Day 13: Africa!
Soutpiel Safari
John & Jenny
Wed 17 Nov 2010 09:50
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Day 13: Wednesday 13 November 2010. Malaga Hotel,
Tetouan, Morocco. N35 34.310 W005 22.387. Distance driven 78km
Quite an eventful day for our first day in Africa!
The ferry crossing was uneventful and only took 35 minutes from Algeciras to
Ceuta. We rolled off into Ceuta, a small enclave of Spain inside Morocco,
in drizzle, a cold wind and overcast skies. The exit from Spain was uneventful
and we then entered the Moroccan border area where everything became very
scruffy and disorganised - very Arab in fact! Whilst I was queuing
for immigration and vehicle registration, a very irate official in plain clothes
started trying to scratch the map of Africa off the Land Rover doors, while
Jenny watched in wonderment! He eventually came over and pulled me out of the
immigration queue and took me back to the car where he demanded, in staccato
French, that I should remove the maps. At first, I thought it might be the
"Western Sahara" name that he was objecting to but he wasn't satisfied with the
removal of that title. He became very, very irate, went off to his office,
came back with a large penknife and started to prise off the maps, taking a fair
amount of cellulose with them. Meanwhile, Jenny pissed him off even more by
attempting to take a photo! We never did find out what it was all about but he
seemed to be the chief official, but was he police, secret police, immigration,
or what? He certainly wasn't Ministry of Tourism! We will never know, but he was
really very unpleasant. After that, the Immigration clerk singled out
our passports and took them away to the Chief's office for special
scrutiny. At one point the Chief had demanded to know Jenny's
profession. Perhaps they thought we were reporters - we had learnt from
Internet comment that the Moroccan authorities had been taking a hard line
against Spanish reporters who, they thought, had been reporting unfavourably
about the tensions in Western Sahara. Anyway, the rest of the officials were
very friendly and wished us a pleasant stay in Morocco.
On leaving the border area we started to drive towards
Tetouan and Chefchaouen feeling quite pissed off and dejected at our entrance
into Africa. The weather was cold, wet and unfriendly but also, everywhere
was totally deserted. We stopped in the first small town looking Moroccan
Dirhams and for somewhere to buy the compulsory third party car insurance, but
everywhere was closed. Not even a restaurant was open at lunchtime! We
drove on towards Tetouan without any local currency and looked for diesel,
soon finding that even the gas stations which advertised taking credit cards,
did not do so. Once in Tetouan we found a couple of ATM's and filled up
with diesel at an appealing 58 pence/litre. At least something was going
right!
Coming away from the second ATM (obviously having
withdrawn money) I was accosted by a pleasant Moroccan speaking good
English who advised that we had arrived in the middle of Eid al Adhr (the
Islamic holiday immediately after the Haj, or pilgrimage to Mecca) and that
the whole town was in festive mood. He also advised that all shops and
offices would be closed until Friday and we therefore couldn't purchase the
necessary insurance until then. Furthermore, it seems that the penalty if
caught without insurance, is two days in jail. Having already had one
unpleasant brush with Moroccan officialdom, we didn't want to risk another, so
decided to play safe and stay here until Friday. The cold and rain
made camping an unattractive option so we opted for a "budget" hotel, at least
for tonight.
Our "guide" took us on a fascinating tour of the medina,
where all the shops were closed but the local inhabitants were engaged in mass
slaughter and skinning of sheep for tonight's festivities. The narrow
alleyways of the medina were full of young men roasting sheep's heads on wood
braziers and others hacking off the horns. Everywhere there were piles of
sheepskins, heads and horns! We also visited the "tannery" where all the
skins were to be processed, the mosque, the palace of King Mohammed VI, a
traditional old house, and a carpet outlet where we did well to emerge
without buying anything.
Of course, the services of our" guide" didn't come free
but, at least, we had had a fascinating afternoon, seen things we certainly
wouldn't have seen and ventured into places where we certainly wouldn't have
gone, without him - so decided that it was good value after all!
And, it was an opportunity to brush up on my very rusty
Arabic!
NB. Although we had internet at the Tarifa
camping, I found that I could receive but not send. Now in Tetouan we have
no connection and little prospect until Friday, so I'll try to send this by Sat
Phone.
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