The coast
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
- Essaouira - added by Steve
We have finally managed to arrange visas for Mauritania! This has been a rather arduous process as we attempted to get the visas in our South African passports when we entered Morocco on other passports. (South Africans not being the most popular visitor to Moroccan shores since we supported the Sahawari in the Western Sahara conflict.) Naturally the Mauritanians were very suspicious of the fact that our passports had no entry stamp. Luckily, with a bit of explanation, the ambassador eventually decided to allow us to have our visas in our SA passports, which is great. We're especially hopeful waving our African-ness in the face of border officials will help in our anti-bribe-extraction techniques! Perhaps a pipe-dream but you never know!
We were not so lucky with getting visas for Mali unfortunately. The ambassador was away, and in true African style no-one was sure where nor when he would be back, and consequently the beaurocratic machine ground to a halt! Having spent 5 days in Rabat already dealing with the Mauritanian visa issue, the prospect of further stay with no determinable end date was not ideal, so we have decided to put off getting the Malian visa until a later city and a later date! More Africanisms we will just have to get used to!
Unfortunately Rabat wasn't the greatest experience we've had thus far. We arrived after dark and during rush hour, which in Africa is never a fantastic experience, and after what seemed an interminable hack through traffic we arrived at the campsite to find it had closed! After more driving and searching for alternatives we eventually threw in the towel and again found ourselves staying in a car park. Far from the worst we've had so far this one was next to a lighthouse on the sea, so wasn't too bad actually.
However, after 5 days struggling with the vagaries of African beaurocracy we were getting tired of our car park, especially when our water ran out and the loo filled up! Get me drunk one day and I might tell you how we sorted the latter problem out... I'm not saying any more here!
So as it was, when we encountered the Malian hurdle, we were happy to laugh it off and depart post haste! We followed the coast south to a tiny village called Oualidia which is on a beautiful lagoon next to the sea. It has a stunning campsite which we had almost to ourselves, and although the downside is you get offers from about 20 separate fishermen every morning (which gets a bit tiresome), the day's catch is brought to your door daily. Thus we gorged ourselves on calamari, mussels, prawns, sole and other seafood... sometimes it's really tough in Africa!
Rox doing the washing!
It was here that we celebrated Roxy's 29th birthday with Nick, and Martin and Jet (www.whataboutafrica.org ) who have been in convoy with us since Rabat. Much hilarity ensued, especially after dinner around the campfire when Rox entertained us with some remarkable African dancing... I'm not sure the Europeans really appreciated how genuinely African this dancing was, but that will come... needless to say the next day dawned with several hangovers!
From Oualidia we went to Essaouira, where we are now. It is a beautiful and relaxed town further down the coast, which has well preserved ramparts complete with brass canons jutting into the sea and a medina which is a maze of tiny streets, bright colours and weird and wonderful smells.
Essaouira is a bit of an artists town, and so has loads of arty shops which we've spent hours browsing through. It also has a great market where we bought a huge array of local food... although only a sampling, as some of the offerings weren't the most appetising... Rox didn't particularly enjoy the severed goat's head staring back at her! We had our second surfing lesson today which is proving to be great fun. We're not quite ready to star in Point Break but watch this space... you never know!
Tomorrow we head inland for Marrakech, and then will turn south to cross the Atlas Mountains and head for the Sahara Desert and Mauritania!