Hello good tourers, I am come seeking guidance about an upcoming trip. To celebrate my coming of age (30), I'm heading to Agadir in southern Morocco (27th nov – 11th dec). I have booked a hotel 2km from the airport where I'm planning to store my bike box for my return flight. I'll effectively have 13 days of riding as my return flight is late in the evening.
I would like to cycle +-1000km, or 100km per day with a bit of rest. I have done a couple of week-long tours, but this will be my longest, and my first away from my home country. I'm planning to bring a tent, though I'm not against a couple of nights at auberges along the way. I prefer cycling on tarmac and don't mind a bit of traffic, but don't mind cycling on packed gravel either. I'm not equipped for rough rocky trails or loose sand though.
Has anyone done longer rides in this area and want to chime in on good scenic roads or areas I should focus my time in? My main focus is scenery as I've already seen my share of kasbahs. I have read very good things about the mountain roads to Askaoun, and I've heard good things about Tafraoute, Ait Mansour and Igherm, and I also think Foum Zguid and the Draa looks super interesting. I've however been told to stay off the N roads as much as possible, but not sure how bad the traffic really is this far south.
This is an attempt to make a route, which includes a bit of the high atlas at imoulass, but any and all advice would be much appreciated: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/48534988?openShare=true
Some miscellaneous questions:
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From what I've gathered only campingaz canisters, using the easyclic valve, are available in morroco. I'll either have to buy an adapter for the lindal valve, or leave my burner at home. What do you think?
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Are goatsheads and caltrop-seeds going to be a problem?
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How easy is it to find food and water in morocco outside/between larger towns? Things like oats, eggs, milk, fruit.
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I've been to morocco once before (with a car), some areas were devoid of dogs and others teeming with them (between midelt and azrou particularly so). How is the stray dog situation in the south/antiatlas?
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There will be limited daylight this time of year, with about 10 hours of daylight from 8 to 18. I want to spend the dusk to do cooking and reading. But am I overreaching with a 100km per day goal? My average speed on previous tours, on a heavily loaded bike in hilly terrain, has been around 16km per hour.
by discombobulatek
1 Comment
I’ve not cycled but I did drive a lot of this route earlier this year.
Water: The southern road is great but beware there are fairly long stretches between water refills. As I was driving I was constantly wondering how much water I’d need on a bike trip. In terms of actually getting ahold of water, I don’t think you’d find it too hard as most towns have a little shop where you can buy bottled water. Although opening times seemed varied. I was advised not to drink the tap water without sterilisation tablets but you could always bring some of those?
Roads: There aren’t a lot of roads which means the roads that do exist are used by all the traffic. Some stretches are mostly empty due to them not going anywhere, but there are some stretches where there are loads of big trucks etc and not much room for bikes / no hard shoulder. The quality of the roads seemed fine, mostly slightly rough tarmac or light gravel but with some exceptions (tyre busting potholes).
I’m out atm but feel free to DM me with more questions and I’ll try my best to answer later when I’m back home!