Rabat-Marrakech
25.11.2018
I am at the Razoli Hostel in Rabat. The interior of the hostel is decorated with Arabic paintings and patterns and I really feel like a sheik in this house. But the very best part is the sleeping room on the rooftop on the terrace. It is only on three sides surrounded by walls and the fourth side is open. So you can watch all over the city while lying in bed. And you’re basically sleeping outside.
I am spending most of the time updating my website. The host asks me to take good pictures of the hostel and I agree. So half of the day I spend taking pictures of this newly renovated house with its coloured glass windows.
After two days, I finally hit the road again. I am driving to Casablanca, all along a nice street along the coast. In the middle of the way I meet another cyclist. Colin is from Canada and we already met on the way between Fes and Moulay Idriss.
So we decide to cycle together to Casablanca. At noon, we meet Gina, who I know from a hostel in Madrid, and her friends and they invite us for a couscous.
We are having a good time together and then, Colin and I hit the road again.
Both of us have been cycling in morocco for quite a time and we start playing a game. For every dog attack, the dog team gets a point. For every dead dog next to the street, we get a point. It’s currently 7:5 for me. I know this might sound scary but after the second dog chasing you and nights when you can’t sleep because of the dogs, you just don’t like dogs anymore.
We spend the night on a campground near Mohammedia and the next day we arrive in Casablanca. You might have a beautiful city in mind. With white houses, romantic boulevards and quiet cafés. Wrong. Casa, as the locals call it, is an overcrowded, dirty industrial city. There are lots of old trucks, the buildings aren’t really aesthetic, and there is a lot of traffic. The only things to see is the big mosque and Rick’s Café. This is where we are now. It was built long after the release of the film “Casablanca”, which was entirely shot in Hollywood. But it is a perfect rebuild. The waiters wear uniforms and we are not allowed to take our cameras inside. Holding my Gopro in my palm, we take a seat at the bar and drink a beer.
I am not very good at hiding my cam and the guy at the cashier gets a little upset because of this. I promise that I will delete the video and pretend to do so. The bartender is much more relaxed about this and tells me, there’s nothing wrong with it, the guy just doesn’t like the new media.
And as I am talking to the two of them in Arabic, we soon have a nice conversation and everything is already forgotten.
We then head off again, at Collins hostel, we say goodbye again and then I drive off in direction of Marrakech.
I haven’t yet made much distance yet as I realize that a big, black SUV is following me. He keeps the same speed as me and he doesn’t take any chances to overtake me. I am worried and just hope it’s not the police. I stop at the side of the road but the driver waves and smiles at me and signs me to continue. He’s obviously guarding me. At a calm part of the road he stops in front of me, steps out of the car, and surprise, he offers me a to take from a box with finest deserts.
We start the usual Smalltalk, who I am, where I am going, and where I will sleep tonight. Another Suv stops and two other men who obviously know the driver step out. His business partners as he explains to me.
At this moment, I didn’t yet know, that this is the begin of a long friendship and that I will stay with his family the next days
The name of the driver is Sayd. He is a man who started to work in trading in self-reliance as he and his business partner got fired. He is a very generous man, has some dirhams for every beggar he meets and is always nice and kind to people of every kind. And he is polygam as he proudly explains to me. He has two wives, two houses, two families, four children.
The first evening, he takes me to his second family where his new-born daughter leaves the chamber for the first time. This is celebrated with all kinds of sweets, tea and surrounded by the whole family.
A little later he takes me and his partner to a country club nearby and I feel like wrong placed with my dirty pants and the old jacket. But the Moroccans don’t make any problems, where no problems are and we are warmly welcomed and spend a few time there. After that we go to the Family of his partner. They are roasting some chicken in an oven which is built right in the earth of the garden.
After a late night dinner, we go to his first home and then we sleep a long time. His first wife Maina is a very nice person and a super chef. She prepares some traditional breakfast and after that I and Sayd leave in order to meet a client of him. His client is a sage guy and he is a thai-boxer like me. So we have a lot to talk about. It starts already to rain and I thought that we would now go back and I will hit the road again. Instead we end up in a Hammam and getting a massage.
The following days, I am taken to a business tour with Sayd and his partner, we visit Casablanca and the great Mosque and he even takes me to a West African market to ask people out about road safety and everything concerning possible difficulties on my trip.
One night I remember especially was, when we were at his partner’s house, lot of people, lots of children. We got served some meat with dates and after that, kind of thin spaghetti, covered with almonds, cinnamon and sugar.
I hear a noise from the kitchen, the women are drumming with spoons on the cooking pot in a very fast, rhythmic way. One black girl is dancing to the music. I just take out my camera and make a video. The party is now in the living room and suddenly I am in the middle. A woman pulls me on the dance floor and wants me to dance. So I do. I just imitate the black girl and people start laughing and clapping. All cooking pots now serve as drums. I add some Michael Jackson moves and then when I get out of breath, they still want me to continue.
Finally they stop and we say goodbye to them.
I am having a very good time talking with sayd and all the people, playing with the children, seeing many places and then finally it is the morning to say goodbye to them. Sayd escorts me to the road which leads to Marrakech and there we say goodbye. I will miss him and his family and I think I just saw some tears in his eyes. We wave goodbye and I promise to write him from time to time.
The next two and a half days I make over 240km, resting on the properties offarmer families and get invited to dinner and breakfast and then I finally arrive in Marrakech.