My First Visit to Africa

Last weekend I went to Northern Morocco for what was not only my first trip to Africa but also my first adventure outside of Europe so I was excited to say the least. Being as Morocco is so close to Sevilla and the south coast of Spain it was somewhere I wanted to visit since the start of my year abroad. It was an amazing experience but if I had to use one word to describe it, that word would probably be ‘weird’, but in the good sense mainly because it was not what I expected.

We left Friday morning and headed straight to Gibraltar which on the coach is about 2 and a half hours away. When we arrived we crossed the border into Gibraltar and jumped straight on a minibus for a tour of the main sights including Europa Point, St. Michael’s Caves and a stop to see the monkeys. For those of you who don’t know, even though Gibraltar is in mainland Spain it is owned by Britain, hence the need for border checks and one of the reasons why I described this experience as ‘weird’. It felt like we were in Spain, the weather was Spanish, the people looked Spanish, the buildings looked Spanish, the scenery and landscape looked Spanish, yet upon closer inspection I realised how similar to England it is. Everybody speaks English, all the road signs and traffic lights are exactly the same as what you get in England, you can go into a shop and pay for something using English pounds, we even drove past a Morrison’s supermarket! It was a truly bizarre feeling thinking your in Spain but realising you are technically in Britain.

I see Africa!

So we went stopped off at Europa Point where I got my first sight of Africa. You can clearly see it as it’s only around 14 km or 9 miles away which is nothing. We then went to visit the caves which were beautiful and had floor to ceiling stalagmites/stalactites (I don’t know which are which). Finally we went to the ape den to see the monkey’s which was probably the part of the trip I was most looking forward to. Monkeys are my favourite animal, the animal I most look forward to seeing whenever I go to the zoo or the safari park with my family so to see them in the ‘wild’ is amazing. I use the term wild loosely as although they are semi-domesticated animals. They do live in the wild but they have people who look after them and give them food. There was both adults and babies and they are very friendly, if you give them the chance and stay still for long enough they probably will try to climb on you. I managed to take a picture of myself with a baby monkey who then climbed on my arm before running off to play with his mates.

Me and my monkey friend

The St Michael Caves

Afterwards we left Gibraltar and went to Algeciras to catch the ferry to Ceuta in the north of Morocco. Even though Ceuta is part of mainland Africa it is actually Spanish owned which is again confusing. It took quite a while to then cross the border into Morocco and we then drove to Tangiers which is where we spent the night in a hotel. Saturday morning we got straight on the coach after breakfast and headed on a drive to have a small tour of some parts of the city. This was quite handy as it was raining and we got to see the city in the dry. Apparently the King of Morocco was in town which is why there was loads of police checkpoints on the roads and Moroccan flags hanging everywhere. We drove past a palace and our tour guide said the King was inside as his guards were on guard outside. The first stop we made was at a lighthouse which doesn’t sound that exciting but it marks the point where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Mediterranean Sea and the start of the Straight of Gibraltar. The next stop was to go to the beach to ride a camel. This was another strange experience as when I think of camels I think of riding them through the desert in the scorching hot sun, yet we were riding them along the beach and in the rain! I seemed to have the angry camel as he kept making funny noises and wouldn’t walk in a straight line, then when we finished and he decided to sit down he sat on his front legs and left his hind legs standing so I had to hold on tight to make sure I didn’t fall off.

Riding a camel along the beach

We then went to some more caves where a local monk showed us round and tried to tell us that all the marks we could see on the walls represented different things. He said the entrance to the cave was meant to look like Africa and although I saw the resemblance I thought it was more coincidence and wave erosion than any type of superstition. We then went for lunch which was a two hour drive to the mountain town of Chefchauoenne.  This town is very well known and popular with tourists as all the walls are painted blue. This is because all the streets are narrow and winding so in the summer the blue colour reflects heat to keep the streets warm and also helps in repelling mosquitoes. We stopped off at a local fabric shop to see how they made traditional Moroccan shawls, rugs and other fabrics before having some free time to explore the town ourselves and do some shopping. We used this time to stop grab a mint tea, something that is iconic of Morocco and considering I don’t like tea in England it was surprisingly good. Then in the evening we drive to Tetuan where we spent the last night. For our evening meal we went to an Arabian palace for a five course dinner with typical Moroccan foods. We had a vegetable soup, a Moroccan salad, a meatball dish cooked in a tagine, chicken with vegetables and cous cous and to finish some more Moroccan mint tea and biscuits. We were lucky enough to have live music along with entertainment such as a belly dancer and some nutter who ran around balancing a tray of candles on his head. This whole experience is exactly what would have happened at a traditional event in the Palace such as a wedding.

The blue streets of Chefchaouenne

Dinner in the Arabian palace

The final day was the nicest weather wise so it was unfortunate to have to leave. Most of us had been to the club the night before so were functioning on little sleep. I joined in in a spot of Moroccan dancing which turns out to mainly consist of randomly jumping up and down whilst waving your arms and legs. I am sure it is much more complicated than that but that’s what it looked like to me. Our last trip was to explore Tetuan and the Medina, which if you don’t know is more or less a city within a city made up of narrow winding roads, small markets, mosques and all enclosed by a wall that runs around the outside. As we walked through we saw the tiny traditional Moroccan shops, including the local butcher’s. I walked passed to see live chickens in a cage and a man choosing which one he wanted before the butcher picked it up and chopped its head off. Not something you see everyday!  We had time to do some more shopping and I picked up a leather wallet and a nice little handcrafted wooden pot that caught my eye. In Morocco it is custom to haggle prices, so no matter what price they offer to start with you try and get them lower. Being a bargain hunter I loved this and as well as haggling prices for my own purchases started doing it for other peoples too! It must be some kind of Del Boy Trotter instinct I have inside of me, but it seemed to work as I got the wooden pot fromm 15 euros down to 7 euros so less than half price and the leather wallet for just 5 euros.

The leather shops in the Medina in Tetuan

That was another thing bizarre about Morocco. As we were in the north and so close to Spain, all shops took accepted either the local currency of dirhams or euros too. Also, in Morocco they speak Arabic, Berber and French, yet being as we were white they assumed we were Spanish so spoke to us in Spanish as the people are fluent in Spanish too. Most speak good English as well. Lastly we stopped at a traditional Moroccan pharmacy where the chemist talked to us about how they make all their lotions and potions and gave us free samples. I must have tried at least 10 different creams and oils. We then jumped on the bus and headed home. I really enjoyed the trip yet I got a completely different outlook on Africa than I expected. Instead of really hot weather it was probably some of the coldest temperatures I have experienced. It was incredibly green too, even in the mountains and completely different to the sand I was expecting. I guess that was because Africa is such a big place and we were right in the north. It also looked a lot like Spain, both in the countryside and the big cities, it wasn’t until the smaller places that you realised you were on a different continent but then I guess that is because of the proximity of the two and the fact that Sevilla has a lot of Arabic influences. What is certain is I definitely would love to return at some point.

The traditional pharmacy in Tetuan