Ifrane in the Mountains and Northward Toward Fes

A wall of stones, a fence, and flowers

Leader Rick and tripmember Karen talk. Note Rick's Bike Friday.

On down we rode, past green spots like this one.

In the same town as below

There was a town along the way, probably halfway between Ifrane and Fes. These young men were not models of industriousness but the town looked pleasant.

Kilometer stones in Morocco are very similar to the stones along the highway in Vietnam. Both countries have had heavy French influence.

High country not far out of Ifrane on the way north toward Fes.

My roommate Ernie walks into our hotel in Ifrane. High in the Atlas Mountains, this ski resort town is definitely off the Sahara.

Things For Sale

An Afriquia gasoline station. There were many of these.
Offhand, I don't remember whether there were other brands too.
Note here evidence of the Moroccan tendency to have numerous plants (if not flowers) around. Green does look good on the desert.

Bill looks for a rug. (I don't remember where this was--it was the second rug shop we visited. Do any tripmembers know?)

Across Dry Lands

A hotel one night removed from the dunes. We stayed here, left the bikes, went to the dunes, returned the next day, got the bikes, and rode on.

Our hotel beside the dunes

A house under construction

A small irrigated area and a mosque

Trees that are common in this region

Water and a Town on the Desert

A water supply pond on the Sahara

A town we bicycled through on the Sahara Desert

Inside Passageway

Tripmembers Liz and Ron walk the central passageway of a building, in one of the cities we visited.

Dunes and Camels

The nature of the beast....

Sahara dunes in the other direction, late afternoon.

Rick walks on dunes in the Sahara.
The ride up here was timed for sunset.

Our train of camels heading into the dunes

Karen, mounted on her camel, takes a photo of someone else. We discovered that camels rise to their feet one end at a time. This is something that's good to know about. You should at least be holding on at the time.

A sufficient number of camels arrived to bear us up into the dunes from Erg Chebbi. Not all of them appeared to be particularly energetic.

This man handled my particular camel.

Water and Palms

We sometimes followed valleys that were full of palm trees. The availability of water works wonders in deserts.

Former Route to Tombouctou (Timbuktu)

Here are trip organizer Rick Bauman, his wife Ginny, and his sister Patsy. All are standing in front of the sign commemorating the old route to Timbuktu.

That ancient city, well to the south of here in present-day Mali, was once a major center of trade, learning, and literature though it was a 52-day camel expedition from this jumping off point in Morocco. Now, Timbuktu symbolizes remoteness and even nowhere-ness. Just my kind of place! I'd love to visit.

Limited Agriculture in a Dry Land

Both these photos show a small agricultural area on the dry side of the Atlas Mountains.

The Sahara Century

This was the rather unscenic course of the "century" ride in the Sahara. "Century" refers to the ride being at least 100 miles long. I rode as much as I darn well felt like riding (I'm not into riding just for the sake of riding anyway, plus I think I had some sort of bug for several days). In addition, it started getting warm as the day went on.