Well tonight hasnt failed to be interesting. Dinner in a restaurant with views over the ancient city which shows few signs of tourism since the village gates were only opened to non muslims fifty years ago. This is an ancient pilgrammage site said to equal a visit to mecca if visited five times. No tourists enter here as its so far off the beaten path. Although im stared at i feel safer in the back alleys here at night than at home. Im accosted by people interested to talk and understand and consequently been invited in two days time to visit a man and his family and to stay with them in the southern foothills of the atlas mountains where they ajoin the desert plains. Should be fun. Tomorrow fez if everything has dried out from todays weather!
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On way to moulay idriss.
Here i am in a little village in the moroccan mountains, having just been conned out of 7 euro by the smartest kid! It took him two hours and was fun, worth every penny! I laughed the whole way through as he took me on a high speed guided tour in french, showed me where to buy a new sd card for my camera, then onto a cafe for coffee, he then told me he was worth 15 euro because he had protected me on the visit! We sat and haggled over the price then i gave him a note to get change, not expecting to see him again but he returned with perfect manners. All in all great fun. I wonder what tonight will bring let alone tomorrow!
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Morocco. How different from europe. Its the gateway to another world of, to us, inimaginable colours,smells and a vibrancy few of us carry in our daily lives. This adventure really begins in the docks in tangers where i pay a grease man 100dh to do the paperwork. He wants more but i make him laugh tell him a story about my mother giving birth to me and he eases the process and becomes helpful. The two german hells angels beside me are on a day trip and refuse to pay. Things turn awkward and nasty and they end up paying 300dh! Glad that although paying this money doesnt seem right i must have done the right thing! When we leave i tell them and we talk a while, i tell them tomorrow, this will be funny! I get lost in tanger but soon find help and saying al salaam alicombe seems to ease people. The wind is terrible from the atlantic and after an hour im exhausted, it was an incredible fraught battle to second guess its direction and stay upright but my target is a sea town of larache which i make by3pm. I ask directions to a hotel in french at a garage, ask people to write on my bike, to my amazement they cant write!
The hotel is good enough and we haggle the price down to 200dh a night, its ramadan here so i snooze a little and then explore at night. Its so busy, here day is night and night is day so as the sun goes down the business begins. I have dinner in a strange place which i can hardly eat but was worth trying, then a scam begins…ill tell you another day about this but i realise in the nick of time before the currupt police appear and manage to get out and away. I must wake up! Mint tea here is just incredible at the end of the day.
Today i wake and walk the town, befriended by a man who didnt belive we dont have donkeys to get around on in england! He begins to talk about islam and i think he was a bit extreme, he believed american jews ruled the world and this is the source of our problems. He spoke very well and was a calm intelligent man, but one day i must learn more abouthis faith to understand the premise of the discussion. The market…wow. Incredible, you can buy wheelchairs, segamega drives, goats heads, chickens, a range of colourful fruits that makes charlie and the chocolate factory look monochrome and then a fight breaks out between traders! I go to sit at the beach where a young boy about 12years old talks arabic french with me for about an hour. He asks me about allah and cant understand why i dont believe in allah. I realise this is a discussion i must be very careful not to offend. Very smart kid, and…a fight starts between his friends over a pushbike…kids stuff but time to move on. I liked him he was really clever andd keen to talk, speaking french, arabic and he tried to learn some english with real enthusiasm. I like it here, everyone seems very happy to talk and interested by life, theirs and mine.
I wanted to see the atlantic sunset again but sleep through it waking for the call to prayer. Pizza and omlette and more fantastic mint tea. The waiter again is really keen to talk and discuss and also protects me from the street folk with quite a lot of vigour! Tomorrow i leave to go inland and hopefully away from the wind. Speak soon!
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In mojacar on wednesday i visited the solar farm where they grow new suns! It was very interesting n i was lucky and got a personal tour in a buggy by the cutest spanish girl ive ever seen, she was funny and an absolute joy to be with, then on to a film set from the speghetti westerns which was torid rubbish for 16.5 euro! yesterday…i left mojacar about 11 heading for the sierra navada mountains and was prepared for a ride but not the sore bum from 140 miles in 6 hours! Still an incredible ride with beer in a small village where i mingled with the locals admirably and raised a few smiles. The camp site was high above granada and at night as the city gave off its daily heat, the night lights shimmered. The next day i was in alhambra which is a confused place with its modern gardens and trinket shops mixed with centuries of moorish architecture. Quite splendid though. Again i wonder what we leave behind us that will be viewed as having the same etherial intangible value by our future relatives. I suspect we have little to be proud of that will last the test of time and denotes true quality.
So in the afternoon i visited granada town, a bustling place at the end of a quite walk through a parade of trees and parkland. Attacked by gypsies selling twigs for no apparent reason! Saturday i begin another run through the mountains to ronda and meet 6 bikers for a chat. They tell me its fiesta day in ronda and i think this is a good thing! The roads through the mountains are so tight i cant do better than 25mph the turns are blind steep cambered and hot all in all a real experience! The fiesta has started and i need to cross town to get to the site…impossible! Around the outskirts i find a route and then go into the fiesta, its so lively, so busy, so tight and full of beautiful girls in flamenco dresses and fit tanned men to make me jealous! supper of prans and ham and inevitably…beer. I decide to stay an extra day here while im drinking and the moon rises…it only moves when im not watching…the bugger…
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So im in mazzarron south east spain, had a haircut in catagena n now 3 stone lighter, that could be the brown poo bear that waves goodbye constantly at the moment though. Makes my t shirts look good n tight tho. Im wishing barney poo bear would go away now tho. Im still going south but the heat makes riding hard work n the coastal breeze cools but causes a handelbar fight. Lovely roads by the nationals, albeit they are twisty n fun. Stopped by the police today which cost me 65euro ‘overtaking not allowed’ no warning just guns n stern faces. Even when you pay they dont smile! Apparently they gave me a 30% discount for cooperation!! Still smile n carry on huh! Ive been relaxed all day, but about 4pm got all stressy about nothing…one of those days when i have to remind myself how lucky i really am. Last night met steve, a three time convict of belgium and english prisons for fraud, abh, n strangelling a copper. You know when you reach the costa del crime when ex cons buy you beer but never pay the bill! Also met melanie and did a five minute impromptu salsa show for the guests with her, very funny n stayed up till 2am chatting, unfortatly the bar closed at midnight. French accents, busoms n blonde hair….cooooor!!! Add speak french to my list of attributes for next girlfriend!
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Oh dear, poo valve broken i think! Can you look on ebay for a new one? Size small, colour brown, must have less than 20000 on the clock…
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Cold gone, random pooing continues tho but feeling much better. Generally ok although could do with a good laundry service as washing machines seem to be poo out here!
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The red rocks and scorching heat have given way to a landscape of mountains that fall into the sea and a dirty brown dust that covers everything. This end of Spain is known as Europes green house and how obvious this is when you see the fields of decaying structures used to farm Europes tomatoes. They are some of the largest developments you will see, forced in between the mountain valleys but in such a state of disrepair as to look like the shards of a ghosts veil. Their age is told in the colour of the fabrics, the deeper the brown dust has infiltrated the older they are.
Tower cranes abound around the coastline, development here equals any big English city, Ive never seen a concentration like it, other than in Andorra where nothing can be built in the valley floor without them.
Saw my first snake, an enormous green thing moving so fast I could barely keep track of it, there are many of lizards, each watching for a moth or fly to get just a little too close, cacti are dotted around the roadside and I forgot to mention … paraqueets everywhere! What a noise they make, its akin to a car alarm! I saw today an almond grove being harvested by a vibrating tractor which was interesting for me but incredibly boring for the farmer!
Ive not managed to get into the rythm of Spain. Usually, within a day or two the towns and their layout combine with the native way of life to create a rythm you can feel and get used to. For me here, each town is an individual, each layout unique and every time I stop, the task to find the shops and services I need is a drawn out affair. The siesta thing is predictable, but then some shops never reopen! Every post office has different opening times and then they only open for only an hour a day!
Now you know why there are no new photos!
Only the bars are dependable, but even they close early in the evening.
Still, in five days time…Morrocco - in another new hat!
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