Today was all about driving. We have relocated to a beautiful mountain town in the Rif Mountains called Chefchaouen. The total drive was about 200 kilometers but it took over 4 hours to accomplish.
Ton really enjoyed the day as the views were ever-changing and often spectacular. I had a little different view of the drive as I was focused on the road about 50 yards in front of François, or the rear of the vehicle in front of us.
The majority of the drive was on the N-13. Our experience with N roads has been good. They are often up to the standards we are used to in the US or Europe. But the N-13 going north from Fez hasn’t been brought up to that standard.
Except for a 20 kilometer stretch where the road was extremely deteriorated, the road was ok, but there were enough pot holes or places where the road bed was failing causing the asphalt to appear to be sliding with a groove in it to grab your tire, to keep you on full alert for the drive.
I was mostly driving at about 60 kph so I had time to react to the road. Which means I also had to watch for traffic coming up behind as Moroccans pass very aggressively (sometimes suicidally). Plus there is a wide variety of vehicles on the roads including bicycles, scooters, a three wheeled motorcycle called Docker, old trucks grinding along at 20 kph, donkey drawn carriages, and just donkeys with someone riding on it. It is an entertaining assortment of characters using the road.
The Park4Night report for this campground had a very explicit warning to avoid the center of the city as it was a very difficult place to drive. So of course we ended up in the center of the city, and they are right it is a very difficult place to drive, especially on market days like today. To prove the difficulty I missed the turn to the campground the first time and the only recovery was to repeat the drive thru the center of the town. It was just as much fun the second time.
In the end we made it here fine, once we were settled in, I pulled out a chair and sat looking down on the town and enjoyed a coffee. Part of the fun of these “adventures” are days like today. Tomorrow we will look at the city.