Monday 25 October 2010

Africa Fun Car Rally

Every summer loads of Moroccans come from every part of Europe to return home to Africa. So many that we even have free-way signs in Arabic. They always travel with a blue tarp on top of the car covering bicycles and other treasures that they are taking home to their families. The cars are so loaded with children and gifts that there is no suspension left.
One year Mojácar had a point-to-point fun car rally. Everyone was to dress up as something and their cars as well. The object was to stop in every bar along the way, have a drink and get a clue to the next destination. It was a lot of fun and many people turned out in costume to participate. We thought we would go as Moroccans. I had an old Renault truck. So we all dressed in kaftans, fezzes and djellaba. We overflowed the car with children and even Negrita the sheep to make it look authentic. A friend of ours who joined our party had thoughtfully remembered to sample some of Morocco’s best-loved herbal export, to get in the spirit of the event. Negrita came into each bar with us on our route and was treated to potato chips and peanuts. She was the first sheep to ever make an appearance in any of these establishments and was treated like a princess. She loved the trip as did we all. The only problem was that we were stopped by the police at every turn and our friend kept getting out and trying to unsuccessfully explain to the police the reason for the authentic Moroccan aroma, until Lenox eventually pulled him back into the car, got out and took off his hat and said “it’s me, Napier”. The police all laughed and said we looked very authentic. We still got stopped by police, unaware of this fun car rally, a couple of more times. We were even told that it was against the law to carry a live sheep in the car. We agreed killing her wouldn’t solve our problem so they let us go. We didn’t win the rally, but I think we had the most fun.

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