Having spent the final two hours of yesterday’s ride navigating with headlamps in the dark, it’s hard to deny that Florence was right about the strenuous climb via Col du Tichka over the High Atlas. But what a gorgeous day, slowly winding our way up the Ghdat river valley, through small agricultural villages, groves of aspen trees in narrow drainages, past the snow gates that close the pass periodically after storms, and above tree line to the 7,400 foot Col du Tichka.

The dramatic and serpentine final 10 miles elicited a number of shouts of “Bon courage!” from cars and brought back memories of the Los Libertadores pass between Argentina and Chile.As soon as the sun disappeared behind the mountains, it got quite cold. Descending in the dark on a small mountain road wasn’t ideal, but we’ve had to do it before and were well prepared with down jackets, gloves and lights. We went slowly and as far as we were from any ambient light, the night sky was a riot of stars. By the time we found our small hotel, we were cold and exhausted. In a lesson on expectation setting, the young hotel manager initially told us that there was no water at all, which caused us to almost shrug off his revelation moments later he that there was just no hot water. Christmas eve dinner made up for the frigid shower however; a delicious slow cooked tagine of chicken, olives and vegetables, along with fresh bread, and almond carrot cake, which we enjoyed heartily while thinking of friends and family.