December 23, 2011

by Stephen Jan in Rabat, Morocco

3 nights and four days in Rabat, it was high time to head to the next city. Despite our visa delay, we were pretty sure we could catch up to the other teams in Marrakesh as many of them took the scenic route through the Atlas Mountains. Marrakesh was only about 300km away so if the roads were good, we’d be able to cover the distance in 4 hours. On our way out, we picked up 3 hitchhikers that we met at the Mauritania embassy.

Stephen is from Norway. He was on the rally but his car broke down in Spain, facing that hard choice early on in the journey: if he should give up. The brave soul scraped the car, bought a ticket to Rabat, and linked up with the teams. His plan was to hitch hike with teams to Banjul. What a trooper. We were honor to help him on his way to his first destination:  Marrakesh.

Claudia and Marta were from Poland. The two ladies were traveling by themselves and based on their stories were clearly veterans when it came to backpacking.  They seemed to just flow from one place to another with absolutely no plan in mind. My teammates were a bit apprehensive at first about taking them. But in the spirit of the rally, we opened our doors to them.

There were 2 roads to Casablanca: the highway and a road along the coast. Being that we were a day behind other teams, we decided to take the highway. The lanes were pretty narrow and I was really impressed that there weren’t any accidents with all the reckless Moroccan drivers. We made a brief rest stop so that our 2 polish friends could puff a bit of hashish. They offered us some. Some of us tried it some of us didn’t.

Next Stop: Casablanca!