Onward and upward

Monday found some sense of appreciation restored at last as we enjoyed a good trip from Rabat to Chefchaouen. This part of Morocco, whilst not the most dramatic, is by far the most picturesque and after the usual trudge through some dog-awful medieval villages the superb roads twisted and wound their way through green hills towards Chefchaouen which awed rather than disappointed when we arrived. Unlike the dirt coloured buildings found everywhere else in the country Chef is a white and lilac town set on a hillside, yep a bit different, but very pleasant. 

At the start of the day, Rob nearly had to stay behind when he found that his bike had developed a dirty wing mirror. An emergency call to Pidcocks resulted in advice that the bike may be dangerous if ridden with a dirty wing mirror and that he should definitely not ride it. After much guffawing from the assembled masses, some reassuring advice from his mates that actually you can ride a BMW with a dirty wing mirror and some gentle persuasion with Carpet's Stanley knife we all set off. 

Our last night in Morocco arrives with some sense of relief. The more perceptive of you may have picked up that we're not totally enamoured with the country. It goes without saying that the roads and the scenery generally have been as good as anywhere we've been and by luck or judgement last Thursday was one of the best tour days in five years. But... the poverty gnaws at you, the people are 'difficult to trust', the food is dodgy and nothing special and the place is filthy. There are some contradictions here when you read earlier posts but when taken over the whole tour that's the feeling we're left with, which is a shame. 

It goes without saying that we're kind of looking forward to returning to Spain tomorrow afternoon but what we would all say is that we're grateful for the opportunity to have seen it for ourselves. 

Chefchaouen, at least, is a good place to bring down the curtain on Morocco. It is wholly different from the rest of the country in that the streets are clean, the vendors have neat shops of which they are obviously proud and there are not beggars and homeless people in every doorway. The hotel pool provided the backdrop to some interesting afternoon entertainment which was useful as it was blooming hot again and despite finding the evening's choice of restaurant closed we subsequently dined in a delightful traditional Moroccan where surprise, surprise, you could eat anything you wished for... as long as it was a tagine or kebab... come on chaps, sort your national dishes out, you're making English food look sophisticated!