The Mysteries of Morocco
Dispatch XXVIII
A Vagabond’s Adventure. Continent # 3: Africa
Traveling From England to Morocco
Algeciras, Spain May 26 – day 242 - 71º Sunny
Once in South Hampton, England we took a breath before booking it south in the hopes of beating Morocco’s summer heat. For awhile, we did, and then we didn’t. But more on that later.
The Queen Mary II had done its job and gotten us to Great Britain in fine style the morning of May 22. Two days later we were fighting the throngs in that magnificent brick and glass rail station, St. Pancras, and soon aboard (after much Brexit mayhem in customs) the first of four high speed trains. The Chunnel took us to Paris, then, after an hour of mangled conversations with SCNF (the French Railway company), two tickets to Perpignan, France before turning southwest to Madrid and finally making it to the little town of Algeciras at the bottom end of Spain; 1500 long miles through the southwestern edges of Europe in case anyone was counting.
After all of that, we were now a mere half hour bus ride to Tarifa, an ancient town that has been Europe’s gateway to Africa for centuries. From there we would board a ferry to Tangier and land, at last, on the solid ground of the Dark Continent.
St. Pancras International Railway Station, London - Packed with humans.
I had been looking forward to this day for years and the idea of finally making it across the Straits of Gibraltar (the Pillars of Hercules to the ancients) had me giddy with excitement. The modern Kingdom of Morocco was created in August 1956, but its roots go far deeper. To me it was one of those fabled countries, a place of mystery and enchantment where men in their djeelabas and and women in their hijabs walked the clamoring markets; where descendants of Neanderthals had migrated from Africa into Europe and Hannibal had massed his armies for an assault on the Roman Empire; where the Moors and Celts, Phoenicians, Portuguese and Spanish had changed and exchanged the fortunes of millions again and again whether it was the caliphates of Islam pouring into Andalusian Spain or Franco raising his fascist army before cutting that nation in two and auguring the slaughter of World War II. Indeed Spain and Morocco were in many ways kindred, if uneasy, cousins despite living on separate continents and being separated by two religions long at one another’s throats. To me that only made Morocco’s imminent arrival more intriguing. We were ready … except now there was a problem.
Heading south from London through the vineyards and farmlands of France and Spain.
It was at breakfast the morning we were to depart Algeciras that we got word that cash, and cash only, must be used to buy the local bus ticket to Tarifa. I was carrying a single Euro in my pocket. Now I had a half an hour to solve the problem and began madly combing the town in search of an ATM, or some bank or a Bureau of Exchange. Nothing. I returned to the hotel lobby, dejected and Euro-less, when a young lady we had spoken to earlier at the front desk said she had arranged special permission at the bus station (right next door) allowing us to pay for our tickets with a credit card. I wanted to kiss the woman (inappropriate) so instead I spat out a, “Muchas gracias” way too loudly and way too many times before (much to her relief, I’m sure) we heaved up our bags and walked to the bus station next door. In two minutes we had the tickets in hand.
Tarifa
The ride to Tarifa swung us at a leisurely pace through the suburbs of Algeciras and over a mountain pass, down twisting roads and then to a ridge where I beheld the Straits of Gibraltar, and beyond, the vast continent of Africa – home to humanity.
As the bus swung onto a ridge above Tarifa, I could make out the Straits of Gibraltar and the coast of the African continent.
The grandness of this vision disappeared when our bus pulled into a little parking lot and we were all unceremoniously instructed to depart. It turned out that we were not to be dropped at the ferry station, but simply deposited somewhere in the middle of the town to be hopelessly lost the moment we stepped off the bus. I blundered through some bad Spanish and asked the driver, “Donde esta ferry??”
More than once this bus driver had surely heard some clueless tourist ask this question, and his response was to vaguely wave his hands in the general direction of the Mediterranean, then, suddenly say in perfect English, “You may get a taxi."
Well yeah, I thought, if I knew where to find one and I spoke fluent Spanish.
We stood in the Andalusian heat and looked around. A young woman, Norwegian I think, tried to help us find a taxi. She pulled out her phone and in her best, but not great, Spanish failed to get help. And then suddenly she departed because her our own taxi showed up. (She was heading INTO Spain, not out.) Cyn and I snatched at our phones and jabbed at Apple Maps. Maybe we could walk. How far away could the ferry be? After much tapping and swiping, we finally located the ferry office, and ourselves in relation to it. We were a mile apart.
We began walking into winds gusting 40 miles an hour. This did not help our progress. Tarifa is a classic beach town with small shops festooned inside and out with caps, towels, fast food and beach paraphernalia of every kind, all of which would have been perfectly at home along Mission Beach in San Diego or a Jersey Shore boardwalk. In the brilliant sun the buildings looked as bright and colorful as Edward Hopper paintings. We dragged ourselves over cobble-stoned backstreets and followed Apple Maps down a long hill to the town’s ancient castle and then into the docks where with amazing speed we filled out our paperwork, showed our tickets and made it through security to await the ferry.
We boarded the ferry to Tangier. Across the street sat the Castle of Tarifa, built in 960 by Abd-ar-Rahman III, Caliph of Córdoba, a sign that for 500 years the Moors once ruled much of Spain.
At last, I thought, we’ll make it. The plan was to spend the next three weeks there, where, I hoped, we’d get a proper dose of the place. Our explorations of North America — Newfoundland, the American West, El Chepe, the Baja 1000, Vancouver and Victoria had all been wonderful, but I was looking forward to getting outside our element, exploring a culture and world that wasn’t as rooted in the Western European/North American zeitgeist we had been experiencing the previous six months.
Suddenly for reasons I still can’t precisely explain, I became concerned about passing through Moroccan security. Irrational fears that our bags would be upended and everything in them thoroughly scoured arose. There was no reason for this except that anytime I pass from one country to another my guts get to rumbling. We had nothing to fear except the world’s bureaucrats, often determined to prove their importance by fussing with some senseless detail or other designed to ruin your day. I knew they could do plenty of damage in any language when they wanted to. But once we boarded and the ship pulled into the Straits, I reminded myself to focus on the sleek, clean ferry and enjoy an hour of quiet as we churned toward the minarets and ancient walls of Tangier.
Arriving in the fabled city of Tangier, founded as a Phoenician trading post 3000 years ago.
All of my concerns were meritless. We passed through customs with ‘nary a raised eyebrow. All of the work with passports was taken care of on the ship - efficiently handled by three Moroccan customs agents who sat in their neat uniforms behind plexiglass counters. On debarkation we strolled into and out of the ferry building with nothing more than a desultory wave from security, and passed into the broad parking lot to find the driver we had arranged (with Frontiers Travel in Pittsburgh), holding a sign with the name WALTER on it.
You may call me wimp for arranging a driver in Morocco, but there were good reasons for it. Not only was my high school French abysmal (French is one of Morocco’s official languages), but my Arabic, together with its Semitic alphabet (اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ), which I knew would be plastered on every road sign throughout the country, was non-existent. Without someone who spoke some English, we’d be as lost as orphans. So I was grateful for Jabriel, our driver, as he stood in the stiff breeze like a sentry. I immediately sensed we were in good hands. As we walked toward him, as if on cue, I heard the adhān (Muslim call to prayer) echo across the docks from a nearby mosque. The words rung out in Arabic …
“Allah is Great! I bear witness that there is no diety worthy of worship but Allah. I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. Hasten to prayer. Hasten to success. Prayer is better than sleep. Allah is the greatest. There is no diety worthy of worship but Allah.”
Yes, we had arrived in Morocco.
Jabriel, a delightful but reserved man, long of frame and silver-haired, preferred speaking French or Spanish or Arabic, but was passable enough in English to chat a bit and get us to our hotel, the El Minzah. The El Minzah is one of Tangier’s most famous accommodations, home at various times to the likes of Omar Sharif, Aristotle Onassis, Yves Saint Laurent, Rita Hayworth, Richard Harris, Oscar Wilde, Roger Moore, Allen Ginsberg, Paul Bowles, Ralph Fiennes, Henri Matisse and Andre Guide. Maybe the El Minzah’s best days were behind it now, but it was hardly a dump. I loved it’s style. It reminded me a bit of an aging movie star. Still handsome and graceful with great bones. A concierge paraded us around the grounds in stately fashion, and I walked with my head on a swivel taking in the pool outside with its great sweeping palms and olive trees below a carpet of emerald green grass, the terrace where you could have fruit and mint tea or a handcrafted cocktail brought to you by hushed waiters dressed in short dark suits, and beyond that a restaurant with broad French doors that opened to a spectacular view of the Straits that ancient humans had somehow navigated 400,000 years earlier.
Views of the El Minzah Hotel, Tangier - The entrance, our bellman, the room and gardens
I felt as though we had stepped back into the 1930s and wondered if Humphrey Bogart or Lauren Bacall might walk by. Soon our bellman, decked out in his kandresse and fez was leading us along its corridors where we quickly settled into our generous room, and prepared to prowl the streets to see what trouble we might get into.
Scarves, sunglasses, djellabas, takchitas, qandrissi trousers and …
The trouble we found was the Diblu Restaurant near Tangier’s docks. We had walked the city’s steep steps past small eateries and shops wreathed with colorful scarves, sunglasses, djellabas, takchitas, qandrissi trousers, pipes, slippers, shirts, you name it. Moroccans are an entrepreneurial lot and I quickly learned stores and markets are everywhere. The Diblu was the right place for a couple of famished Americans. The restaurant was a local hangout, and our proprietor/waiter greeted us with a gleaming smile, coaxing us in excellent English to relax and sit down. He was a tidy, small young man with piercing black eyes. He moved so quickly I thought there might be cloned versions of him as he laid down a menu, bottled water and mint tea. Soon he deposited a huge, uncooked white fish on a broad platter in front of us. "Very fresh! You eat this,” he said, his teeth sparkling against the black sandpaper of his beard, “and I promise you'll be back tomorrow."
We gave it a thumbs up and the meal was absolutely delicious. Spectacular food is common in Morocco. We would learn that soon enough. Meanwhile, as we wolfed down the meal, our host taught us a couple of Arabic phrases which we slipped into our back pockets: Inshallah - a greeting or way of saying be well; literally “God is good or may God be with you.” Salaam - “hello.” And Shukrann with a touch of an “ah” at the end for “thank you.” They would, I hoped, come in handy for our upcoming explorations of Tangier the next day.
In the meantime, crack on!
Your Vagabonds,
C-Squared
This is a series about a Vagabond’s Adventures - journalist and National Geographic Explorer Chip Walter and his wife Cyndy’s effort to capture their experience exploring all seven continents, all seven seas and 100+ countries, never traveling by jet.
As of this Dispatch …
We have so far travelled 20,250 miles, across 8 ferries, one transatlantic ship, on 12 trains, visiting six World Heritage Sites, through 30 states, 17 National Parks and monuments and seven countries, in 88 different beds, and run through more keys than a grand piano.
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Recommendations
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With nearly two decades of experience designing private travel to Morocco, we want to share our excitement and passion for this unique destination with you. We want to enchant, challenge, and inspire curious travelers. Let us design a customized itinerary that reflects your interests but also, hopefully, surprises you with unforgettable experiences that only we can arrange.”