10 Month African Trails Epic Adventure: Week 2

Week 2 - Nov. 18th - 24th

Day 8 - Rabat
Day 9 - Rabat to Volubilis
Day 10 - Volubilis to Fes
Day 11 - Day in Fes
Day 12 - Day in Fes
Day 13 - Fes to Midelt to bush-camp (atlas mountains)
Day 14 - bush-camp to Rissani to bush-camp


When I signed up for the trip I assumed that the food provided would be mediocre at best. This is not so much a case of me having low expectations for the competence of the tour staff but more the previous experience that when you're on a budget camping holiday you rarely eat well. I pictured mounds upon mounds of tasteless canned food, heated up over a campfire if we're lucky, that would be forced down with bread and water. Then, should we find ourselves stranded and alone and without fuel, we would have to resort to consuming roadside animal carcasses, laying out the skid-mark stained strips of squished flesh out on the metal framework of the vehicle, where we would let the hot sun cook the meat and then ravenously choke down the barely edible chunks of roadkill-chow between our miserable cries of despair and anguish.

I was delighted to find out that I was totally wrong, though I still can't vouch that we won't resort to cannibalism if we become stranded, the food so far has been absolutely delicious. It turned out that each cook team, which changes daily, is given a food budget for the day and it left to decide what to cook, how and where to get the ingredients. Right now, in Morocco, there is a staggering abundance of markets selling spices, cheap vegetables and reasonably priced meat. The cook team then takes their supplies back to the vehicle and, come dinner-time, the food is cooked either over a charcoal burner or, when possible, a roaring hot campfire. Delicious! Of course there will be times on the trip where food will be harder to come by and we will have to resort to the canned food that we keep stored under the floor of the truck. I'm also led to believe that we will have to be purchase our own livestock enroute and killing and chopping it up ourselves. Hopefully members of the group won't become too attached to our food while it's still breathing and we'll be able to avoid conversations like: "where did Wuffles go?"
"I'm afraid he ran away, now, on a completely unrelated note, eat your bloody dinner"

So here we are at the end of week 2 and we're still in Morocco. After one last day in Rabat (day 8), a lazy day where I spent most of the time chilling out and uploading my blog, we left Rabat (day 9) and headed towards the town of Meknes. Passing swiftly through we headed briefly north to the ruins of the Roman town of Volubilis, a fascinating and well preserved area with some striking remains of ancient Roman architecture and some amazingly well preserved mosaics. We spent the night in a forest near the ruins and the next day (day 10) we packed up and were soon in the city of Fes. We found a campsite where many of our group were pleased to find flush toilets and hot showers! The next day (day 11) we were treated to a tour of Fes where we took in various sights including the Royal Palace, a panoramic viewpoint high over the city and the Medina (market) in the centre which was a bustling and exciting place where you had to watch out for traffic in the narrow streets, and by traffic I mean pack mules and donkeys. We also toured the tanneries in the centre of the medina and browsed the various shops selling all kinds of leather products.

That night we, by me I mean about half of the group who were actually willing to shell out the cash, to a "Moroccan Night" which was basically a meal in a big restaurant, which seemed more like a palace, and a show. The show consisted of countless acts, including belly dancers, a magician, several dancers and several musical groups. All in all it was a fantastic night and I was surprised to find myself talked into dancing in front of everybody along with one of the belly dancers that night! Oh well, there's a first time for everything! The next day (12) was a lazy day in the campsite in Fes where most of us were content to sit around the campsite all day relaxing in the warm sun and, later that night, chilling out in front of the campfire.

The next day (13) we left Fes and now it was time to head south into the Atlas Mountains. After a lengthy session of driving which lasted most of the afternoon we settled down for another bush-camp high up in the Atlas Mountains where the high altitude ensured that the nighttime temperatures would be quite excruciatingly frigid! Sure enough, as the sun disappeared below the horizon we soon found ourselves huddled around the campfire in our warmest clothing. Before long we retired to our tents and, more importantly, our warm sleeping bags for an early night. The next day (14) we descended to the lower flatlands just south of the mountains and continued our journey through several small towns, passing some absolutely stunning scenery in the process. The area north of the Atlas Mountains had been mostly lush and green but now we were in harsh, rocky desert scenery. During our journey we passed through several towns that were each built around a stunning green desert oasis in the middle of a giant sea of brown and desolate rock. Shortly after passing the town of Rissani we found another quiet spot by the road and settled down in yet another bush-camp.

And so we come to the end of week two, the second of so many weeks to come, and we're still not even close to coming halfway across the fascinating country of Morocco! We've still got plenty of the Atlas Mountains to see, plenty of hiking to do, Marrakech and much more! Aah, good times!

A Tannery in Fes