Day 2 - Asilah - Fes, Morocco

Day 2 Sunday Oct. 18, 2009 | Asilah - Fes, Morocco

Distance: 313km | Time: 5.5 hr | Roads: Good

The surf crashes repeatedly, it's the sound people pay to fall asleep to. It is free here, the tents on a small hill overlooking the Atlantic. It is stunning.

Waking up in Africa

We awoke to a misty overcast day, soon to be burnt off by the rising sun. We weren't in the desert yet but even here on the coast the sun began to bake the insides of the car by noon.

As we struggled to fold up the pop tents -putting them up is far easier than putting them down and Jimmy is the master at the latter- Nico with a sudden shout took off at a sprint for the waves 100 meters away ripping his clothes off as he went. "Our first day in Africa and the Frenchman is getting naked" was all I could think. It was one day to start the day.

Asilah is a stunning whitewashed village hidden by massive earthen ramparts dating back to the 13th Century. We strolled the streets for breakfast and the winding alleys inside the ramparts just long enough to snap a couple of shots for the photographers onboard.

Much of the problem with overlanding is not the officials, breakdowns, etc but rather navigating out of town and cities. Asilah, despite its miniscule size was no exception. It took us 20min to find the road heading for Fes.

Good Roads, Bad Time

Prior to leaving we had made the conscious decision to make the most of Moroccan roads, assuming they would be the best on the continent, easy enough to make up the time lost in Barcelona. It was for this reason that we chose to make our way to Fes and Marrakech as opposed to shooting straight down the coast via the highway past Rabat and Casablanca.

The road was good, our navigational sense was not. Granted the signage was not a Moroccan trait, but rather than ask direction we would stumble aimlessly forward only to turn back for a missed turn. we averaged about 50km/h. We would have made better time in a Trabant.

Touting through Fes

I was leading in The Turtle trying to decipher signs because I had been to Fes before, five years prior arriving on a train. It didn't exactly make me an expert.

Waiting at a stop light one of the ubiquitous Fiat Uno's pulled up. "You want Medina? Old city? I can show you," came the voice from a window on its way down. "Ummm... We are looking for the old Medina, but we can find it. Thank you," was my natural response. My memories of Morocco came flooding back, everyone trying to sell me a carpet. The experience wasn't one worth repeating.

"Very hard to find. You come with me, I am official tour guide for Fes. No money." He hadn't exactly said no carpet but in my head "no money" sounded good and it beat driving around for an hour.

"We're following this guy" I said over the CB. "What, dude don't follow a tout" was Jimmy immediate response and a wise one at that. We spent 20min following the guy around before finally veering off a side street ending up at a small cafe. As we unloaded from The Turtle and Red Rover Mr. Fiat Uno pulled up in a huff, obviously irritated that we had rebuffed his offer. I smelled carpet somewhere in the future and politely declined any further services. Despite this, he was there waiting with a new friend who had an "official" badge claiming to be a Fes tour guide.

"I am sorry but we just asked directions and we have a map" I pointed to the printout of a Lonely Planet map. "No good map, follow us we show you the fast way" was the inevitable response. It was time to get away, I shook my head, rolled up the window and abruptly pulled out into traffic. Nico sitting behind the wheel of Red Rover looked stunned, but within a second followed as did the Uno.

He may have been following, but with the amount of Fiat Uno's on the road - Fes is like a beehive and the Fiat Uno's the bees that buzz around, they are literally everywhere- I couldn't discern his from any of the others.

The walls of the old Medina suddenly came into view as I slammed on the brakes to avoid the Uno cutting me off. "There it is" I exclaimed joyfully over the CB. Maybe five years isn't too long.

As we approached the entrance a familiar sound pulled up along side my window. A dark mustached man with missing teeth sat astride a 50cc two stroke Honda motorcycle. The smell and the sound were reminiscent of the Trabis. He looked over and smiled, his teeth looking like rotting tree stumps. "Do you need a hotel?" his English was accented but he knew the phrase well. I looked at Kim who shrugged her shoulders. Perhaps I should have know better but I had avoided buying a carpet before and could do the same now.

"Yes, we are looking for a cheap hotel" I said reluctantly. I could feel Jimmy's eyes on my back. "Follow me it have parking for cars. If you like you stay. If not I take you where you want to go." It sounded fair. I went for the CB "We're making a U-turn and following this guy, we just need to get to a hotel. We only have a day here and you guys want to see the city right?" I hoped this logic would work. "Fine, but we're not paying him" came static filled answer.

Five minutes later we were passing through famous gates of Fes. The hotel was just beyond.

Decisions

The price was fair, about $6 a person with a cold shower -the hot was extra- and the place was dinghy sheik with a large open room in the center. Usually quite skeptical and always eager to plan, Kim looked around and gave her approval, "This will work well for trying to sort out what we're doing". Indeed it would and it didn't take long.

We sat down with Larhbi (our motorbike tout) to discuss our options. I was in favor of having them see the city while I did some work and heading out the next day. I wanted desperately to get to Africa proper, Morocco simply didn't count in my book. However, other thoughts were brewing.

"Perhaps we should get the skid plate for The Turtle done here" came Kim's suggestion. It wasn't a bad one and the plate needed to be done. I looked to Larhbi and explained what we were looking for. His response was optimistic, "Yes, I know someone. Maybe you stay an extra day and I take you there. Others can take tour during the day". My carpet sense went buzzing again, but I knew I wouldn't have to deal with it since I now had car duty.

A quick team vote with everyone voting yes sealed the deal. We would be in Fes for two nights. Showers and food followed by sorting out the group slush fund followed that decision and other than the delicious Kefta sandwich are entirely too mundane to write about.