March 09, 2023

What an amazing trip! The morning started with Assmaa preparing a wonderful breakfast for us, with eggs from the own chickens, self-baked bread and a fresh salad and coffee and tea.

The bread was still warm, beautifully wrapped in a white linen cloth.

We exchanged email addresses and WhatsApp numbers, as we wanted to stay in contact.

Then we had to pack and leave. One of the very friendly workers that Assmaa had engaged to build a set of outside stairs insisted on helping me with carrying my bike cases to the bike.

The next somewhat dramatic action was to drive the bikes up the slippery slope, about 150 meters, about 20 degrees steep upwards, wet from the morning dew. That's were we tipped over when we arrived here. 

After lots of very heart-going good-byes with Assmaa and the workers, Omar drove my bike up the slope, because it is much lighter than the Adventure. That worked out well. He then came back down to drive his Adventure up the hill. That turned out to be a bit more difficult and adventurous. One of the workers and I held the bike stable at the back when Omar started. ¾ up the hill he wanted to stop on the right side of the gravel slope, on some grassy patch. That was a mistake, as we found out quickly. The grass was so slippery-slimy that the bike broke out left, right and center with its back wheel. The worker and I were able to prevent a tipping over, though, and Omar made it with his artistic skills to get to the top of the road. 

There we said good-bye again and left Assmaa's farm, left turn onto the next gravel road, steep down the hill, still gravel, with a sharp curve to the right at the end. Second gear, slowly, slowly, ONLY with the foot brake, NEVER with the hand brake! We made it, passing cows and goats and people on the road, when suddenly Assmaa passed us with her car. She was very worried and said that the road is quite dangerous. So, she took the lead, making way for the two bikers from Germany, until she found the main road for us, for a last good-bye.

Off we drove to our next adventure: Marrakesh. I had no idea about Marrakesh. On our way, we passed the outskirts of Casablanca. We found a quite dense traffic on the highway. Omar told me about the madness to drive in that mega-city (six million people live there). We saw quite a few slums along the highway, unimaginable how people live there. I got quite humble, coming from a land of luxury and wealth. 

After an hours drive I got hungry, and we stopped at one of the highway service stations. Very clean, very well maintained, the usage of the restrooms is free.

Omar received so many phone calls from friends and relatives that out intercom was quite often interrupted. "Omar is coming to town!" - that seemed to be the message.

Later on that day I experienced, how many people Omar knows in Marrakesh. It feels as if he knows have of the population. Well, at least the important ones, as the chief of police, a car rental service owner, or the owner of a street kitchen on the market place.

This is a picture of one or the many very nice service stations. I was able to order my stuff myself, as some French language knowledge can back to mind.

The petrol priced are quite reasonable. You divide the dinar price roughly by 10 to get the Euro-value. So, Super petrol is about 1,44 € per liter.

This blog entry is to be continued later on. It is 01:30 am now and I am very tired. But watch this space, there is mot more to come.

Then we reached Marrakesh. Thats where the stress started. Omar guided me towards the appartment he had booked, by riding through the rush hour traffic of the city. Man, what a chaos. People just drive whereever they want, in crazy speed, changing lanes at will. You are on top surrounded by hundreds of scooters that zigzag between the cars in breathtaking maneuvers.  This is just crazy.

Thanks god and Omar, he has rented a car for our stay here.  The car rental owner is just another of Omars gazillion friends and contacts. 

The contract is made on the road, next to the wild traffic.

With that Peugeot we took off at night to anyther great and beautiful and mind-blowing madness: the central market.  Here some impressions.

Really nice dresses here. That was good quality stuff.

For locals, not tourists: wedding dresses

I could have bought spices for hours, but we only passed by. No space on our bikes.

The place is packed full of people, at any time or day.

These guys have lots of resonance. People stand in crouds around these musicions

Another one of the many people Omar knew. He owns one of these stunning cookshops. There are hundreds of them, but Omar wanted to go to this specific one, because he knows the guy. Well, it was worth the effort. Really good food, and lots of things to see.

THis is the place the guy above owns. Very simple sitting arrangements, great food.

The whole area is sitting in a cloud of cooking steam, charcoal grill smoke and the mouth-watering smells of exotic food

Just look at the offerings! Beautifully presented.

Just to be on the safe side, we didn't eat any sausages or hand-made sauces, as I didn't want to get sick.

So, I took fish and Omar had stewed beef. The braised beef comes from earthenware pots that sit for hours on some charcoal grill type of carts. In fancy circles of Europe one calls this method "slow cooking".

What an experience to be in the middle of such a seething crowd of people.