Day 6: El-Jadida to Essaouira

The stress of staying in the city, stuck and waiting, was not generating positive energy. We were bickering continuously much like a couple with problems none wants to admit exists.

El-Jadida became a place of relief for both of us. Troubles with the morning ride did not generate any upset. It was just fantastic to start moving forward and not be stuck at one place. We were also amused by the Royal Hotel, beautifully decorated in classic Moroccan style, living rooms of divans or rattan furnitures, in the 4 meter wide corridors, with a semi transparent cube bath inside the room which is considered as accomodation with bath.

A walk in the Citadel Portoghaise proved wonderful when we stumbled upon a try out of the city's Gnaoua music association, in a consacrated church next to the cisterns of the old city. It was great to see the jam session of young Moroccans playing both classical and traditional instruments. It was a mix of Gnaoua, Berber and Moroccan Pop.



Left El-Jadida supposedly in the 'morning' and we stopped for yet another fix in Oualidia for the Aprilia that just does not want to move forward. Garageman Brahim is a certified mechanic that discovered that the continuous block on the sparkplug was due to the exhaust blockage and decided to open a hole to deliberate exhaust from oil, however it also means liberating it from a being a muffler.

So here we are riding into silent nothingness with a big red man on a scooter you can hear coming from 3kms away.



The fix took a bit too long and we had still more than 100 kms to do.
About 70 kms reaching Essaouira, it started to rain profusely and the Aprilia was revived by the augmented quantity of oxygen in the air. It still took us about 2 hours to reach the walls of the city, when we arrived there was much promise in this alternative town filled with psychedelic tourists but we basically closed our eyes and . . .commercials!!!!