The Journey begins

Another week lost - at this rate I will be starting my journey on June 13, the same date as Ibn Battuta almost 700 years ago, instead of being a month into my journey as had been the plan..........

In my effort to recreate the 14th century journey of Mohammed Ibn Battuta, Prince of Travelers, I am trying to plead my case to the Moroccan and Algerian embassies to get their permission to cross their mutual land border which is very firmly closed. It is a measure of my confidence – clearly misplaced – that I did not doubt that an exception could be made for this trip of ‘historic significance’. However after 10 days of endless calls and fax sending and re-sending, I must concede defeat. Despite the allround cordiality, the Moroccan National Tourist Board has decided that there is no paper they can give me which will allow me to cross the border which is "closed by the Algerians". The Algerians meanwhile need that paper from the Moroccans before they can do anything. Stalemate - 2006-style. When Ibn Battuta set out in 1325 he at least got as far as the Red Sea - I cannot even get out of his homeland.

So now it is a question of do I take a boat to Oran from Tangier, or Ceuta further along the coast, or do I go south to Casablanca and take a flight? Whatever I do I have to backtrack to Tlemcen in Algeria as that is the first town quoted in his travels after he leaves his hometown of Tangier.

To be continued.

About this Site

OVERVIEW Carolyn McIntyre will travel from the Moroccan City of Tangiers through 46 countries as she attempts to recreate an epic journey made 700 years ago by the famed Islamic scholar and traveler Ibn Battuta. Along the way she will visit: 

Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Palestinian Territories, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Oman, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Russia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Moldavia, Romania, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, China, Italy, Spain, Mali, Mauritania, Niger.

Arabist, Middle East political analyst and award-winning expedition creator to Asia, Carolyn has more than three decades of living, working and traveling in the Middle East. A real-life ‘Indiana Jones’ meets ‘Holly Golightly’, her own wanderlust has taken her to all parts of the globe but her specialty lies in her extensive knowledge of and unique insight into the Arab and Islamic worlds. She worked for eight years for Geographic Expeditions, an elite, San Francisco-based, cultural touring company specializing in hard-to-get-to places. From time to time throughout this epic journey, Carolyn will continue to lead trips for GeoEx in North and West Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. When not traveling she lives in a 300-year old tower house in Sana'a in the UNESCO World Heritage Old City, where she writes on political and social issues for the English-language monthly Yemen Today. She is a fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society. 

Ibn Battuta Born in Tangier, Morocco in 1304, Ibn Battuta began his 29-year epic journey in 1325. He originally set out to perform the Haj in Mecca, but when he arrived at the Red Sea he found all boats had been sunk as the result of a local insurrection and he was unable to travel further. Unwilling to return home without completing the Haj, he traveled back to Cairo and then crossed the northern Sinai to join the Haj caravan in Damascus the following year. This completed, innate curiosity and insatiable wanderlust took over (he had by now confessed to wishing "to travel through the earth"), and instead of returning home, he traveled 75,000 miles throughout the Islamic World. In today's world this covers 44 countries. His desire to traverse its entirety never wavered and despite occasional and sometimes severe adversity, he succeeded. On his eventual return to Morocco in 1354, where he became a jurist, he dictated his rihla, or travels, to a scribe. His writings languished until 1839, when the French found a manuscript in Algeria. Hailed as the 'Marco Polo of the East', his record of life in 14th century Turkey and the Malabar Coast of India remain among the most extensive on record.