A new adventure to Africa

[Riverbankannie]

I’ve still not been caught speeding, rather the Gendarmerie Royale caught me for crossing a solid white line! I did it overtaking a slow car on a very nice bit of fresh tarmac with great line of sight, and only crossed it about 10m too early. Fiddlesticks knows how they saw me but they had a speed trap round the next s-bend

Classic by Morrocan police, got us that way. I am beginning to think they bribe a local with a slow car to drive up and down tempting the overtake

 

[Riverbankannie]

A free app Adobe Photoshop Mix on ipad soon sorts that out!

 

[Helen Ariel]

A free app Adobe Photoshop Mix on ipad soon sorts that out!

View attachment 863930


View attachment 863927

Google pixel has the magic eraser and I do use it on telephone wires when they ruin a photo

 

[Helen Ariel]

They probably throw a lot of it down too. The rubbish was one of the most upsetting things in Morocco. They actually drove it down to the beaches and buried it in the sand in some places , other places it was thrown in the woods..

Crazy

But then there's a fair bit of rubbish dumped in Greece too and here in Turkey

It’s really upset me on this trip, actually more than the strays thing which surprised me. I mean that upset me a lot but I was prepared for that and I was pleasantly surprised by the healthy condition of the vast majority of animals I saw and that locals do feed them and I never saw any aggression or active cruelty but the rubbish problem was endemic and endless. I can see that it’s not the individual peoples fault as there is obviously no organised waste system in Morocco and most people in Morocco are incredibly poor and living in what we would consider shanty town conditions so unfortunately the environment isn’t a priority when food and shelter are.

I really hope that as Morocco becomes more developed and builds on their tourism that the government will start to tackle the waste problem. We tried to do our bit by bringing our own bags whenever we bought stuff and mentioning to locals in tourist spots that we love the country but are sad about the plastic everywhere.

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

A lot of the plastic waste appeared to be plastic bottles. The 1 litre and 0.5 litre bottle sizes. Everywhere. Plus lots of broken glass in the remotest of places.
We always managed to find a rubbish bin but nothing seems to be recycled apart from the 5 litre water containers which are generally reused for storing olives etc. I had it in mind to write a letter to the King to point the rubbish issue out. All the "Royal" palaces we drove past were immaculate .neat gardens and not a single piece of rubbish anywhere.

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[CaptainPaul]

A few visitors to us this morning, all tagged, all looking healthy & happy and thankfully no litter in sight

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

A few visitors to us this morning, all tagged, all looking healthy & happy and thankfully no litter in sight
[Broken Link Removed]

But they still have fleas m8y.

 

[Dutch 68]

I find a lot of places in Spain too with lots of rubbish lying around, it gets me going past a really nice house/villa and there’s a load of trash outside it and it’s probably the owners that’s put it there, seems out of sight out of mind as long as it’s not in their four walls…

The littering in the UK is horrendous too, for a cleaner experience you need the likes of Luxembourg Switzerland and Austria , plus big parts of Germany are very clean, people attitude stinks, I hate littering with a passion

 

[jongood]

You shou

They probably throw a lot of it down too. The rubbish was one of the most upsetting things in Morocco. They actually drove it down to the beaches and buried it in the sand in some places , other places it was thrown in the woods..

Crazy

But then there's a fair bit of rubbish dumped in Greece too and here in Turkey

You should see India, unbelievable in places. Cattle grazing of burst rubbish bags in the street.

 

[Helen Ariel]

A lot of the plastic waste appeared to be plastic bottles. The 1 litre and 0.5 litre bottle sizes. Everywhere. Plus lots of broken glass in the remotest of places.
We always managed to find a rubbish bin but nothing seems to be recycled apart from the 5 litre water containers which are generally reused for storing olives etc. I had it in mind to write a letter to the King to point the rubbish issue out. All the "Royal" palaces we drove past were immaculate .neat gardens and not a single piece of rubbish anywhere.

Do it. I've left some negative Google reviews on some of the natural park places and was wondering about writing to someone official. I will be doing my best to reduce the plastic I produce when here.

Re bins yes there are bins but then they seem to take them out into the countryside between towns and dump it in the open or river gullys where it washes or blows across a huge expanse of land. They also periodically set fire to the piles to reduce their size

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[Helen Ariel]

The littering in the UK is horrendous too, for a cleaner experience you need the likes of Luxembourg Switzerland and Austria , plus big parts of Germany are very clean, people attitude stinks, I hate littering with a passion

I used to think that but after seeing Morocco we are not bad at all and ours is mostly in around towns. Here it's far and wide in huge volumes in places where it will just keep going out to sea eventually

 

[PaulW2]

The plastic waste is a global problem, especially now in less developed nations.

It's estimated that 8 million tonnes a year are washed into the oceans from 10 rivers - 8 in Asia and 2 (the Nile and the Niger) in Africa.

That's quite a neat statistic with a global population of 8 billion - it's about a kilogram per person per year. There's a further 20 to 30% of the total that comes from marine sources (fishing nets etc).

I remember in 2001 commuting to Germany a bit for work, including taking a part time apartment. They had all this sorting of waste into recycling categories. And they were quite vigilant about it. How very interesting, I thought, these people filled with missionary zeal about how I sort my waste. Kafkaesque. They know I'm guilty, they just have to figure out what I'm guilty of. Is there nothing bigger going on in their lives? And then just a few years later we started it too.

Think also about how excited we, affluent grandchildren of the Industrial Revolution, got about Chinese coal-fired power stations. And imagine how much that would have worried the Chinese.

My suspicion is that there is precious little that we can do from the outside to change hearts and minds. Especially when we can barely imagine their hardscrabble lives.

Think for instance about how popular Jean-Claude Juncker and his lecturing ways were in these parts. He saw the light, or a light, very clearly, he thought. But was there any possible arrangement of facts or moral argument that would have enabled him to be persuasive? I suspect not.

Maybe the African Union will, in time, start to nudge countries towards greater environmental standards. Until Morocco get cheesed off with it all and launch Moxit, I suppose . (Mexit sounds a bit Tex-Mexy.)

I guess at least most of what one sees in the Moroccan heartlands doesn't land up in the oceans in any sort of hurry?

 

[Dutch 68]

I used to think that but after seeing Morocco we are not bad at all and ours is mostly in around towns. Here it's far and wide in huge volumes in places where it will just keep going out to sea eventually

I live in the Cotswolds and over recent years it has become so much worse, and definitely not just around towns, miles away in extremely rural locations you still find loads of littering and this is on top of full scale fly tipping , it’s horrendous

 

[jongood]

The other extreme - road closed for a month to pick litter

A5 from Oswestry to Chirk faces a month of lane closures - for litter picking

A PORTION of the A5 between Oswestry and Chirk is set to see lanes closed over the next month, to allow for litter picking to take place.

www.bordercountiesadvertizer.co.uk

 

[Langtoftlad]

I think the UK's littering problem is exacerbated by the ever increasing & short sighted rules about and reduced bin collection, and restrictions on taking stuff to the local tip recycling centre. Huge fees for land fill. Ever increasing urban population. What is going to happen.

When touring Vietnam, mountains of rubbish along the highways. If the YouTubes I've been watching about Peru are to be believed they have a similar issue.

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[Helen Ariel]

A few visitors to us this morning, all tagged, all looking healthy & happy and thankfully no litter in sight
View attachment 864083

The plastic waste is a global problem, especially now in less developed nations.

It's estimated that 8 million tonnes a year are washed into the oceans from 10 rivers - 8 in Asia and 2 (the Nile and the Niger) in Africa.

That's quite a neat statistic with a global population of 8 billion - it's about a kilogram per person per year. There's a further 20 to 30% of the total that comes from marine sources (fishing nets etc).

I remember in 2001 commuting to Germany a bit for work, including taking a part time apartment. They had all this sorting of waste into recycling categories. And they were quite vigilant about it. How very interesting, I thought, these people filled with missionary zeal about how I sort my waste. Kafkaesque. They know I'm guilty, they just have to figure out what I'm guilty of. Is there nothing bigger going on in their lives? And then just a few years later we started it too.

Think also about how excited we, affluent grandchildren of the Industrial Revolution, got about Chinese coal-fired power stations. And imagine how much that would have worried the Chinese.

My suspicion is that there is precious little that we can do from the outside to change hearts and minds. Especially when we can barely imagine their hardscrabble lives.

Think for instance about how popular Jean-Claude Juncker and his lecturing ways were in these parts. He saw the light, or a light, very clearly, he thought. But was there any possible arrangement of facts or moral argument that would have enabled him to be persuasive? I suspect not.

Maybe the African Union will, in time, start to nudge countries towards greater environmental standards. Until Morocco get cheesed off with it all and launch Moxit, I suppose . (Mexit sounds a bit Tex-Mexy.)

I guess at least most of what one sees in the Moroccan heartlands doesn't land up in the oceans in any sort of hurry?

Oh tonnes ends up in the sea as they dump lot's into rivers and over sea cliffs.

 

[Helen Ariel]

I'm not having a good day today. Day started with feeding a cat with a broken bent over foot at the campsite.

We arrived in Meknes about 11.30. Pretty unappealing drive there including seeing a freshly dead dog by the side of the road. Then I was a bit worried to see the guardian parking was sardines in a row on the street right next to a busy road junction. Oh well it's only one night I told myself. Once paid (50dh) we got out and immediately heard this intermittent loud metallic bang. There was metal hoarding running behind the row of vans and it was periodically slamming about in the wind about 3 ft from where our heads would be tonight. I actually suggested leaving then and there but Paul got the parking guy to wedge some breeze blocks against it which seemed to help and we headed off for a wander.

Very few tourists about and we were immediately being asked to go to various shops, horse rides and the second we stopped to look where we were going people trying to get our attention. We got lost several times just trying to get to the Medina as the city walls seem to only have one or two entrances that are open so we kept ending up down random dead ends.

The whole place was also covered in scaffolding and metal hoarding blocking the views and entrances to things and pavements covered in piles of rubble.

We eventually found our way into the souks area and it was mental. Really tight streets and covered alleyways absolutely teeming with locals going about their shopping, scooters and carts pushing through, noise and visual overload and the vast majority of stuff was nothing we would be interested in buying as tourists. One whole street was knock off trainers, kitchen stuff, clothes etc. Felt very out of place and stared at there too.

We did manage to buy a new door mat though which we badly needed and a bag of almonds.

We had been hoping to get some lunch somewhere but the only eating places were just stools perched on the edge of all the chaos and I said I couldn't relax to enjoy food in that environment and requested we get back out into the open. That was easier said than done! Ended up in several more dead ends and finally managed to get through the crowds and out into the bigger streets. The only restaurant out there had bad reviews saying expensive tourist trap so we went back to the van for sandwiches.

Whilst sitting there eating we noticed the banging noise again, plus drilling sounds, road noises and very loud calls to prayer.

We decided that Meknes wasn't nice enough to put up with a bad nights sleep so decided to go to a campsite which was 11 miles away. We thought we'd just pop and see a couple of the sights beforehand but the 1st one (mausoleum) was closed and when we stopped outside we were getting pestered to go in a shop and then when we tried to see the way to the palace all we could see was a mile long pavement covered in piles of rubble that would mean walking down the road for a mile and not even sure if it was open we just gave up on Meknes and left.

Campsite is situated on a hill with nice large olive trees all around and very peaceful so I was thinking I'll just have a really chilled afternoon to get over the madness of Meknes then I heard all this yelping noises and we went towards the sound in the corner of the campsite and there were 8 puppies screaming at their mum for food.
She came over to us and they were literally hanging off her and scrambling to get a teat. She was the worst condition dog I've seen here. Really thin from making 8 fat little pups

We still had quite a bit of dog food left from the one bag we bought at the start of the trip as we have only fed dogs that seemed to need it and most have eaten a bit and then refused more.

I ran back and got a big bowl full and mixed with some water and it was chaos trying to feed her as the pups were scrambling all over her then trying to get her food so I was trying to stop them as she really needed it more.

Whilst she was eating I noticed she had 3 ticks on her neck which I got off. She eat her fill and the pups had all had a good suckle and wandered off and she and I hung out for a cuddle. I went to have a look where the pups were and they were living in a pile of felled tree trunks and someone had wedged a metal sheet on top to keep out rain. There was also a sodden, filthy towel, blanket and a purple fleece jumper all trampled at the entrance to the nest plus a tin camping bowl. Some other camper has put these down before the rain came. I picked up all the sodden stuff and laid it out to dry and noticed mum had gone over to a red van nearby and thought maybe it was them that had helped but then I saw the woman shooing her away. I was already so upset for this poor mum that I went over and said that she is starving and the woman pointed at her fat dog and said that it's not her responsibility and that's she's fine! I said again she's starving look at her hip bones and if everyone who visits here gave her a bit of love then she would be fine. Anyway feeling very sad now.

Even the rainbow isn’t helping…

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

We were parked up just in front of the mausaleum and opposite to the right was the Royal Golf course. It was guardian parking and behind some hoarding but we didnt have any noise.
Horse and carts were parked up nearby adjacent to a small park next to another set of medina gateways
There was lots of scaffolding about on one of the main gates ( blue gate as i recall)the one your stood in front of, it was all covered in a screen, that was under renovation but it was off the road. Near the soak was a new development which was made up of individual doored shops which were meant to house the street sellers and form a huge square to mimic or rival The one at Marakesh. But wasn't open when we were there.It did look to be nearing completion
Just behind it was the indoormarket and behind that the outdoor souk leading down to the petite taxi ranks.

 

[Helen Ariel]

One thing I totally forgot to mention about this trip was that the only time we’ve been ‘attempted’ to be ripped off was at a petrol station just north of Agadir who tried to charge me 980 dirham when I paid by card. The fuel came to just under 800 dirham. I caught him when I checked the pump after I’d paid by card and he immediately refunded the difference with cash. I asked him if he wanted a photo for the King (in French) and he was very obsequious. 1 star Google review left.
It was a pretty flash Total petrol station just north of Agadir.

Paul

 

[Helen Ariel]

Near the soak was a new development which was made up of individual doored shops which were meant to house the street sellers and form a huge square to mimic or rival The one at Marakesh. But wasn't open when we were there.It did look to be nearing completion
Just behind it was the indoormarket and behind that the outdoor souk leading down to the petite taxi ranks.

It's still surrounded by metal hoarding.

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[Helen Ariel]

This mum dog is breaking my heart. She just hopped in the van when Paul opened the door to go to the toilet.
She's learned the art of giving it the eyes.

It worked and she got a sausage from my dinner as a bribe to leave. If anyone reading this stops by at Camping Zerhoun Belle Vue. Please look in on her and pups.

 

[Helen Ariel]

We left the campsite late morning after spending most of it feeding and watering the mum and her pups. We also got chatting to a German couple who are staying for a few days and were feeding them too, so we felt a bit better about leaving. We emptied and filled and then it was off to Volubilis to see the UNESCO World Heritage site. Luckily for me Helen loves an old ruin…

The sky was looking ace for the pics!

And some of the mosaics were stunning.

Some interesting features carved into the stone, but you needed a sharp eye to spot them.

And Helen even managed to get photobombed by some other tourists. I reckon it could be an album cover for a new girl band…

We then headed north through some pretty bleak bits of the country. More litter, poverty and another couple of dead dogs on the roadside. Our time in Morocco is coming to an end.

The magnificent skies turned darker & greyer until the heavens opened when we got to the toll road and just as when we arrived in this amazing country, we end our trip in the rain.

We're currently at Tangier Med port just waiting to get on the 22:00 sailing as we found out that the next couple of days in Spain are carnival days! We’ll stay in Algeciras tonight, do a shop tomorrow morning then we’ve got 4 days in Malaga eating great food, drinking draught beer & vermouth, and riding our bikes on the great trails to the north of the city.

We’ll update you when we’re back in Europe!
Africa, you’ve been mind blowing. We’ll be back next year!

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

Best to stay near the carlos ferry ticket office lots of space and lots of shops

 

[Helen Ariel]

Best to stay near the carlos ferry ticket office lots of space and lots of shops

That’s the plan. We do love a Carrefour supermarket!

Also, after worrying that we’d have enough gas for 5 weeks I only needed to switch on the 2nd 11kg Gaslow bottle in Azrou so almost 4 weeks from it. We were on hook up most of the time, and I did buy a burner & bottle. Next time we might wild it a bit more and not pay for EHU as we won’t need it.

Paul

 

[Four of us]

Thank you for sharing your trip. I have really enjoyed following your adventures.

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[lorger]

Really enjoyed following your trip, hopefully be out there soon

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

Fantastic thread really enjoyed the memories. Morocco is a fantastic place full of surprises and beautiful places.

 

[Grianan]

Superb thread. Thank you for posting …

 

[mikebeaches]

Many thanks - have fun in Spain!

 

[125BEER]

Thanks for posting....
Enjoy the Beer.......

Cheers

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