No roosters last night, but plenty of dogs to help keep things entertaining. I had to get up for a pee at one stage and the stars were pretty amazing – the moon had already set by then, and with limited light pollution the Milky Way was visible as a band across the sky.
Because of where we were camped up quite a steep rocky slope above the mosque I was determined to make only one trip down to the truck, so packed everything away in my day bag then loaded my arms with cycling kit and headed down to my bike.
Cinnamon and raisins in the porridge this morning – and porridge was very welcome as it was a chilly 6 degrees as we were eating our breakfast and waiting for it to be light enough to ride – it was going to be a fine balance this morning between going as soon as it was safe, but as early as possible to get as much of the climbing done before the sun got into the valley.
For the first 10km we continued much as we had yesterday undulating our way upwards through a number of small villages, before the real climbing began. And climb we did! There were times where I could see at lest two levels of road above, and then below me as it switched and wove its way up the valley.
Occasionally I would see other riders above or below me but I rode on my own, preferring to be able to keep my own pace which I find makes hills go by a lot better than riding in a group.
The sun caught me about three quarters of the way up and the temperature jumped form around 7 degrees to around fifteen in 100m!
As you can see from the riding data there were two peaks, at the top of the first we switched out of the valley we had come up and swung around the top of a second before reaching the Tizi ‘n Test Pass.
Top of the Tizi ‘n Test Pass, and the highest point of the tour.
Dominic had passed me shortly before the top when I’d stopped to take a photo, but was still at the cafe chatting with Essen when I got there. Essen had been dropped off my Max as he passed so that she could interview riders and take photos of us crossing the pass – she was trying to interview me, when I noticed the view on the other side of the pass.
Above the clouds!
While it was sunny in the valley we had come up, the one we were about to head into was completely blanketed with clouds which we were above, and it looked pretty magical looking across the cloud at nearby peaks also in the sunlight.
I zipped my jacket closed again and set off into what proved to be somewhat chilly descent – with my new wind and waterproof jacket on, my upper body was warm enough, but my feet and fingers were pretty much frozen by the time I got down to lunch after descending some 1200m mostly through the cloud.
I caught Italio just before lunch and we rode in together – initially somewhat confused because the area of roadworks where they were expected to be was right before us, but no sign of the van – they were hiding just round the corner of the construction buildings!
Paul and then Doug (our tour mechanic) came in while I was at lunch both also with frozen hands and feet, but we agreed that had been worth it for the climb, the view and then the descent!
From lunch down to camp was somewhat less interesting, though with a general 1% downward gradient, and good road conditions I was able to make good speed. It had taken me just over 2:15 to get to the top of the pass at an average speed of 14.2 km/h. By the time I got into camp the descent had pulled that up to 22.9 km/h.
Despite all the descent my maximum speed was only 51.5 km/h because all of the descending was on pretty windy, often very rough, roads where higher speeds would have been rather dangerous!
I’m pleased to report that the change of shorts has worked out well – my bum probably isn’t any better than it was at the end of yesterday, but it’s certainly not any worse so I’m counting that as a step forward!
One thing I am slightly surprised about is that despite a lack of long-distance riding over recent months I seem to have retained a lot of strength and fitness – sure my legs are tired at the end of each day, but on the last two days I’ve been in the first half dozen in to camp and have felt pretty strong on the climbs!
I had understood that we were going to pass through the town of Tourandant, which sounded like it was going to be pretty interesting – complete with ramparts still surrounding much of it, before reaching camp, so continued to follow the flagging tape without realising how far through the route I was before suddenly finding myself at the campsite – beating the dinner truck in by about 15 min!
We’re at a campground tonight, but it’s intended more for camper vans and the like, as it’s basically a great big gravel carpark with a few trees and plants around the edges, so despite being ‘Camping Du Gardin’ there’s not really a lot of Gardin (garden) and lots of Gravel which isn’t so good for tent-based camping!
On the plus side, there are clean toilets, warm showers, electricity and WiFi – all positive design features or an overnight stop 🙂
I filled in the remainder of the afternoon helping a client with an issue, uploading blog photos, and chatting with riders as they came in, before rider’s meeting, dinner, a few cups of mint tea, and then bed – tired but happy after a very enjoyable day in the High Atlas Mountains!
View from my tent
Hedges make good drying racks!
Selfie of the day
Trying to smile – needing a shave!
Riding data
| Total distance: | 115.12 km | Total Time: | 06:45:26 |
| Max elevation: | 1262 m | Min elevation: | 415 m |
| Total climbing: | 1781 m | Total descent: | -936 m |
| Average speed: | 17.04 km/h | Maximum speed: | 56.16 km/h |
What happens at the police checkpoints?
Often not much – sometimes ask to look at our passport copy, sometimes what to just chat (where are you from? where are you going? really? are you mad?), but most often just wave us past.