Chapter Three: I wasn't counting on Omicron
The Russell Lucky Streak is broken
11.29.2021 - 11.29.2021 37 °F
View Morocco + Uganda + Rwanda on paulej4's travel map.
"The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry," from "To a mouse" by Robert Burns. That about sums it up.
The confirmed news finally reached me yesterday as I was about to board a camel on the sands of the Sahara Desert. From the web site MOROCCO WORLD NEWS: Rabat - Earlier today, Moroccan authorities have announced that they are suspending all direct flights to the kingdom for two weeks, starting on Monday the 29th of November, citing fears of the Omicron variant. Who am I to say that Moroccan authorities are wrong if what they have decided to do? I will point out, however, that they are, as I write this, the only country on the planet with restrictions as strict as they are imposing--with Israel a close second. Here's the quote from the New York Times last night: "Hours after Israel announced its blanket ban, Morocco said on Sunday it would deny entry to all travelers, even Moroccan citizens, for two weeks beginning Monday. The country is banning all incoming and outgoing flights over the two-week period." Note the portion: "even Moroccan citizens." Wow. But there is another problem. To board the flight tomorrow night, I must produce a negative Covid PCR test. I get that done and hope the results are returned in time. Ibrahim would say to me about now that it will arrive, "Insha Allah." (He also offered to house me with him and his large extended family for two weeks if need be)
I was scheduled to fly out of Morocco on Friday, December 3 at 3:00pm. If no flights can come into or out of the kingdom for the four days prior to that, there would be no airplane for me to board. Qatar Airways, my carrier on 12/3 keeps saying that my flight is confirmed but that cannot be. So, I ask myself, do I want to stay in Morocco for two weeks and miss the trip of a lifetime to Uganda and Rwanda to commune with my soon to be friends mountain gorillas? I do not. This is a lovely place, but no.
I had to get packing. I found a flight leaving Casablanca at 11:40pm to Lagos, Nigeria, which connects with another flight to Doha, Qatar, which connects with another flight to Entebbe, Uganda. All I have to do is cancel everything I have still planned for Morocco--which is a lot--and make my way on a ten hour drive to Casablanca in time to make that Lagos flight.
My primary goal in coming to Morocco was to spend time on the dunes and that I got done but again, only with the foresight of Ibrahim. Worrying that this might happen, he arranged to get me to my tent a day early so that I could still exit the country having ridden a camel into the desert sands. The man, I hereby attest, is a genius. I have to hand it to Wanderlust Voyages as well as their advice and counsel and flexibility made what Ibrahim suggested possible. Megan and Bill, nice work. If you ever need a recommendation...
Will this plan work. Who knows?
The day: Asleep by 2:00am, alarm at 6:00. Finished packing just before the power (lights) went out at 6:20. Breakfast and coffee at 6:30, Toyota 4x4 trip to hotel at 7:15, arrive at Riad 7:30...all very cold; it is 37 degrees outside (and not much better inside). They built a fire in the fireplace at the Riad so by 7:40 I am warm for the first time in a bit. Ibrahim arrives and we leave at 8:00.
Oh, the drive: we pass Erhoud, the Zez Valley where a fire three weeks ago scorched the beautiful date palms, Aoufous and the arid landscape after that, many children walking to school on this cold but clear Monday morning. Errachida by 9:30, passing lots and lots of bicycles, motorbikes, tuk tuks, and the occasional man on a donkey or man driving a horse drawn wagon. We pass the very large Errachida Reservoir and move into rocky barren terrain reminiscent of Arizona canyon land. We pass Tassmaalt and Gorges Zez and the Hotel Jurassique in the Zez River Valley with its dinosaurs out front. Through Morocco's only tunnel (the Tunnel Zaabal) at 10:10 and through Karrandou where college students lined up to enter the campus. There is snow atop the Middle Atlas Mountains in the distance but we pass below the snow line, stopping at the Cafe Bonjour for coffee and the WC making, what Ibrahim calls excellent time "Handu Allah" (thanks be to God). I shoot a quick movie passing down from the Middle Atlas crossing and see apples for sale on the roadside at Zibzate before we pass through Midelt at 11:45, Zaida at 12:30 where we turn west on a road not yet traveled by me. And so it goes with six hours ahead to the Casablanca Airport. The scenery, particularly the snow on the mountains to the south, is beautiful even if the disappointment of cutting Morocco short is not. The impending PCR test looms.
Wifi in the van has been spotty. We believe that the cigarette lighter power adapter which supplies juice to the router is faulty--going in and out. For the moment, it is working so I jot down a few details knowing that it will soon be back out but I can pick up the narrative when technology allows.
The afternoon kicks off with me skipping lunch after a large breakfast; I remained in the car while Ibrihim grabbed a bite to eat. Not needing to drive, I treated myself with a nap in the back seat.
In Morocco, one frequently comes across a sort of road block set up by Gendarmerie Royale, the national police. We are most often waved through with only a cursory glance but sometimes must stop and explain ourselves.
The drive points out the geographical variety that is Morocco. It is just like the United States except much smaller. There are deserts and mountains and farmland and forest land but here they all abut one another. In one stretch of road, perhaps five miles or so, thousands of termites swarm, bouncing off our windshield. Outside of that one microclimate, I never saw another one.
By the time 3:00pm rolled around—seven hours after our departure—we were in Zaouiat Cheikh when school was letting out; I saw the kids on the way to school earlier and watched them stream out later. It is twenty degrees warmer and an entire school day later here.
As we drive it occurs to me that nature awarded an inordinate number of rocks to Morocco—there are more rocks here than I have ever seen: big ones, small ones, short ones, tall ones. I see them all today as we drive on almost all two-lane roads with narrow shoulders. In many places they are gathered together to make rock walls similar to those seen in many parts of the U.S. (and Ireland!) freeing up the gleaned land for growing of this or that.
To drive here, one must learn the art of passing—something young American drivers don’t know how to do because they are so infrequently placed on two lane highways. Major intersections of these two-lane roadways are without exception at roundabouts—another thing we are late to adopt in the U.S.
Approaching the City of Tadla (Kasba Tadla), I see still another of the many examples of highly dense urban dwellings abruptly stopping along clear lines of demarcation yielding to agriculture, or, in arid climate zones, barren rocky flatland. I ask Ibrahim if that stems from the history of walled cities to defend against aggressors and he answers in the affirmative. Simply put, there is no urban sprawl here. That changes as we approach Casablanca, however, and the density evaporates in favor of more western style scattered clusters of homes or industrial or agricultural buildings.
As 4:00pm approaches, we enter onto a modern, divided by concrete median, highway. No more passing for Ibrahim to negotiate, we are on the equivalent of an American interstate from here to the edge of Casablanca. Our speed picks up from 80 or 90 kilometers per hour to 120 and the swaying of the Mercedes van stops as our way straightens. The temperature has warmed another ten degrees and I have stopped feeling first cold and then chilled. Both changes are welcome as we make our way through still another micro-climate of barren scrub dotted with dried brush and the occasional olive grove.
The towns and dwellings I’ve seen sport mostly flat roofs, minimal exterior glass and are, as I said, tightly arranged one next to the last. Bright colors do not exist as the buildings keep the earth tones of the materials from which they are created. And there are rocks. More rocks: Morocco.
I receive my COVID PCR test result: Negative. I knew it would be that; what I didn’t know was whether or not it would arrive in time. Ibrahim stops the van at an internet-type shop so we can print out a copy just in case the airline won’t accept my electronic version (I insisted on that). That bit of anxiety passed, the next tense moments will come when I enter the airport and deal with local formalities in this time of COVID. My outbound 3-and-a-half-hour flight to Lagos is on Royal Air Maroc Boeing 737-800 (like what Southwest Airline flies in the U.S.) so I will depart from Terminal 1 but not for several hours: at 11:40pm, just under the shutdown deadline.
Upon arrival at the airport I make my way to the Royal Air Maroc ticket counter to be told that my flight to Lagos is canceled. I ask if I can please have a seat on any other international flight. There are none, says the nice person behind the COVID glass. A supervisor is summoned. I say I will take any seat in any class of service on any airline to any destination. "There is nothing." The airlines shut down early so as to not have aircraft out of position. "There is nothing."
I summon Ibrahim to return to the airport which he does. Megan from Wanderlust says that the last time something like this happened, repatriation flights for Americans left from Marrakech. That is where Ibrahim was going anyway. I have the last room at the Le Meridien Hotel in Marrakech. I may be here for two weeks. I don't know. I have reached out to two travel agents and the U.S. Department of State for help but so far nobody has any ideas. If you have one, please let me know.
The saddest part of this is that I notified David from Natural World Safaris--the arranger for all my gorilla treks--that I am stuck and may not make it.
Happy Hanukkah!
