Kenitra, Morocco - Polarsteps

Day 7, we're going 70km to Kenitra; we're late getting up in the darkness, and roll out around 11 after tea and breakfast and saying our goodbes. The timing doesn't end up being a problem; we're on a flat, well paved road and after we get out of the chaos of town we're flying. Kenitra's a shockingly early arrival for us; we pass through the crowded souk and find the big, walled tourist campground at the end of town. It's the equivalent of $5 CAD to tent without a vehicle for the night, and we end up staying a total of three. There's a push and pull to our time in Morocco: dinner in a home means a late night, and social time/navigating crowded markets for groceries/existing in a second language/being in a very socially-engaged space while cycling can all send us into a bit of quiet retreat when we get the chance. Our consistent baseline on this trip is our campstove meals and the tent set-up that's been with us, pretty much unchanged, since Vancouver Island last April; we carry a familiar home with us that, as long as we can find somewhere to put it, we can always return to. In Kenitra we do morning coffee at the cafe down the street; we've been realizing these are the sports bars of Morocco, where the seats are all set up facing either the sidewalk or the TV. They're almost exclusively frequented by men, who sit and have tea together for hours and watch the world go by in the mornings, and soccer in the evenings. In our days there we get market food, deep-fried honey pastries, fresh avocados. We eat at a Lebanese pizza shop. I find, for about $2, my wedding ring to mark my marriage to my Fake Husband Tom From Canada. We get warmer outer-wear; I had a hefty down parka that started the trip with me, which I couldn't justify carrying beyond Alberta-- but when the sun's gone it's cold here, going down around zero at night, and it'll be colder in the mountains. The lightweight puffy jackets I couldn't stomach the $200 for back home are more like $30 here; the day I get one, I stop shivering in the evenings.