Rabat

We left Casablanca and Mohammedia and drove to the capital Rabat. Driving standards vary in different countries and those of you who often visit Blue Coats Sports club at Christ's Hospital will know that parking can be difficult at times and made more difficult when not everyone parks between the white lines. But how about this for parking?

One car, two spaces.

Most of both cars are within the white lines.

One car, four spaces.

Another one car, four spaces.

Such a common sight.

This one didn't even try to be within the white lines.

Sometimes you can blame the other person for parking badly but the white car is neatly aligned with the black car.

We would be spending that night in a bush camp in a cork oak forest a few kilometres outside of the city. The trees were well spaced out with little vegetation beneath them, just sand. The truck got trapped in the soft sand twice and we had to use the sand mats to get out of the forest.

But besides the comical parking standards in the supermarket car park, there is plenty of interest to see in Rabat. One of the gates to Sale Medina, part of the newer part of the walled city and a section of wall.

The walls look good from the outside but were less well maintained on the inside.

Just outside the city walls is a large cemetery between the city walls, the river and the old medina on the far side of the river.

A cloc=ser view of the old medina over the cemetery.

The grand gate to the kasbah, built more to impress than as an effective defensive construction.

One of the lower battlements beneath the kasbah with a bartizan perched on the corner.

One of the larger gates to the old city, just one of fifteen.

This is a separate part of the city with its own walls and entrance called Chellah. It was abandoned in favour of Sale Medina which is on the other side of the river and nearer to the harbour.

Inside Chellah, there are some ruins but little survives and much of it has been turned into gardens. The only residents and several pairs of nesting storks.

The past sight in the city wa the unfinished King Hassan II mosque, which is a maze of shrt unfinished columns.

 One of the guards in full ceremonial uniform.

A detail of the intricate carving in one of the buildings on site.