Day 8: Marrakech
finish line
Although we had arrived in Marrakech yesterday, Mum and I had not yet crossed the finish line for the Race. But we had plenty of time today, no rush.
We woke up in our nice resort on the outskirts of Marrakech. The breakfast buffet had a dedicated msemen pancake station, where a brisk Morocco chef prepared flaky Moroccan pancakes to order. Msemen are made from are laminated dough, folded into square shapes and freshly fried, best served swimming in butter and honey. I had three. The sun was already breaking through the palm leaves above the breakfast terrace. Despite the early hour it was already too hot to sit outside. We spent a little time in the nice cool pool.
And then we headed into town for business.
The first point to note was that there are two items of business for us. Firstly, there is final Checkpoint. And then – completely separately – there was the Finish Line, in a different part of Marrakech.
I had completely overlooked the final Checkpoint. It was a good thing Mum was there, and that she had been poring over the Race Pack. I had been planning to go directly to the finish line, and would have been told to turn around and go back to the last Checkpoint if I had.
The Checkpoint turned out to be the famous Chez Lamine, a restaurant in the old part of Marrakech at the legendary marketplace Djmaa el Fna. We obtained our evidence, and then, finally, we were ready to head to the Finish Line.
The finish was at Kosybar in Place de Ferblantiers (Tinsmiths Square). It was about a 20-minute walk through the old centre of Marrakech, threading through souq streets too narrow for cars, crammed full of carts, mopeds and pedestrians. Shops were already open, wares laid out carefully to entice shoppers inside. There was an exciting mixture of local supplies - fresh fruit, leather sandals, kitchenware - and tourist souvenirs - creamy soaps made from scented oils, copper lanterns, jewellery. The scents of argan oil and cinnamon wafted from the stalls we passed. Brightly-coloured awnings kept the sun off, but still it was fearsomely hot. Luckily, the Kosybar was a lovely location, blissfully peaceful and cool at lunchtime. The Lupine Travel Team were waiting, seated outside under sunshades.
We checked in officially and collected our finishers’ medal. And then we collected all the gossip. It turns out that I was not the only one to have missed the separate Checkpoint and finish line in Marrakech – some Racers competing to be fastest had made the same mistake earlier in the week. In fact, that had been a determining factor - with at least one “fastest finisher” team having missed it.
We took a seat and ordered drinks. The team of 4 ladies who had stayed in Hendaye were sitting enjoying some cold drinks nearby – it was wonderful to see them again and hear how their Race had gone. In fact, Racers were gradually arriving in small numbers and sitting down for a coffee and a chat and catch-up. Listening to some of their stories, I think Mum and I have been extremely lucky – we had had no significant delays, no lost items, no phones running out of charge, no getting stranded, no missed buses or trains… One person had experienced hours of delays in France after the storms last week broke a rail on a key train route.
Although the fastest finishers had already completed days ago, the country counters were not yet finished. The highest number of countries and territories visited (as defined for this specific event) so far was 22. But a countrycounter who had visited 23 territories was currently on a train, scheduled to arrive shortly before the cutoff. He would win if he arrived in time! It felt genuinely quite exciting. After all the speculation on WhatsApp, he arrived with an hour or two to spare, though, strolling in cool as a cucumber and sat down to chat with us.
Left: Bahia palace, Marrakech. Centre & Right: Jardin Majorelle, Marrakech
We rounded off our Race with the Finishers’ party all evening, which featured an awards ceremony hosted by Race Director James. Prizes for the competitions (fastest finisher, country counter and the lowest spend) as well as the “Wilson” booby prize for worst luck.
It was absolutely smashing to meet everyone in the flesh - we had met some of the Racers individually (and accidentally) during the week, but we had heard the stories and experiences of so many others through the active chat, and now we were able to connect faces to the chat names. And that wasn’t the end of the trip! We still had plans for sightseeing before we left home, starting with pre-booked tickets to see the famous Jardins Majorelle.
So would we do it again? What did we learn? Take a look at the next page to see…