16 Sept – Sete, France to Meknes, Morocco (Via Chefchaouen and Fez) 11,485 km at Meknes
We boarded a ferry in Sète, France bound for Africa! The journey was supposed to take 36 hours but we arrived 4 hours late and by then the heat of the day was intense standing on the dockside trying to find information about getting an obscure stamp in our passports!
We were told that we should have been at a certain desk to see a certain official at a certain time during the ferry trip... didn’t we know that it had been announced? Why had we not presented ourselves at the desk at the correct time? Apart from the fact that the announcements were all in Arabic or very fast French, the tannoy was as difficult to hear as the DJ at a teenagers disco!!
We duly traipsed back onto the boat, eventually found the official and waited for an age for him to find the correct stamp... then we had to get the lorry though customs. We drove into a big shed and were both mobbed by people saying that they could get us through for a few Euros. Finally all the papers were completed and we were on our way... or so we thought! The signage was very clear for the first section of the city and then the signs just dried up so we took a guess which, of course, was wrong! We did see a lot more of the immediate countryside then we should have which included a few rough tracks but eventually we found the right road and were very happy to arrive at Chefchaouen campsite (GPS 35,10,50 N:05,16,00 W Camping Municipal Azilan).
Chefchaouen was founded in 1471 as a base for Berber tribes attacking the invading Portuguese and is a delightful town, set on the edge of the Rif Mountains. It is famously known as the ‘blue city’. The whole town is painted bright chalky blue colours of varying shades contrasted with crisp whitewash. The blue is said to ward off the evil eye but was only introduced to the town in the 1930s by Jewish refugees. We only intended to stay one day in the town but it was so lovely that we ended up extending by a night and enjoyed long coffees watching the world go by and acclimatizing to our surroundings.
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Views of Chefchaouen - the 'blue city'.Click on an image to enlarge |
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The day before we left France we had run out of gas in one of our two 15 kg blue butaine bottles and we had intended to swap this in France for a new one anyway but getting to the ferry took longer than expected so it didn’t happen. We decided as we’d seen thousands of bottles along the way that it wouldn’t be difficult exchange in Morocco and it was so now we have a really dodgy gas bottle on the back as a spare! It was really weird that we ran out the day before we expected to change it... spooky!
Heading to Meknes we wanted to stop at the Roman ruins at Volubilis. We arrived very late in the afternoon and found the site practically deserted which meant we could scamper round taking photos without people in the background. There are many very well preserved mosaics still in situ and some buildings have been reconstructed. It was declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1997 but interestingly it has not been over developed and over run by coach parties. The site was built around 40 AD and evidence shows that they embarked on mass deforestation the area to produce large scale crops of wheat – one assumes to feed the 20,000 people living at the city. The site was reclaimed by local Berber tribes and inhabited until the early 18th century when the marble was plundered for palaces in Meknes.
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Volubilis Roman Ruins near Meknes - Click on an image to enlarge |
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We moved on to Meknes and had real trouble finding the campsite, ending up asking a guy who stopped to admire the Mog and he lead us the 2 or 3 kms we were out by! The night we arrived there was a massive gathering over the wall from us and also down the road a bit so it was REALLY noisy and the singers clashed dramatically! We did wonder what was going on but assumed that it was part of Ramadan as there are several festival days during the month that Muslims fast. The following morning, slightly sleepy we set off in a petty taxi (a taxi that is only allowed to operate within the city limits) for the grand taxi stand (grand taxis are allowed to travel all over Morocco and frequently cover long distances). We piled into the grand taxi with three people sitting in the front and two others with us in the back! Still... it only cost 20 Dirhams each (about £1.40) for over an hour’s drive to Fez!
Fez was hectic and everything we expected it to be with the exception that we weren’t hassled to buy stuff. Everyone we told we were going to Fez said that we would be bombarded with people offering to show us amazing carpets, shoes or jewellery but all that happened was that when we walked past people’s shops they asked politely if we would like to look round and if we said no then they left us alone. We did have a bad experience in Fez though... and it was nothing to do with carpets!
We went into the bank to change some Euros into Dirhams and were directed to an ATM which provides this service. I managed to change the first €50 with no problem and perhaps it was this false sense of security that made me then try €100! The machine swallowed the money and then told me that I hadn’t put any in! We went into the bank and were told to wait. After about 15 minutes I was totally bored and asked the man what was happening. He told us that we would have to wait an hour or two until the ‘mechanic’ arrived. We wondered out and went for lunch returning over an hour later and were told that we still had to wait and could we show him our passports. I asked why he needed our passports to which he replied that we had to show them to get our money back. Now, we’d decided that morning that we were going to leave all our documents in the Mog so that the pickpockets would have slimmer pickings. I explained to the man the our ID was in Meknes and he told me to go and get it!! There was no way I was going to take a taxi to Meknes and back to Fez for 2 ½ hours just to show him who I am to get my money back that his machine stole! I told him so and he wasn’t impressed!! Eventually we just stood at the counter and blocked the way for everyone else and hassled the man until he caved in and reluctantly gave us our money. We then spent a nice afternoon getting totally lost in the souq!
We eventually found the tannery which is said to be the oldest in the world. We’d found our way through the maze of streets and up into the rafters of a shop to get a bird’s eye view of the pools of urine, bird droppings and various spices or herbs to provide the colours. I must admit to being a little disappointed once we arrived as I’d been looking forward to seeing this for ages. The colours were not as vivid and it was a lot smaller than I’d expected... still it was an impressive sight, if not smell! We had our only hard sell of the day when we were asked if we wanted to buy some heavy leather jackets – we said that we were travelling south into the heat and the man then decided that they were actually rather cooling to wear!! Suffice to say we left without making a purchase.
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The souq and tannery in Fez were full of interesting characters!Click on an image to enlarge |
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We moved on towards the High Atlas the next morning.