This was a wild day, no doubt about it! The plan was to ride to Taddert, a mere 40 km of uphill. I have definitely learned something about perseverance from my swim coach Nancy. I was pretty exhausted when we got to Taddert but the thought of staying there was pretty gruesome… so in true Duck fashion, I ate lunch, managed to score a free bag of oranges, a picture taken while wrapped in traditional headdress and a back rub from a dirty old man. Nothing says get on your bike and ride like the prospect of staying in a stinky town with a dirty old man! So, thanks to all of my torture, er, training at the pool, I was then able to continue on for another 40 km of even steeper uphill. We just barely finished by dark but managed to ride 80km over a good mountain pass. We climbed a grand total of 2443 meters today. I was so impressed that Dal managed that. In fact, he was the one egging me on to continue in spite of the fact that we knew there were very few places to stay along the way. He is a tough old guy!
We did have a few issues with chains and derailleurs but managed to fix everything as we went along. The mountains were gorgeous and they got very arid and barren as we climbed. Gone were the olive groves and eucalyptus trees that lined the road out of Marrakech. The people were pretty friendly. The kids always asked for money but they were not all that pushy.

We finally got to Aguime after attempting to stay in Inherme n Ougdat. It was pretty scummy and even the cops suggested that we ride 10km to the next town to get a decent hotel. Good thing we did indeed. That shower felt so good after the long ride! The hotel staff were great and slipped us a free mint tea and dessert. Of course, the one guy was more interested in me than in Dal. This is quite a switch for Dal considering he is always the one who is so popular with the ladies. He got all the attention when we travelled in Chile but it is definitely my turn in Morocco. They don't have many local women riding bikes, although I have met several who loved to swim.
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Tidbits for Cyclists
Lots and lots of climbing. Traffic is very courteous to cyclists although they pass each other on blind curves regularly. It is a bit scary watching it, but they always give us room. If you want to ride, do carry on to Aguime for the hotel. It is the first one you will come to on your left. Reasonable prices and excellent service. Good, clean rooms with shared toilets and showers. Since we were one of two sets of guests it really wasn't a problem. I did learn that you have to turn on the water to fill the toilet tank before it will flush though… duh, I should have thought of that myself!