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Made the early morning ride down to Tarifa, had a quick breakfast and loaded the bikes and luggage on the ferry to Tanger, Morocco. The 45 minute ferry consisted mostly of standing in line to get our passports stamped, something we would soon end up doing several more times.
Once off the ferry we headed to Morocco Customs. Let me tell you... that was quite an experience! We were warned about it in advance but no warning could have prepared us for how disorganized this process was. You've heard the phrase, "too many cooks in the kitchen." That's exactly how this was. Ten different people trying to do each step of the process for us and as a couple wanted us to do one thing, someone else would run over and decide to have us do something else. It was quite hilarious, actually.
After about two hours going through customs, we finally got through the gates and were greeted by a Moroccan band and some local pastries and mint tea. We then headed to the official start of the Cannonball and some lunch:
Go figure.
From there we headed off on the first leg of the Cannonball. 103 miles, mostly along the northern coast, then we headed south to our destination, the 15th century town of Chefchaouen (some interesting history there).
Africa is an interesting place to drive, which you will see whenever I get a chance to post some video. It's basically every man for himself. The lines separating lanes of the road are more of a guide. If they want to pass someone they just move over into the opposing lane and anyone coming the other way gets out of their way. At intersections and driveways they just pull out and go and anyone coming has to get out of the way. All this while everyone is avoiding mule carts and big trucks not going much faster.
Also, the thing to do seems to be to stand on the side of the road and spectate. Passing through towns and even out in rural areas, there would be random people just standing on the side of the road. There are a lot of scooters around but virtually no motorcycles, so when we come by, especially at Cannonball speeds, they get excited and wave and shout. And everyone is very, very friendly and helpful. Any time we would stop they would run over to us and ask where we were headed so they could point us the right direction.
That said, it's quite enjoyable riding a motorcycle over here. At first we were a bit hesitant. There are police at the entrance and exit of every town and randomly on the side of the road in rural areas. Someone told us there is something like 1 police officer for every 5 people. But they don't seem to do much but give directions. We saw them occasionally wave a local motorist over, supposedly to ask where they were headed and why, but tourists and us on motorcycles get waved by and waved at. Even flying past at 100+ mph in the opposing lane of traffic passing cars, they just wave at us. Essentially, we can do whatever we want on the roads, we just have to be smart about it. Once we got used to that and forgot about Western "civilized" traffic laws, it really was a great first day of riding.
Once we arrived in Chefchaouen, we were again greeted by the locals shouting the names of the two hotels in town so they could point us the right way. We checked in to our hotel, cleaned up, took a dip in the pool, and then headed off to dinner.
Chefchaouen is a town you only read about or see on National Geographic. While there is plenty of new construction, much of the town remains as it was in the 15th century. Words really can't describe this place. I will have to leave it to the many pictures we took.
After dinner at the town square, the town had it's end of the day prayer after which the locals continued wandering through town and shopping at the many shops. We headed back to the hotel for drinks and a good nights sleep.
As you can imagine, there was no internet access here so I am a day late posting.
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