WEATHER: Hot and 50C – Yes peeps, it was 51C on one temp sign and 49C on another!!!
HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Getting to Essaouira – it is 20C cooler here – not kidding
BUMMER OF THE DAY: We only get 2 nights here
BUYS OF THE DAY: Supermarket shopping – for real and bought a wad of things for 16AUD
WORD OF THE DAY: It’s 50C outside!!!!
We got to have a bit of a lay in this morning as we didn’t have to leave the gite till 9am. Tom and Susan have woken feeling okay after sleeping for 14 hours but Susan has been bitten by something in her sleep that look like mozzie bites, and she has them all over her arms and legs and a few on her neck. At this stage, they don’t look too bad, and it is strange that none of us were bitten, so we are a little unsure as to what bug it was.
Our trek down the MOUNTAIN took us on a different route, which was I think easier than the way up yesterday, but still on a donkey track that hugged the side of the mountain for more than half of the way. So still the wrong shoes for the HIKE, but once again I just took it slowly and made it to the bottom 45 minutes later and was able to enjoy it a lot more and was able to take photos.
We then packed the van and left Imlil, after I bought a stone necklace for 8AUD and then back on the road again for Essaouira, which we are looking forward to as it is supposed to be a lot cooler than what we have experience for the whole trip to date. We had gone about 20 minutes when Abdul felt there was something wrong with one of the van’s wheels, so we stopped at a local garage for 45 minutes as we changed tires and lucky we did as the tire had a 15cm rip in the middle of it. Good work Abdul. That could have been nasty yesterday coming down the mountain if that thing was to blow! Travelling another 15 minutes we got held up on road works for another 15 minutes – I hope this isn’t a sign of the type of travelling day we were going to have!
We leave the mountains all together today and head on to a flat plain, through Marrakesh and then onto the Atlantic Ocean and Essaouira. The temperatures for the last 3 days there have been 44C. I have been getting my temperatures from a bank in Morocco we call the ‘Horse Bank’. It has an electronic sign out the front of its branches with the time, date and temperature. While passing through Marrakech and surrounds we saw 2 signs, one that had 51C and the other that said 49C. Issam rekons it’s not that hot and the signs are wrong, but they have only been wrong one other time when one of the signs said -60C, okay so that one is obvious – I’m telling you it was 50C yesterday crossing that plain and it felt like it, no matter what Issam thinks.
We stopped at a supermarket to buy lunch today, and then take it to a café out of town to eat it. It was actually a ‘proper’ supermarket, even though I hated food shopping back home, it was good to feel a little normal and get some shopping done. I bought a six pack of Stella, 2 packets of chips, a large bottle of water, a soft drink, a roll, 2 tomatoes and some sliced cheese for 16AUD!!! How cheap is that! We then drove to the café about an hour away and thanks to some fast talking on Issam part, we got to sit in the ‘special’ air conditioned room to eat our lunch. Ahhh heaven, as you can imagine 50C heat is the pits!!!! George and I shared an avocado and an onion and I had the best sandwich ever!!!
By this stage we are all tired, hot and sweaty. Even the van’s air conditioning is finding hard to keep up with the heat outside. We had one more stop before our final run to some cooler air and it was at an Argan Co-operative. Argan oil is an oil produced from the kernels of the argan tree, endemic to Morocco, that is valued for its nutritive, cosmetic and numerous medicinal properties. The tree is extremely well adapted to drought and other environmentally difficult conditions of southwestern Morocco. The species Argania once covered North Africa and is now endangered and under protection of UNESCO. The tree has tried to be grown in other countries, but has not been successful and can still only be found in a certain region in Morocco. To purchase the oil outside Morocco is triple the cost here and companies like L’Oreal use it in their beauty cosmetics. I wasn’t one to pass up some beauty treatment, so I bought a barr of soap and some face cream, hoping for the miracle of eternal youth using the stuff. I may be waiting awhile right!
A further 20 minute drive finally got us into Essaouira, and it was like landing on a different planet. The temperature here was at least 20C cooler. With a cool breeze blowing in off the ocean, it was a welcome relief and it immediately made us feel 150% better straight away. The place is amazing and reminds me of Phuket a little. More western and shopping in the medina isn’t as fast pace, and there seems to be a few more tourists here as well.
As out hotel is located in the Medina, we hired 2 guys with carts to load up all our belongings, as this was the last day we see Abdul, so everything had to come off the bus. I had about 4 bags of stuff, just me, of things I had collected over the last 10 days, plus my bags of winter clothes I had stored on the first day leaving Fez. I have come to the conclusion now, that I have to be ruthless in my belongings, and anything I haven’t used for the last 3 months is going home. I need / want to get rid of my side bag; it is just too difficult to be travelling with 3 bags and a handbag. I feel a lot better knowing that I have made the decision, but to execute it and get done will be interesting, but I am adamant that this will be done tomorrow and all posted home. I also have the added complication of my little front backpack having broken, as it no longer attaches to the big backpack, so this will be given to Issam, along with my pencil case and contents (he can pass it on to people who need that stuff) and also condensing what was in that to my main bag. I have a task ahead of me, but one I think will be do-able.
The hotel is amazing; small families run property with a courtyard in the middle, and plants growing from the balconies and a large skylight in the roof. I have to say also that finally we have Wi-Fi at last, and I was able to load an entry on my blog before we headed to dinner. We felt we deserved a good dinner tonight, so Issam took us to this great place by the seaside, where we got to have an alcoholic drink on the roof top before heading down one level to have dinner and watch the sunset. It was our most expensive night so far, a seafood restaurant, but happy to pay the money after the day of heat we had. We also had a few Vodka Smirnoff’s which went down a treat while listening to some Gnaoua music which was bought to Morocco by the slaves from the south centuries ago – it was cool to just chill and chat…….
I got some more washing in today, my last ditch effort to get some done for cheap before heading into Europe again. It cam e back the same day and was only 14AUD!!! I LOVE freshly laundered clothes!!!!
Essaouira I think I am REALLY REALLY going to like our next few days together
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