Casablanca

June 10, 2026

It is difficult leaving Essaouira for two reasons.  Sharon and I have been here long enough to have made friends with a few of the locals.  In a way this place feels more like home than any other place in Morocco.

The other reason is the wind from the north.  It made it easy to get here.  A tail wind blew me south along the Atlantic coast for days. 

Further south would be easy, but I don’t want to get too close to the Sahara desert at this time of year.  Also, I needed to go back north, toward Europe.  I will meet family in Portugal in a few weeks.  I was short on time.

So, I gave it a shot.  I loaded up my bike and headed north into a 20mph headwind.  As I cranked slowly northward, It gave me time to think. 

At this pace, it would take too long to reach Europe.  I would probably need to load my bike onto a bus at some point to make the schedule.  Further north, the winds would be less.

So then it hit me.  Take the bus now.  Go to Casablanca with Sharon, then bike north from there.  The wind would hopefully be less.

Casablanca is the business center and the largest city of Morocco.  It has a busy seaport, airport, and a train station that runs modern high speed trains to the north. 

Maybe it has something to attract tourists but I haven’t found it yet.  Maybe Sharon will.  I spent one night in Casablanca, and headed north by bike the next morning.

I actually had a mild tailwind the whole day.