Misadventure Memoirs

We’re currently on our tour coach headed from Granada to Algeciras to catch the ferry across to Tangiers. Excited!! 

I still have a bit of the Black Lung, but getting incrementally better each day, largely thanks to the most evil tasting cough mixture ever formulated which, three times per day, I have to block off the back of my nose, toss back the measuring cup and perform a rapid follow up with a flavoured beverage or a tasty lolly to prevent spasms of revulsion regurgitating the foul brew! 😣 And then there’s the nasal catastrophe to contend with as well! I swear I’ve got close to exploding my left eardrum with the severity of force and the frequency of my nose-blowing, attempting to expel swags of snot, the volume of which being a constant surprise! 😳 Please make it stop!?!

Eventually, we spotted the Rock, swung into the Algeciras port car park and boarded the humongous boat – it’s large enough to house fully laden container trucks on the upper  vehicle deck!  We didn’t get to see much during the hour long crossing of the Strait of Gibraltar though, as we spent most of the journey waiting in a queue to complete passport checks. But, we did share a delicious crispy hot roll filled with chicken and each had a cup of tea. 😋

Arriving in Tangiers, Mikael, our Spanish tour leader, handed us over to Ismail our Moroccan leader, as he left us to meet with his next group who are walking the Camino. It’s quite amazing how bonded it’s possible to become to this person with whom you’ve spent a week, laughing, chatting, sharing stories and getting to know a little, and we were all sorry to see Mikael leave. We gave him huge cheers, claps and whistles in farewell.

So now we have a smaller, less luxurious bus and a new person to learn to trust. Perfect recipe for the demons of discontent to rear their ugly heads…and they did. 🙄

On our way to Rabat for the night, we stopped at the seaside town of Asilah for lunch. One of our party, who shall remain nameless, but who I have dubbed the Cantankerous Rhino (on account her being chunky, squat and thorny!) launched into a tirade about having to exchange euros for dirhum (being ripped off with the exchange rate, not receiving specific enough instructions etc) announcing loudly enough for all to hear: “he’s hopeless!” then circling the group to garner agreement. When CR began to whinge about the menu, the prices, the seating arrangements…. That was about it for me so I walked away to find somewhere else to eat, with Col and two others from our group following.

We found a place further down the esplanade that served pizza (sorta) where the four of us were able to relax and enjoy our lunch. While we may have missed out on a genuine Moroccan meal, at least we dined without a barrage of fetid opinions! 😄 While we were eating, a little kid selling small packets of tissues (for the equivalent of 30c each) asked if he could have our last piece of leftover pizza. He rapturously gobbled it down sitting on the edge of the kerb.

Back on the road heading to Rabat, I was amazed to note two things:

The first was the huge amount of land dedicated to food crop production! Both sides of the road as far as the eye could see for nearly 150km was growing crops like tomatoes, avocados, bananas, watermelons, alfalfa…some in the open as well as countless hectares of hothouses. Ismail told us that around 40% of Morocco’s economy is centred on agriculture.

The second thing is the very different behaviour practiced on freeways in our two countries. As with freeways in most parts of the world, here we’re talking 2-3 lanes each side, divided by a median strip – usually planted (mostly oleanders), low metal barriers along the edges…but unlike freeways elsewhere, it seems that pedestrians are a fairly common feature in Morocco!! 😳 I damn near choked on my Coke when I spotted an old man hobbling along the side of the freeway with his walking stick, k’s from anywhere, seemingly on his way home from a rendezvous.  15 minutes later, I watched a dude emerge from the median strip and stroll across the three opposite lanes, in no hurry at all, despite the fact that most of the traffic travels in excess of 120 kph!! Further along, a couple looked to be having a date night…backs to the freeway in the emergency lane, they chatted casually, gazing out over the fields, admiring the sunset (no vehicles in sight). Not long later, there was a dude sitting hopefully with his suitcase on the barrier…he must have been imagining a truck driver being able to spot him from 1km away in order to be able to slow in time to stop and collect him! 😄 But the best was a shepherd with a flock of goats grazing on the side of the ‘slow lane’ where there was no barrier, occasionally touching one of his animals with his long crook to prevent it lurching into the traffic.  Freeway/schmeeway…meh!