Northeast Morocco - any ideas what to ride there?
 

Hello. So 3 days before our trip to Morocco starts we received wonderful news from ferry company that our ferry was cancelled (from France).
I quickly took actions and forced them to give us tickets to leave from Barcelona BUT 1 day earlier + ferry only take 14 hours. I had to do crazy replanning (with 6 people coming from 4 countries) and re-booking of everything on the way and still we will have to ride 720 km in one day which I hate because it'll be highways instead of my normal backroads route.
As result we arrive to Tanger on May 1 at 20:00, e.g. May 2 we start riding.
At same time 2 guys who decided to rent in Spain instead of riding their bikes there from Poland (they live in Poland) pick up their bikes on May 3 and be in Tanger only May 3rd afternoon.

Hence the question. Since we "earned" 1 extra day and we need to meet with other 2 anyway I thought perhaps it's time to come see Eastern part. About 10 years ago I only once rode small portion to Al Hoceima and turned back west since we had like zero plan and had to go back to Tanger to ferry.

Does anyone have any idea what to ride there (paved and perhaps easy unpaved) for like a day? We want afterwards to go back to level of Taounate or Tazzeka park to get back on route and meet 2 late arrivals.
I realize we can spend at least half a day on lazy coast riding stopping for tea and being touristy :) but perhaps I missing something worth doing there instead? Any advice will be appreciated.
Something like coast to Nador and then down? I think pushing all way down to Bouarfa and then back up - we won't make it in 2 days without pushing way too hard. 1700-1800 km it's way too much. May be ride to Beni Sebou and cross back via parks to Tazzeka national park?

Any advice will be highly appreciated. We prefer nature to cities :) not much of "cultural trip" this time.

Good lad!

You could do the coastal RN2 again, stopping in Oued Laou for coffee, then carrying on to Cala Iris harbour which from memory was constructed using Japanese (?) funds. You should be able to lunch there on BBQ sardines.

Then carry on along the coast to Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera. Google Maps says return to the main road but there's a spectacular track along the coast. The Peñon is Spanish territory and was once an island a hundred metres offshore, then in a storm a shingle bank was washed up joining it to the mainland. Consequently this shingle bank is now the world's shortest international land boundary at just 85m wide.

After that head for Taza and the Tazekka National Park. The loop south from Taza past Ras el Oued (head of the river) is limestone karst scenery.

Tim, as always massive thanks! Now I can stop worrying and have a plan.