Spain/Morocco 2014

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March 12th 2014

Published: March 12th 2014

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Jackievick

Meknes

Palace stables

Week 2 (continued)

Next stop – wild camping near Volubilis. We pulled into an area of woodland where we stayed the night. The local villagers passed through day and night with herds of cattle and sheep and two shepherds acted as our 'guardians' for the night. We cooked baked potatoes on an open fire and enjoyed a few drinks together.

The following morning we visited Volubilis – it was strange to find the remains of a Roman town in the Moroccan countryside!

From there we moved on to Meknes, our largest town so far, where we took a tour around the sights on a horse drawn carriage with some of our fellow campers. It was 32 degrees, the hottest day so far, but thankfully it was quite shaded in the souk.

Our next destination was Fes which proved to be quite a revelation. The campsite was an improvement on the previous two as there was plenty of hot water for showers and washing. A group of us booked a guided tour of the city which included a visit to the gates of the royal palace (unfortunately we weren't allowed inside.) We were then taken to a fortress

Meknes

Malcolm and Linda in Cinderella's carriage

which overlooked the city, which provided good photo opportunities, then a visit to the souk where there were lots of interesting food items on sale including bags of snails for making soup. The real gem was the medina which is the oldest part of the city where thousands of families live in houses that face onto a labyrinth of 13000 narrow alleyways, half of which are dead ends with no addresses. They were lined with small shops which spilled out into the alleys making a very hectic shopping experience. It is just as well we had a guide with us because we would have been lost in no time. Our tour also included a visit to a women's carpet co-operative where we were given the hard sell which was not a very pleasant experience – however we all managed to resist. The pottery we visited was fascinating - we saw workers making pieces for mosaic table tops, cutting each piece by hand as well as traditional potters working at wheels. The last stop was the tannery where they were using natural dyes to colour leather. The white coloured vats were used for scraping the skins before they went into the

Wild camping

dyes. It didn't smell pleasant but it was nowhere near as bad as we expected. Apparently it's unbearable in the summer.

It was like taking a step back in time and we certainly saw the traditional side of Morocco. The only thing that's changed is the mobile phone shop but even they had a lamb carcass hanging up in the corner! It's hard to believe we've only been here for one week so far!

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