25 March 2023, Loudaya, 47.42km
Hotel Nihal R539.19 [DH300]

It was a cycleable 50km, but exhausting, mainly because much of it was on an incline. No matter that the incline was relatively mild, middle-gear stuff not low, it was the km after km after km of it that took a toll. But here we are less than 30km from fabled Marrakech, in a good hotel beside a decent restaurant, bathed and fed and watching al Jazeera.
It was hot and arid out there, the road crossing bone-dry river beds. We saw plantations of eucalyptus; in one we took an orange break at a thoughtfully-provided bench and table. We saw three camels being transported in the back of a bakkie, looking down their noses at the world around them. And we saw several pottery roadside stalls at the intersection with the A3.
The R207 which we travelled from Essaouira, is now the N8. Shortly after leaving Chichaoua, the road narrowed to single-lane, but a shoulder specifically for cyclists was added beyond the A3.
Oh... And we hit 500km on our odometer.