Day 71

9. July 2000, Newark to Marrakech

Where is day 70? A good question for which I have only one complicated answer. The reader of this website might be aware that Phileas Fogg, when he crossed the international date line somewhere on the Pacific, did not actually account for that in his calculations. He then made the mistake of arriving in London one day early while thinking that he arrived on the day and therefore too late for his bet. It made the story more thrilling at the end but it is actually quite easy to get confused about this. While the rally organization, keeping the habit, had accounted for an extra day (just like Phileas Fogg) crossing the Pacific, our time cards, the piece of paper where we get all the stamps to prove we have driven the route, accounts for an extra day flying over the Atlantic. I am not quite sure why and I only noticed recently but I hope that the reader is not too concerned with this and I will continue with the date-keeping adopted by the rally officials - In other words there is no day 70. Today we have day 71.

Overall 1 hour 47 minutes penalty

The official results can be looked up on this website

Royal Air Maroc brings us to Casablanca, then on to Marrakech. Farmland underneath.

Getting the car back we check it through and install a voltmeter for our battery - to recognize future problems in time.

To get around in Marrakech we orientate ourselves around this tower, presumably a minaret - which is really the highest building by far in the whole city. Must be either shaky grounds or building restrictions.

A typical assembly of colourful Moroccan starters. Moroccan cuisine offers an excellent variety of different tastes and is prepared with perfection in some of the restaurants. The only reason why there aren't as many Moroccan restaurants in the world as there are Chinese or Indian must be because the latter outnumber the first in population size (supply rather than demand).

 

When we arrive in Marrakech airport, Antonov already waits with its nose open. But unlike Alaska, there is still much paperwork to be done, so we get the cars later.

Tourism must be a major source of revenue for Morocco.

Marrakech, the old part, is surrounded by a wall which is fully intact but probably does not get closed at night anymore.

Looking tired, but happy with the food and very happy about the sofas you can sit on in Moroccan restaurants: Kaya and Sami.