Day 9 – Arriving in Morocco and driving to Ifrane

This must have been the longest day on the whole trip. We arrived in Tangiers Med around midnight. Getting off the ferry was a very chaotic experience and took more than an hour. Once out we thought all would be easy, but oooo no. First we apparently had forgotten to get a stamp on the ship – which they clearly had announced in Italian and Arabic sometime during the trip. Then we ended up in customs hell. 4 hours of waiting between 1am and 4am because the customs were checking every single Moroccan car, and they were all overloaded with stuff and stuff. We finally got through (it took about 5 minutes for us to in once it was our turn…) we headed to our hotel, Hotel Tanger med, about 30 minutes drive from the port. Falling asleep around 5am was easy. 🙂 Getting up the next morning was easier than expected. I guess the great adventure ahead of exploring a new country and being on the African continent could have something to do with it. We stocked up with a huge breakfast before starting our drive in the sunny weather. We stopped by a Moroc Telecom shop and got a local SIM card. 3 Euros for a card including 1 GB data. I was very surprises. It turned out refills were 1 Euro per GB data. Wohoo! We got off the (toll) highway as soon as we could and headed down narrow asphalt roads (asphalt in one lane in the middle and gravel on the sides) through interesting small towns and villages, and made a lunch stop at Volubilis, an old Roman town now in ruins. After lunch we continued our drive and arrived at our goal in Ifrane just before sunset. After some confusion regarding whom to meet and where, we found the main part of our fellow volunteer friends in a dusty camp site in a small forest outside Ifrane. After a nice campfire (and a scorpion) under the starry Milky Way we slept like babies in our wonderful tent.