A nice leisurely breakfast shared with a Russian, that lives in Hampstead Heath! Nearly joined 3 Portuguese lads (from the Azores!) and the Russian on a desert camp trip to the dunes. But I’d had enough of sand!

Set off at 10, a little chilly in the wind. The Frenchman that had stopped on the way to Foum Zagid in his Renault 19 saw me and turned around to stop for a chat again. Nice man, wanted to buy me a beer in Zagora. Wasn’t sure if I would stay in Zagora or push on.

Stopped in Tagounite to pick up snacks. Local boy started speaking good English. Invited me for tea. So much sugar in it as always, plus sugary biscuits. He was a couch surfing host and had spent a lot of time with Eastern European’s, you could tell by his accent! He studied geography in Agadir and now was saving to study English.

Saw a mountain biker going the other way with a pick up following. He caught me up later whilst I stopped for a sandwich. He was Johan from Basel. They were travelling for a month in their Nissan Nevaro with full on desert camping pod. He had cycled from mahmid too, faster than me! He was 63! Stopped at his van and he piled my chain for me and gave me some bananas. We rode together for the next 20k until we found his wife again. They were staying at a desert observatory for the night, sounded cool!

Pushed on to zagora, stopped for a nice coffee and panini, made a change from tagine! It was only 4pm so kept riding north to make the next day shorter and maybe allow for some off-roading. Kept to the main road it was such an amazing surface with a big clean cycle path. So good! So fast! Soon did another 30 miles. Arrived at my planned campsite to find it closed. Picked up some extra water and sardines at a kiosk then headed off to the back road to find somewhere to camp on the river. Lots of little villages, no access to river. Eventually found a path down. Found some kids playing. They followed me everywhere. The grandpa came down to see what was happening. He said it was ok to camp. Kids followed me down to the river, helped me put up my tent, I let them do the pegs. Then they collected wood and built me a fire! They stayed to watch me cook but were super scared of the fire. One of the girls was worried about getting told off for being late home. They were cute!