concluded that the town was named after Aslihan. Well Ashlihan, if you read this you know where your town is.
I biked on and by some interesting beaches
Finally at 16:00 and at 60 kms (28 before Tangiers) I stopped for a late lunch
It is the first time that I stayed out in the sun. As you know I really dislike the sun and avoid it as much as possible. This time, however, I had no choice. Did not take a nap this time, however.
I biked on and strangely enough I felt tired so 45 mins later I stopped again and unsuccessfully tried o take a nap.
Finally, I entered Tangiers
As I was slowly biking a van drove by me on my right hand side and the driver lowered his window and said something to me in Arabic pointing at Spithas. I told him I could not understand and he waived me to stop and stop I did. He was a man in his sixties and in the van there were five teenagers. He kept saying things and pointing at Spithas. Finally, I understood that he meant that the saddle had the wrong height. I pulled out the Allen wrenches and loosened the saddle. The man lowered it a bit and called one of the teenagers who kept the front wheel tight and the man told me to mount the bike and pedal in the only way that was possible, that is backwards. He looked at my knee and adjusted the saddle twice. Finally, when the height was right I tightened it (at S indication.) Even though all our conversation had been in Arabic which made me think that Mohamed, the gentleman’s name, could not speak French which turned out to be the wrong assumption. When I spoke to him in French he responded in “ok” French and so I learned that he had been a professional biker in his youth. He also gave me the advice to stop every ten kms and drink water, whether I am thirsty or not. I thanked him and biked on.
Tangiers looked really beautiful, clean, and modern. When I was near the center I asked a man that was walking by where I could find a hotel and he told me to get off the bike and walk with him. As we were walking towards the port he gave a lot of info about Morocco and about Tangiers. Finally, when we were near the port he showed me where to continue and went about his business.
I ended up at hotel Valencia that looks right at the port.
After getting settled I went out got something to eat and looked for an internet place.
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