We all said a fond farewell to Marrakech – having had a fantastic weekend there with our fly-in visitors. Thanks for joining us, it’s definitely a treat to have some folk from the first world for a bit! Neil and Mikaela drove via Casablanca to drop Richard and Chippy off at the airport, as they were flying back to SA early the next morning. After a pricey beer for the men, a tear or two for the ladies, Maude continued on to Rabat; sadly two passengers down. We met up with the Mr Bling just before Rabat and headed to our campsite (Camping Rabat in Sale) for the evening. It was now about 8 o clock and dark and we circled around the spot that our GPS had directed us to – nothing! After asking a local if he knew where the site was he told us that it had recently been demolished. We searched the coast line for suitable camping spots and were very limited in our choice but eventually found something far from ideal but it would have to suffice.
The next two days in Rabat were focussed on getting our visas – we managed to get our Mauritanian and Malian visas, so it was successful in that sense. If you’re ever in the area doing the same thing, definitely treat yourself to delicacies from the fantastic bakery down the road. Really helped us to get through the laborious task of waiting for visas! We also dropped into the SA embassy and briefly meet the troops there. It’s always great to ‘praat die taal’, have a name and number in case of emergency and we got some good shots of the fantastic World Cup paraphernalia that had been sent to the Embassy.
The weather we have been experiencing has been fairly extreme, to say the least – high winds and loads of rain. This does not make for happy campers! We pressed on to Essaouira in search of the surf spot the guide books eluded to. No surfers or kite surfers were crazy enough to be braving the rough seas that presented us. Essaouira was a short break for us and we chilled out – due to the terrible storms we stayed indoors most of the time – eating, drinking and catching up on the internet! The roads have been flooded and we couldn’t get back to our campsite on the final night, but luckily there was an alternative road that got us there in the end. It was time to head south – out of the storms and in to the sunshine.
