In the morning before entering the ferry we met the Mayor of Tarifa who enjoyed running with us around the square near his office.

Once we were on the boat from Europe to Africa we had a quick delicious breakfast. As soon as we stepped onto Moroccan soil we were received by Hicham Barbache of the Authorities of the Port of Tanger. He kindly guided us through the border control.

Our first meeting point in Morocco was with the Loumbra Running Club.

They guided us to the Highschool Ahdelkrim Khatabi. We were literally blown away by the masses of screaming kids and the traditional Moroccan drummers that filled the skies with pounding beats.

At first we did not know where to go and we were desperately trying to talk over the shouting crowds. But finally we found access to a microphone so that they could hear us.

Mr.Ahmed Fellioui, Vice President of C.U.T, gave us an official welcome to Morocco and presented us with a plaque from the city.

After enjoying some refreshments and sweets we headed out to continue running with the club to the edge of town.

It was at this point we realised that it was midday and we still had over 120 km to cover before nightfall.

So without hesitation we started a "triple leapfrog", as we call it, dropping 3 runners at the same time. The police were a little confused to see so many runners out at the same time but they soon worked out our system.

We basically followed the Atlantic ocean coastline.

Along the road we met many sheep herders that gave us huge smiles. Although they could not understand what we were saying they understood the feeling that we carried with us.

We later learned that the region we were passing through supplies 90% of Morocco's agricultural production.

As the sun was setting many trucks full of girls that looked like strawberries with their colourful cute hats passed us by cheering and waving. Someone explained to us later that those girls work in the strawberry fields and these hats are a traditional part of their uniforms.

20 km before our final destination of the day we were joined by a group of girls from Association Laouamra D' Athletisme local running club and their coach Benrahma Mohamed.

They kindly guided us through town to a meeting with Ahmed Abourouch the General Secretary and Idrissi Hassan the Mayor.

We were just amazed how full of enthusiasm and strength these girls were.

The last 15 km to Ksar el Kebir we finished on our own and when we arrived to the town it was already dark.

We had refreshments at the city hall and then we were shown to our hotel, exhausted but overwhelmed by the generosity and kindness shown to us. In the evening we were invited for dinner and we ate a delicious Moroccan salad and pizza. The man who was accompanying us the whole time was very friendly and told us many interesting facts about Moroccan history.

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Team Members:
Ondrej Vesely (Czech Republic), Nelson (Homagni) Baptista (Australia), Namitabha Aleksander Arsic (Serbia), Marc Schrader (Germany) Honza Minarcik (Czech Republic), Zoltán Theobald (Hungary), Pierre Lantuas Monfouga (France), Enrico Eugenio (Italy).

Morocco 17 March >