A distance record-breaking day!
We had spent a good wee while studying the map last night. El Kelaa was the supposed destination…but it looked like an accommodation desert (to say nothing of a beer desert!). Three hotels showed up on Google maps….but the reviews were from bad…to truly disgusting! (…but are reviews correct?). A downside of the absence of tourists certainly!!
We had the idea at the same time: if we got up really early…..we might just make it the 197km to Marrakech in a day!
So….we decided to give it a go…to be reviewed when we arrived at El Kelaa….so we were on the road shortly after 6.30am.
A dead straight….very tedious…dead flat….road to nowhere…it felt! And after just 25km…I was not sure I could handle another 70km of this…let alone another 170km!
And then the wind got up. On the nose! Like cycling uphill for hours and hours….with no downhill relief!
Our breakfast cafe was closed…..but we found a shop instead! So no coffee until El Kelaa at the 112km mark….surely a record!!
But we gave it a shot…in 25km, 24km, 22km, 21km, 20km stints to arrive at El Kalaa shortly after midday!
The landscape had changed radically after about 70km…..and we really felt like we had found the desert.
But the wind persisted. Faces reddened. Legs tired. (…but – note – we were still wearing jackets until the 90km mark!)
And by the time we pulled into El Kelaa…I really was not sure I could manage the balance 85km or so!
We recharged though….and Iain eventually found us some food. (Again we were sitting in the middle of 6 restaurants. All busy with tea and coffee drinkers. But no food in sight!! A bit weird really!
But…no…I was done in! The wind had got the better of me. (…unusually! Haha!). Yesterday we had cycled further…but half of that was downhill!
So we decided to bite the bullet and go and check in to the town’s finest hotel. Thankfully…I checked it out first!
It really was the grimmest accommodation I have ever seen. Cell-like, metal door, saggy single bed, windowless, dirty, dark rooms. With grimy shared toilets and showers. Not one power point to charge anything. About 5 Euros a room. Which was about 100Euros too much…for me!
The knackered body suddenly found some hidden energy! We had to move on!!
A frantic search of Booking….found a remote B&B about 45kms away. We booked it!
12 times the price! Double what we have been paying everywhere else! So we had high expectations!!
It was a tough 45kms! 45 more than the body could comfortably cope with…Exhausted. Thirsty.
…but we made it! Exhausted. Thirsty.
Water? “Do you perchance have a cold beer?”….& our hopes – that expensive tourist places do serve beer – were dashed. Our first beer-less evening for yonks!!!
No internet either. No aircon. No hot water. And the old adage that the most expensive options are invariably the worst…seemed to be true once again.
But the rooms were lovely!
And I would have paid a fortune to avoid a night in the El Kelaa hotel!!!
And then dinner! What a feast! A tureen of lentil soup, potatoes, salads…l
And this was just for starters!
To be joined by an enormous Tagine. Could have fed eight…easily! “Could have fed an African village”…haha….we were in one!
And hidden inside the lattice bottle…was not the oil we were expecting…but a bottle of Coke!! We so nearly missed it! Not beer! But a nice touch!!
It was all so good……except the inevitable guilt of leaving most of the food uneaten.
Mint tea to finish.
Not such a bad place after all!!!
A huge day though…..and tired bodies & sore bottoms & very full bellies were tucked up in bed long before 9.30!!
