Morocco - Mehdya to Rabat

Day 16 - Sunday 12 May, Mehdya to Rabat, Morocco

I was awake pretty early and decided to get up. Someone had rung the front door bell like crazy during the night. There was no-one there when I investigated, but my sleep had been disturbed. We went out for breakfast and found a cafe open at about 9.30 just across the road, Mehdya was pretty quiet with not many people about. We had decided to definitely give up going to Ouarzazate and Badger was keen to rest up in Mehdya for a day or two - mainly to give me a rest. I wasn't really very keen staying in a private house and thought we should move on.

When we went back to the house after breakfast the guy looking after us was already tidying the place up. We called the owner in Rabat to discuss a few extra day's tenure, but he informed us that the house was already let and he had people coming in and could we clear out by 11am. That clinched it - so we decided to head to Rabat and see what that was like. Badger went off for a walk with the cameras and I got myself ready.

Mehdya Plage

We were ready to go by 11.00 and set off south for Rabat. We had only really seen one bit of Mehdya and maybe missed the best bits. We took it easy going into Rabat - it was only about 30 miles and not too busy at all. As on the previous day I was amazed how many people were walking by the roadside - including one guy walking with a full-sized mannequin, which looked weird - until we passed the shop selling mannequins a mile or two down the road. There seemed to be quite a lot of small enterprises both manufacturing and retail by the road-side, I guess Morocco hasn't discovered the out-of-town retail estate and business parks yet.

By the time we got into Rabat it was lunch-time and pretty darn hot. Rabat is on a river mouth and is really two towns - Sale on the north side and Rabat on the south. My guide book described Rabat as an easy-going cosmopolitan place and that's pretty much what we found. Once we had crossed the river we headed for Rabat station, which is a pretty modern place. Badger went into the station to enquire about hotels. There was a 4 star place just outside the station, but was far too expensive for us - so we checked with some locals, who recommended a place across the road. This is in turn was more than we wanted to pay, but had a young doorman who was incredibly helpful and we got in to a place round the corner for 150 dirhams for a double room for the night - about £12.00. Our young doorman was wearing a Fez and Badger just had to get his Saracens flag out for a photo opportunity. The doorman's name was Smaylie and as you can see from the photos was very aptly named.

Smaylie, Badger and a Fez

Once we'd unloaded our bikes Smaylie very kindly helped us to leave the bikes behind his hotel - he really couldn't have been more helpful. We had lunch in a next-door cafe and after lunch Badger decided to go for a wander round Rabat, whilst I settled down at a local cafe with the PC. I couldn't get a decent connection so headed back to the room for a read and a nap. In the evening we went to the station to have a look round and find somewhere for supper. I took some cash out from a cash dispenser - there had been none in Mehdya and I had been relying on Badger for Moroccan cash.

We settled on a fairly modern place by the station for supper. I tried another tagine and was again a bit disappointed it was OK but nothing to write home about. After supper we headed down to the Medina for a wander round. Compared to Fez or Marrakesh it's tiny, but it's still a decent size. The Medina was pretty quiet, lots of places were closed or closing up - perhaps Sunday is just a quiet night. Badger bought some reading glasses and was looking to find some leather slippers - there was plenty of choice but nothing that took his fancy. Shopping in Rabat was very pleasurable as the shopkeepers were very helpful without being at all pushy.

We headed back to our hotel and ended up the night at the cafe attached to Smaylie's hotel with a couple of beers while discussed our route for the next few days. We decided to skip Marrakesh completely, pop into Fez then head back up north to complete a small anti-clockwise loop of the north of Morocco.

Day Summary

Day -	16
Miles Covered in Day	30 approx.
Miles Covered in Trip	2530 approx.