2009/01/21

Bus Number 7 deep inside Morocco

Yes, we recieved all the complaints that there were not enough (frequent) updates from the bus. Believe me, we do our best, but we constantly have wi-fi problems.

We gather experiences, however. We are on the way to Marrakech while I write this mail, but let's stop for a moment to summarize what happened so far. We arrived to the real Africa last night.

We were quite fresh after the arrival to Algeciras. The town and the port is not as pretty as Almeria, but it's an OK place. We drove into the port, that was easy. From this point all kinds of nationalities wanted to help us with various advices where to queue if one wants to go to Tanger. Obviously they told us the wrong line. Then we found the right person, a guy who worked in the port. His advise was phenomenal (he obviously knew the procedures) so we didn't even have to wait for customs and found ourselves directly by the ramps to the ship. Funny enough we had to walk back from the transit to buy the tickets - and do some personal customs on the way. In just about an hour and a half we managed to buy the tickets in the awfully crowded port, for the 10PM ferry.

This was not a problem at all, at least we had time to finally go into a net café and use internet, copy some fiche for the African officers, wait for our friends. Karcsi made a wonderful soup in no time. Gyula doesn't eat anybody's food so he - as usual - ate some cold cuts and drank his Coke portion for the night. In the meantime it got really really cold accompanied with heavy winds.

They told us at 9PM that the ferry would be ready to leave at around 12. After all we managed to embark at 2:30. 2 hours of boating and we got off the ferry among the first vehicles at 5. AM. No fuss at the customs, everybody was sleepy even the officers. But they filled out various papers and forms, smoke cigarettes and smiled. This is OK, we don't need to watch the slow process and the procedures through our "European glasses".

Gyula and Szabi decided not to search for the camping since the chance to find a party at 7AM is pretty slow and they agreed to get right on the scenic Atlantic highway and drive to Marrakech and the kasbah city of Ait Ben Haddou later on. If everything turns out right we reach the destination early evening. Well, we planned to spend some tome in Marrakech: shopping, Internet, etc.

The weather keeps on changing, sometimes rain, sometimes sunshine, but definitely not warm outside.

Gyula repaired the "machine" of three road construction workers in a parking lot, it seems that he's bothered with not having anything to fix on the bus. Who cares, he can spray all the vehicles of Africa with WD-40 if he wants as long as this is the only repair he needs to do. Our friend Huba and Joao (a funny Portuguese fellow we met on the Caucasian Challenge last year and lives in Morocco) are waiting for us in Ouarzazate in a nice little hotel.

Well, that's the situation now, everything's cool, we really enjoy the trip.

Some photos again.

The port of Algeciras:


Embarking at 3AM:

Drivers:

Team photo:

Moroccan fashion:

Gyula repairs the road constructors' vehicle:

Our friend, San Miguel (in Tom's hand):


The smiling team #260.

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