We drove in the dark through fertile plains to Tarifa to catch the ferry to Morocco. Lots of alfalfa and cotton, umbrella pines and this is also the area where Caballa Blanco ( the dancing horses) come from. It was interesting to see lots of wind turbines as we neared the coast. At the ferry we had our first taste of bribing! That was Miguel to get our passports stamped quickly. A few extra dirhams work wonders!
Sabah al khair! We had a smooth crossing to Tangiers and our local guide in Morocco is Khalid. Morocco ( El Magreb)has been a Muslim country since the 9th century with a dynasty of kings since the 17th century. The present king, Mohammed 6 th has modernised Morocco eg introduction of votes for women and divorce. Islam is the official religion but others are allowed and non- Muslims cannot go into the mosques.Polygamy is still practised with 4 wives allowed and many women still wear the jellaba. Morocco has remained authentic and both Arabic and French are spoken and surprisingly, more English is spoken than in Spain. Temperatures can get up to 48 degrees (not at the moment), it is a comfortable 25 degrees and about 30% humidity.
Tangiers had 1 million people and was rather scruffy with lots of unfinished blocky buildings. Apparently you don't have to pay tax if your house is unfinished! Morocco's population is 32 million with 5 million head of sheep! Under the French regime schooling is only compulsory from 6-12 years. As expected the landscape is very brown and dry and there is a lot of rubbish everywhere, especially plastic. There don't seem to be any fences and there were lots of herders with sheep, goats and cattle and crops of melon, strawberries, peanuts, sugarcane, and citrus fruit where irrigation was available.. Agriculture looks quite primitive eg ploughing with horses and lots of horses and carts and donkeys. The villages we drove through were terribly scruffy and the meat just hanging by the dirty roadside made me gag! Don't you love the photo of the butchers in a roadside stop we made! I also bartered for some pomegranates. You don't see many women, but there seem to be lots of men lounging around in the villages. As we climbed into the hills the soil seemed to improve and much of the land was cultivated but not yet planted.
We had a very long drive today . Fez is 5 hours from Tangiers so I had a swim in this lovely pool as soon as we arrived. We are staying in a very sumptuous hotel called Zalagh Park Palace. Tomorrow we go to the Medina and its bazaars with a traditional Moroccan evening at night.
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