Plenty of time to my self.

This sure is a long road indeed and there ain't nothing i can do but just carry on peddling. Well, i could ofcourse jump on a truck and catch a lift for a few hundred kilometers and the thought has entered my mind many many times over the last few days. But i guess i must like the challenge, or maybe i'm just mad..... answers on a post card to......

But really, I have indeed wondered what this is all about, as you can imagine, and why anyone would embark on such a mission in the first place. I have my reasons, my big visions and motivations but it isn't allways easy keeping the vision in focus so i would love to hear from you as to what you think its all about. What does it mean to do a journey like this? Maybe I'm just looking for a bit of encouragement when the going gets tuff or perhaps it really is a total waste of time.... what do you reckon? Please leave a comment below.

And back to the blog;
I'm in Boujdour, another coastal desert town, and resting up for a day befor heading ever southwards. Now the distances are so epic i'm covering around 140km in a day which takes it out of you. So a day of rest was well needed.
The people here have been so friendly and welcoming as they have in all of southern Morroco. I'll sit in a cafe and moments later my neighbour will be chatting away with me asking questions of what i'm up to. I love the response and general disbelief when i explain that i have cycled from England and heading to The Gambia. There's a gentleness and relaxed way of being around here. The men seem to have all the time in the world to sit around in cafes and watch the world go by. What the women are up to, i don't know as most of them are hidden away probably making the world go round in far more usefull ways than us boys.

The road continues to follow the coast some of the time and then dip inland for a while where there really is very little variation in the landscape and continues to look mostly like this;

Thankfully there's not to much in the way of traffic passing this way but there are still plenty trucks and quite often they'll pass with the beeping of horns and waves of encouragement. This feels great untill the aftermath of a great force of hot wind mixed with sand and exhaust fumes hits me as i brace myself and hold course and the truck passes on. There are also the odd heard of camels and a few amusing road signs including;

..... clearly there is a danger of splashing water.....????

watch out for the sand.......
But my favourtite was this one;

When i saw this a become very excited that perhaps there maybe other cyclists on the road as i had not yet met any. A few kilometers later, or was it a hundred.... i realised that it must have been put there just for me and that made me feel much safer indeed.
and this one....

ohps

There are police checks all along the way aswell and the police have all been really friendly and equally bemused as to what I'm doing. One told me about someone thay had met once who was doing something similar for charity and i explained that i was doing the same however he was unimpressed when i told him how much i had raised so far. This got me to thinking about how to raise the profile of this trip and try to raise more cash for the Fresh Start foundation in The Gambia.

Firstly a massive thank you to those of you who have supported this project in all sorts of ways, only one of which is by donating cash. It would be great if any one would like to put it out on their own networks, have links on websites, or send twitters, of which i know nothing, or tell their rich friends or generally spread the word in anyway that works for you. when i reach the Project in the Gambia I'll send lots of pics and more info about whats going there which will help the whole thing make a bit more sense.
In the meantime big love to you all. I've got another 1000km of desert to cycle through befor Christmas.
Untill nexttime, here's another picture of some camels cause i love em,

All the best
Ed

Where the desert meets the sea

I'm 3 days into the desert now and it feels like a very long road to Mauratania.
A long, straight, flat road of empty desert with the pounding Atlantic Ocean on my right and the endless Sahara on my left. Its going to be at least a week of this but thankfully there are a handfull of towns and villages along the way to seek food and shelter, internet cafes and entertaining locals.
But a lot of the looks like this:

From Tafroute I headed west out of the mountains of the Anti Atlas to Tiznit and to the coast passing through Mirleft and Sidi Ifni. I stayed on a great little beach nestled into the cliffs but I can't remember the name of the place and it wasn't on my map, but some how i found myself there. From the cliffs huge red sandstone headlands jutted out to sea and over the years had been eroded into the most fantastic natural arches.

It was a secret little paradise with just a handfull of folk staying there and perfect to take it easy befor the long days cycling in the desert. These began from Guelmim heading south west to Tan Tan which was a dramatic ride through mountains and sandstorms with crazy winds cutting across the road blowing fine red dust over everything. But the ride was beautiful all the same.

That day also was my first propper meeting with the camels of the desert; first the road sign and the the real thing at watering time by the roadside.

I have got into a bit of routine now and a generally covering about 120 km each day on these flat roads and
as you can imagine i have so many photos i'd like to upload for your viewing pleasure but this computer is being so painfully slow that i think i've reached my threshold with technology for now so i'm gonna call it a night. Any way all the best from this little town of Tarfaya that already feels like the far ends of the earth but is only realy just the beginning of this long road across the Sahara.


Agra