THE SPONSOR OF MY BICYCLE SPARE PARTS IS COMPANY PRODUCING FINE BICYCLE SADDLES
www.abi.com.pl This part of the country is very characteristic. This what looks dry and mountainous from a distance changes when you get closer into the valleys where water from peaks covered with snow melts and drips down. People use all the possible resources to catch it and make a living. Sometimes I don’t meet any village on the way for about 60 km; just the sand, rocks and very primitive plants.
Valleys are a stronghold of the local population. The very traditional Muslim communities of Berber origin are living in traditional mud houses rimmed with palms or vines; very often livestock also wanders around. In these oases, sometimes quite considerable ones, people have been living for centuries, trading with more agricultural richer part of the country. Ourzazate is a quite big place, but I just passed it by. There is a big lake nearby and an old palace of a local landlord. And all this against the snow-capped mountains in the background. I dropped in just to stuff my stomach in a local restaurant and to spend the night camping on the outskirts. It wasn't an easy thing to do as the ground was very hard and I had to use ropes to somehow strap my tent to the ground. I will have to come back here to do a more proper sightseeing. This area is very tourist-oriented. Beside Caravan and holiday makers I have met more cyclists, mostly from France or Spain and all of them were going south through Morocco. I had an entertaining chat with them in which we exchanged advise, information about the road, etc. A few of them told me about the shity weather, which was to come on the other side of the main range. The only advantage of this was that the wind was with me and I was very happy of it.
Errachida was my last stop before the real climb started. Very eager to go, I didn't wait for long there. The Sahara was behind me and I could only see its less important mountains on the horizon, but in front of me was the main Atlas range with its majestic Gorge du Ziz, towering above mysteries peaks hiding in the clouds.