[The Big Move] Summer in Review "Part 1 - Lyon to Morocco"
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Steven Larsen
Sep 24, 2007, 11:22:52 PM9/24/07
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I last left the adventures in the southern region of France, just before I was heading off for continent #3, Africa. The 3 weeks, with the 2 guys I met back in Verona in October '06, were packed with a few interesting events.
* A 3 day journey into the desert was filled with synchronized diving lessons, some fun spinning around on playgrounds, visiting the local petting zoo Moroccan Petting Zoo, the customary ride on the camels, and a lot of driving. One of our camels, Gert, went a bit crazy at one point and got loose in the camel caravan we were riding in. After an exciting few minutes, David almost jumping off and nearly in tears, and Booy just a few inches short of getting his leg bit, we were back on track. Arriving at our oasis, we were later welcomed by the Sahara with 8 hours of constant rain. In the morning, I carried up the snowboard to take a ride down the massive mound of sand. Had it not been for our quick thinking guide that threw a wet mattress I would have ended up running into a concrete hole with 2ft rebar protruding from itself.
* We just returned from our 3 day desert trip and the boys and I went to the local football match between Kawkab Marrakech and Olympique Safi. After the game ended we figured we could head over to the Hostel International place they stayed at the other day...turns out they were booked. We went into the center of town and after finding out 10+ hotels were booked on a Saturday night around 12am we were a bit worried. We found someone on the street that was willing to take us back to his house for 100 dirham each, but after about 20min of consideration we declined the offer. We wandered around a bit more and stumbled onto Hotel Central which we thought was full before, and were able to get it for a bargain of 50 dirham each.
* One thing to be aware of is the low sign postings. I failed to see this one Dangerous Moroccan Road Signs when I was sending a sms to our host.
We continued on our way to enjoy the wind swept Essaouira coast, the coastal metropolis of Casablanca, and the developing coast or Rabat. Of the 3, I think we all would agree that Essaouira was the most relaxing. We hung around a few days longer than we first planned for.
We made our way back to Chefchaouen where the boys visited before I met up with them in Marrakech. It was a nice little town known for it's blue-rinsed houses.
We then made our way to the Tangier port to head off to Spain. We had heard conflicting stories about Tangier, some loved it, some hated it. We didn't stick around too long to get a definitive self evaluation of the town, but.... When we exited the taxi at the port, we were greeted by a very helpful man that wanted to offer us assistance on finding out correct ferry to take across to Spain. As the boys had come from Spain to get to Morocco they were going to do quite well on their own they told him. He persisted of course, as did we that we wouldn't be in any need of his help, but he followed us around the entire port and handed us yellow customs forms to help us in our journey. These are available to anyone for free of course when entering/exiting the country, he however, felt that they commanded a fee because he was the one that gave them to us. Even after he had given up in trying to get money from us, a fellow friend of his tried one final time to try and persuade us into giving him something for them, we kindly declined...again.
This leads us back to Europe, and the town of Tarifa, Spain, where I'll pick my story in "Part 2 - Tarifa to London".
--
Posted By Steven Larsen to The Big Move on 6/10/2007 08:12:00 PM
I last left the adventures in the southern region of France, just before I was heading off for continent #3, Africa. The 3 weeks, with the 2 guys I met back in Verona in October '06, were packed with a few interesting events.
* A 3 day journey into the desert was filled with synchronized diving lessons, some fun spinning around on playgrounds, visiting the local petting zoo Moroccan Petting Zoo, the customary ride on the camels, and a lot of driving. One of our camels, Gert, went a bit crazy at one point and got loose in the camel caravan we were riding in. After an exciting few minutes, David almost jumping off and nearly in tears, and Booy just a few inches short of getting his leg bit, we were back on track. Arriving at our oasis, we were later welcomed by the Sahara with 8 hours of constant rain. In the morning, I carried up the snowboard to take a ride down the massive mound of sand. Had it not been for our quick thinking guide that threw a wet mattress I would have ended up running into a concrete hole with 2ft rebar protruding from itself.
* We just returned from our 3 day desert trip and the boys and I went to the local football match between Kawkab Marrakech and Olympique Safi. After the game ended we figured we could head over to the Hostel International place they stayed at the other day...turns out they were booked. We went into the center of town and after finding out 10+ hotels were booked on a Saturday night around 12am we were a bit worried. We found someone on the street that was willing to take us back to his house for 100 dirham each, but after about 20min of consideration we declined the offer. We wandered around a bit more and stumbled onto Hotel Central which we thought was full before, and were able to get it for a bargain of 50 dirham each.
* One thing to be aware of is the low sign postings. I failed to see this one Dangerous Moroccan Road Signs when I was sending a sms to our host.
We continued on our way to enjoy the wind swept Essaouira coast, the coastal metropolis of Casablanca, and the developing coast or Rabat. Of the 3, I think we all would agree that Essaouira was the most relaxing. We hung around a few days longer than we first planned for.
We made our way back to Chefchaouen where the boys visited before I met up with them in Marrakech. It was a nice little town known for it's blue-rinsed houses.
We then made our way to the Tangier port to head off to Spain. We had heard conflicting stories about Tangier, some loved it, some hated it. We didn't stick around too long to get a definitive self evaluation of the town, but.... When we exited the taxi at the port, we were greeted by a very helpful man that wanted to offer us assistance on finding out correct ferry to take across to Spain. As the boys had come from Spain to get to Morocco they were going to do quite well on their own they told him. He persisted of course, as did we that we wouldn't be in any need of his help, but he followed us around the entire port and handed us yellow customs forms to help us in our journey. These are available to anyone for free of course when entering/exiting the country, he however, felt that they commanded a fee because he was the one that gave them to us. Even after he had given up in trying to get money from us, a fellow friend of his tried one final time to try and persuade us into giving him something for them, we kindly declined...again.
This leads us back to Europe, and the town of Tarifa, Spain, where I'll pick my story in "Part 2 - Tarifa to London".
--
Posted By Steven Larsen to The Big Move on 6/10/2007 08:12:00 PM
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