I Thought I Was Crossing Morocco. I Was Actually Discovering Myself.
1032 kilometers. 10 days. One bicycle. No shortcuts. I left Tangier with a loaded bike and a simple idea: ride all the way to Marrakech. What I didn't expect was that the hardest and most memorable parts of the journey would have very little to do with the road itself.
I Thought I Was Exploring Morocco. I Was Discovering Myself.
On 8 August 2026, I got on my bicycle in Tangier and started riding south.
At that moment, I didn't know exactly how long the journey would take, and I didn't know how many kilometers I would eventually ride.
I just knew that I wanted to go from Tangier to Marrakech.
The idea was simple: explore, challenge myself, and see how far I could go.
The road
The journey took me through:
Tangier → Tétouan → Chefchaouen → Ouezzane → Volubilis → Meknes → Fes → Imouzzer Kandar → Ifrane → Khénifra → Beni Mellal → Kalaat Sraghna → Marrakech.
I carried everything with me on my bicycle.
Every kilometer of the journey was done by bicycle.
No car.
No bus.
No shortcut.
Not even a single meter was covered by another form of transportation.
I didn't know at the beginning that the journey would eventually become 1032 kilometers over 10 days.
I simply kept riding.
When the weather turned against me
One of the hardest moments came when a storm suddenly appeared.
The wind became strong, and then came heavy rain.
It happened so suddenly that I didn't even realize when I had become completely soaked.
My clothes were wet.
Everything I was carrying was wet.
Luckily, I was close to a gas station, and there was a mosque there where I took shelter.
I went inside the mosque, changed my clothes, and tried to recover from what had just happened.
But the effects of that day didn't end there.
I became sick and caught a cold, which stayed with me for the rest of the journey.
It was one of those moments that reminded me that when you're traveling by bicycle, you can't control everything.
You just have to deal with whatever the road gives you.
Ifrane
After riding through the heat, arriving in Ifrane felt completely different.
The weather was much more comfortable, the landscapes were beautiful, and the city itself had a special atmosphere.
And there was fruit everywhere.
Apples, plums, grapes...
After so much time on the road, Ifrane was one of the places that really stood out to me.
“We've been seeing you all the way!”
One of the funniest encounters of the journey happened in Ifrane.
I met a foreign family of three: a father, his wife, and their daughter.
The father, Peter, asked me how far I had travelled.
At that point, I had covered around 600 kilometers.
He then started asking me if I had passed through some places.
I told him yes.
He looked surprised.
The places he was mentioning were quite far apart, but they were all on my route.
Then he suddenly realized something and reacted with amazement.
They had actually been seeing me throughout their journey.
Every time they saw me, they apparently thought:
“It can't be the same person.”
But it was.
The same cyclist.
The same loaded bicycle.
Still going.
I found their reaction really funny, and I loved that moment.
We talked for a while, took a photo together, and then said goodbye and continued our journeys.
It was a small encounter, but it became one of the memories I really enjoyed from the trip.
The people I met along the way
The landscapes were beautiful, but the people I met made the journey something more than just a long ride.
Throughout the road, people would sometimes stop their cars just to encourage me, ask where I was going, or ask if I needed anything.
Some of those encounters lasted only a few minutes.
Others became stories that I will remember for much longer.
Ahmed
One evening, I had a problem with my bicycle brakes.
It was already late, and after a long time searching and trying to find a solution, I still hadn't managed to fix them.
Then I met Ahmed.
He helped me repair the brakes, despite how late it was and despite the effort it took.
While he was working on the bicycle, we talked and exchanged stories.
He was a kind person, and that simple encounter became one of the moments I remember from the journey.
Kawtar
In Ouezzane, I also met Kawtar through a friend.
She offered to host me at her home for free and prepared dinner for me.
There was just one problem.
I was so exhausted that I fell asleep before I could even eat the dinner. 😂
It was a funny moment, but her kindness meant a lot to me.
More than a cycling trip
When I started this journey, I wanted to explore Morocco and test myself.
I knew there would be difficult roads, but I didn't know exactly what the journey would bring.
I ended up riding 1032 kilometers in 10 days.
There were difficult days.
There was rain, wind, illness, exhaustion, mechanical problems, and moments when continuing wasn't easy.
But there were also beautiful landscapes, unexpected encounters, laughter, conversations, and people who helped me without expecting anything in return.
And that's probably what I will remember most.
A journey like this is not only about the distance you cover.
It's also about the people who stop for you.
The person who fixes your brakes late at night.
The stranger who asks if you need anything.
The person who opens their home to you.
The family who keeps seeing the same cyclist appear again and again along their journey.
Those moments aren't marked on a map.
But they become part of the journey.
1032 kilometers later
On 17 August 2026, I arrived in Marrakech.
1032 kilometers.
10 days.
One bicycle.
A lot of tired legs.
And even more stories.
The road was difficult, but it was worth it.
I set out to explore Morocco and test myself.
In the end, I realized that I had discovered something else along the way.
I explored the world around me, but I discovered myself first.