Nov 24/09 I have really enjoyed our time in Essaouira. Riding north was quite nice. The road was under construction for the last day so we got to ride on the freshly paved side that was blocked to traffic. Heaven! Eventually we turned north onto a bumpier road but there was very little traffic and no kids jumping out at us. We did catch a few glimpses of the coast during our ride and one lookout point even had a few camels there for tourists to hop on and get a p...

Nov 23/09 What a lovely town Essaouira (Ess-weera) is. We are staying at a charming little guesthouse in the heart of the Mellah, or the old walled town. There is naturally, a big wall surrounding the whole section. On the ocean side, there are cannons to keep away invading war ships. It is a pretty protected little spot and everything is very condensed. There are plenty of guesthouses and hotels but this one is fabulous. It is called House of Colours… pretty...

Nov 21/09 We Rode out of the city with a bit of a late start. I somehow slept through the alarm which never happens. Oh well, we were underway at about 8.45 which was not bad considering. Had a nice breakfast at our favourite little café in the Djemma El Fnaa. They have great prices and tasty food. Not to mention the wonderful little pastries! We had been hoping to miss a bit of traffic but it was already fairly busy. We missed our turn off which added about 10k...

Nov 20/09 We cheated today and took a bus back from where we came. Nothing like burning up all those days of hill climbing in a mere 9-hour bus ride back to Marrakech! We decided to head back up here and explore some flatter parts instead of retracing our steps back. There really wasn't a great way to loop around from there in such a short time. So, we started very early and hopped a bus all the way back. Ironically, the bus broke down once we got into town. Th...

Nov 18/09 This should have been an easy day since it was more downhill than up. Naturally, we had a nice consistent headwind all the way to distract from the fun stuff. There was a lot of sand blowing north from the Sahara which left all the hills slightly hidden by a haze. Still, the scenery was beautiful. The frustrating part of the ride were the kids. They were relentless with their chasing us down asking for pens, money or gifts. My already low opinion of ...