Nov 17/09

We had a wonderful breakfast with our new cycling friends, Etienne from France and his friend Marcus from Germany. They gave us tons of route information and it was great sharing cycling stories. Etienne gave me tips on bargaining but I still had no luck with it today at all. I will keep trying. They were heading north on a newly paved road but had no idea of what food and lodgings lay ahead. They are true explorers.

Yet another long day on the bike! Started out feeling truly horrible due to this darned cold. Couldn't stop coughing, well, hacking is more like it. I had no energy and my lungs were so full that I couldn't get the oxygen to my muscles. Still, one pedal stroke at a time and after about 50km later it got better.

We had lots of encouragement every time we went up any passes. People would wave, yell out "courage!", honk gently, stay out of our way etc. They have no idea just how incredibly helpful it is, especially when one is low on energy. At one point late in the day, a pickup truck passed us. It had 4 women standing in the back of it and when they saw us, they burst into song and started waving at us. Since we were climbing yet another hill, their voices echoed and we could hear them for a good long time. They must have got my legs to go that last 10km just on that song alone!

We stopped for lunch in Ait Saoun, a fairly quiet little town. While we were there two guys from around Tamengalt came up and started talking. They were very kind and for once they wanted to talk to Dal instead of me! Whew. Made us both happy. In fact, Jawad even bought us a bottle of water for the road which was very kind. Mustafa wanted us to stay with his family for a small fee instead of staying in Agdz. We did think about it but the day stretched out a bit longer than that.

In spite of all the climbing that we did today, none of it was too major compared to the passes we had already been through. Still, the area is spectacular. We have gone from seemingly endless striking lunar landscape to lush oases to more foothills and back to valleys. There was a pretty big river around Agdz which was quite a surprise to see. Of course, along with that came date palms with kids climbing up to get the dates, lots of vegetation and of course people eeking a living out of it all somehow. Nothing goes to waste here.
We got to Agdz which was to be our destination. Nothing looked too exciting and we both had caught a second wind. The landscape today was so beautiful that neither of us wanted to stop. We figured we would find a Kasbah within 15km (according to map and guidebook) but nothing turned up. Our estimated 68km day turned into 96km! Ouch, my butt hurts! We had just pulled over with the intention of flagging down a taxi to take us to Zagora since the sun was starting to set, when we saw two german cycle tourists coming north. They kindly stopped when we asked them about accommodations up the road(they were going uphill!) They said we would find an auberge 10km up the road so we decided to blast out of there before dark. Naturally, there was another steep climb but we did make it!
Turns out the auberge at the intersection of route 108 is actually pretty nice. A bit pricey but included dinner and breakfast. They had us as a captive audience but it was worth it. Nothing like a great hot shower followed by Moroccan salad, berber omlette and really fresh bread. Quick blog update and I will be asleep for the night so fast!