The day we arrived we flew into Casablanca but decided to go directly to Marrakesh by train. The trip started out easy enough. I was actually pleased at how easy it was to get to the trains and buy tickets. My french was still good enough to cause no problems in that way. Then we had to transfer...and after the expected 2 hour wait, the train was another hour late. Ok, so that wasn't really a big deal. However I was not expecting the train to be quite so...stuffed...shall I say. Standing room only. What I really mean is that I got pushed into a hallway, did a face plant against the wall and required 15 minutes to figure out how to get both feet on the ground so that I had a chance of not falling over (except we were so packed I didn't have space to fall either). Then came the man who insisted on getting the food cart through the packed area, which resulted in me balancing back on one foot while somehow suspending myself over the baggage. No! Don't touch that arm...it's the only thing that is keeping me upright! Thankfully we did arrive just fine in Marrakesh, and we even got to sit down for the last hour of the four hour trip. Which worked out just fine until our taxi dumped us on the street and said he couldn't take us any farther. Too bad we didn't have any idea where we were, or where our hotel was! Thankfully the men there seemed to be willing to do just about anything for a bit of money so I finally bargained one down to a reasonable price (??) to take us to the hotel. After winding down narrow alleys and through dark passageways I was beginning to wonder if we'd ever arrive, if he actually knew where we were going, or if we were going to get even more lost. Seeing the hotel had never felt better!
I guess I'd be a bit incorrect to say that the second trip was eventful. It was more what happened just before and just after, which felt like part of the trip. We arrived at the bus station thinking that we were a good 20 minutes early, only to find that as soon as we boarded the bus it pulled away. Phew! Close call. Then when we arrived in Essaouira we discovered that the entire town had lost its electricity. Now you might think, big deal. You're in Africa. Unfortunately our hotel entrance was in the middle of a very dark alley. The sort where you can't see anything, much less the door. Thank goodness again for the people. Someone turned us around, and pointed to a specific spot in the darkness, and what do you know - there was a glimmer of candle light just there. Hurrah. Now if only they had sent us to find our room with a candle. Ended up making do with the flash of a camera until I could dig out my headlamp (never leave home without it).
The most unexpected moment occurred during the six hour bus trip from Essaouira to Casablanca. When we were about half way there (roughly 120 km from both of the marked towns on the map) we were going through a small town whose name started with a Z (but couldn't be found in the guidebook). Suddenly there was a bit of clunk sound. The type that sounded like some of the luggage below falling over, or even perhaps out of the bus. Sadly it wasn't that easy. No, it turns out we had just hit a horse! I still can't figure out how that happened. But I did figure that we were in for a long pause. Sure enough all of the men piled out of the bus, and pretty soon there was a fairly large group of people clustered around the bus. Some of them seemed quite upset. A bit of a relief when someone returned to the bus to say that the horse was alive! That definitely made things a bit easier. Frankly I was surprised when the bus filled up again and we were moving on in just 20 minutes. Of course we did stop again about 2 minutes down the road at the gendarmerie, where 3 people went back off the bus (the driver included) to file a report (I suspect). Ten minutes later we were finally off for good. Only a 30 minute delay!
As I sad traveling in Africa is never uneventful. But it does provide some of the best stories I have from my time there. Morocco was no exception.
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