Having been in northern Africa 4 months earlier I suppose I wasn’t anticipating to return there so quickly after particularly when based mostly in Japan! Nonetheless, just some months after my once-in-a-lifetime journey to Tunisia I used to be planning a brief journey to Seville in Spain, and the potential of taking somewhat facet quest to Morocco was too good a chance to show down.
I had been on my solution to Algeciras in Southern Spain earlier than I met an Australian couple who stated that I may get the ferry from Tarifa as an alternative which proved to be an excellent time-saving resolution. On arrival in Tangiers I quickly misplaced my manner searching for an ATM and once I lastly discovered one it didn’t settle for my card. I used to be then horrified when the subsequent one swallowed my card, and if my different card hadn’t labored I might have been properly and actually been within the sh*t! Fortunately, I obtained my card again after some locals hassled a guard into serving to us all get our playing cards again on a day when the banks had been closed.
After that I discovered my manner round and booked a bus ticket to Chefchaouen for 8:00 pm that night time. With 5 hours to kill I set about looking for the previous Forbes Museum on the outskirts of the town which featured in Timothy Dalton’s first outing as James Bond in ‘The Residing Daylights‘ (1987).
Again within the medina space I had a very candy glass of mint tea at Gran Cafe de Paris which very a lot performed its half in ‘The Bourne Ultimatum‘ (2007).
It was that movie which actually introduced Tangiers to my consideration following an enthralling chase sequence by way of the medina and throughout the rooftops. My half day in Tangiers was not so thrilling and I used to be most likely somewhat disillusioned by it in all honesty.
Being aggravated by touts is par for the course in some nations however there are occasions when they are often helpful equivalent to once I arrived within the mountain metropolis of Chefchaouen at 11:30 pm with no lodging booked. I informed him I used to be staying at a spot talked about in my guidebook and he did the standard saying what a pleasant place it was while strolling with me and chatting. Earlier than I knew it he was taking me there which to be honest was an actual blessing as I might by no means have discovered it on my own because it was a 20 minute uphill twisty stroll earlier than the maze of the previous medina.
We enquired at about 5 locations earlier than I lastly obtained an inexpensive mattress in a little bit of a sh*thole. I paid off the tout with 10 MAD (lower than a pound), went to mattress and checked out early the next morning earlier than strolling across the lovely medina which is awash with blinding blue-white homes and buildings. It was just about desserted as little did I do know that issues didn’t get going on this metropolis until about 10:00 am!
I discovered a brand new hostel within the medina and checked in because it seemed a bit nicer and the employees had been pleasant. It was a pound greater than my earlier one and was additionally a dorm however appeared like a greater choice for me socially.
While checking-in I met an English man who I sat with exterior a restaurant ingesting a cup of mint tea and consuming our breakfast. I informed him I deliberate to climb Jebel El-kelaa (1616m) within the Rif Mountains and he was up for that so we set off and shortly met one other couple on the way in which.
The 4 of us climbed it on a pleasing day of sunshine with a contemporary breeze. It was a reasonably simple climb though we did go off track alongside the way in which someplace which subsequently meant we had been nearly mountaineering at one stage!
Total, we spent about 5 – 6 hours on the path the place the surroundings was at occasions like that within the Brad Pitt film ‘Babel‘ (filmed elsewhere in Morocco) and solely interrupted by just a few guys making an attempt to promote us kif (the arabic title for marijuana which is grown within the space) and a few locals who shouted at us each time we took a photograph. Honest sufficient, for those who level a digicam of their face however once you’re simply taking a photograph of surroundings it’s a bit annoying. We clearly ignored what was principally only a low cost try and get some cash off us.
After decending, Andrew and I went up the hill on the opposite facet of the city to see sundown and we principally walked across the city within the night to kill time the place I sampled an inexpensive bowl of tasty snails (sure, actually!) from a road vendor in addition to tajine which is a Moroccan stew and meat dish.
The next morning I left Chefchaouen at 6:45 am and spent a pair extra hours again in Tangiers earlier than taking the boat to Algeciras as I wished to see Gibraltar (from the boat) and use my return bus ticket to Seville. Nonetheless, I used to be informed the subsequent bus utilizing my ticket wasn’t until 8:00 am the subsequent day so I needed to simply chunk the bullet and pay 17 euros for a brand new ticket with a special bus firm that obtained me again into Seville simply after 9:30 pm.
Click on right here to learn ‘TF Flashback: The Ache & Ecstasy of Spending A Week In Tunisia (2009)’
Click on right here to learn ‘Morocco 2010 Pt II: Two Days In A Uniquely Blue-Colored City’
Click on right here to learn ‘Morocco 2010 Pt I: On The Path of Bourne & Bond In Tangiers’
Click on right here to learn ‘Eating Out: Tokyo’s Finest Moroccan & Spanish Restaurant’