5 hrs, 20.0 kms



A couple days later, the conference I'm attending ends at 11 AM . This means… plenty of time to make this an Adventure Day! I know immediately what to do: I’m going to try to connect my Ourika Valley hike to my Marrakech hikes, instantly turning this into a Superhike. To do that I need to cover a 34 kilometer stretch of boring flatland, walking alongside a busy road… not a prospect I relish a whole lot, but finishing my Superhike will make it more than worth.

I reach Ourika at in the early afternoon. This means I’m going to have to walk almost nonstop for 7 hours if I want to get to Marrakech at a decent hour. I waste no time in getting started. With the beautiful snowcapped mountains behind me, I face the flat plains of Marrakech. Actually the hike isn’t bad at all. The weather is nice and the landscape is green, so it’s a soothing, peaceful walk giving me plenty of time to think over about my life, my accomplishments and goals. With my Spain/Portugal trip, Agadir trip and now this, it seems I’ve been in Adventure Mode almost non stop since late December, with doing Superhikes becoming almost an obsession—even though I haven’t quite figure out why I feel the need to do them… it’s not like I win a medal or something when I finish one. Hopefully this year the purpose of it all will come clearer.

I look for a good spot to do my videoclip with snowy mountains in the backdrop, but they’re too far away to look very impressive. It’s OK, I’m not expecting to win any photo awards on this hike. Then there are a couple houses and shops alongside the road which constitute the village of Bouazza, with I consider my first town.