Martil, Maroc to Chefchaouen, Maroc, November 6, 2018

The night was rainy and I just hoped i would stay dry.  Unfortunately, I didn't put my ground sheet completely under my tent so the hanging out part collected water and the rain ran underneath.  My backpack was a bit wet but nothing else.  I have to be smarter when I set up that damn tent!

Norm, Terry and I were still on cook group so we made scrambled eggs and toast.  You can't really fuck that up although....  I have to remember it's camping food and luckily everyone is so appreciative no matter what one cooks.  

We had a pre-departure meeting, going over how things work and then had a tour of the truck with Jono showing us where everything is stored.

Our group with the truck-

By 9 am we were on the road for Chefchaouen which was a 2 hour drive but with narrow, impassable town roads, at least for the truck, we had to detour a little bit and so 2 hours became 3.  

Along the way-

Once at the campground we set our tents up to dry as most people got at least a little wet last night and off we wandered down to the Medina which is the old city-

Many men wear a jellaba, a wool type dress that I'm sure keeps them nice and toasty warm-

Our first stop was at an ATM for money and then....

One of the gates that was restored between 1540 and 1560-

The streets are super narrow and everything is painted blue and white.  Shops or souks line the streets-

A beautiful door-

Shoes for sale-

The thread merchant-

Jellabas for sale-

Street signs are in Arabic and French-

Mint tea anyone?-

Powder paint used to paint the inside of the homes and shops-

Cats are everywhere, in fact, last night I crawled into my tent and was just settling down when something was squirming on my feet.  I jumped and hollered "get out of here" - it was a little black cat!  I made sure to zip my tent closed after that-

If it's going to be as cold as they say in the Atlas Mountains, I should buy one of these-

The Al Qnitra Fountain was built during the 1940s and is one of the most beautiful in the Medina-

The baker-

The final product-

We were invited in to a carpet shop but put a stop to the 'show' by saying we had to eat and we'd come back later-

And speaking of lunch, it was awesome.  We started with bread, olives, a white creamy cheese and a bowl of lentils-

I ordered a beef tangine with apricots and almonds and surprise! a boiled egg.  The apricots tasted a lot like dates to me-

After lunch, I wandered some more-

The Rif Al-Andalusia Fountain was also built during the 1940s.  At this time, people would get all their water here as there was none in the homes-

I guess they got tired of these windows-

I spent a nice couple of hours in the Medina, then climbed the long hill back to the campground.  I'm looking forward to a dry sleep tonight!  

P.S.