Heading out of Casablanca, I thought it would be as easy as Marrakech. Wrong! Maybe Casablanca doesn’t want people to leave? Any signage was hard to see, and there was not much. NavFree seemed lost. How bad was it? I started with a 58km route, and after an hour had a 67km route. hahahaha. Took some psychic navigating as well as the TomTom maps on my BlackBerry to get onto the highway. Still, I got to see some of Mohammedia, I think.
Once onto the highway it was an easy run into Rabat. One stop for a bottle of water, and I was there.
Had a little scenic route through Rabat to the Archaeological Museum. Pity it was closed due to rennovation. Ironic? Or is that just me 🙂
Having experienced the trouble getting out of Cassablanca. I had booked a spot on the north side of the Bou Regreg, the river that flows into the Atlantic, by Rabat.
I quickly arrived at the medina in SALE and the next bit of fun started.
Rode into a narrow road, that quickly turned into an alleyway. I realised that I was one over, which was confirmed by a passer-by 🙂 Quickly arriving at where my riad was based, but no sign. I looked around, then moved along the street, checking. Nothing. So decided that maybe I was better off at the spot before entering the medina, and rode on. After all, mopeds were zipping through the medina.
Oooops. My bike with luggage is three times the width of a moped. Ran through the medina, knocking over a bunch of crates, which luckily were empty. Parking the bike was a bit tricky. I stopped on a safe spot to get off and was amazed to find that people just stepped up and re-stacked the crates that I had knocked down.
The whole place was crowded. but full of nice people. I would slow down for people. But more often people would make way for me.
Next adventure was riding through the gold souk. Think small indoor mall. Luckily the shops were closed, so the place was empty.
Then up a flight of steps and back onto a proper road that took me to my target spot
Had been using NavFree, TomTom and Google, without great success, getting to the medina. Even Google thought that I was south of the river, when even I could see that I was on the north shore. So, decided that I should call.
hahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Apparently no-one understood me. Neither French nor English. I was reduced to asking for the colour of the door. It really went downhill at that point. Luckily a motor cycle went by the riad and seconds later by me. Yaseem came out and found me. Job done.
Unpacked.
Showered.
Went down for supper.
A bowl of vegetable soup for supper. No bread.
With a couple from Chichester!!!
They were over for a few days. One of their daughters had come here. I was surprised to find there were flights direct from Gatwick. The couple were leaving at 5:30am, so I bid them farewell.
Made an entry in the blog.
Went to sleep.
Feeling better than I had in the last few days:)