Rabat | Fez
September 7th, 2011
Early alarm and we’re at the gates of the Mauritanian embassy bang on 8.30am. There a small group of people queuing at a gate in the wall. We manage to purloin a couple of application forms and fill them in with all sorts of useless information. It’s asks for the name of your hotel in Mauritania, so I look up google on my blackberry and randomly pick one in Nouakchott to put on the form. Hand the forms in and are told to be back to pick them up at 3pm on Friday. So much for speedy service and have now lost another 48 hours. I had read that they were quite good at this embassy and could usually get the the next day. Alas not this time!
So decide to go to Fes, about 200km east of Rabat, and check it out to fill in the time. Do a repack and manage to arrange to leave all unnecessary stuff behind at the hotel. Not much need for winter fleece here in Morocco. Manage to get both of our stuff plus tools and bits into the two nice metal side panniers. And we head off 2 up on the old girl, with very little issues in handling whatsoever. I’m surprised on both counts. As behead east from Rabat the temperature rises substantially as we get away from the cooling effects of the Atlantic.
No issues and the pillion passenger doesn’t seem to have an issue with the level of comfort, or lack thereof, on the back and we get to Fes in the middle of the afternoon after crossing the arid plain. the air temperature gauge is showing that it’s around 42C or so. Decided to stay in a cheap Riad in the old Medina in Fes. It’s pretty deserted and after much gaffing around and lots of locals trying to show us the way to it .. for tips off course, we finally fin it down a small side street. Off course by this time it’s Pastis hour in my world but we have difficult locating somewhere to eat that serves anything stronger than soft drinks and tea.
Finally found a great rooftop place and had the most delicious soup ever – Harira – it’s a lentil, tomato and chick-pea soup that’s very traditional in Morocco, and is used to “break the fast” at the end of the day during ramadan. It’s the best soup I’ve ever tasted, I’ll have to try to figure out how to make it in the future. A traditional Honey and cinnamon chicken dish followed. Also managed to snag a bottle of local Cabernet to take back to the Riad – where there was an excellent rooftop view of the stars. Not too much light pollution in this neck of the woods.
While it’s all very nice, it’s still a bit frustrating loosing the time as the purpose of the trip is in the destination rather than touristic sightseeing along the way.
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