New Blue Taxi

Chefchaouen, Morocco

Here we are again!  Restingar Smir...

First stop on our tour was Restingar Smir, Morocco.  We wasted no time booking a taxi up to Chefchaouen though.  Moustafa arrived in his newish blue taxi (well, a slightly newer model than last year’s ancient Mercedes) to carry us over the Riff mountains to our hotel, this time inside the Medina and very close to the central Plaza Uta el-Hammam.  We set off to explore the old city; it was Sunday and many visitors were milling about to celebrate (something – we never did find out what).  There were merchants and market stalls galore, concerts by school children and plenty of local people in traditional dress to add colour to the mountain village’s Berber blue and white colour scheme. 

We'll have one of those, one of those, oh and one of those...

So, after a hard afternoon of souvenir shopping we wandered back to our hotel (Dar Mounir) for a quiet glass of “medicine’ up on the terrace and to admire the view in the evening cool.  We were quite close to the restored Kasbah and a large 15^th c mosque with an unusual octagonal tower so as the muezzin’s call rang around the valley, we tried to imagine how it must have been when it was the stronghold of Berber Moulay Ali ben Rachid. Christians were forbidden entry back then. Infidel travellers found inside the medina were killed; that is until the Spanish occupied the village in the 1920’s. 

The medicine is clearly working

Dinner was local fare and we found ourselves scaling steep stairs up into the colourful outdoor terrace of Aladdin’s Lamp.  Whilst feasting on tagines of beef & prunes, chicken & preserved lemon and highly fragrant couscous (not to mention delectable crème caramels), we were able to watch the evening goings on in the town square below. 

After such a long day, the village was not quite ready for “early starters” the next morning, even at 11am. Souvenir shopping would have to wait!  Meanwhile we strolled to the falls outside the city walls (Bab el Ansar) to watch women hard at work washing their winter blankets at the communal laundrette (actually, the stream).  GS and Mrs KIP ditched the lads and made a run for the markets (when they eventually opened) to make sure the taxi back would be stuffed to the gunnels. 

Plaza Uta el-Hammam

Mohammed, who had promised us a “clean taxi with airconditioning” for our return trip, handed us over to the driver of what could have been Mustafa’s very ancient Mercedes from last year.  It was old, it rattled and the brakes burned as we barrelled back down the mountain road towards Smir.  We would make it, inshallah. 

Inside the Medina

From:  La Linea, Spain Lat/Long:  36:09.53N  05:21.35W   Date/Time: 08/06/13: 1200

To: Restingar Smir, Morocco  Lat/Long: 35:45.25N 5:20.518W Date/Time: 08/06/13: 1730
Time Taken: 26nm (4.5hrs) Distance (this year): 207.5nm (33hrs)
Distance Total (since 2008): 11032.5nm   Weather: W15-20kts; 0.5m swell; cool
Fastest Speed: Sped along under sail (all of the way!!) doing 8.4kts at times