Day started out very nice, clearer and warmer than forecast. I took a bunch of photos with camera but as there’s no way to re-charge it tonight, I won’t be a able to pull them off and transfer to this gizmo (data transfer seems to kill the batteries). But hopefully tomorrow evening.
The way out of Rabat had some twists and turns, expected for any large town, but almost nil early morning traffic made it a breeze. Once clear of the old city walls, we were on a coastal road with great views to some significant rollers coming in off the Atlantic and then pounding onto the cliffs. I stopped for a while at one spot to snap a photo, and got into a conversation with a local guy who was just sitting on a bench, watching the waves crash. He soon enough mentioned that it was so nice to sit like this, with no people about. I think he was hinting I should shove off?
This coast road with direct views of the Ocean ended all to soon, and then most of the rest of the day was on fairly quiet tertiary roads through fields of this or that. Lots of cows also, from the odours crafting about. Huge dunes on my left (to the west) which had to be dividing the farm fields from Ocean? We kept passing very large greenhouses made of tattered plastic sheeting; from what could see, all contained mature banana trees.
Some more twists and turns, but no problem; just followed the bread crumbs on my GPS making sure my little blue dot was on the magenta coloured track. Easy Peasy. Through a tunnel passing under the railway, wonderful straight stretch ahead, and better, a good steady tailwind. Passed throngs of school kids, friendly and calling out. So nice … no rocks nor pitchforks coming my way. Sure was nice to settle into the drops and just click along at a steady 30 kph. Hmmm … started to get hungry; the lunch stop must be very soon. Hmmm … removing my extra dark sunnies, I had a closer look at the GPS; alas, my little blue dot was there all right, but no magenta-coloured track. Shoot. After progressively zooming out several times, located the track about 10 km distant. Oh well, turn around and head back to that tunnel. The wonderful tailwinds now presented as nasty headwinds. Eventually made it back, saw my error and took the correct road; only a 15 km diversion - could have been worse.
Found the lunch truck! Refueled, filled up water bottles and continued. Remainder of afternoon mostly uneventful, a couple of traffic-choked villages to navigate and a particularly pungent fish inspection depot, but otherwise just a lot of waving back at school kids or acknowledging whomever. I really don’t think there are a lot of Lycra-clad cyclists in these parts. A few minor hills. Made it to camp before 2:30, which given my earlier error, I figured was an ok effort.
First campsite of the trip; dry camp - no beer, no shower. So it goes.
