Blogs from Morocco, Africa - page 196

Continuous steep, high walls make this gorge at the foot of the Atlas Mountains a very impressive place. I could hardly guess my bike would take me this far the first time I glanced at pictures of Todra Gorge in a climbing magazine. Getting to the gorge in the dark early evening I couldn't really check around for the most convenient available accommodation but Etoile des Gorges soon turned out to be the best choice: friendly staff, great food and good location. I felt at home the nine days I stayed there. The climbing is great and very diverse. Although I socialized with people in the evenings, I mostly climbed on my own; the first day on routes with very sharp small holds (which is fine by me if they're not steep!) and then several days ... read more

How busy and lively is Marrakech! The new part of the city has well planed streets, gardens and monumental buildings. In the old medina the traffic is as chaotic as it gets with locals and tourists negotiating narrow roads with bicycles, cars, scooters sounding their horns at all times plus stalls, street vendors and snake charmers competing to draw people's attention! In the evenings the air in the main square is filled with steam and all sorts of frying and cooking smells as the food stalls get really busy. I saw a man washing dishes in a barrel the first night and promised myself I would not eat there, but I did not resist the tempting smell of fried squids and aubergines the second night. The food was delicious! I wondered on my own for a ... read more

Founded as a imperial capital in 800 AD, Fes's primary attraction is its ancient medina, a walled city with a millenium of history that's famous for it's rug and antiquities merchants, leather and other handicraft workshops, and a thousand-year old Islamic university that is still in operation, a point of pride that will be mentioned to you by all the Fassis you meet. The Fes medina is also notorious for swallowing tourists alive in its labrynthine depths, and during a couple of days of exploration we certainly got lost our own share of the time. (Recognizing this, the official map issued by the tourist authorities in Fes now outlines color-coded walking routes, a Disneyesque touch that produces clots of tourists craning their necks to identify the similarly-colored emblems marking important intersections.) Having arrived by bus on ... read more

An interesting village on the coast boasting a well preserved medina and showing some conspicuos Portuguese heritage, Essaouira is a bit of a relief for travellers coming from wilder Moroccan territories. To me, having survived an accident on the road travelling here from Rabat, Essaouira is not much more than a stop towards the desert. I walk the streets and observe. Unimpressed. Still harassed by haxixe dealers, I try to forget the car that crossed the road in front of my bike without warning. I look for good images. I search for bread that hasn't been touched by everybody who comes into the shop. I try to enjoy the food, to ignore the discomfort in the campsite, to deal with the communication difficulties when I have to compete for attention at small shops and ask for ... read more

Starting to Explore Morocco As most people do, I took the ferry from Algeciras to Tangiers. After inquiring about times and prices I thought it was worth it paying a bit more for the fast boat, cutting the trip short from two and a half hours to one hour. Little did I know that the boat would be over an hour late and the trip would take two and a half hours anyway, most of that time spent balancing on a shaking hall, queueing up with other two hundred people to have my passport stamped. 'At least I won't have to queue up again' - I tried to make myself feel better. The immigration and customs in Tangiers is the worst imaginable caotic scene I could ever think of. Once more I had to queue up ... read more