Staying put…

As way of an update…

We have decided to extend our stay in Agadir for a further week. So far, our time here has been consumed by various tasks, from onward route planning, admin of various types and a few bigger—though routine—bits of cycle maintenance (details to follow), such as swapping our tyres over. Oh, and we got some stickers made.

Various reasons underly our decision to stay put but chief among them is that we fancy a break to explore Agadir in greater depth. Despite passing through lots of places it’s not that common that we delve deeper and so far we have really enjoyed what Agadir has to offer, at least in the area we are staying in: Tilila. In fact, we particularly like the vibe at the moment, during Ramadan. It’s so nice strolling out around 6pm, into the pre-Iftar hustle and bustle, to grab food items from the various amazing stalls that line the streets. Everyone is typically welcoming and the excitement to break fast is palpable. There are also cafés offering Ramadan meals which are served as the mosques usher in Iftar through their Maghrib call to prayer. We feel like frauds a little as we are not fasting** (nobody wants to see Beck fasting!) but there is something rather special about being part of this time and we wanted to have a while to enjoy this in a more social setting.

In addition to this, we wanted to make more time for learning, blogging, and working on various projects, such as my music making. I’m working on an album as we travel and Beck is getting to grips with photography. All of which benefits from a bit of time in one place.

We’re also partly hoping to avoid the impacts of Ramadan on our refuelling in the most challenging stretch of our tour so far, when we head into the Sahara. Who knows whether this is sensible but by delaying our departure for a week we land in Laayoune for a long weekend to coincide with Eid al-Fitr, which is the holiday and celebration that follows the end of Ramadan. We are hoping to enjoy this time in Laayoune before heading south again. Despite this delay we will have to carry extra food and water. We did well across the Highlands when we carried three and a half days of food with us but, let’s just say that Scotland is a little less arid than the Sahara, so something to drink wasn’t such an issue.

Maybe slightly, but only slightly, we are also a little scared—or at least not exactly excited by—the next phase of our trip. In reality, I don’t doubt our capacity to find beauty and intrigue in the small things as we cycle headlong into the Sahara but by all accounts it’s a pretty bleak, mind-numbing, and sometimes stressful stretch. So, for now, we are chilling out and enjoying Agadir for another week.

**we don’t eat in public during this time out of courtesy