We crossed into Africa this afternoon (Tuesday 22 November). We left Algeciras (the Port in mainland Spain) on the ferry and arrived in Ceuta (the Port in Africa but still part of Spain) after about 1.5 hours of uneventful ferry riding...the highlight was the sandwich!! While it was a terrible bocadillo compared to the ones I ate during the camino - it was perfect because to be honest...the one cheese sandwich we were allowed to make for lunch just wasn't going to get me from 8am breakfast until 10pm when I think we'll have dinner tonight!! I have a feeling I'll spend quite a bit of my budget on food...
Anyways - so from Ceuta we got back in the truck and crossed the border into Morocco! We are now driving south along the coast to Rabat, which is the capital of Morocco. Its about 300km and we hope to make it to the quarry where we will wild camp for the next few days, outside of Rabat. Apparently, the stop in Rabat will likely be 5 days as we wait to get out visas for Mauritania, Mali, and Burkina Faso. From what Our Guide told us yesterday, apparently Mauritania has stopped giving visas to Americans. So she was in Rabat at the Mauritanian embassy last week and we are hoping we can get visas (she, I and one other girl are American). Otherwise we will have to pay to fly over from Morocco to Senegal. Fingers crossed we can go through Mauritania or fingers crossed the flight is cheap!! It also sounds like we are adding Senegal to the countries we are visiting. The area between Mauritania and Mali is closed to visitors, so in order to get into Mali we need to go through Senegal. So that's exciting! Another country to add to my collection :P
But - now we are headed to Rabat and we'll see how the visas go. I'm not terribly keen on wild camping for 5 days...I would much prefer to stay in Rabat and pay for a cheap hotel and eat real meals and see the city. That's probably not really the group spirit...but I'm pretty sure I'll stay in town if I'm allowed (unless she needs us to stay together to organize visas). I do like camping but I also like to see cities while I'm on holiday...not just quarries and bush camps where I'm digging my own toilet and eating spam for a week...so fingers crossed tomorrow night I'll be in a nice little hotel or riad in Rabat following my Lonely Planet Guide's advice of enjoying the lovely local restaurants!!
Also - just as a note - I don't know if an overland truck tour is the best way for me to "see" Africa since as soon as I get in a moving vehicle I pass out! But at least I don't have to worry about not getting enough sleep on this holiday :P Even if I don't sleep in the tent at night I'll sleep all day in the car...
My blog entries will likely be quite long though - since besides sleeping this is my other main activity for the truck. I have lots of books to read too...so I'll alternate :P I'm also hoping to buy a Moroccan SIM for my mobile. Since we'll be about a month in Morocco its probably the cheapest thing to do - and if I can find a prepaid SIM with Blackberry services...well, my blog will get updated even more quickly!
I also want to share with everyone that I am wearing the same clothes for the 3rd day in a row (yes-I've changed my underwear) but it seems too much trouble to get my clothes bags out of the locker. Its way too cold in the morning to try to sort out getting dressed. I only showered this morning (mostly a cold shower) because we were told that we wouldn't have access to a shower until the weekend. I def. didn't wash my hair because I didn't want to freeze, plus I forgot my towel (ie. sarong) so I had nothing to dry my hair with. Lucky I have my lovely new robe from the Carrefour so I could get dry and be all warm and cozy after my cold shower!!
We have some really interesting characters on this trip too....maybe I'll save future posts to talk about them! Especially since I should get to know them a bit more before I publish my thoughts of them on the internet...LOL...
Anyways - so from Ceuta we got back in the truck and crossed the border into Morocco! We are now driving south along the coast to Rabat, which is the capital of Morocco. Its about 300km and we hope to make it to the quarry where we will wild camp for the next few days, outside of Rabat. Apparently, the stop in Rabat will likely be 5 days as we wait to get out visas for Mauritania, Mali, and Burkina Faso. From what Our Guide told us yesterday, apparently Mauritania has stopped giving visas to Americans. So she was in Rabat at the Mauritanian embassy last week and we are hoping we can get visas (she, I and one other girl are American). Otherwise we will have to pay to fly over from Morocco to Senegal. Fingers crossed we can go through Mauritania or fingers crossed the flight is cheap!! It also sounds like we are adding Senegal to the countries we are visiting. The area between Mauritania and Mali is closed to visitors, so in order to get into Mali we need to go through Senegal. So that's exciting! Another country to add to my collection :P
But - now we are headed to Rabat and we'll see how the visas go. I'm not terribly keen on wild camping for 5 days...I would much prefer to stay in Rabat and pay for a cheap hotel and eat real meals and see the city. That's probably not really the group spirit...but I'm pretty sure I'll stay in town if I'm allowed (unless she needs us to stay together to organize visas). I do like camping but I also like to see cities while I'm on holiday...not just quarries and bush camps where I'm digging my own toilet and eating spam for a week...so fingers crossed tomorrow night I'll be in a nice little hotel or riad in Rabat following my Lonely Planet Guide's advice of enjoying the lovely local restaurants!!
Also - just as a note - I don't know if an overland truck tour is the best way for me to "see" Africa since as soon as I get in a moving vehicle I pass out! But at least I don't have to worry about not getting enough sleep on this holiday :P Even if I don't sleep in the tent at night I'll sleep all day in the car...
My blog entries will likely be quite long though - since besides sleeping this is my other main activity for the truck. I have lots of books to read too...so I'll alternate :P I'm also hoping to buy a Moroccan SIM for my mobile. Since we'll be about a month in Morocco its probably the cheapest thing to do - and if I can find a prepaid SIM with Blackberry services...well, my blog will get updated even more quickly!
I also want to share with everyone that I am wearing the same clothes for the 3rd day in a row (yes-I've changed my underwear) but it seems too much trouble to get my clothes bags out of the locker. Its way too cold in the morning to try to sort out getting dressed. I only showered this morning (mostly a cold shower) because we were told that we wouldn't have access to a shower until the weekend. I def. didn't wash my hair because I didn't want to freeze, plus I forgot my towel (ie. sarong) so I had nothing to dry my hair with. Lucky I have my lovely new robe from the Carrefour so I could get dry and be all warm and cozy after my cold shower!!
We have some really interesting characters on this trip too....maybe I'll save future posts to talk about them! Especially since I should get to know them a bit more before I publish my thoughts of them on the internet...LOL...
No comments:
Post a Comment