Fes

This has been another interesting day. We got on the road earlier than we’ve ever managed before, revving away from the curbside of Beni Mellal just before 9. The day was glum, overcast and cool, and but reasonable riding conditions. We got some good distance under our belt before stopping for a remarkably good, simple breakfast at a truckstop, and thought the day was progressing well. The rain began extremely lightly, just a fine drizzle that after some time prompted me to stop and put the plastic bag I use for waterproofing over my satchel bag. We stopped again about 60kms further on at Kenifra for coffee, and had a guy approach us asking to shine our shoes. I acquiesced mostly because this was one of the few times I was wearing shoes that wouldn’t be ruined by the procedure, and thought the guy seemed well-meaning. He did a good job, my faux-leather motorcycle boots hadn’t looked this good in the store. It felt a shame to immediately get up and motorcycle through mud. There was one thing though: for entire duration of the shining he tried to talk to us in French. Our French didn’t stand up to the interrogation, but our non-comprehension did nothing to diminish his enthusiasm to communicate. I really got to like that guy.
It was getting colder and the rain was getting heavier. It was also rather hilly, the real Atlas mountains were further to the east but we were still working through the foot hills. Visibility was starting to become an issue. I stopped a little further on to try the ‘toothpaste solution’ to stop the visor fogging up. All I can say is that they must be using a different brand of tooth paste. After applying it to my visor and glasses, as these were also fogging up, the effect ended with a view like I just wasn’t wearing my glasses. I stated I wasn’t comfortable riding like this, so I cleaned my visor and we moved on.
When we got to Azrou we were pretty cold. Matt’s lower half was saturated again, his pants and boots being all for looks with no waterproofing. As we ate chicken and chips for lunch (again. I’ve eaten about 7 chickens since I got here) the rain increased. It was 80km to Fes, our goal for the day, but it was not looking to be pleasant. It was much colder here. The moment I put down my visor, my glasses fogged up to the point I had to stop. So I was riding with my visor up in heavy-ish rain, and Matt was re-chilling his saturated pants, and we were both looking forward to other things. There was also fog, or probably low-cloud, as we were quite high, and that reduced vision considerably further. I was getting slower and slower and Matt disappeared into the mist ahead. Finally, being unsure where even the side of the road was, I decided to stop and put in some contacts. My left ring finger became completely numb from the cold. As I was flexing it to try to circulate some blood I was pondering how long frostbite takes to kick in.
Not long after that, the rain stopped, and it became sunny. The scenery was amazing, very varied rocky terrain, then changing to plains with groves of trees. My gloves dried out. I was happy. Matt I’m sure was pleased. Then we arrived at Fes, Morocco’s most amazing city.
Don’t waste your time with the other cities, Fes has it in spades. The medina is incredible. Ali Baba, 1001 nights, Alladin, exactly like that. It has the incredible dye pits where they tint the leathers used for clothes and bags, that was demonstrated, as many enthused to tell us, by Catrina Rowntree on Getaway. We won’t be staying here long enough to see it all though, we’ll be leaving early to continue our mission to the coast.