Distance - a shade under 300 miles with 21,000 feet of climbing

Rain, snow and wind sent us scurrying from Marrakech to Agadir for a southerly, more familiar approach to the High Atlas.

http://www.farawayvisions.com/bikepacki ... e-morocco/

We rode via Toubkal, the highest peak in Morocco, to the shore of Lac d’Ifni which was covered in snow at an altitude of 0ver 2,500m. We camped in bivvy bags, where temperatures fell to well below freezing. Damp socks froze solid and our water turned to ice. We stayed in cheap hotels and had lunch in someone’s home. We were fueled by many glasses of mint tea, dried fruit and nuts and many kind strangers. We washed in local hamamms, crossed ice cold rivers and rested in the sun, finding shade under palm trees. French is a useful language and a few words of Arabic goes a long long way.


Route surface
Paved road, unpaved road (piste), sand, mud, dust, gravel, rocks, rivers and snow.

How did you get on with bikes on Toubkal? I walked it a few years ago and thought it might be feasible to ride parts, but most of the route above the refuge was way beyond what I could cope with even on a full DH bicycle!

By the time we got to Lac d'Ifni, the snow was too deep to continue and the weather was taking a turn for the worse. Took us 5 hours to get to the lake in Toubkal, a lot of pushing.