Friday 10 March 2017

Nr. Meknes to Moulay Bousselham - 105 miles

Up early to catch the bakers van to yet more hot sunshine. The guardian/receptionist turned up with mint tea which we enjoyed with breakfast, probably because we gave him a couple of cold beers last night – he did offer to pay for them but he was really after a bottle of wine, which we don't drink. Then a quick miniservice of the van before heading north, our objective today the coast at Moulay Bousselham.

Just a few kilometres up the road we spotted a pile of old stones in the distance which seemed to have a lot of coaches parked next to them – oh yes, the old Roman city of Volubilis, so we joined them. Surprisingly it was only 10 dirhams each for entry, although guides cost 150 per hour, which we turned down of course. Leaving Jamie in the van but taking sunhats and water bottles we ventured forth, joining the parties of Germans, Americans and the inevitable Japanese.

History lesson. In AD 40 the already well established town was annexed from the Kingdom of Mauretania by Emperor Claudius. Apart from a small island off Essaoiura,Volubilis was the only Roman outpost in Morocco, built in AD168 to defend from Berber incursions and was developed as a full Roman town until the garrison withdrew in AD 285, being needed elsewhere. Since then it passed through several hands although did not change very much until well into the 17^th century. The area is very fertile and wheat and olives were exported in great quantities to Rome; there is much evidence of wheat mills and olive presses still to be seen, although most of the finds apparently are now exhibited in a museum in Rabat.

Moulay Idriss

The area also has strong religious connections, nearby Moulay Idriss is a holy Muslim town with a shrine to its most venerated saint for whom it is named. Moulay Idriss el Akhbar was a great-grandson of the Prophet Mohammed who fled to Morocco in AD787 and seemed to be accepted as an imam and intoduced the faith of Islam. A visit to the shrine for a Muslim is apparently worth a fifth of the hajj to Mecca.

Not yet fully explored, there has been a good deal of reconstruction from the remains left after much of the stone was removed to help build Meknes. For anyone interested in Roman architecture it beats anything we've got in the UK. Some pictures to give an idea.

Public Latrine. Of course it is, look at the shape.....

Obvious reconstruction

However it was red stinking hot with little shade and after almost 2 hours we were flagging and returned to the van, buying ice-creams on the way. Not feeling like lunch just yet we set TomTom and headed to Moulay Bousselham, planned to be around 3 hours drive through different again countryside, this time very green and fully planted with all sorts of agriculture which lasted all the way to the coast.

There being no obvious direct route we relied on the satnav and all was going quite well until we turned onto a minor road – it couldn't possibly be this bad all the way could it? Basically the existing road had deteriorated into badly surfaced piste and we were down to less than 5mph for almost 10km then turned onto another, not quite as bad for another 10km. We got quite a few interested looks from the local population! Eventually we spilled out onto the coastal road but had lost well over an hour and later realised that the satnav had got it completely wrong – see the map!

But never mind, we were soon at Moulay Bousselham, checked in and found a nice pitch (with electricity this time). Refreshment and relaxation for a couple of hours. We plan now to stay here a few days, get caught up with the washing and generally chill until we cross back into Spain next week.