September 12th, 2011
Got to the front door of the Mauritania embassy at 8.30am. Met a Dutch guy and a South African who are driving from Holland to Ghana. They’re selling their car there and will apparently fly back, we agreed that we might see each other on the Mauritanian border later in the week. In five minutes had passport back in hand and lo, it contains a double entry Mauritanian visa valid for 60 days. They certainly don’t waste money on fancy visas with holograms like many other countries. Nope, this looked like it was printed on a label from a hardware store and simply stuck in the passport, together with the obligatory couple of stamps so beloved of African bureaucrats.
Justyna is lacking a Yellow Fever Vaccination, which is usually mandatory for travel to the Sahara and sub-Saharan countries. So some faffing around ensued at the Sheikh Zayed hospital and a taxi ride to a clinic, all of which resulted in … nothing! However I think that something done up in word and printed out on yellow paper with the name of a suitably obscure country at the top may work for her. At the end of the day the only purpose of it is to minimize the opportunities for being asked for bribes once we’re out of Morocco. Senegal is the issue as the Mauritanians didn’t even look at my yellow fever card. Or perhaps a tall tale about it being lost at the Mauritanian embassy may work, although no doubt “dash” will have to be paid! At any rate, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it and I’m sure it will be “fun”.
Had an excellent sushi lunch with Amine overlooking the marina in Rabat before heading south. He also kindly agreed to hang on to my winter and water proof clothing and other bits n pieces that are not really needed when trying to conserve weight on a bike in the desert! Alas I even had to leave my History of Europe book behind, that saves at least a kilo!
So finally headed south from Rabat via Casablanca, about 70km to the south west. From there as we head south towards Marrakech, the terrain gets drier and changes from pasture to a reddish stony desert. Still making good time however and another 240km south of Casablanca we come to Marrakech and continue towards Agadir. The terrain continues across a flat plain with the shadow of the High Atlas in the distance as we continue southwest. After about 150km we’re climbing into the tail of the Atlas mountains going back towards the coast. It’s now dark with an almost full moon. making for much cooler temperatures than earlier in the day where I’d started to melt at one of the 10 million traffic lights in Rabat. Also, while the Moroccan gas stations are always good, well equipped with cafes and stores, they can often be quite far apart – I measured 80km between the 2 on the road between Marrakech and Agadir. The highways are super quality although unfortunately have that annoying French habit of “Peage” as it’s all tolled.
Finally we reach Agadir around 9pm and descend out of the mountains. I guess I should mention that the highways in this part of Morocco are good, but they always end far outside the city of destination and there is always a long trek in from wherever the highway stops. We go through the final peage followed by a long highway, part of which is lined with car dealerships and other industrial businesses – looks a bit like a strip in N.America frankly. After what seems like an eternity, cruising along this strip, we eventually come to the area near the beach. Turning right onto the beachfront strip, it’s filled with English Pubs, fake souks, hotels and nightclubs. It’s like Cancun or Torremolinos, except in French. Exquisitely tacky! Stop to see if there’s any room in one of the hotels and find the lobby to be full of vacationers of a more “mature” demographic, shakin’ it down and getting’ groovy to Boney-M and various hits from the 1970s and early 80s. The music was mind numbingly loud and it was difficult to tell if the volume level was an act of rebellion or merely practical so that guests did not need to bring hearing-aids. As I exited the building, after being told there were no rooms, I think a small part of my brain had started to melt and ooze out of my ears!
Managed to get a cheap place on the south end of the beach strip, much quieter and away from all the “action”. Seriously though, the town does seem to be a bit of a get away for Moroccans and French but does have that “all inclusive” kind of feel about it, interesting, I wasn’t expecting Agadir to be a holiday megalopolis. Certainly it’s one of the odder places to find an English pub! Tomorrow we cross into the Western Sahara and should end up at Laayoune, some 630km to the south of here. The checkpoints will also be thicker on the ground as well!
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