Big Souk
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Sun 18 Oct 2009 18:39
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Having studied a number of ways to get over to
Morocco and spen a night we shopped around for ferries and looked at inland
trips to Marrakesh by train and staying in Riad's - however with 7 people
aboard and 2 from Discovery needing the boat available for working on - we hit
on the brilliant but perfectly obvious plan, of sailing over on Rhiann Marie,
staying aboard her while the heroes from Discovery agreed to arrange their jobs
so those that required being at the pontoon were done first and the
rest could be done under way. So we set a course for Smir at 35:45.20N
005:20.35W in Morocco. On the way over one or two felt the motion a little too
much after more late nights but just then the dolphins arrived and saved the day
delighting the crew and especially those who had not seen them before. They were
their usual playful selves and Stuart Moffat (ships photographer) got some great
shots. If we can we will post some soon.
After passing the Blue Water Rally having just left
Smir we entered the Marina about 1315 but had to put our watches back two hours
to get onto Morocco time. Once the arrival formalities were done we arranged
with the marina to put us in contact with a guide and arranged with the port
police that we could leave the port which he was happy to do providing there
were no journalists aboard - but kept the passports. We went to Tetuon which was
simply amazing - we never saw another single tourist for the whole day and we
were shown round the souk with its thronging, filthy, fly infested narrow and
hugely interesting streets ( I would reccommend a vist to anyone). We had
one member of the crew almost pass out with the sights and smells. I dont know
why - nothing wrong with cows hearts, chickens getting heads choped off in front
of you, live sheep, dead fish and raw meat altogether - excellent. The tannery
was like something out of hell - but we soldiered on having strong stomachs and
vivid memories of the putrid smells experienced while playing in the local
slaughter house clandestinely as a kid. I probably shouldn't say but we somehow
were able to climb over gates and wander round in the old fashioned town
slaughter house when I was a kid staring in terrified amazement at the
troughs for the blood and the knives beside the slaughtering trestles draped
with blood stained aprons. I also visited when it was in full funtioning
mode with animals - cows, sheep and occasional pigs being slaughtered. Still I
say if you are going to eat it, which I am happy to do, you should understand
how it lives and dies and appreciate that this is far better than some of the
intensive rearing techniques used today - however people have to eat. So where
was I Morooco - or the Hebrides 35 years ago? Yes Morocco - round the
souk we went and while obviously not locals, nor arabs, and contasting in every
way with the inhabitants of the souk everyone was courteous and interestingly no
one stared at the girls and we never felt uncomfortable - even if some of our
stomachs did sometimes. It seems that while overwhelmingly Sunni
Muslim there were also a large population of Shia Muslim, Jews and
Catholics all living together according to our guide with no problems, which if
so might be a helpful example to some other countries. Interestingly we
were told that the Jews had been cleared from Spain in the 16th century by the
Spanish and forcefully emigrated to Morocco which at that time was
controlled by the Spanish.
Anyway enough of the history lesson - after the
souk round the medina (old town) which was facinating and seven hundred years
old to boot, though thats just the buildings we could have been hundreds of
years back in time and I guess life would not have been very different
then. We finished up with a fantastic Moroccan meal of soup, lamb
shish, curried chicken in pastry, cous cous with veg, chicken
casserole, melon and mint tea, and bought some local fruit and
vegtables from the Souk some from Arabs some from Bedouin
women. When we arrived back Toby and Scott from Discovery had not only
finnished all the jobs they could they had completely hosed down and washe the
boat from stem to stern - now that's service for
you.
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