In February of this year I went to Fitur, Spain’s main tourism fair, held in Madrid. I walked through the Morocco section and saw a poster for a beautiful mountain-top hotel, and when I stopped to have a look at it a delightful lady called Aziza began talking to me. I’m a travel journalist, and, to be honest, a beautiful hotel is a beautiful hotel (although as I was to find out later, very few are quite as enchanting as the Kasbah du Toubkal), but then Aziza handed me a black-and-white postcard of a group of laughing young girls, and told me the story of Education For All. I was hooked…all she had to do was reel me in.
When I got back to my home in Valencia I contacted Mike McHugo, who is one of the driving forces behind EFA, and he told me more about the charity. He mentioned that their annual fund-raising bike ride was taking place in a few weeks. What he didn’t know was that one of my ambitions had been to take a bike ride in Morocco, but, for one reason or another, it had still to be done. Suddenly, I had the chance of doing it. This is my diary of the six-day ride.
I would suggest you visit the Education For All site to get an idea of the wonderful work this charity does to help young girls from impoverished families in the remote villages of the High Atlas Mountains to continue the education they so richly deserve. If you would like to be kept up to date about the EFA Bike Ride 2012, please send an email to mike@discover.ltd.uk, or click on the link at the end of Day 6 of the diary.
And now…
Adelante!
Derek Workman
Valencia,Spain
15 May, 2011
