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Published: March 24th 2007
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Rock of Gibraltar
Careful of the apes! This clever little fella even managed to open the zip on my bag, before I noticed what he was up to! Hello at last from Morocco!!!
So, to fill you in on what's been happening since I left Ireland (if I can figure out how to work this arabic keyboard ... nightmare)
I left Ireland just over 2 weeks ago and flew to Marbella, Spain where I was to meet my 15 travelling buddies for the next 6 months. A great mix of ages and nationalities, yet everybody has similar interests and seem to get on surprisingly well. To give you an idea, the youngest is 19 and the oldest is ... well, to be polite I'll not mention his exact age, but he
is retired. As for nationalities, I'm the only Irish person, the others being from England, Wales, Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Canada.
Unfortunately we ended up spending almost a week in Spain, due to the late arrival of our transport (not a good start admittedly...). As nobody had planned or budgetted for this delay, it meant a quiet week counting the pennies. Apart from a few day trips, such as to Gibraltar, we could do little else except sit around the campsite, getting to know eachother, playing cards, and having a couple
The Truck
Packing up to leave Spain of beers.
At last, 6 days later, our truck arrived! Ooooh, the excitement! We were all swarming around the truck like 4 year olds, ooh-ing and aah-ing!
Everybody has been asking me to fill them in on the truck. Well, I'll include more photos with my next blog, but basically, the truck seats 20, so the 16 of us fit in comfortably. There's also a spacious area at the back, where you can go for a nap if you're tired, or a few of you can sit around and have a game of cards. The seats are standard coach seats, but are perfectly comfortable. And there is a fridge and a cooler on board, as well as a sound system so as anybody can connect up their mp3 player to entertain/annoy the rest of the truck. There's large lockers on the outside of the truck, shared between two, where rucksacks and tents are stored.
In terms of duties, each person has to participate and help out with the chores. This basically means cleaning the truck, cooking, washing up, and general truck 'security', i.e. keeping an eye on it when it's parked in public places etc. It's not
Chefchaouen
The casbah and the Rif mountains in the town of Chefchaouen - just dont ask me how to pronounce it! so bad really, and I have to say I've been pretty impressed at the standard of food so far. I thought I'd be eating stodge for 6 months! Theres generally a cooked breakfast, such as scrambled eggs or pancakes. Lunch is usually a local treat from a stall in whichever town you're in (mmmmm.....) and dinner so far has included such delights as beef tagine, vegetable stir fries, fish stew, spaghetti bolognese, fruit salads ... a good mixture of different dishes.
Ok, thats enough background information to keep you going for the moment. I'll move on to where we've actually been!
So, as I said, we set off from the south of Spain. We got the ferry the 22km from Algeciras to Ceuta, on the continent of Africa - but not quite Africa proper yet, as it's a Spanish enclave. Not much to see here, so we headed straight to the Moroccan border. The border guards here are heavily armed, with barbed wire tens of metres high to discourage illegal migration into what is essentially Europe. The stringency meant a 2 hours delay, not helped by the fact that one member of the group is cursed with an
L'escargo
Choose your own snails in the medina in Fes Israeli stamp on his passport. I'm sure this will be a problem again and again!
Once through the border, we set off for the city of Fes. The medina (market) in Fes was fascinating. It consists of almost 10,000 alleyways dating from the 9th century. All the alleyways are divided into sectors, each housing a different trade or craft from gold panel beating to shoemaking to embroidery, and of course the rows and rows of spices!Oh, there was also the biggest tannery I've every seen ... or smelt. God, the smell was awful! In fact it was so bad, that you were handed a sprig of mint to sniff while having a look around!
After a couple of days, we moved on from Fes and headed towards Rabat. Rabat itself is not the most exciting city in the world, being very modern, but it was a necessary stop to visit some embassies and sort out visas for Mali and Mauritania.
From Rabat, via a lunch stop in Casablanca (nothing to see there!), we pushed on to Marrakech, where I am now. We only arrived in Marrakech last night, where we went straight out to sample the atmostphere!
Fes Tannery
The dyeing pots in the tannery. Each dye is from 100% natural sources including violets, poppies and saffron. Before dying, each hide is steeped in a bath of pigeon faeces which apparently removes any remaining meat from the skin. Perhaps that partly explains the smell. The main square in the medina, Djemaa el-Faa, was chaotic! Wow, it really has to be seen! The square is full of rows and rows of food stalls and the smell is just amazing! So much choice and bustle. Each stall is grabbing at everybody trying to get them to choose their stand. And when you make your choice, the food really is good, and cheap too! Couscous, tagines, salads, sausages, fish, vegetables, kebabs, beans, breads, mint tea ... I could go on! Everything I've tasted so far has been delicous!
The area surrounding the food stalls is no calmer. Snake charmers jostle with performing monkeys for your attention. Henna tattooists try to grab your arms, market sellers whistle for your attention ... its crazy, but fun!
The only thing its missing is an Irish pub - as I've nowhere to watch Ireland beat Wales this afternoon ... well hopefully!
2 more nights in Marrakech and then we travel down to Mauritania and our first experience at 'bush camping'. Stay tuned .....
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Betty
non-member comment
Hi!
Great to hear from you, little one! Blog is great, love the pictures, keep the food stories and pictures coming! Oh yeah and nice ruins and stuff too xx