On a Bike and a Prayer
day 30. the final push
With Andrea's sickness and weakness worsening, we decided to make a last effort to reach our destination. After Stephane and I breakfasted on tuna and egg sandwiches in our favourite shop, we left the walled sanctuary of Taroudant.
Ten kilometres outside town a large moped, with a larger rider struggled, spluttering past us. With an extra kick I dragged my front wheel up to his exhaust pipe and crouched over to take advantage of his slip-stream. The extra effort paid off and I eased off the pedals to be sucked along. A few minutes later I peered behind to see two dots of Stephane and Andrea, struggling in the distance having missed the ride.
Andrea had now not eaten for a few days and was very tired
and low on energy. Her legs were empty and the going was slow. I dropped
back and fought off the temptation to chase any other motorised vehicles,
instead working as a team to get us all to the finish.
As the white villas and red tiled roofs of Agadir appeared on the horizon Andrea and I headed off down what looked like a short cut to the camp site; across a piece of waste land. Stephane refused to stray off the surfaced road again and agreed to meet us there.
The waste land seemed to go on forever, past cranes and cement mixers planted amidst half finished housing estates and lonesome wilting palm trees. At 3.00pm we rolled down the beach front of Agadir with Andrea in tow at 3.00pm. A swim and a baptism of the bikes in the Atlantic was the first priority, followed closely by a big celebratory ice cream sundae in a beach front restaurant.
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