Camping Walt Disney, Near Azrou
We’re here: it’s a totally incongruous campsite on the road between Azrou and Ifrane: N33.44339 W5.19094.
Weather: frost this morning. Sunny all day, but there’s a bit of snow on the ground up here. The local nippers have been out in force playing in the snow at the side of the road.
Today we’ve not done much. I was up at 7:30am, as I’m just unable to sleep here, it’s too exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time. The driving is a real test, although it’s not bad outside of the cities and varies from day to day and road to road. Today’s was mainly characterised by overtaking. I’d left a small gap in front of me to enable me to brake when the inevitable achoring up in front randomly took place. Every 30 seconds someone overtook me and filled up the gap, so I dropped back a bit, and so on! At one point we were in a solid queue of traffic when 4 or 5 cars just decided one after the other to overtake everyone. Huh? They managed to squeeze back in just before being front-ended. No-one batted an eyelid.
Leaving Fez we couldn’t help ourselves but nip into a supermarket. We’ve seen a few of them and they look fairly new. Inside there was a big sign saying ‘no photography’; no idea why. The place was a big disappointment. Vapid. Like a watery sort of co-op, with almost everything western or western style, and priced so only us tourists and the richest of locals could afford it. I couldn’t get out fast enough, but not before checking out how much the beer cost (roughly £1 for a 33cl can; and that was the cheap stuff).
So, we’re parked up here for the night (see video clip below). It’s a sort of Walt Disney campsite (www.camping-morocco.com). The last 3 places we’ve stayed at in Morocco have been, shall we say, rough. This is like paradise and I’m tempted to stay a couple of days. There are Barbary Apes in the cedar forests behind us, a few Km away, so we’ll go monkey hunting tomorrow. This place is simply wonderful, and I wish you were all sat here with us, drinking a mint tea, smelling the fires, listening to the donkeys and the call to prayer.
Cheers, Jay
Got the NEP – nice article. I’m especially impressed with the blatent Castle Rock plug, with the clear aim of getting a lifetime supply of free beer on your return. Good on you :-) Great to hear about Morocco (never been). I have fond memories of (briefly)falling out with my girlfriend in Tunisia about 20+ years ago, stomping off down the beach and ending up helping out with a party of local fishermen pulling in their boat and catch, despite having no common language at all. All good fun!
Remember seeing a tannery like the one in Fes somewhere. Can’t have been Morocco, since I’ve never been there, so I guess it must have been Turkey (perhaps)? I remember being impressed with the size of the place and how many skins they were managing to process at the same time, all by hand. Wonder who first thought of the idea of using urine in the process? Why would the thought that it ‘might just help’ actually cross your mind?
Hi Craig. We loved that article, and were really surprised it got so much space in the mag. You’ve had some great adventures from the sounds of it? I’d love to hear about ’em over a beer sometime; we only ever talked about work as I recall – a poor state of affairs and something I hope to avoid doing in future years. I’ll keep trying to emulate your adventurous spirit, although maybe without the added incentive of having had a ruck with Julie! I had a go today, striding confidently into a local carpet shop after a wool blanket. The bloke was very helpful and easy going (even when I told him Nous revenons en quelque minutes, which we didn’t), perhaps helped by the fact I was covered in mud from a cycle through a frozen forest this morning looking for monkeys. Been a good day today. Take it easy and keep the comments coming; I’m learning more about colleagues and friends this way than I ever did, weird but great. Cheers, Jay P.S. Hello to Paul S if you see him, and tell him to cheer up. :)