MOROCCO BOUND

A Solo Motorcycle Journey to North Africa

16 Sept 2002 (Monday)

Hotel Sharma, Chefchaouen, Morocco

Using the term “hotel” about as loosely as you can, I am paying 80 Dirham ($8) for my room, which is roughly twice what it is worth. I was lured in by the promise of a 30 Dirham room, but once inside, this was all they had left. I should have expected that. Allow me to try to describe the accommodations. Four tan walls, graffiti’d in a psychedelic décor by eons of backpacking hippies. A bed cobbled out of boards, with a straw mattress. Sheets of indeterminate vintage. Two end tables of dubious origin, and a bare light bulb hanging by a wire from the ceiling. It has a window opening out onto the alley below, but no glass, frame, or shutters. I can literally see through the gaps in the boards that make up the door, and look down the third floor hallway outside. Believe it or not, this is upscale!

(This is the view from my room, looking left and right down the alleyway.)

On the positive side, the Hotel Sharma has a covered patio out front where my bike is secure. It has a real “sit-down” porcelain toilet in a 4^th floor closet, even if you do have to carry your own bucket of water to flush it. There is a bakery across the alley from me that is producing the most wonderful smells, and I’ve spent the last hour just laying here listening to the children in an apartment down the alley singing their lessons with their teacher. Their voices are echoing up the alley, and they are so funny. The teacher sings the lesson, and then the children all sing their response. But there seems to be one little kid with a very powerful voice always blows everyone away for the last 3 or 4 words! When they finished, they spilled out into the alley to play beneath my window. Wish I knew which one had the Voice! I have also watched a half a dozen or so backpackers wending their way past my hotel (way too expensive at $8), and down the blue back alley to the Hotel Goa ($2 to $3). I sure am glad that I’m not on a budget, and very glad to not be walking.

My short sojourn to Morocco is about over. Tomorrow I catch the ferry back to Algeciras, Spain. I think I will depart from Cueta, the Spanish enclave in Africa, since it is only 100 km north of here. I chose to spend my last night in Chefchaouen because it is high in the mountains (very cool temps) and because it has one of its two weekly open markets today (Monday). Believe me, it was worth the trip. The Chefchaouen market is a very traditional market where all the Berbers come out of the hills to do their selling and shopping. It is hard to describe, but clean is not one of the words I would choose to use. Loud, crowded, chaotic, overpoweringly aromatic, and almost overwhelming to the senses. But it was real Morocco and not a tourist trap with posed and orchestrated snake charmers and water sellers.

I am ready to head back home though. I can’t take much more Morocco right now. The heat, the horrible roads, the traffic, the…. the way that Africa can overwhelm you. Morocco is ten times better/easier to travel in than Egypt, but it is still hard on the traveler. I am ready for the relaxed cleanliness and luxury of Europe. That campground in Tarifa will literally be an oasis of luxury tomorrow night. And it will be wonderful to be able to use a non-Arabic keyboard at the Internet café in Tarifa. Even though I found an Internet café in Morocco, it ended up as an act of frustration. I can get around a European keyboard fairly well, but with an Arabic keyboard, all the vowels are changed, and most of the punctuation as well. Combine that with each key representing 3 or 4 letters, and having to use Ctrl, Alt, Shift, and Gr to change between them. It took me 20 minutes to send one short email to my wife today from Ouarzazate, just to let her know I was alive. But I shouldn’t complain, I found an Internet café on the far side of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. Let’s hear it for progress!

Other notes from the road today.

I was surprised when I crested the Col du Zad (2178m) on the way north from Midelt. Normally, when you crest a pass, the road goes down from there. Not this time. The road stayed on this high alpine-like plain for almost the next 80 km. Along that same section of road, I passed between the highest trees I had seen in all of Morocco. They looked like the type of tree that is on the Lebanese flag, but I had never seen one like it in real life. I believe they were massive cedars. Immensely thick and with alternating levels of branches that were almost shelf-like, they were fascinating and quite unexpected. Then a few miles later there appeared to be a forest of them! I couldn’t really read the sign, but it did appear to be a protected forest area much like in Europe or the USA. Yet another side of Morocco that I had not expected to find. The simple idea of a national forest in Morocco brought a smile to my face. I was learning so many new things on this trip.

Last night, while reading the “Let’s Go” guide to Spain, Portugal and Morocco, I read a passage about the Roman ruins at Volubilis. I’ll quote directly from it,

“When US General George C. Patton visited the ruins (during World War II), he declined the offer of a guided tour – he believed he had been stationed here as a Roman Centurion in his previous life, and accordingly, knew his way around. If you have been equally as lucky, stop reading here.”

I had thought about visiting Volubilis, but had decided to pass. However, it would almost seem as though I had been stationed there too because I seemed to find it without trying. As I wound my way thru Meknes, which is a very large city, and then northward towards Chefchaouen, the roads seemed to simply follow an inevitable route. I saw no signs. No directions. Nothing that would lead me that way. But as I rounded a corner in the fertile rolling plains of northern Morocco, there it was. Today Volubilis is a UNESCO world heritage site. It is a wonderfully preserved Roman city that contains what are described as the finest Roman mosaics outside of Italy. But when you go, you might like to use that guide……

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