Day 18 - Chefchaouen

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It is another glorious day in Fes and our taxi turns up bang on time. Coinstance has got me addicted to an app called Hayday. Overnight we had some kind of power failure/surge which fried our charger, as result I can’t get in to Hayday and I’m very concerned about my cows which are probably ready to be milked. Also I’ve been running a side business arbitraging some of my friend’s farms and selling their produce via Tor. Becs is insistent that we shouldn’t keep the taxi waiting so I have to leave my cows.



The taxi driver doesn’t speak any English so he has his own itinerary worked out for us. He takes us up to Borj Sud (you guessed it), the palace, the tannery and a pottery place. The last two are of course scams to get us to buy stuff which we do. The tannery is certainly worth a visit though. I think it is the oldest tannery in the world. These poor blokes wade around in big vats of “stuff” cleaning and dying the hides. Our guide tells us that the dyes are all “organic” which I'm sure is true as I can't imagine the Morocans springing for any expensive chemicals. At the pottery works we see a guy make a tagine (lid and base) in 10 seconds. It is truly amazing. To reward him for his skill there is a carton of pottery somewhere between Fes and Australia.



Back at the Medina we spend an hour wandering around trying to find a French place for lunch. We ask and get various directions including a hands on tour which leads us to a restaurant which bears no resemblance to what we are after. People keep yelling out “It’s closed”. Finally we ask a lady in a clothing shop and she tells us that it is actually closed and shows us the locked door as proof. By this stage we are famished so for a change we go to Café Clock. After lunch we head back to the Riad to check on the cows.



Tonight we decide to have dinner at the “elegant” Hotel Palais. This is the beauty of having royalty. You can legitimately throw around Royal and Palais whenever you want (eg Royal AIr Maroc) which gives any establishment or airline a sense of elegance. It is fair to say that the restaurant is somewhat elegant, however I'm concerned they gave half our rose to the table next door. The taxi driver told us that the King has 54 palaces in Morocco and an airline. In fact in Fes he has two. I can only imagine how expensive his satellite TV subscription might be unless there is Royal Maroc Satellite TV which is a distinct possibility.

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