He Says- A Spaniard, a couple of Kiwis, a Roman and Dutchman were in a bar…….

04 – 07 September 09

We left Fez for the small Berber town of Azrou, and to meet up with some Kiwis that we met on the ferry. In true Two-up style we got lost and road around Fez for at least an hour before finding the correct road. Then in true Moroccan style the road just ended. The map showed it was one road and straight on but we were at a T-junction with no signs. We were lost again but this time only about 10km from our destination.

We had a 50/50 chance…we “chose poorly”, however the “alternative” route we took was though the hills and was stunning in a bleak-moonscape-wasteland way. When we first got to town neither Tam nor I was impressed and we where not sure we wanted to stay. But after driving around for a good while looking for somewhere that would give us food in this time of Ramadan we started to see things we liked. Eventually we found a nice hotel and Anubis’s 2nd night in a hotel (this time in the closed pool hall!). We enjoyed one of the better and cheapest meal to date and have found that we both really like it here.

The following days we went to Ain Leuh for lunch with the NZ couple that we met on the ferry from Spain. We spent the day just talking about what it is like to live and work in Morocco. They are self-funded volunteers at a children’s home and have been living here for 1 year and are contracted for 1 more. We had a nice lunch and chat.
The charity they worked for was trying to raise children of unwed mothers in a home instead of the streets. It seem that this brings shame to the family and is a officially ignored problem by the Islamic state because it is against the Koran, and so nothing is done for these kids that CAN’T exist.

After our nice meal and talk we shot up to Volubilis. We spent the night at our first Moroccan campsite. It was a bit like returning home, I had no idea how much I had decided that the tent was our home. I slept better then I have in weeks, and really just liked being back in the tent. It probably helped that there was no one else at the site except a Dutch couple, hence no nocturnal Ramadan parties goings on. The site itself could have been amazing there was lots of trees and shade and the building housed a pool, a couple of terraces, a garden and what could have been a Mosque. But they had let the place fall to ruin and did not clean anything so there was a dirty air to everything.

Volubilis is one of the largest remaining ancient Roman cities in the world, covering about 40 hectares with about ½ of it excavated. We arrived there about 1300h the next day after driving to Meknes to go shopping in a supermarket. The supermarket was just like being back in Europe, including the cost! It was actually cheaper to eat out. As normal as soon as our tyres turned in to the parking area at Volubilis someone was directing us and touting something. The same scene was repeated as we passed thought the gates. A chorus of “Bon Jour, You need guide?..Big city very important guide?” followed us into the city. As Murphy dictates, as soon as we got there it started to cloud up and we could just see that we would once again be shooting grey rock on grey skies, just like we were back in England.

Despite the clouds we spent 5 hours wandering the city. There was enough excavated that we could really get a feel for what the city must have looked like. It boasts some of the largest and most intact mosaics in the world. As you can imagine Tam was firing away. Like a madness had over come her. You really could get an idea of how the city would have looked and operated. Unfortunately there was something that caused a lack of WOW! Two years ago we had gone to Tunisia to a site called Dougga, another of the largest Roman cities, and perhaps this had an effect or maybe we have fallen for our old pattern of moving too much too fast and really need to take a break. What ever it was Volubilis is an amazing site. On our way out there was two bus and 3 4x4 loads of Spanish teenagers in the café. The wait staff where running around and we sat back and watch the mayhem for a while before heading back to the campground.