0403 Moulay-Bousselham to Casablanca

23^rd Jan 2016

Interesting minor roads, and then ...... Casablanca !!

Woke up fairly early to a very humid morning – Inside the tent was the dampest I have ever seen, and the outside was soaking, even though no rain.  I try to dry it out as quickly as possibly, but hope the damp is not going to rot any stitching !  Tried the wifi before everyone in the camp site got mobile, and though I was able to send a couple of emails, I couldn’t get on to download and photos or blog.  Its all written, so you are just going to have to wait till I get decent wifi !  The plan for today was to mosey down the coast towards Casablanca, and see what happened…….

Just as we were leaving the camp site, we heard a big diesel engine, and on investigating it was an enormous German MAN 6 WD diesel camper truck.  This thing must be capable of going just about anywhere, but on chatting to the owner he said they only go on short trips because they miss the grandchildren too much !  Just an enormous vehicle though.

Then it was out an on the road, and we decided yet again to stay on the minor roads as they are so much more interesting.  Well – this one certainly was !  It got steadily worse and worse, and we were driving through villages with children and animals all over the road, through muddy road works, and all the time the local taxis were trying to over take us !   We could see the toll autoroute almost the while time, but couldn’t get on to it until about noon, because there were no access roads !  Frustrating   The minor road got so bad though here that if we didn’t get on the Autoroute we were never going to get anywhere !  And much as we prefer seeing the village life, as we want to spend most of our time in the Atlas mountains, where we will see plenty of village life,  we decided to jump on the toll road, and headed off to Casablanca. 

We read all the books about Casa, and while there may be interesting parts, it is not a tourist city.  The only place that is remotely of interest (to us) is the Hassan II Mosque. This is the 3^rd largest mosque in the world and was completed in 1993 to commemorate the former king’s 60^th birthday.  It is built out over the sea and can hold 25,000 worshippers and 80,000 more in the courtyards and squares around it.  It has a 210 metre tall minaret, a centrally heated floor, a retractable roof, and a section of glass flooring allowing the faithful to see the Atlantic washing over the rocks below.  The prayer hall is large

enough to house Paris’ Notra Dame or Rome’s St Peter’s ! It cost over half a billion dollars and was paid largely by public subscription, and although most Casablancans are proud of their one modern monument, many others believe the money could have been better spent elsewhere – In particular the slum dwellers who were evicted from the site with no compensation.   Hmmm.

Getting to the mosque was a bit of an adventure – After negotiating the centre of Rabat, the capital, we tried to follow a road round the outside of Casablanca until we got to the

mosque, and were largely successful !  But driving in Morocco is certainly interesting – At roundabouts all lanes merge into one as you cross the roadabout, and then revert back to the original lanes afterwards !  Certainly interesting until one gets used to it, and you really need eyes on both wing mirrors as well as straight ahead to escape unscathed !   Having a big roo bar and side bars does help to intimidate the locals !!

After the Casablanca mosque, we decided to go down the coast a few kms to a campsite for the night since it was already 4 pm, and then tomorrow we are thinking of heading in to Marrakech, and spending a full day exploring there, before we head back to the coast to see friends.  So tonight we are camped in a little town called  Dar-Bouazza, which has nothing much except the camp site, and tomorrow we will head up to Marrakech.  



Rest of pics here :-   https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/0403MBToCasablanca?authkey=Gv1sRgCPbQpMHEs96SkgE