Wow! Just...wow! made it across Morocco. Even though I just finished, it still feels unreal. In true Adventurist style, even the finish line wasn't easy. It wasn't in Marrakech proper, but rather, in some random location in the Agafay desert just south of the city. It was a race to the finish. At one point, we had roughly 30 km to go with only an hour to get there. We were going for broke with reckless abandon. Didn't even have road directions - just a compass that pointed to our final GPS location.
Finally as we crested a hill, there it was: the fabled flags of the Monkey Run finish line. We could have circled back around to find the road, but in proper Monkey Run style, we took the straight line route. It didn't matter that there was a ravine that stood in our way. I dragged Uncle Papply down that ravine and continued the final sprint to the finish. The finish was "officially" open from 2:30-4:00, and we got there at 4 o'clock on the nose - granted, since everything here runs on Morocco time, the finish line was open for much longer. But still, what a rush as we scrambled to make it to the finish line!
I started alone with 65 strangers doing silly shit on goofy bikes in a strange land. But there are no strangers amongst us anymore.
Do you know the way to Marrakech? Because I do...
Travis Munn
Monkey Run Morocco Oct '22
Merzouga to Marrakech, by way of: Goulmima, Aït Hani, Tizi N'isly, Bin El Ouidane, Ouzoud, and Aït Ourir.
Distance ridden: 1150km
We just discovered that although there will be some beer, the finish line party will be mostly BYOB - in a country that doesn't do a ton of drinking. I guess we have one more quest on our hands as we search for a place to get beer...and then figure out how to strap it to our bikes 🍻
Dunes, oasis, canyons, mountains, lakes, waterfalls...Morocco has it all, not to mention the people, they've been delightful
Day 6 is in the books - I can practically smell the finish line. No, wait...that's just my luggage I can smell. We put in some solid distance today. As we were giving our bikes (and ourselves) some much needed rest on an empty country road, we hear in the distance the distinct engine whine that can only be produced by the glorious 50cc motorcycle. Two other monkey runners come cruising around the bend. As the dozens of bikers start to converge on the finish line, crossing paths with other monkey riders is starting to become more frequent.
The group chat (whenever we actually have reliable WiFi) has been blowing up with some chatter about everyone's stories, but I'm excited to actually reconvene with everyone tomorrow afternoon and share in everyone's adventures and misfortune.
There really is no better means of transport for a cross-country tour.
A little inside joke from work. Uncle Papply on Monkey (Run)
I'm not mechanic, but I've spent enough time on a bicycle to know that the chain isn't supposed to look like that...
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Where the hell are we? I don't see this road on the map!!
Since I'm on the Monkey Run to raise money to raise money to protect the rainforest (cough...cough...check out my chairity by clicking on my name on this blog), it makes sense that I go green for this ride! I didn't bring a wall charger for my electronics, and my only source of power comes from my solar panel. That's right, this monkeys powered by the sun (and a little engine that gets ~80mpg). It's been over a week in Morocco, and I still have juicy in my phone 🌞
We've been off grid for a bit, but I'm finally connected to the outside world. Let's see what's happened since I last checked in; we've:
- Pushed our bikes up and over a 8800' mountain pass
- Stayed in a village with no wifi, no spoken English, and no running water
- Pushed our bikes up a mountain (again!)
- Broke down at the top of the mountain
- Whispered sweet nothings to the bike to coax it down the back side and limped to a mechanic
- Upgraded our accomodations to a bougie lakeside resort
Morocco has it all, and I'm loving every minute of it!!!
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