Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Morocco Mountain Biking











First I want to thank the viewership and comments I have recieved. The global viewership has been outstanding...look on the world map on the left. Now for more of day 1 mountainbiking.





Luckily, the clouds subsided and we were able to continue without the threat of rain. The terrain really struck me. Really red dirt with carefully cut canyons teaming with green palms, wheat and other key crops in the valleys where people lived. The homes, shown in the previous post were earthen structures with straw added. We rode by several areas where mud/straw bricks were drying. The roofs were supported with tree members and covered with earthen mud/straw.
-The only way I can describe this was to like going back in time 500 years ago. Donkeys and mules used for transportation, wheat harvested by hand, ground by hand, baked into bread rounds by hand and cooked in a earthen igloo structure by small fires.
In the High Atlas Mountains, the bizarre aspect of the trip was the ever changing terrain. Every 30 minutes or so we would come to a completely different type of terrain. You can see some of this by the pictures included.
At the end of our ride we saw a small cluster of earthen structures and rode our bikes right through the back alleys and were gretted by a very nice French owner of the place. The stucture had been restored recently, as the straw in the earthen walls looked fairly fresh. The showers had running water, electricity in the walls and a very nice bed with local heavy woolen blankets.
At dinner we sat down at a low to the ground table, walking over local woven Moroccan rugs over the concrete floor. We were treated to freshly made bread, yum, with some balsamic Vinegar and olive oil for dipping. The main course was fish Tangiene. A Tangiene is like a ceramic Dutch oven with a long conical top. Meat in the middle, surrounded by vegetables like potatoes, carrots, surrounded by rice.
-Could not eat enough of the stuff, wonderful. My day that started on Thursday finally, I get a full nights sleep on Saturday. No jet lag issues because I had been going for nearly 2 days without a good nights sleep. What a nice sleep it was.
--I finally accomplished by goal of making it to al 7 continents, now time to enjoy the cultural aspects of the remote Atlas mountains of Morocco.

2 comments:

kayowe said...

The seven continents part is EASY at your age; try it at mine.....JOKE!

I love your stories and more than those, I love your photos.

cat said...

Hey, Congrats on Seven! Enjoy the area, and keep the pics coming!