Morocco- Moulay Bousselham, Chefchaouen and Tetouan

Before heading to the campsite at Moulay Bousselham we headed 30 kilometres north on the motorway to Larache. We went to Lixus, another site of significant Roman ruins in Morocco, which we found after some circling of the area (ambiguous and poor signage). It is free to access but has onsite 'security' (two guys one with a jacket with security on it). Ok, well maybe that is a good thing right? We were pointed in the direction of a path we should take which leads up from the fish salting plant to the amphitheatre, then up to the top of the hill. There is beautiful scenery- the site looks out onto a lagoon and Larache.

Unfortunately for some reason which will forever remain a mystery to us one of the guards kept watch on us the entire time. He generally kept his distance but it still made us feel quite self conscious. The problem started when we had walked from one end of the site to the other. 

The guard started to point where we should go, which annoyed me and I planned to walk back through the site so I ignored him. However half way back he got insistent but i stood my ground and managed to get back to the amphitheatre. However after a minute or two there the 'guard' got very unhappy and I (Dale) ended up in an argument with him. With him insisting for some reason we must walk back over the hill and down the other side, while I'm insisting I want to walk back the way we came in via the fish salting vats (neither of us speaking a word of the same language). We had just given in when his colleague arrived (he was tailing the other foreign couple on the site, for some reason Moroccans were left on their own) they discussed the crazy tourist (me) and suddenly we were allowed to go where I wanted. We were pretty much fed up and left as fast as possible at this point. I guess they have a job to look after the site or something, but it was thoroughly annoying as at Volubilis they leave you be and it actually has stuff of value and their only protection is a rope. There is nothing but stones and weeds here, and unless we arrived with a spray can and shovel in hand we were unlikely to do any damage.

I later read in the guidebook that about 15 years ago the site guardian's son dug up a mosaic in order to sell it. There is also Moroccan patch up work to put some of the stones back together which does not look like authentic Roman building work (more typically slapdash Moroccan style). You know how sometimes in the West reconstruction is done so it stands out from the original, here you could just tell cause it was crap. The guards presence really baffled us and actually made it a rather disappointing experience. We have had a couple of instances in the north like this and has made us think that the people in the south are much friendlier.

We enjoyed some down time at Moulay Bousselham and the weather was pretty good. An English couple whom we met here at the start of our trip turned up the night before we left so it was really nice to catch up with them and hear about their trip.

Next stop was Chefchaouen in the Rif mountains. Again there were positives and negatives. The positives were that the town is extremely picturesque with it's white and blue houses and the surrounding countryside. Just superb. The negatives for us were the people. The service staff (campsite and restaurants) were unfriendly and you were badgered by touts that wouldn't take no for an answer. As it is squarely on the tourist trail they seemed to be exploiting the tourism there to the max. The campsite was expensive by Moroccan standards given there was no hot water. We went to a couple of restaurants both of which had poor food and very rude service. The touts in the main square were also ludicrous. One approached us 5 times in the space of about 30 minutes. After being here nearly 3 months, we really struggled to just say 'no, thank you' and we let them hear our anger a couple of times. I (Dale) would say they could do with bucking up their ideas a bit as being a somewhat attractive town (just okay by European standards) may not be enough to keep the tourists coming. We for example would not return for a second visit next time and would follow the motorway south.

We did meet up with our friend Gabrielle again which was great. We enjoyed a day walking around the town with her and shared a grand taxi up to one of the doors at the entrance of the town. She also got henna done on her leg and hand which was fun to see.

In the Grand Taxi

We were planning on staying three nights there, but gave it two before moving on. We just couldn't face another day of touts annoying us basically.

Oops and I forgot another negative. The Rif mountains is where they produce a large quantity of the world's marijuana. So as you can imagine, a lot of people are trying to sell it to you. I was going to list reasons for not buying it here, but instead I will just say that it would be a stupid thing to do!

So we headed to Tetouan which was only 1.5 hours north on our route to the Tanger Med port where we will catch the ferry in a couple of day time. To be honest Tetouan, didn't offer anything particularly special for us- there is a medina (which is UNESCO) and souks, a nice Spanish church and a pedestrianised street named after a previous King Mohammed V. There is a convenient car park in the city for 20 dirhams (1.80 euro) for 24 hours, which is a little difficult to get into as the markets seem to spill out onto the access roads. Again we were accosted by touts here spouting the usual lines 'what are you looking for?', 'where are you from?', 'I am on my way home, I will show you the way' and our favourite 'there is a Berber market on today, it only happens once a month'. 

The Royal Palace

The Spanish Church

After Chefchaouen, we really just wanted to be left alone to explore for ourselves. One tout approached our van in the car park even claiming he worked at the car park. He said he finishes work soon and would be going to the Berber market to buy gifts for his 3 sons, if we wanted to join him. When he came back to the van about 10 minutes later I asked him if he had finished work. He said he had, so I replied that we wouldn't want to hold him up as he had earlier advised us that the market would be closing soon. The offended and annoyed look on his face said it all as he sulked off. It has gotten to the point here in the north that we can't trust anyone, whilst in south we found people much friendlier.

From Tetouan we headed to the coast, which is full of Spanish style resorts. We are chilling here for 2 nights and working on our plans for Spain, Portugal and France before we get on the ferry tomorrow. We have loved Morocco- we have had fantastic weather, seen some nice sights and managed to stay here for an average of 23 euros a day (for both of us and including our return ferry from Spain).

One last story, we are chilling in a deserted car park and today we have observed a handover of some sort of shall we say 'smuggled product'. A car turned up, there has been a handful come and go but then another car turned up and parked right beside and now between the two cars there were about 7 young men. After a while I noticed they were taking a lot of interest in the first cars engine bay. A couple of bits of cardboard and perhaps tape were cast aside and suddenly shrink wrapped parcels about 2 Litres in size were being extracted from cavities in the engine bay and transferred to the boot of the second car. Once they had thoroughly checked that they had got everything both cars left, the one now carrying the parcels being bump started across the car park.

Au revoir Morocco!

Morocco- Rabat

It was a beautifully sunny day so we headed just south of Rabat to the Rabat Zoo.  It is the only zoo in Morocco and has recently moved to new premises.  Arriving just after 3pm we purchased tickets for 40 dirhams (3.50 euro) each and stayed until closing time.

Some highlights of the zoo were the chimpanzee and lions which we were able to see close up behind the glass.  We managed to see a Bald Ibis which we had yet to see in the wild here and also a huge flock of flamingoes.  I almost wondered why we have bothered to creep up on them at the lagoons as they were so easy to photograph here.  Another highlight was seeing the vultures feeding.

We had a car park in Rabat in mind which we had seen on the internet but when we arrived they said they didn't allow motorhomes.  So we continued on to the Plage des Nations, a beach north of Rabat which had guarded parking according to our camping book.  This unfortunately meant a drive through Rabat and it had already got dark.  We arrived and a guardian came out and took 30 dirhams for the night.

We decided we would use the bus from here to get into Rabat.  The next morning we talked to the parking attendant and after using Google translate we worked out that it was fine to stay and we could pay the night guardian again that night.  We were parked next to a hotel and a manager there actually drove us up to the main road (2km away) and toward Rabat, cutting our journey in half.  We waited for bus 28 and paid 4 dirhams each (35 euro cents) and got off near the Hassan tower.

We started our sightseeing at the 12th century Hassan tower.  There are stone posts in the courtyard there to mark out a mosque which was destroyed in the 1755 Lisbon earthquake.  There is also the Mohammed V mausoleum, which has the bodies of the present King's father Hassan II, and Hassan II's brother Moulay Abdellah.  Construction finished in 1971 and it was built for their father Mohammed V (current King's Grandfather).  It is open to all and even photos are allowed.  It is stunning inside and a real masterpiece of Moroccan architecture.

The guards at the entrance to the Hassan tower complex

The Hassan tower

Mohammed V Mausoleum

The ceiling of the Mohammed V Mausoleum

Inside the Mausoleum

We continuing walking through the new town to the ruins of Chellah, via a lunch stop on the way.  They are 14th century ruins from the Merenid dynasty and were built on the site of a previous Roman colony.  There is also the remains of a minaret and mosque.  There were many stork nests on these and it is very picturesque and peaceful.  Looking at the surrounding countryside and farms you would hardly know you are on the edge of a big city.

We finished the day at the National Archeology museum.  There were several interesting finds here from the wider Rabat area and also the Roman sites of Volubilis and Lixus.  Unfortunately the bronze statues from Volubilis were not on display as they are at a temporary exhibition in Marseille- so that was a shame.  The man working there kindly pointed out items of interest and told us more about them.  He insisted we take photos, even taking one of us, though photos are not allowed to be taken in the museum.

We made our way to Hassan II Boulevard where we hoped to be able to catch the bus from and found a stop.  The bus got more and more congested as we went along, and 30 minutes later when we got off most people that we had started the journey with were still on it.  This made it extremely difficult to get to the exit and harder still to look out and make sure we had the right stop.  On board there is also a woman who sits on the bus, takes the money and issues the tickets.  Another example in Morocco where machines haven't replaced a persons job.

The next part of the story is going to take some explaining.  We arrived back to the hotel and spoke with the parking attendant.  It was the same one as the night before.  We tried to pay him 30 dirhams, but he said to pay when we leave so that's cool.  We get to the van and I'm about to get in after Dale, when a man approaches.  I can't understand a word he is saying and I think he is probably selling something.  I said ' no thank you' and tried to close the door.  He then held onto the door.  He was extremely aggressive and I told him to back off.  We finally understood that he was trying to tell us that he was the guardian.  We told him sternly to come to the hotel with us as we wanted to talk to the hotel guardian about this.  The hotel guardian confirmed this man was the guardian!  This guy seemed to have got his nose out of joint as I had tried to shut the door on him, and said "you don't pay, problem.  You do pay, it's ok".  Well of course we had no problem paying, but when you approach us like a nut job, you aren't going to get a good response.  We said fine and then handed over a pen and paper for him to write a price.  He writes two 00s and then adds an 8!  Well even if he was trying to scam us, no one would ever pay 800 dirhams (about 70 euros) to stay the night.  He seemed to have a take it or leave it approach, so we said we will go.  It wasn't just the fact of the money anymore, but the fact that this guy was obviously crazy and a risk to himself, let alone us.  To leave we had to drive past the hotel and the hotel guardian tried to get us to stay but we simply said 'problem, danger' and pointed in the direction of where we had been parked.  The crazy man then came up, gave the back of our van a smack with his hand (man I hate it when people touch the van) and yelled at us to leave.  We drove away listening to the two guardians having an argument and then the crazy man walked up the road the same way we were going.

So disappointingly this left us to drive to another spot in the dark, on a main road which was badly lit.  I knew that you could get the train to Rabat from Kenitra which was half an hour north.  So we headed there and found a cheap campsite called Complexe de la Chenaie.  42 dirhams a night without electric and a 2km walk to either train station in Kenitra (there are 2).  The train is 15 dirhams each way per person and the trains are European standard.  So for anyone with a motorhome wanting to visit Rabat or Casablanca for that matter, we think this currently is the way to go!  Avoid Plage des Nations as while it is closer to Rabat, it is still a crowded bus journey away.  We had finished late at the zoo the day before and didn't want to drive too far which is why we chose it, but in hindsight we would have been far better off in Kenitra.

So for our final day in Rabat we had a pleasant train journey and got off at the Rabat ville station.  We headed to the souks first, walking through to the other side to the Kasbah des Oudaias.  This is a walled area, the residents living in blue and white houses and has a nice view out to Sale (the town across the estuary).  That is when the view point is open of course!  We had to make do by walking along the beach and climbing up the rocks.  This seemed to be a popular area for young lovers!  It was sweet, when affection of that sort is not really something to be shown in public here, and pre marital sex and homosexuality are both illegal here.

The Kasbah gate

The oldest Mosque in Rabat

There are some nice gardens in the kasbah as well, unfortunately there are some very persistant women offering henna.  At one stage I found myself tag teamed on both sides and they nearly touched my hands.
We had enjoyed our time in Rabat, actually spending a lot of time in the new town area and enjoyed the wide pavements and easily negotiated streets.  There are good attractions here, no hassle and few touts.  I actually found that we didn't stand out too much either as there is a cultural mix of people in the city.

The next day was cloudy and we stayed another night in Kenitra while the campsite was cheap and we were buggered from our big days in Rabat.  The days highlights were finding delicious pastries for 1 dirham each in the souk, and catching up on editing of our photos.

The next day we headed north to Moulay Bousselham, which had been our first overnight stop in Morocco 80 days ago.

Morocco- Meknes and Volubilis

Our next stop was Meknes, an hour on the motorway from Fes.  We topped up with supplies at the Marjane supermarket then made our way into town.  It was reasonably easy to make it to the central city car parking, which was located near the main square and only 30 dirhams per night.  There were several vans around during our 2 night stay and the 3 Spanish ones from Fes also joined us.

Meknes is a pleasant city and we enjoyed our two days of sightseeing.  We spent some time in the main square (Place el Hedim) which actually had a tourist information booth (first one of any use so far in Morocco) and a nice museum called the Dar Jamai.  The Dai Jamai museum was located in a 19th century palace and had on display Meknes embroidery, a horse saddle (used in a traditional gunpowder race) and Middle Atlas carpets.  Also of note from the main square is the Bab Mansour gate and the souks, which we found 3 more mats to go in the van (will lay them down when we sell) at 20 dirhams each and delicious sugar donuts at 1.5 dirhams (15 euro cents) each- bargain!  We also picked up strawberries at 4 dirhams a punnet (about 35 euro cents)- I'm going to miss Moroccan prices!

Bab Mansour gate

Dai Jamai Museum

Place El Hedim

We also spent an afternoon walking along the walls of the Royal Palace to the Agdal basin- a stone lined reservoir and also stopped at the Moulay Ismail mausoleum (next to the beautiful Moulay Ismail gate).  Being non muslims we felt privilaged to be able to see the resting place of Moulay Ismail.  We walked through several courtyards and then took our shoes off to enter the mausoleum.

The Agdal Basin

The Moulay Ismail gate

The Moulay Ismail Mausoleum

The Moulay Ismail gate on the left and the Mausoleum on the right

We had not seen vegetables for sale (we had been looking in the wrong place) and the parking attendant pointed us in the direction of the Berber vegetable market which is the cheapest in town.  For about 1.50 euros I had 3kg of fresh vegetables.

The seller from whom we bought vegetables

The vegetable souk

Delicious donuts- Dale's favourite

From Meknes we headed half an hour north to the Roman ruins of Volubilis.  They are the most spectacular and substantial Roman ruins in Morocco.  We spent about 2.5 hours here with guidebook notes in hand looking at mosiacs, columns and gates.  The Romans arrived in 1st century AD and most of the remains date from 2nd and 3rd century AD.  The town continued to be inhabited by 20,000 local people after the Romans left.  Various stones were taken from the site for building work in Meknes.  There is a 'free parking' sign near the entrance and so when a guardian in high vis tapped on the window for his money we pointed to the sign and said no.  Perhaps I would feel guilty about this if I had only arrived in Morocco, but after being in several of these situations with greedy attendants we didn't linger on it.  Who knows what the story is there, but they have a free parking sign so I don't think someone can man the carpark and expect money every time.

That night we stayed at Camping Belle Vue nearby.  A pleasant enough site, but lack of hot water (showers going from freezing to a bearable temperature of cold) meant the price of 90 dirhams seemed a bit steep.  The owner/manager however was extremely friendly.  We had seen a organised convey of 11 Italian motorhomes at Volubilis and they arrived at the site later.  Each of their vans was numbered on the back, and they even parked in order in the Volubilis carpark!

We got on the motorway the next day to drive the two hours to Morocco's capital, Rabat.