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Africa » Morocco » Fès-Boulemane » Fes
February 7th 2012
Published: February 7th 2012
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To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive - (Robert Louis Stevenson)

The real challenge of travel begins today because, after all, travel in French means adventure. We are hiring a car, heading south through the Middle Atlas Mountains and then onto the Sahara Desert. Right now The Sahara seems faraway and exotic.

Firstly though, a greater challenge: the Moroccan Post. We walk in the front door and are immediately escorted to the back. The gentleman were incredibly official and speak perfect French (which was not to our advantage). Kathy is mailing some excess baggage so to speak. The package is weighed, scribbled on, searched, written about, spoken about and finally paid for.

We have booked a car on the internet this morning over breakfast, we were told it was important to do this before we left Australia but that would take all the fun out of it. Caught a petit Taxi downtown and were unceremoniously dumped at Hotel Sofia (it looks a bit like Europcar office). The doorman escorts us to the (actual) office a few blocks away.

The car, it appears, is at the Airport 10 kms away, but Yusuf says ‘no problem’ of course and arranges for the car to be brought downtown. However, the GPS is at the Airport anyway. Yusuf tells us to follow him in his car and he will take us there. Well! Keeping up with Yusuf through the streets of Fes is a good way of easing yourself into driving in Morocco. WOW! The only thing worse than three lanes of traffic (the roundabouts, Grand Taxis driving at you, horns bleating, the gearstick is on your right, God knows where the blinkers are, and I think someone has stolen the rear vision mirror) is not running over a local – and they are everywhere. We are obviously alive to tell the tale.

Driving south, we ascend the mountains. First stop Ifrane, one of those French built mountain retreats for the rich. There is a University here and Ski Resorts. A lovely town but not quite ‘Morocco’. Ate some pizza for lunch in a cafe and continued on to Azrou. Did a lap of the main and drove on up the mountains. About 10 kms on we hit the snow and funnily enough (as Natarsha is quoting out of the lonely planet how ‘scarce’ they are) THEY.... appear in the snow clad pine forests: Barbery Monkees. Many photographs are taken and the sun is sinking. We decide to drive back to Azrou as it is a couple of hours to the next town.

We lodge in a once flash Hotel, the “Panaroma”. Walk the streets with the usual leers and retire to our adequate lodgings, where we have pre dinner drinks beside a log fire and eat at the hotel restaurant.

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7th February 2012

Top Gear Morroco
Sounds like you are having agreat adventure tarsha has a great way with words ,i can,t wait for the movie to come out .On the home front all,s well had about 60 mm when you left another 40 expected on the 10th.seeya.
8th February 2012

George
Sounds wet! Terry will be busy. We are presently rugged up and wondering just how cold it will be sleeping in a tent in the desert tomorrow night. How is neighbourbourhood watch? Was header transplant successful?

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