After last nights news, it wasn't a great sleep and we decided that today would be the last day we talk of lost luggage.
So our plan for the day is that Cindy will join the rest of our group this morning and go on the organised walking tour of Meknes and I will go with our tour leader, Samir, to the local Air Maroc office and do some more hassling.
After about 45 minutes in the Air Maroc office, the man behind the desk "guarantees" that the bags are in Casablanca already and are booked on a flight to Fes today at 23:30, arriving 00:15. I'm still very sceptical and not at all confident.
The only difference today with this guy is that he said that there are other missing bags from our flight that are also on this flight to Fes. He's also in direct contact with the airport rather than the bloody hopeless call centre we've been dealing with so far!! This is the first mention of other travellers baggage and the first contact with the airport, so maybe there's a small glimmer of hope??
From there it was back to the hotel to wait for a while and then jump in a taxi to catch up with Cindy and the rest of group in the 'Big Square'.
On one side of the square is a produce market which is full of veges, fruits, meats, and sweet treats. The olives on display are amazing - all sizes, colours, spiced and plain. You're welcome to taste as you go around - anything for a sale.
It's possible to buy all sorts of meat - rabbit, guinea pig, camel, beef, chicken, turkey. The rest of the group already had a tour and had seen them killing the chickens on the spot. I was given a private tour around and was excited at the prospect of seeing how they do this - unfortunately (or maybe it was fortunate) I didn't get to witness any chicken killings.
I did however get to see the skinning of rabbit. They simply hook them up by their feet, cut a small strip to get the skinning process going and simply pull the fur off - very slick and clean.
The way they pluck the chickens is pretty interesting. They get the freshly killed chook and strip the feathers by hand from the neck up - just a few seconds and the feathers are gone. From there, they press the chook up against a rotating stone and it rips the feathers out. The whole process from freshly killed to skinned lasts less than a minute.
The camel meat looks very lean - it's good to see as we're eating camel burgers for lunch. A few in the group are a bit unsure about eating camel, but hey, when in Rome.......
On the other side of the square is a high wall, the length of the square - behind this is the Medina, the old city. We walk into and around the Medina. It's beautiful and they've maintained the old city in its original state. We're told that even though it has been kept original, behind the closed doors of the homes, there are very modern renovations being made.
Lunch-time. Camel Burgers!!!!
We eat in the tiniest of rooms - can only squeeze in 6 to a room and it's like a bloody sauna. Bikram eating maybe?? The camel burgers are made right beside us on what looks like a ceramic BBQ oven. Smoke billows out and the heat only increases the sauna temperature - we're all dripping in sweat. But the smell is great.
And then the burger arrive, made of minced camel meat - a little nervous and we get our first taste. First impression, not bad! In fact better than not bad. It's actually bloody nice. It's no problem demolishing them off. I reckon it's the best meal we've had so far in Morocco - including Cindy, quite a few others agree.
After lunch we get picked up by our private mini bus that will be our transport until near the end of the trip. We head back to the hotel to pick up everyone's bags - except ours of course - I'm still not over it!!!!
And now it's time to make our way to Fes where we will stay for the next two nights.
About 45 minutes out of Meknes and we stopped to visit the 40 hectare Roman ruins of Volubilis. We spent about 90 minutes walking around with a local guide who showed us the old houses, chambers, market areas, toilets, reading rooms and more. There are beautifully tiled floors made of terracotta, marble and basalt and a beautiful Arc de Triomphe which was the main gateway into the city
The Moroccans don't seem to have a great deal of money to protect the ruins. Even in the excavated areas, grass and thistles grow wild. There's also no protection from the elements. It was scorching hot - I would guess mid to high 30's yet there's no cover or protection for the excavated mosaics.
There used to be an aqueduct that bought water to the town from 15kms away, but this has been long gone and there are no plans to rebuild it. They haven't been able to locate the amphitheater at this stage, as they've only excavated around 20% of the site. Sadly it doesn't look like there's any money to continue with the excavation.
90 minutes in the baking sun and the air conditioned mini van is a welcome relief. It's time to continue our journey to Fes and maybe a step closer to our bags???
The drive to Fes is through the country, mainly farming. Olive orchards are everywhere. You don't go a couple of minutes without seeing olive trees. The land is very brown, with not much grass. You see local farmers with their donkeys, carting crops or bundles of sticks around the place.
It's the middle of the afternoon and extremely hot, quite a few farmers take refuge under a tree on the roadside.
The landscape doesn't change much, with the one exception being a large dam which was initiated and built when the current King's grandfather was in power. According to our guide, this was a significant achievement and he showed good foresight as they have become heavily reliant on it through increasingly longer periods of drought.
We arrive in Fes and immediately head to the air conditioned room for a shower and rest before meeting up for dinner at 7:30. The hotel room is the best so far, with a couple of small balconies with views out on to the street, a large double bed and a real shower (rather than over the bath). Feels quite luxurious.
Dinner was interesting. We got taken to the Intrepid Travel approved restaurant, which looked average at best with NO other customers - that's never a good sign. Ordering pre-dinner drinks, we decided on Heineken for the lads, some of the girls ordered a nice white wine and others are after orange juice. Oops sorry, both the beer and wine are unavailable. We'll have to settle for Special beer (that's it's actual name) and some other white wine! As for the orange juice, the waiter has to send the boy out to the market up the road to get some oranges so they can make the juice - at least we know it's fresh. The whole process takes about 20 minutes to complete!
The waiter, whilst not looking like him, reminded me of Manuel off Fawlty Towers. I kept thinking Basil was out the back giving him a slap behind the ear or some other sort of hard time every time he went into the kitchen.
We'd been sitting there for quite a while and noticed that still no customers had come in - hmmmmmm. Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I feel brave, so it's Sirloin steak and mushrooms for me. Cindy opts for a avocado salad entree and Harira soup main. The meals turn out to be pretty good. Cut off a bit of gristle from the steak and it was all good!
Manuel keeps us entertained throughout the evening with his fussing around the tables - good fun!
Back to the hotel around 10:30 and now it's time to wait. Me, Cindy and Samir are off to meet the plane from Casablanca tonight - we'll head out around 11:30pm. Got everything firmly crossed!!!!
We arrived out at the airport at 12:05 eager for the flight to arrive. There we found a German women who had also experienced the same problem on the same day as us except she came from Frankfurt. We sat chatting about our respective experiences of travelling light until the plane finally touched down at 12:50!!!!!!
The baggage carousel is excruciatingly slow and kept us in suspense for as long as possible.
And then out popped our bags - thank God!! Finally some good news. Not so good news for our German companion. Her's wasn't on the plane and I can't help feeling a little guilty we got our bags and she didn't.
There's some damage to one of the packs, but at least we've got our stuff back and we can sleep easy tonight zzzzzzzzz
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