Blogs from Meknès-Tafilalet, Morocco, Africa - page 7

An diesem Tag habe ich mir in Meknes auf eigene Faust ein Museum, den großen Platz, ein Mausoleum, alte Gefängnisse und dann doch mit einem inoffiziellem Guide ein bisschen die Medina und ein Geschäft angesehen.... read more

An diesem Tag wurde ich in Fes wieder zum Bahnhof gebracht und bin nach Meknes gefahren. Auch dort hatte ich wieder ein schönes marokkanisches Gasthaus also eine Riad. An diesem Tag habe ich nicht mehr viel gemacht. Wenn ich mich recht erinnere habe ich mich in Meknes mal einen halben Tag nicht so gut gefühlt aber das verging wieder und hat sich kaum wiederholt.... read more

Well last night the worst thing happened, it rained! In a country that's mostly dessert you hope to evade such weather, though it was only for an hour in the night, then it was gone. In the morning we packed up and headed for the cedar forest south of Ifrane. The route down was quite easy, so we stopped at a nice, clean town called Imozzér-el-Kandar for supplies. So while Dave watched the trucks the rest of us took a wonder over to a kiosk to get some water. This kiosk was also a photocopy shop, and the guy in front of me had decided he needed to copy the entire edition of The Divinci code, or something of similiar size. But I did the british thing, I stood patiently for my turn in the queue, ... read more

The Hotel Taddart in Midelt was perfectly comfortable, it was just rather soulless. It had barely opened and thus had a rather odd ambience about it. An overly large and wannabe grand reception area, adorned with Morocco’s best weaves draped on the floors, was deserted and ornately carved alabaster aside it had the feel of the Overlook (Overreach?) hotel – or whatever the hotel is called in The Shining. It was standard almost formulaic 4* fare and it could have easily been in the Algarve, apart from costing a third as much. But we weren’t complaining it seemed absolute luxury just to be out of the southern heat. The Sahara was fantastic but it was heavy going and riding at any time of the day after 10 am borderline unbearable. And we weren’t even quite yet ... read more

We decided to ride straight from Fes to the Sahara dunes because the map showed little of interest for a stopover, a fact reinforced by the shabby settlements we were to later pass en route. As Vince would say decidedly “one-horse”. We figured we could always duck out at Midelt or Er-Rachidia if we were just too fatigued. It would have been a long day’s ride on European roads with European standards of driving – the Morocco factor doubling the effort required. Unusually we decided to take heed from the folly of our previous departure at midday and determined to set off early to get as much riding as possible before the heat of the day started proper. Panniers packed from the night before and arising at 6 am had us under way before 7. It ... read more