Maintenance

My bike has been standing still for too long. This due to my injury where I wrecked my foot and heelbone last year. I'm still recovering but now I'm able to cycle again which is great.

De Groot Fietsen helped me to get my wheels back on the road. We fixed the Rohloff drivetrain with new cables, back sprocket and some fresh oil. A new bottom bracket was also installed. New brakes, handlebars and a revised rear pannier rack. Tubus suplied me with a new lowrider on their 30 year warranty service. Won't be traveling soon but at least I'm able to ride!

Big thanks to Germen of De Groot Fietsen for their help with the bike! If you're visiting Terschelling pay them a visit. 

The new drivetrain

The revised back pannier carrier

England

It's been almost over a month since I'm back from my trip to England. But finaly the video is up!
I cycled from Terschelling to IJmuiden, where I took the ferry to Newcastle. Followed the C2C cycle route to Whitehaven and made my way back to Hull. Ferry to Rotterdam and back home.
The wheater wasn't the best but wat can you expect in januari, anyway I had a lot of fun. Back to work now. Next trip in autumn!

Mountains

Agdz was a nice pace to relax and just enjoy the good wheater. From there I cycled over the High Atlas mountains to Imi N Ifri. The passes (or tizi's in arabic) were quite tough. On most of the climbs you first reach a nice altitude of about 1900m, then dip down again to about 1500 and then all the way up to 2200m twice! On the last pass I was pretty exhousted but the views and especially the valley near Toufrine were wonderful! The way the berber people are living there reminded me of the Himalaya's. All very basic. Only short distance to Marakech. Will be back in  Holland in less than a week...

Time's flying....

Washboard roads to Zagora

After Tata I cycled to Foum Zguid. From there I did a piste to Zagora. The things I will remember the most are the silence of the dessert or actually hamada as this piece of rock infested land is called. The road was bad and some parts I had to walk but so far the best part of the tour. I camped in the middle of nowhere offcourse but the beatiful stars in the sky kept me company... how romantic. In Zagora I met Michael from Germany where I have been riding with towards Agdz... This has to be one of my easiest going cycle trips, I take a lot of days off.. People are nice but kids can be frustrating. More on that in the next post! 

Going East

The dessert is a new experience for me and I had to be a little more prepared. I'm bringing a lot of water and food with me on the bike because there are not many shops along the way. The first two days were quite hard because of a strong headwind but I tried to keep the good spirit. There were lots of animals on the route, mainly camels and goats. A couple of dogs weren't to friendly but a kind "fuck you" made them go away. It's chilly in the morning (about 5 degrees) but way better than in Europe.

I've met very friendly Moroccans and I even spoke dutch a couple of times. I also met weird shouting teenagers with dumb voices. Why would you shout at me like that? But most Moroccans are very kind. Thing I really noticed is that you don't have a lot of contact with women, it's really a male dominated country.

The scenery is really special and I'll spend some more time in the dessert...

Atlantic coast

After a quick recovery in Taroudant I took my time to make it down the Atlantic coast. The N1 road appeared to be very busy so I tried to find another route. This was parially succesfull but I had a lot of fun. In Tiznit I met two other cyclists from Canada but they took the direct route down to Mauretania because of visa issues. Anyway, the weather is nice (nights sometimes a bit chilly) and I'm enjoing Morrocan fruit and veggies! Tasteful and cheap. My cycling is getting stronger again so quick break at the beach and heading towards the Sahara...

Criticism: why do all the mosques have to spread their "ALLAH AKBAR" at 4.30 in the morning for half an hour?

Marakech to Taroudant

rendering / uploading on tour takes a lot of time... offcourse it should be 2011 on the title :)


After a good flight and a nighttime bike ride to a campsite north of Marakech I noticed I wasn't in place yet. The weather is nice but I always need to adjust to a new country. In Morocco it took me a little longer than usual. Spent one day on the campsite and around Marakech suburbs (which are mostly depressing). Will spent more time before my flight back.

The first day riding started cycling through Marakech and onwards to the High Atlas mountain range. The snow capped peaks were looming in the distance. After some climbing I made it to the village of Asni were I spent the night at a berber family's house. Lot's of mint tea to bargain about the price. After dinner Mustafa showed me his cheap souvenir collection (offcourse he wanted me to buy stuff) but I wasn't that impressed.

The next day I ended up in a small town in the high Atlas mountains. Even after 70km I was really tired. Haven't done much mountain cycling lately. The Tajine was very good that night.

Climbing to Tizi N Test was really rewarding, I had great views but when I reached the 1900m hight it got cloudy and eve small drops of snow. Drank coffee at the top and started on the chilly downhill dropping from 2100 to 500m in just 30km! To bad about the clouds because the view should be spectacular. Only 55km left to Taroudant. But man the wind was strong. I arrived just before nightfall in the old city. Decided to get a kebab but that didn't really worked out. It reminded me of my "Broodje Yak" experience in China.

Luckily it wasn't that bad and I'm feeling a lot better today!