One Instagram influencer's adventure of a lifetime helped shed light on the beauty and fragility of our natural world.
In a collaborative post with Adventure.com, travel writer and sustainable tourism consultant Shivya Nath (@shivya) shared her experience e-biking through Morocco for two weeks.
She and a party of 11 cyclists, two guides, and two support vehicles rode 30-50 kilometers (19 to 31 miles) each day "through undulating terrain, steep switchbacks, gentle coastal roads, and challenging mountain gradients."
Nath wrote on Adventure.com that she was "surprised" by how much the "stunning, diverse, and underrated" scenery changed as she started in Tangier and ended in Marrakech, witnessing the High Atlas and Rif mountain ranges, Mediterranean Sea, and the Sahara Desert.
However, she learned Morocco is facing its sixth straight year of drought because of the planet's overheating. Nath explored the country during the peak of its rainy season, but there was only ever a drizzle on just one day she was there.
In fact, she later read that Morocco's precipitation levels during 2023's monsoon season were 67% lower than a typical year and were exacerbated by intense heat evaporating water from reservoirs.
The African nation's water crisis was evident in its landscape, as Nath's guides explained to her that the high peaks should've had snow, and rivers like the Tensift, Ziz, and Dades were far below what they should have been.
Additionally, officials had to pause operations for a hydropower plant "due to alarmingly low water levels," and a local told Nath that the arid land produced vegetables that didn't taste as good as they normally do.
These repercussions have taken a toll on Morocco's nomadic Indigenous Imazighen community, who have followed water and vegetation with their animals through the Sahara Desert for centuries. The scarcity of resources, though, has forced many to enter the tourism industry.
These issues stood in stark contrast to the upscale golf resorts and luxury pool villas Nath saw as she continued on her journey. According to her article, hotels in Morocco use an average of 310 liters of water per guest a night, most of which is pulled from public wells. Meanwhile, golf courses need at least 6 acre-feet of water per acre a year.
Other accommodations for tourists, who Nath said tend to "use water more liberally," have further contributed to the nation's strained water resources. For example, most of the 1,500 traditional houses in Marrakech have been converted into guesthouses with swimming pools.
Nath's excursion serves as a sobering reminder of the effects human activity can have but also the conscious decisions we can make to reverse the effects of rising temperatures, especially while traveling.
While riding bikes — even electrically powered ones — for miles might not be your ideal vacation, Nath noted that it did help her form a deeper connection to and appreciation for her surroundings. Plus, taking low-impact forms of transportation can help limit the pollution we produce.
It's also helpful to support eco-friendly travel destinations and find vacation spots closer to home.
"Quite interesting & highly inspiring," one user wrote in the comments of Nath's post.
"Thank you for sharing this beautiful place," another responded.
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