Hurry up and wait...

What was I thinking?  Storming into Africa and expecting things to happen on my time.  Yeah right.  I quickly learned that Africa doesn't jump for anybody.

The ferry crossing was pretty standard and straigtht forward.  Until I came to customs and couldn't find my bikes papers anywhere.  How do you loose them into the first African country?  Ran back to th ferry and luckily the staff had them.  Still can't figure out how I lost them.  All my original papers are ina special waterproof document holder.  It's not something you just forget, drop or misplace!!  Lesson learned, AGAIN!!!

How did I feel on the ferry.  Lots and lots off butterflies.  Also one of my biggest 'WTF are you doing moments'.  Africa alone?  Really?

Luckily I got through customs easily and nothing settles the nerves like a few hours on the bike.  Ride to Rabat was beautiful again.  But a very desolate and harsh beauty. Can't wait to see what the real desert looks like.
Bike was on top form again.  No sighs of the overheating problem,  but I was I bit more chilled with the top speed and temp was only in the low 30's.  Will have to wait for proper warm weather to see if things are ok.

About half an hour outside Rabat I suddenly dawned that my idea off being blissfully ignorant was going to backfire immensely.  I was about to enter the capital city of a country for the first time, with no map, no directions and I don't speak French.  I only had a rough idea of were the camp site is supposed to be and the street address for 3 budget hotels.  Needless to say it took hours and hours to find accommodation.  Camp site doesn't exist any more,  one hotel I only found by accident yesterday. The last two hotels where set in an intricate network of one way streets.  A maze where you have to restart every time you make a wrong turn.  This on a fully loaded bike bike, during rush hour traffic. So frustrating,  but fantastic practice for slow control on a loaded bike. I finally figured out by entering the maze from the a different side it is way easier.  Found my accommodation.  Not bad rooms, but bathrooms are horrible.  Dirt cheap though,  about £10 a night.

I also managed to drop the bike for the first time.  Was going very slow in a small street when a woman looked at me, made eye contact and then just stepped out in front of the bike. She was only about a meter or two away.  Slammed on the brakes, front wheel slid and bike dropped.  She walked off like nothing happened (the most surreal experience I've had so far), like I was never there.

So I arrived in Rabat on a Friday afternoon to get some visas.  Yes a Friday. No consulate is open over the weekend, so I am stuck here until about Tues/Wednesday.  I was so excited about reaching Africa I just never thought about the day of the week.  Visa application goes in on Monday morning and if all goes well I'll have it in 24-48hrs.  Gives me time to sort out the tyre saga... Yes it still continues.

DHL left me a voice message with a number to call.  Moroccan customs wanted to speak to me about the tyres,  Completely expected,  but the number they gave me wouldn't work. Saturday morning I went to the DHL offices, and figured out the number DHL gave me was wrong.  Nice.  Tyres are still in  Casablanca and will be shipped to Rabat once I have spoken to customs.  Should have them by Tues/Wednesday.  At least it fits in with the visa schedule.  I learned from my mistakes, and in anticipation of a struggle, I found a place which says they can do the tyre change for me.  I hope its so, the mechanics here are not used to big bikes.  Nearly everyone here rides a scooter, or something similar.

My massive excitement and hurry to reach Africa ended up with me sitting in Rabat.  Waiting.  How ironic.