Leaving Fes we made for Ifrane as there was a Shell station there and we hadn’t refuelled the night before. The first Shell was out of gasoline so we were able to get the fuel at the next Shell station down the road.
Now several days into the trip we had established our routines. When it came to packing up each day there was ‘a place for everything and everything in its place’. Which works well for the most part as you know where to find anything. Except when you break routine. For example my bike keys. They are either in the ignition or they are in a small pocket in the left sleave of my jacket. However when I refuelled at the Shell station I wanted to take a photo of the pump to record my mileage. Only problem was when I was done I couldn’t find my key. I frantically searched my tank bag – no key. I presumed it may have fallen, but nothing on the ground. (Perhaps it got wedged in some inaccessible part of my fairing!) Not there. Eventually I recalled to check the place where my wallet resides ( a small compartment on the front of my tank bag) There it was! ( I stuffed it in with the wallet before reaching for my cellphone to take the pictures). Crisis averted we followed the Garmin off the main road onto this small country lane (N-7229). It was barely a car width wide, but it took us through a winding forest along the backway out of Ifrane. A bonus was that we passed two Maccaw monkeys on the side of the road.
We rejoined N-8 and headed south through Azrou. In Azrou we encountered what must have been a market day mob. The roads were teaming with people heading off to the local market. The pedestrians were spilling out onto the roadway so we had to proceed slowly.
Just prior to arriving at Beni- Mallal the Garmin was indicating another turn onto a very secondary road. We saw two cyclists at the same intersection debating the merits of one versus the other. We decided to trust Garmin as it showed us bypassing Beni Mellal. The road was very interesting with small villages – each with it’s own Mosque a few of which had storks nesting in their towers.
In the end we still had a significant stretch of urban roads through Beni Mallal – which is a large town – but eventually emerged and turned left on R304 onto a great twisty road to Bin el Ouidane.
The Road into Bin el Ouidane
The western leg to the crest of the mountains was broken busted tarmac which made for a bumpy ride, but the downward eastern slope was freshly paved yielding a bounty of linked turns and twisties on our way to the hotel, which was beautifully situated in the river valley that runs south of the large reservoir in the area.
The hotel Dar L’eau Vive