we woke up, said hello to the animals, and continued cycling.

We had a “beautiful cloud formation” along the route as we rode. We arrived in Er-rich around 15:30. We waited for our host, who had been recommended by a friend in Rabat. He came on a motorcycle and brought us to his home.
At first, he wanted us to leave our bikes outside, assuring us that it was safe, but after we explained why we needed the bikes inside, he agreed without hesitation.
They were amazing hosts. We had lunch together and took a walk with him through the city. Then we returned home to sleep, as we were extremely tired. Suddenly, in the middle of the night, he wanted to take us to the police station to register us as guests. I was disappointed because I had asked him directly when we arrived if he needed to inform the police or take a copy of our passports, and he said no, everything was fine. But somehow, he changed his mind in the middle of the night.

We went to the police station, gave them our passports, waited outside for about 10 minutes, and then took a taxi back home.
We tried to explain that we only needed to sleep, but they insisted we have dinner with them. After dinner, we went to bed, but it was a rough night. The insects were bothersome, and people in the other room were loudly watching football, making it hard to sleep.

On the way to Errachidia, it became clear that this area has no problem with water—there was water flowing everywhere. About 20 km from Errachidia, we reached Hammat Moulay Ali Cherif (hot springs), but it was closed. The secret outdoor spot I had read about in blogs was busy with men, so we had to wait for the women’s time, as access alternated between one hour for men and one hour for women.

We decided to continue the climb before ascending to Errachidia. We were being very cautious with the weather since the storm had already destroyed large parts of the roads. Both Errachidia and Merzouga had been hit by massive storms, causing flooding, road closures, and forcing many people to evacuate their homes.

We arrived in Errachidia around 6 PM and were hosted by Abdullatif and his wonderful family. Abdullatif is the uncle of Omar, the doctor we had met coincidentally in Fes. His wife, Rashnan, and their three children—Noah, Anas, and Rayoun—were so welcoming.

We repaired Anas’ bike, and he was really happy. We washed our clothes and enjoyed a luxurious hot bucket shower. Later, we took a walk with the family to their farm, where they mostly grow palm trees. We also visited the animals they have.

I can’t describe the sheer number of flies in the area—it’s date season, so millions of flies are everywhere.

After returning home, we had dinner, and Sandra had a henna session with beautiful shapes on her hands. We then went to sleep and had a really good night’s rest.

11:00 PM Normally we are asleep for the past 2 hours but we are still having a VIP welcome from Shenan and her daughter. She wanted to make Sandra henna, and Sandra really loved it. We had a very pleasant sleep.