Moroccan Earthquake

In late 2019 three friends and I went out to Morocco to ride with Ciclo Montana’s partner group Atlas Sport. It was a proper adventure with amazing scenery, food and riding that was unbelievably good. We stayed in small Riads, with lunch stops often being in people’s homes given the remoteness of the locations. Our guide, Redouan, was exemplary, acting both as MTB guide, host and local fixer. I connected with him over Facebook and we’ve been in touch regularly ever since.

Here’s a taste of the landscape, culture, riding..

Friday night’s earthquake has been devastating in Marrakesh, but in the high Atlas villages we were riding through and staying in, such as Azmizmiz, Ouirgane and Imgdal it has resulted in total destruction.

I’ve been messaging Redouan during the week and he has joined forces with an aid agency to deliver food, water and general provisions to these areas. He has an Instagram account where you can see what he’s usually up to and what he’s having to do now. It’s sobering.

If anyone would like to contribute, the agency is based the UK and have a donations page. They seem pretty small & agile which is exactly what is needed in these locations.

I did a similar thing. We visited Imil in January this year. I had our guide on Whatsapp. Thankfully he, his immediate family and most of his village are alive, but his house is badly damaged and his mothers village of Moulay Brahim has been badly hit. I was able to cobble together some money from friends via facebook and have sent him a bit over via PayPal to help out as best he thinks. Terrible situation and has now been overtaken by Libya in the news cycle.

Yeah, when I saw the epicentre is right where we were riding on our Ciclo trip, I feared the worst for the stone and compacted mud villages clinging to the slopes of the Atlas.

The footage on Redouans insta is dire.

heart breaking 🙁

That’s the most awful thing I’ve read in a very long time.  Unbelievable.

Bump because this needs a bump.

We’ve been out with Ciclo a number of times over the years – always had the Morocco trip on the wish list but not got round to it whilst the kids were growing up. Terrible to see the devastation and thanks for the heads-up on what looks a practical and agile little charity where we can send some immediate assistance.

I was there when it happened and it was the most surreal experience I’ve ever had. No buildings came down where we were but to see them all start shaking and feel my bed moving from side to side is something I’ll never get my head round. Three days later families near us were still sleeping on the streets because they were too scared to go back in their houses. Aparently only about five percent of Moroccans have insurance and you know these aren’t the ones that will have been affected by it all. Those that had next to nothing before now have absolutely nothing. They’re lovely people and it’s just so tragic this can happen.

I will take a look at this and definitely will be donating as was about to donate to a larger charity (choose love). We are planning on visiting Morroco in February and would also be good to get some advice on if there’s anything we can bring out to hand out. We’ll be traveling in a van.