A good hike, but with some obstacles...

Another beautiful day here in Tangier, Morocco. So we decided to go for a hike. We had wanted to take a coastal trail all the way to the Cap Spartel lighthouse that looks out over the Atlantic Ocean, a distance of about 12 kms (7.5 miles), and then take a taxi back home.

But we encountered a few obstacles!

We set out walking right from the apartment building. I was following a trail that was listed on my maps.me program. It took us down to a small beach, and then along the rocky coastline.

Lost of fisherman trying their luck off the rocks.

But then we got to a section where the crossing looked difficult. A couple of locals saw us contemplating the idea, and they came over to say that had we been there earlier the tide wouldn't have been as high and we could have crossed. The one guy seemed to think we could still do it, but the other guy said yeah, maybe me, but not Ruth.

It didn't look easy, and we know our limits, so we turned around to find another route.

This paved road leads nowhere. We had walked up from the beach.

The paved road was gated at the top, but we could squeeze through. There, we followed another paved road past some kind of military installation until we got to a steep path leading back down to the coast.

There is so much constant wind here that the trees have a very pronounced lean to the left.

Interesting art along the way.

Beautiful views.

Looking west towards the Atlantic Ocean.

Ruth, sitting on a big rock.

Morocco coastline.

Eventually, we got to another section that looked very difficult. It was around this point that we gave up trying to make it to the lighthouse and decided instead to make our way back to the main road and simply walk back home. And hopefully we would find an ice cream place along the way!

No railings here!

We decide to turn around.

And we found a path leading back to the main road.

At the main road, there were all kinds of people at this park.

It was so busy with people, we thought it must be a weekend. But it wasn't... it was only Tuesday! So we're not sure why it was so busy.

Sure enough, we found a corner store with a popsicle freezer outside. We paid 12 dirhams ($1.65 CAD, $1.30 USD) each for a chocolate and nut covered ice cream. It sure was good!

Turns out that we had hiked 15 kms (9.3 miles) in five hours. 

Funny thing... our new Samsung phone has a built in "health tracker" app that keeps track of your activity level. Then, it keeps the data and compares it to all the other Samsung phone users in the world. A notification came up yesterday saying that we are more active than 98% of other users!

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