Trip to the North

This “trip to the North” was an exciting spur-of-the-moment opportunity after our scheduled weekend to Rabat was cancelled. I quickly became excited with the idea of hiking and touring in the deep valleys of the Northern Moroccan borders even if the decision to participate was sudden. The two day tour included hiking and swimming in Cabo Negro beach, Akshour, and Chefchaouen with 52 students including 15 exchange students.

The journey to the North began at 1.30am on Saturday where we drove approximately 7 hours to our first destination. Cabo Negro beach in Tetouan is close to the borders of Spain, therefore the Spanish language (instead of French) was widely spoken in this region. After a short break for breakfast, we arrived at the beach, which was deserted largely due to the cold wet weather. Our so-called ‘beach day’ lasted only 30 minutes before the temperature dropped and the skies opened up to torrential downpour.

Disappointed, we returned to the mini vans to travel to our next destination – Chefchaouen, where our accommodation for the night awaited us. As we left Tetoun, I was amazed to see the city littered with the Moroccan flag. Every few yards, another set of flags waved in the air. We were told that the King Mohammed VI had visited Tetouan a few days ago, and it is a tradition to decorate the town with its national flag and colour for the special visit. It is apparent that the King of Morocco has great executive power in the country more so than the Moroccan Prime Minister. Security forces in uniform are seen everywhere. While police presence indicates the autocracy of the nation, the sheer volume of security actually makes me feel safe in this country, especially when terrorism is a major problem.

In the local Berber language, Chefchaouen means “the horns” - I presume, of the mountains, which was exactly what we saw when driving through the valley. The scenery was spectacular with the additional treats of seeing farmers ploughing the land, people riding donkeys and even some locals waiting by the roadside for a hitch-hike. The town of Chaouen is well-known as the ‘blue city’ – all the buildings are painted sky blue, which brings about an immense sense of calm to the general atmosphere. I was surprised with how touristic the town was and even more surprised with just how windy it was. It felt like a typhoon but we still managed to explore cute little stores that sold very interesting handicrafts and jewellery. I was in awe of our accommodation – Casa Hassan – which looked like a room from an Arabian fairytale. I also met a man who was apparently from the desserts of Morocco. He seemed quite taken by me being ‘dark-skinned’ – I get mistaken as a Moroccan quite often due to my complexion. He dressed me up as a typical Berber woman, which was quite a strange experience.

The next day, we travelled to Akshour, the deep Northen valley of Morocco where we hiked through rocky terrain. Unfortunately I had many technical issues with my footwear. As we were trekking through shallow rivers, my sandals broke twice. I actually ended up hiking for 5 minutes bear-foot until finally deciding to destroy my trainers in the water. The hike must have taken 2 hours until finally reaching ‘the bridge of God’ where we rewarded by cold mountainous streams to swim in. I only soaked my foot in the water, but many students were brave enough to dive straight into it.

The trip to the North was most certainly a memorable experience and on behalf of the Diplomatic Academy of London, I would like to thank the Students Activities Department of AUI for organising this amazing experience for us.