"Travel will lengthen your life, it fills it of faces and landscapes, of sounds, of horizons and songs that you were unaware. You meet cowards that must live as brave and courageous men who are forced to live as cowards. Your old ideas collapse and new ones are born again. And travel is dancing, as rightly Chichewa say, adjust your step to that of the others, turning in a vacuum following sounds and rhythms that you did not know, deaf to everything is not the melody of a song until then Unknown. "

- Javier Reverte - (Wanderer in Africa)

 

 

20. 11. 2010 Casablanca (MOROCCO)

At last we are in Morocco!


Customs controls were very slow and nerve-wracking ...

Unfortunately we can not live Casablanca by night due to time but even wandering around the streets of the city made me feel alive!

 

21. 11. 2010 Meknes (MOROCCO)

I picture old sailors from the Atlantic Ocean and suddenly come to be enchanted by the charm of the majestic Hassan II Mosque, luxuriant and gigantic, dominated by a promenade that runs along the ocean.
We immediately depart to the capital Rabat.

I enjoyed the taste of Rabat, I really wanted to visit this great city of the Maghreb.
The royal palace with its order, the royal guards in full uniform, the Mosque of Mohammed V, the Kasbah of Medina Oudaïas but especially with its souq.

The souq always have a certain charm ... Thousands of labyrinthine alleys inspired by countless people who sell, buy, bargain, deal ... So many different smells, so many colors...
Kasbah, the ancient fort, struck me for its white-blue, Santorini-style ... Those alleys so narrow but delicious, with many picturesque views of the majestic ocean.
The visit of Meknes was very interesting, made so well from the explanations of our guide Bouchra.
Bouchra in Meknes, Khadija in Fes, gave me an idea and a picture of Moroccan women completely new. You breathe in the air this social change. See how aggressive, prepared and proud they are.

In Meknes we visited the medrasa, barns, stables Ismail, we got lost in his intriguing souq to end the dinner in the traditional Riad Bahia. Typical dinner of appetizers with chickpeas, eggplant and peppers, cooked with chicken tajine and so on.
The background was very ethnic and helped to create a gentle atmosphere so as to make us spend a pleasant evening

.

 

 

22. 11. 2010 Fes (MOROCCO)

Khadija shows us her hometown.
The souq is really complicated!

The thing that upset me, especially to my nostrils, was the tannery.
See all those guys with the body immersed in these circular tanks that have a putrid smell so strong and nauseating enough to convince us to use the sprigs of mint to find some relief.

The madrasa: the Koranic school where children are studying the Islamic holy book for 30/40 years.
Schools nicely decorated and very old!

[Nick]: "The initial skepticism for a desired departure time has turned into a joy for another road trip."

This place is very basic, but we like that!
The evening was made memorable by drums played by the youngsters of the place and by my guitar!

I was really funny playing the classic Italian songs involving the boys and their Berber drumsi.



"If I would travel with two other people, I would certainly have bought two other teachers. Choose what is good in the one to follow, and what is bad in the other to correct me."

- Confucius -

 

23. 11. 2010 Erg Chebbi (MOROCCO)

We travel a long way to go to Rissani with its market of spices but also sheep and donkeys. It was so funny to notice that donkeys were tied in an open space, some with the saddle, others without.


It's explained because the first were on sale while the other simply parked, as real car, at the price of 1 dirham per day, considering that donkey here is the means of transport used the most.

After wearing a Berber turban, aboard two jeeps, we meet our man of the desert in Merzouga: Omar and after a romantic tea in the desert, riding camels we dive into the Saharan atmosphere to reach our erg.

The silence of the desert, broken only by the muffled sound of footsteps of our camels is priceless ...

The crossing is quite difficult, our poor little ass is not struggling to keep pace with our ruminants friends ...

Almost two hours later we reach our tents!


The sun is just set when we lie to admire the stars illuminated only by two small candles and before the full moon appeared we take the opportunity to wander and admire the immensity of the sky ...

I was touched when, in silence, we put out the candles ... it was as if suddenly the sky was lit, lit up with its own light!

Later, sitting on a dune, I pulled the sums of the last period of my life ...

"Sunset in the desert. Alone on a dune. I think of you. The hands arched over my eyes. I see you. I close them. I hear you. "

- Pulce -


The meal eaten sitting around the campfire had a different taste, better, despite the usual chicken and vegetables in the tajine.

To end the evening we listened to the sound of the drums of our friends Salim and Yussef.

At 22.30, in our sleeping bags, all in one tent as never before, we share some tales of our lives...

 

 

 

 

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