At 9.45 I got a text message from my daft son Mike to tell me that he had just completed the first 10k of the Dublin marathon in 45 minutes, 3 minutes ahead of schedule. I should explain that Mike took up running for fun this year, completed two 10k races and decided that a marathon was the obvious progression. He reminds me of someone, I just can’t think who at the minute. I rang Ruth in Dublin some time later to check how things were going and was in time to hear Mike shouting and giving a high five as he ran past at the 12 mile mark. At this point I had to be a useless parent and get on the road so it was obviously my fault that he seriously dehydrated at mile 21and suffered horribly to finish in 3hours 51minutes. Pretty impressive for a cyclist. The other excellent result that I heard about this morning was that Heather had not only finished her first Ironman but had won her age group.
As I was receiving these bits of news I was walking around the souk before leaving Taroudannt. There are two souks but I went round the one the locals use, so no tat and no coach parties. As it was early some of the stalls were still being set up and the crowds had not yet arrived. I enjoyed getting lost among the narrow streets with every possible space used. Anywhere too small for a stall had someone sitting on the ground with a cloth spread out with their offering, which could be as little as a few dozen bits of fruit. On my way back to the Hotel Saadia I went through the group of streets where the joiners worked. They were working in cramped little rooms, generally with very basic hand tools. I really wanted to stop to watch and take some photographs but it just seemed unfair and intrusive. I made accidental eye contact with one guy who just smiled and waved me in to watch two of them hand carve curved designs on to doors. He very politely let me know that I could watch and ask questions and that a couple of cigarettes would be appreciated. Their names were Khalid and Rashid and they were working on a homemade bench with no means of holding the doors and using a selection of about half a dozen chisels, some of them homemade from broken machine tools.When I left Taroudannt I took the long way towards Marrakech because I wanted to ride my last proper mountain road bef
ore heading up the coast. It definitely didn’t disappoint. When I got to the start of the climb up to the 2100 metre Tizi n Test there were two road signs: one said “bends for 120 kilometres” and the other said “no more road signs”. This road is seriously demanding and in places is only single track but it does have a fairly good tarmac surface. Unfortunately the recent floods had washed landslides over the road in quite a few places. The landslides had been cleared but not down to the tarmac. Yet again I was glad to be on a trail bike with proper tyres. I was still 60 kilometres south of Marrakech when I got too cold to carry on. In the deep valleys it gets cold very quickly when the sun goes down. I booked into a quad biking and trekking centre for one night’s half board. Very impressive food and free wifi but I ended up sleeping in the bed in my sleeping bag to stay warm.
As I was receiving these bits of news I was walking around the souk before leaving Taroudannt. There are two souks but I went round the one the locals use, so no tat and no coach parties. As it was early some of the stalls were still being set up and the crowds had not yet arrived. I enjoyed getting lost among the narrow streets with every possible space used. Anywhere too small for a stall had someone sitting on the ground with a cloth spread out with their offering, which could be as little as a few dozen bits of fruit. On my way back to the Hotel Saadia I went through the group of streets where the joiners worked. They were working in cramped little rooms, generally with very basic hand tools. I really wanted to stop to watch and take some photographs but it just seemed unfair and intrusive. I made accidental eye contact with one guy who just smiled and waved me in to watch two of them hand carve curved designs on to doors. He very politely let me know that I could watch and ask questions and that a couple of cigarettes would be appreciated. Their names were Khalid and Rashid and they were working on a homemade bench with no means of holding the doors and using a selection of about half a dozen chisels, some of them homemade from broken machine tools.When I left Taroudannt I took the long way towards Marrakech because I wanted to ride my last proper mountain road bef
ore heading up the coast. It definitely didn’t disappoint. When I got to the start of the climb up to the 2100 metre Tizi n Test there were two road signs: one said “bends for 120 kilometres” and the other said “no more road signs”. This road is seriously demanding and in places is only single track but it does have a fairly good tarmac surface. Unfortunately the recent floods had washed landslides over the road in quite a few places. The landslides had been cleared but not down to the tarmac. Yet again I was glad to be on a trail bike with proper tyres. I was still 60 kilometres south of Marrakech when I got too cold to carry on. In the deep valleys it gets cold very quickly when the sun goes down. I booked into a quad biking and trekking centre for one night’s half board. Very impressive food and free wifi but I ended up sleeping in the bed in my sleeping bag to stay warm.
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