29 April - 3 May 2017

From Sevilla I had to go south again, what was actually pretty nice.

On Saturday I had some struggle to leave, because when I woke up it was still raining and I wouldn't like to cycle through the rain. But when I went to the supermarket it was dry again and I decided to go. I cycled through the centre of Sevilla with this very nice, little streets to the parc where also the Plaza de España was located. A beautiful building! It was already getting later and I went on cycling. It took a long time to get really out of the city, but after that I cycled through the countryside without seeing any more cities. Halfway I realised that I hadn't seen a mountain or a hill for that day, what was nice. The wind was also very strong and it was already dark when I arrived at the house of Caitlin. Luckily she still opened the door and let me in. We had good conversations and I went tired to bed.

The next day the wind was less strong and even a little bit coming from behind me, so that was nice. In the morning I visited the lighthouse (one of the highest in Spain) and went on to Rota. There I took the boat to Cadiz. The water was not so calm and I felt a little bit sick, but when I was on the other side I felt better soon. In Cadiz I followed the coast, which was really beautiful. Later I had some trouble to find the road that Richard (the warmshower of that night) had advised me, but it was nice. I pitched my tent in his garden and we ate a good meal with pasta.

On Monday the weather was really nice and I followed again a road that Richard had told me. It was a nice asphalted road I could follow all the way until Atlanterra. There I had to take a small unpaved road. Normally that is a sandy road with some rocks. Not the best road, but still fine. But this one was nothing like that. It was steep, rocks, water and impossible to cycle, so I had to push my bike. In the end I even took a bag off, because it was to heavy. But finally, after what feeled like an eternity, I managed to reach the top. I rested a little bit before going down. That was even worse! The road had some asphalt, but also a lot of gaps. I went down with some speed, but one of the gaps was deeper than the other ones and I saw it too late. I tought: now I'm going to fall down, and it's going to hurt a lot, but I went through the gap and miraculously my bike is still in one piece and I didn't have any scratch. The rest of the road was better and when I was almost at Tarifa I met Matthieu, a Dutch man who will cycle on top of the mountains that split the rivers that go down to the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It was nice to talk to him! I decided to go to the camping, because I hadn't seen a good spot to wildcamp. In the restaurant I final ate a paella, on my last day in Spain ;p.

On Tuesday I cycled to the port to take the boat to Marocco. I was just a little bit to late, so I had to wait a long time before the next one departed. It was a really nice and big boat, but I still felt a little bit sick when we were on the sea. On the other side I felt better soon and changed my European Euros for Maroccan Dirham. I cycled along the national road to Asilah. I was completely forgotten to downland the map for my GPS, but luckily I had a good one on my phone. In Asilah we went for dinner to a local restaurant and after that we drank some tea with locals. They told me, in contradiction to what almost all Spanish and Portuguese people told me, it is safe to travel alone as a young, blond woman through Marocco. I only shouldn't stop for people who are fixing a car on the road and ask for my help. Well, that doesn't sound difficult to me.

The next day was a day to rest, and when I woke up, Ahmet and Xavier where preparing a Turkish breakfast. That was nice! After breakfast we went to the beach and I finally swam after a long time. That was really nice! The water was a little bit cold, but still fine. We talked a little bit more and in the afternoon we went to Ahmet's favourite restaurant. They had some nice fish. We also went for a Maroccan Simcard, because that's way cheaper than my Dutch one. In the evening I relaxed a bit more and called Daan :D.