Day 60 - Agadir to Bouizakarne

We woke up around 6 - 6.30 and left an hour or so later. This was later than intended. I got told off for filling all my water bottles out of the water cooler at reception. We got going down the A1, and saw the first sign for Dakhla (it was well over 1000km away still but at least it was a morale boost to see it signposted). We got photos of this before Chris had to go off and have a poo in a bush - his poo bodyclock was very random and when he needed to go he needed to go. Anyway we absolutely smashed it approx. 100km to the next large town of Tiznit with no breaks. This was down to very fast smooth flat roads and a nice tailwind. We found a petrol station on the edge of town and had a massive food session I spent over 90 Dirhams on cake, juice, chocolate, crisps, yoghurts and water. Chris and Tom were extra happy as they did coffee. We sat in the shade (it was getting hot) on the floor outside and started the session. About 15 mins later Chris had finished eating, laid down and fallen asleep. I was really hungry and must have been eating continuously for 45 minutes. Tom had also decided to lie down after probably half an hour. All the momentum had gone and Chris in particular struggled to get up and get going again. It was now getting very hot indeed and after passing through Tiznit and riding maybe 10km through the desert we decided to stop and have a siesta by a shop in the middle of nowhere. Thankfully the shop sold bread (which we couldn't get at the petrol station) and water. Tom was washing as usual with the prickly heat rash. Chris was soon lying down. I managed to find a power socket so charged the speaker and iPhone whilst playing some music. I laid down too and was pretty close to falling asleep. We must have been at this shop in the middle of nowhere for at least 2 hours before finally leaving at around 3pm. It was still hot when we got going again but not as bad as before. It was relatively hilly which didn't make life easy. I think we stopped one more time for a break before the end of the day. Just before reaching our destination of Bouizakarne we descended down a breathtaking hill and there was this huge expanse of desert ahead. We then turned a corner towards the bottom of the hill and the town came into view all on its own surrounded by desert. This was an awesome sight. Of course several photos were taken and Tom got the I-touch out to do some filming. He dropped it whilst filming the descent into town. Thankfully it was fine. Chris had gone on ahead into town and I met up with him at the main junction 5-10 minutes after the I-touch was dropped. I got some water straight away from a shop - I already had water but wanted cold water. No sign of Tom. 5 minutes later still no sign of Tom - we figured he must have been doing something with the I-touch. Eventually 10-15 minutes later he came along. He had been stopped by the police who wanted to see his passport. The time was probably 4.45. There was approx. 30km to go to the next town of Guelmin. I wasn't overly fussed but thought we should really carry on as should be able to get there before dark. Chris was against this idea so we stayed in Bouizakarne. We found a cheap hotel very quickly with the help of a local man. The hotel was very basic and had the Moroccan standard hole-in-the-floor toilet and crap shower. However it was only 60 dirhams each, was nice and quiet we weren't confident on finding anywhere else so we took it. We managed to get 2 rooms as nobody else was there. I soon went for a shower. There was no soap and the shower head bracket was loose. I managed to secure the shower head with some string before having my shower. It was cold but had a reasonable water pressure. After Tom and Chris had their showers we decided to head out to find food. I wanted to cook as had spent too much on food in the petrol station earlier. Chris was keen to get a meal. After a few failed attempts to get food at restaurants Chris settled for the cooking. We resupplied at a shop before heading back to the hotel. When we got back the main door was locked and nobody was in. We were stuck outside as the owner must have gone out for the Ramadan feast. We weren't amused. We tried to reach through this hole/window in the door to pull down the handle from the inside. This of course didn't work. We looked around the perimeter of the hotel and there didn't appear to be a way in. Chris wandered round the back. A few minutes later Chris appeared inside the door. I don't know how exactly he managed to get in but apparently he managed to scale one of the massive walls, go over the roof and climb down inside the courtyard area. He had to go in his room and get the multitool screwdriver to unscrew the lock and let us in. Once in and having screwed the lock back on we took some plastic table and chairs from the courtyard into our room and got the slaggy tuna on the go. The music came out too. It was a great relaxing meal and we had eaten sufficiently. We got an early night at about 10pm. I looked at the iPad and began plotting my next cycle tour.