Early start to catch the 0425 train, thanks for the lift egg! Slightly concerned by man that went into the toilet at London Bridge but didn’t reappear until just before Gatwick. Chose not to raise the alarm to avoid missing flight. Turned out he was just smashed.

Seamless journey from St Albans to Agadir. Nice new easy A321. Smooth exit from the airport. Slight apprehension about blown tubeless tires on the flight, but the bike survived perfectly. Built and packed the bike within an hour. Quick change in the car park toilet. Felt super warm so suncream applied. Straight out of airport heading due west towards Agadir. Horrible headwind! Only went that way to secure some alcohol for the burner. Asked several hardware stores. All pointed me in direction of a pharmacy. One man spoke English but had no idea what I was looking for.

Rode passed about ten pharmacies, all closed for ciesta. Slightly nervous to leave the city without alcohol. Contemplated waiting for them to open. Headed to the outskirts and saw a small side street with a pharmacy, again closed. Asked a man in French, finally an open one! Largest bottle of alcohol sold was an antiseptic gel like liquid £4 for 125ml. I bought 3. The pharmacy ladies gave some confused laughter as I filled my fuel flask. At least I could cook now. Rode to Biougra, lovely tail wind. Busy road though, lots of dust/fumes. Biougra was a lot quieter with nice wide streets and loads of busy cafes, everyone on their phones. The WiFi seemed good! First coffee stop!

Headed south on a nice road which got quieter and quieter and more and more scenic. Began to run low on water and needed water to camp. Map showed lots of rivers, a dam and lake. Couldn’t really get to any of them though! Found a man selling bananas at the top of a steep climb out of the dam, he filled my water bottle for me, nice man!

Sun began to set on a nice descent from the man’s stall. Starting to get a bit chilly at 19:30, still riding in short sleeves! A few settlements showed on the map, nothing seems to have any decent shops round here so found a nice sheltered area between two villages to set up camp.

Minimal water so made half a portion of pasta and half a soup. Nice warm evening with nice stars so decided to sleep without the outer fly sheet. Lots of big beetles around the camp. Ominous looking holes too, hopefully no snakes!

Fairly cold overnight, glad I tried the no canopy, it’s only going to get colder from here!

Woken up at 7am by the call to prayer by all the nearby villages. It was still pitch black outside so stayed in bed for a bit. Didn’t really want to get up in the dark, sunrise at 08:30 so got up at 0800. Dodgy alcohol is incredibly slow to burn, seems to be clogging up the trangia, boiling the water for tea and porridge seemed to take an age. Re packing the bike packing bags took a while too, hopefully will get much quicker with practice. Didn’t start cycling til 09:15. Stopped in first village to down some water.

Had to choose whether to take the main road or head into the mountains on the route of caravans. Decided to go for the mountains. I took a main road signposted for Anezi rather than the trail on the ROC, glad I did as it looked like a brutal trail! Nice steady climb up a beautiful gorge, not too steep. A few cafes in Anezi stopped for a coffee and some incredible eggs with chilli and tomatoes. Followed the ROC out of Anezi but was scared of ending up on their ‘brutal off road climb’ so freestyles a route to trafaroute, trying to read Arabic signs and get directions off the locals. In the end I think I took a good route. Paved all the way. Lush descent down a river valley. Then a horrific climb up to 4200 feet where the road stayed for a while. Quick tea stop, which I thought was the end of the climbing. Quite a bit more, but then a totally insane descent, amazing hairpins, nice surface, felt super fast. Then a flattish slog into town. Straight to restaurant. Utterly delicious food! Spoke to a Saharan Berber man in Spanish at the restaurant, took me to hotel but then I agreed to go to his shop, they gave me tea. I managed to dodge buying a rug!