56km Oulad Ayad – Fes

Snails for supper in FesAfter a restful night in the field by the village , we woke to the sound of roosters crowing. For the first time in our three visits to Morocco it had actually rained, just a little overnight, and the skies were still cloudy as we crawled out of the tent. We had a little breakfast of bread and jam and then waited for Omar to come over the hill for his morning coffee. When he appeared we walked with him to the main road and had a coffee together. We chatted for a good hour before it was time to carry on towards Fes. We tried to pay for the coffee but Omar would have none of it, insisting we were his guests. The only thing he would let us do was take his address so we could send him a postcard down the road – a true example of Moroccan hospitality. The countryside remained very rural nearly all the way to Fes and olive orchards were the main sight along the road. We had a few good hills to climb in the final approach to Fes and also on the circular road that runs around the city, before we settled on Pension Batha. Somehow we got our bikes up two steep flights of stairs and into a cozy room with a beautiful carved ceiling. That night we walked around the old part of Fes and found a stall selling snails for supper… truth be told we thought we were getting soup but snails were okay too! We’ll stay here for three nights to explore the Fes, a rest for our bodies and minds before we continue on the next leg of our journey, a rather long one to Zagora