Day 40 - Spoke too soon

From Ait Hassin to Midelt (89 miles)

Some slightly scary moments through the night as roaming packs of dogs barked endlessly at our tents or anything that moved. However, our own geordie Doctor Doolittle managed to calm the situation by launching a few stones in their direction, keeping them away for at least five minutes!

Another 5am start and a quick munch of last night's leftovers then some cereal to fill the empty bits and we hit the road to Azrou at the foot of the Middle Atlas. Although early in the morning at this point, it is still noticeable that there aren't as many horn honkers or excited fruit sellers and more just blank stares or bemused looks. This is a tough blow for the team as we had been stripped of our celebrity status and left with a much reduced fanbase!

Azrou was a nice little town set within a national park and resting in the foothills of the Middle Atlas. Although it is Ramadan just now and nothing was open when we arrived there, it is probably a really cool place to visit. We've found that Ramadan has been a slight problem to cycling in Morocco, due to not being able to source water or food when we need to, but it hasn't proved totally impossible and it should never discourage anyone else from travelling to a Muslim country during Ramadan. You just need to take it into consideration when planning your day.

Leaving Azrou, we hit a very steep climb that took us up to the plateau of the Middle Atlas. At one small section of road there were a few cars parked and the families snapping photos of the local barbary apes that seem to depend on tourists for food.

A slightly more natural sight was just a short cycle up the road. A clear view to the west, over some massive mountains with small lakes nestled inbetween. The pattern so far in Morocco has been that there are definitely amazing sights to be seen (like the mountains) but these are often marred by the less natural, tourist-led industries such as fossil sellers, hustlers and beggars.

Towards the end of the Middle Atlas plateau, we had a break in Timahdit; a small, mainly berber town where a lot of the locals wear the traditional berber hoody-like gowns. Whilst we were stopped there were a bunch of workies strolling past with wheelbarrows, one of which was so squeaky it had our ears ringing. Just as well I had the dry lubricant spray to hand! After a quick scoosh the squeak was gone and the local dogs could sleep in peace.

After a quick lunch under some beach trees we were heading along a long, wide valley next to a dry lake when Chris suddenly stopped having recieved what he claims to have been a shark bite. However, with the lake being dry it was more likely to have been a bumble bee! It was also at this point that I noticed not one but two snapped spokes on my back wheel which left the bike pretty much out of service. It may have been possible to cycle to the nearest town (Midelt) with one snapped spoke but after two have snapped it seemed better to be safe than sorry and try to hitchike to Midelt. As I removed the offending spokes, to save them from catching in the chain, a lorry stopped and offered a hand. After removing screws and loosening bolts they seemed less likely to fix the wheel than we were so we thanked them and waved them off. With the prospect of having to find the right size of vehicle to transport the bike to Midelt and then the driver being happy to do so we felt it was time to get the thumbs out...just as a crack of thunder split overhead.

We got away with fairly easily with only a short, warm shower but we weren't so lucky on the hitchiking front until a white van stopped and the man offered me and the bike a lift to Midelt...for a price of course. We should have sensed the hustle! However, 80dirhams and some conversation in broken French later and I was at a "bike shop" in Midelt whilst the lads got back on the road. The bike mechanic clearly wasn't used to seeing such a fine specimen as my bottom of the range road bike but he managed to fix it up a treat after a few dodgy looking procedures. I kipped tonight in the Atlas Hotel in Midelt and arranged to see the lads at "the first petrol station on the left at 7am"...flawless plan!

Their journey to the Timnay Campsite, 20 km from Midelt, saw the team's celebrity status reinstated in style as they were cheered and applauded through a police checkpoint! On a slightly less glamorous note they were also chased by a pack of wild dogs but they were lucky as this took place on a long, downhill stretch.