22nd Jan 2016
Marrakesh Express, Kasbahs, and Casablanca
!!
I woke up with a start at about 6 am, with
so many things going through my mind I wasn’t sure whether I had been dreaming
about them all or just thinking about them all night in the back of my
mind. Oddly enough, none of them were
about today’s trip to Morocco – Although I have to admit I do get apprehensive
when crossing into a new country – Not in a bad way, more just a wondering what
it will be like and whether they will be friendly !! So we packed up and headed
into the port of Algeciras at 10 am to catch our 11.30 ferry. Lovely drive back along the coast from Tarifa
into the port, with the sun coming up and Africa not quite visible across the
sea to the south due to the haze.
Into the port and the motorhomes queued up were
all German, except one Swiss and one Dutch couple ! Later on some other locals rolled up but they
were in cars and vans piled high with everything you can think of ! How the
cars didn’t collapse under the weight I just don’t know ! A few of us chatted for a while – For me it
was a case of trying to find out as much information as possible about fuel
pries and locations, where to get money changed, whether there were (working) ATM’s, and
important stuff like that ! Generally
the atmosphere was light hearted rather than apprehensive, so I slowly relaxed
a little.
Eventually we moved forwards through
passport control and towards the vessel – A big CAT that takes trucks and cars
and everything. Despite originally being
about 6th in the queue, due to my (small) size and ability to
maneuver, I was actually the last car loaded – But as I reversed on, I would be
first off ! Sound good ? Not really, as it meant I had no one to
follow !! All the others were following
me !
Sailed out of Algeciras harbour, past a
cloud covered Gibraltar (looking nothing like I had ever pictured it would look
like in my mind ! Then it was only
about 40 minutes before we were arriving in Tanger Med port. We had done passport control for Morocco on
the boat, so we drove straight off, a couple of police gave our passports a
cursory glance and waved us off through this new and enormous (and virtually
deserted) port. I knew I had to do
paperwork to import the car, and I also wanted to change some money, but all
the signs kept saying “EXIT” – which I didn’t want ! So we drove back and forwards
between 2
roundabouts for a while as we discussed the situation - With all the other motorhomes following us
backwards and forwards !! Eventually we parked
and went into a kind of lounge area where they said they had no money, so after
a brief discussion with another policeman sitting in a box (thank goodness they
speak French here !), we all headed up this hill – Only to find the booths with
all the police in were waiting for us, wondering where we had been ! 30 minutes of toing and froing between (more)
passport controls and vehicle import desks made even S American border
crossings look logical ! But all very
friendly. Eventually we moved on up the
road – and found all the banks and money changers waiting for us in the next
car park !! So we then got ourselves
some Dirhams, said goodbye to our travel buddies off the boat, and headed out
into Morocco.
Nice warm sunshine, decent roads, traffic
seems to behave itself – What is the problem the travel books all talk about
?? We decided to avoid the bustle of
Tanger this early in our trip, and headed around a superb ring road – OK, it
was a toll road, but at about A$10 for about an hours drive, and the chance to
settle ourselves into driving in Morocco in relative sanity, that was a
bargain.
First reaction is that it is all so green –
No Sahara encroachment up here ! Fields
with cows and goats and camels, all being tended by herders, some of which were
girls, some were men. Regardless, they nearly all smiled and waved as we went
past, not waiting for us to “make the first wave”. Very impressed. Once we had got around Tanger, we got off the
toll road and headed down the coast following signs for Larache and Rabat, and
occasionally Casablanca, which wakes you up and makes us realize we really are
here in N Africa, in Morocco !! Woo Hoo
!!
We got onto smaller and smaller roads, as
this was so much more fun than the impersonal autoroute. It was slow, but we were weaving through
villages and towns, encountering sheep on the road (the little girl sheep
herder gave us such a beautiful smile and called out “Bonjour” as we passed),
floods under bridges where the autoroute sped above us, and so much
agriculture. Strawberries, avocados,
pineapples – and lots more – All for sale at stalls along the roadside. Big water towers and canals for irrigation –
They really are trying very hard to make this place work.
Eventually we turned of down a little
country road towards a little village on the coast called Moulay Bousselham
where we knew there was camping, and eventually drove through the village and
came out at the dead end right on this beautiful beach with surf rolling in
from the Atlantic. We did a U turn,
parked, and went exploring the shops where we bought some fruit and veggies at
a little market stall, and then a loaf of local flat bread at another little
stall. We then headed back into the
village and turned
down to the camp site that we had seen the sign for, and
checked in. Fairly run down but very
friendly and helpful. They have a
restaurant with beautiful tagine type smells wafting out, and wifi, and
anything else you might want. We went
for a wander around the campsite as the sun went down, and settled in for our
first night in Morocco – At the end of our first day, most enjoyable. Oh, and diesel was about Aus $1 per litre, so
also enjoyed that too ! And they clean
your windscreen as well !
The camp site is FULL of mostly Frenchmen
in their motorhomes, many with 4 wheel ATV’s towed behind, set up for the
summer here ! I knew the north of
Morocco was going to be touristy, so we will just see how it goes as we move
south. Hopefully the numbers will
decrease, although I have to admit that it isn’t exactly crowded here – Just pleasantly
full, so no complaints.
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