Day 3 Volubilis and Chefchaouen
With a new inflatable mattress we did at least wake up a couple of inches above ground level, but several inches into deep despair at the very loud snorer all night long. Tonight’s tent putting up will be a strategic exercise in location choice.
Tonight will also be interesting as we have not managed to shop for food in quite the way we planned today. Despite the Oasis notes stating that the enormous Carrefour supermarket near our campsite was open at 8am, at 8:20, we discovered it didn’t open until 9am. So no time to shop for any of the ingredients I planned for supper.
So, plan B – bubble and squeak with merguez sausages, requiring minimal roadside shops, or so we thought……
Yes we managed to pick up more cabbage and potatoes. Additionally, once we had convinced one of the cooking team that yes, the cucumbers really were cucumbers and not courgettes (and ironically that the courgettes weren’t cucumbers) we also had a bit of salad to go with it, but no meat. The stall next door tried to sell us a small chicken for £6, and wouldn’t drop the price even when we said we needed 4 chickens. We went over the road to get some meat there instead but all they had were little chicken skewers all prepared, doubling the price yet again. So back we went to the first place where apparently the price is more expensive if it comes with the show of killing and plucking them and a small chicken was now over £7. Several of the group would have been happy to pay more not to have this, so we declined.
Most of the rest of the day was spent at Volubilis and its expensive roadside cafe for lunch, given that no one had been able to buy snacks for lunch at the supermarket. Volubilis is a Roman town, still being excavated, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, under a burning sun. It’s early days and we’re looking forward to being a bit more organised about taking a sunhat and sunglasses out with us too.
Roman ruins are always awesome, even worth being ripped off in the cafe, by the Moroccan factor of 2, for fries in a wrap, accompanied by fries, masquerading as a merguez taco. It took over an hour to get all 20 of us (including driver and tour leader) in and out of the cafe, so we probably shaved about 10 mins off the travel time by not waiting for Carrefour to open this morning…….
The temple of Jupiter, “used only for animal sacrifices, not human, like the Incas” as we were told at least 5 times by the guide”.
We then hit the road properly in the truck on the way to our campsite for the night, past rows of olive trees and agave plants. We’re wondering if this will all look like the greenest oasis in the world in a couple of weeks.
Evening cooking (minus merguez which we never found) went relatively well. My cooking crew are as helpful as I expected. Mark thankfully came in as an extra team member. True love…..
With a new mattress and strategic tent location, surely we’re onto a winner for sleep tonight.
