The Colours of Morocco

An amazing 2 weeks spent with 9 amazing individuals.  The weather was hotter than an oven but the hospitality was outstanding, the country full of charm and an incredible guide to name a few things.  Do yourself a favour and add this country to your travel list.

MARRAKECH CHANGES HER TUNE

WEATHER: A pleasant 25C – can you believe it!!!!

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Walking to The Majorelle Gardens and not getting into a sweat ball

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Nothing of note today

BUYS OF THE DAY: Nothing to note of today on this either

WORD OF THE DAY: Marrakech is DODGY

I’m telling you I am going to miss the sleep in’s once I leave here.  Even though it has been SO hot here, having 3 nights in one spot again is pure heaven, even if it is hot as hell.  Air conditioning has been our friend in Marrakech.  We got to sleep in till 9.15am this morning.  Susan and I decided to get to The Majorelle Gardens in the morning and then to get back to the hotel and have the afternoon to rest, thinking it was going to be another hot day upon us.  Well you can imagine our surprise when we saw the temperature outside was 22C and was going to reach a maximum of 25C.  What the hell happened to, well hell?  The temp has dropped 20C in one day!  Unbelievable.  Based on this we decided to walk the 40 minutes to the gardens and then catch a petite taxi back to the hotel. 

We had breakfast at a café next door to the hotel and for 2 pots of tea, an omelet and a chocolate croissant cost us 2.90AUD total!!!  You really can eat cheap if you pick the right place!

So we had a pleasant walk to The Majorelle Gardens.  It was so nice to not end up in a ball of sweaty mess going for the walk and Marrakech this morning really felt like a world away from yesterday.  The gardens are a botanical garden and artist's landscape garden.  It was designed by the expatriate French artist Jacques Majorelle in 1924, during the colonial period when Morocco was a protectorate of France.  It is supposed to reflect 5 of the 7 continents and I could see this place would be a shady sanctuary from the hot Moroccan heat outside.  We were lucky we didn’t need to rely on it today with the weather as it was.  The garden has been open to the public since 1947. Since 1980 the garden has been owned by Yves Saint-Laurent and Pierre Bergé. After Yves Saint Laurent died in 2008 his ashes were scattered in the Majorelle Garden.  It was a pretty cool place and had an awesome collection of cacti.  The gardens felt like we had stepped out of Morocco, it was like an Oasis in the middle of a dusty and busy city.

After about an hour in the gardens we caught a taxi back to the hotel.  The weather was a little overcast, so it blew my plans of swimming and working on my tan to smithereens, which I guess is a blessing in disguise to give my skin a break from the sun.  So I decided to get some more office work done and download and upload pictures and organize my Bernstar jumps.  It has been a while since I have loaded them.  I also need to clear my C drive, as I am running out of space due to my photos, and I realized I have not backed them up on my portable hard drive since my second week in Russia 2.5 months ago.  Boofhead, what’s the point of caring the hard drive if I’m not going to use it.  So I now safely have my pictures saved on my portable hard drive.  I still have the memory cards (which I won’t write over) and I have my pictures posted to Facebook.  So I will need to now delete the photos off my computer, but it is still scary hitting that yes to ‘are you sure you wish to delete album’ – Ahhhhhhhhhh yes………..  I also checked my Gap Adventures trip I have booked for Ethiopia in October and it is now a guaranteed departure, so that was the last tour that had not been 100% confirmed.  So that is a relief, but I was getting used to the idea of it being cancelled, visiting Addis Ababa for 4 nights and then getting extra time back in Europe, but back to the original plan is also a great outcome, as I now won’t have to change my flights, so I now have all tours confirmed and guaranteed till April 2012!!!

The afternoon was completed with a nana nap before meeting Susan at 7 for dinner.  As we were walking out of the hotel, Annette and Jeff saw us, so we came back and had a vodka and lemon with the Foys before they joined us for PIZZA down the road from the hotel.  Moroccan food is getting a rest.  The pizza was delicious.  We also saw Tony just before we left, so Michelle and Tony came down a little later and also joined us for dinner.  10 became 6, and tomorrow we all leave for our new destinations.  As my flight was changed, it just dawned on Susan and I that we are now on the same flight from Marrakech to Lisbon, and then she continues on to Paris.  So just when she thought she was rid of me, we will still be together for the next part of tomorrow as well.  Sucker!!!

So the rest of the night will be getting my bags packed for airline travel tomorrow again.  I have stream lined myself with no side pack now, and I know that I cannot go over 23kg for my main backpack, so here’s hoping for an easy check-in tomorrow with TAP Airlines.  I do have a bargaining chip up my sleeve, since they cancelled my flight tonight, it has cost me extra money to stay in Marrakech one additional night, there was a 40AUD change fee for my accommodation in Lisbon and luckily enough I changed my transfer and day tour in the nick of time before change fees, but they don’t know that, so I will use all that as ammunition if they bat an eyelid at me being over their 20kg restriction.

Goodnight for the last time Morocco and Marrakech and thanks for a mild temperature on our last day xx

GOODBYE TO MY FELLOW INTREPID MOROCCAN TRAVELLERS

WEATHER: Bloody hot – Horse said 57C, which is wrong but was really 45C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Kentucky Fried Chicken for lunch

BUMMER OF THE DAY: IT IS TOO HOT TO DO ANYTHING

BUYS OF THE DAY: Kentucky Fried Chicken

WORD OF THE DAY: Can you get burnt through a glass roof?

SONG OF THE TRIP: Barbara Streisand - Duck Sauce

DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 1990 KM

I had nothing planned today.  Susan, Jeff and Annette booked on the half day tour that left at 9am this morning.  I am glad I didn’t end up going on that, as the temperature outside was hot hot hot.  I didn’t leave the comfort of my air conditioned room till 11am, when I went downstairs to see Aimes and discuss what our lunch options were going to be.  The day before, when we walked to Place Djemma el Fna, we saw a Macca’s and a Kentucky Fried Chicken.  Now don’t get us wrong, we have loved the Moroccan food that we have had to date, but our little western taste buds are just craving a little something from home, so we decided today to have Kentucky for lunch today.  I didn’t matter to us that we had to walk for 15 minutes in 45C heat; we were determined to have something familiar to eat.  This is when we walked past the horse bank and their temperature reading was 57C, which I took a photo of, but realistically it couldn’t be that hot…right?  There are a lot of the temperature signs around and most of them were in agree-ance that it was around 45C.  It is still flippin hot walking in the sun, but nothing was going to stop us on our mission.

There are 2 Kentucky’s in Marrakech; apparently not many Moroccans eat here, as it is too expensive for them.  The prices for us were pretty standard, a meal and drink for 5.60AUD.  But when you can get meals from local restaurants for 2-3AUD, I guess I can see the cost comparison.  I have to say that the chicken was just about the same back home and was quite tasty, the chips were like Maccas chips though, the shoestring variety and they looked a little sad, but overall it hit the spot.  I ate Kentucky Fried Chicken in Marrakech!

After getting back to the hotel it was time to hit the pool.  The pool is on the ground level and is more like a lap pool than a full sized pool and is enclosed in a glass roof.  So when you open the door it is like walking into a hot house.  It really is quite hot and humid in the ‘pool room’ but our care factor was zero compared to the heat outside.  Our question of ‘can you get burnt’ under glass was proven to be a resounding yes, but not as bad had there not been glass there.  We spent the next 4 hours in and out of the pool, while I loaded my photos to Facebook.  What a great way to spend an afternoon when it is literally hot as hell outside.

The troops started to straggle back in the afternoon.  Susan’s face was so red, just from being outside and she fought the heat to buy her last minute gifts from the Medina.  We have found the Marrakeshians to be a lot pushier here than anywhere else we have been while in Morocco and it feels a little sketchy no matter where you go.  Our point was proven when Jeff and Annette returned and Jeff had had his wallet stolen out of his side pocket while in the Medina.  He lost 125AUD, Issam’s tip and 2 credit cards.  Jeff and I were only talking the other day how lucky we had been in no-one getting pickpocketed and I even touched his head as ‘touchwood’.  Sorry Jeff, I hope I didn’t jinx you.  This is just the final straw for the Foys, as they had a good ceramic bowl smash in Essaouira, Jeff had fallen ill there as well, they got robbed in Marrakech and now Jeff has lost his voice and still isn’t feeling well.  Talk about some bad luck, and then I found out this afternoon that their rooms air conditioning is now on the blink!!!  Needless to say Marrakech is not leaving a good impression on them.

We caught petite taxis at 7.15pm back to Djemma el Fna for our farewell dinner tonight.  Our tour officially ends tomorrow morning, with half the crew flying out in the morning and the rest of us staying for another night.  We had roof top drinks overlooking the whole square and also some of the Medina and it was a magic view.  The owners of the place are quite smart and it is compulsory to buy a drink, soft drink or tea, before you can even step foot out on the terrace.  Fair enough, as it is a prime view of the whole square and also a great place to watch the sunset as well.  What a find Issam and all for the grand total of 1AUD for the drink!  To see the square from this view point was awesome.  It really is quite chaotic down there, between motorbikes (they can ride anywhere – even through throngs of people), the horse carriages on the perimeter, the snake charmers, the monkey people (not good with a monkey chained to their wrists), the henna tattoo people, a great view of the food stalls and the people coming and going from there and the story tellers with groups of people surrounding them to listen to what they have to say.  It is really hard to express just how busy it is down there, and it was good to be away from it all up where we were.  As the sun set and the lights came on, it made for a really good photo.  It was unfortunately at this time that Georgie wasn’t feeling too well, so we had to bundle her into a taxi and get her back to the hotel.  She has also been feeling a little off colour the last few days, so it was sad that she wasn’t able to join us for the last dinner.  We have all had some demons with Morocco, I am lucky I got mine over and done with on day 2 and was really the only time I had an issue.  So I am happy to report on my final score as Morocco 1 – Bernie 2 – I get an extra point for putting up with the heat!!!

We left the roof top for our dinner destination and when we got there the power was out.  At this point it is now dark outside and we had to tackle 2 flights of stairs in the dark, to get us to the roof top for dinner.  It really was pitch black and we are lucky that some-one didn’t fall over.  Lucky they cook with gas, so they could still get the food out to us.  We tried several times to get our candles lit, as there was a slight breeze that kept blowing them out, till we used our heads, and chopped the length of the candle to fit in a glass. Let there be light!!!  Not much but it was better than nothing.  So it was a little bit of a bummer to be sitting in near darkness, but the food was delicious.  We had handmade a card for Issam to go with his well-deserved tip and this was presented at dinner.

After dinner a few of us decided to go out for a few drinks, so some people went back to the hotel and 6 of us went to a local bar for a few drinks before heading home.  Once again I hate saying good-byes, but I know it has to be done.  I have made some marvelous friends on this tour and now have Atlanta and Austin, Texas to add to my States itinerary next year.  The way I’m going, I’ll have a friend in every state of the US!!  The great thing is they are states that I haven’t been to before (except Chris and Eric in LA) so it is a win win for me!!

So this is my opportunity to say BIG MASSIVE thanks to my Moroccan Intrepid crew that have made this trip super awesome for me.  I have had a trip of a lifetime through Morocco and credit has to go to the company I was with.  Also a heartfelt thank-you to Issam, your love for your country showed in your guiding and we couldn’t have asked for a better person to have on our side through this ‘real life experience’.  I’m going to miss you guys and this is not a good-bye but farewell for now as I will be seeing you all again.  Some sooner than others, as I will be seeing Aimes and George in London in 2 weeks’ time, with plans to see Pricilla on Broadway together.

I LOVED Morocco, loved the people, loved the food and if it has ever been on your list to visit I URGE you to do it and book it through Intrepid as we just had an amazing time.  I do have to say that I am not going to miss the heat…………..  Thanks for an awesome 2 weeks…….

My Moroccan Family in no particular order:
Aimes and George - Victoria, Australia
Annette and Jeff - Brisvegas, Australia
Susan - Atlanta, USA
Lesley - Austin, Texas
Tom - Victoria, Australia
Michelle and Tony - Vancouver, Canada
Issam aka A-Some - Morocco

  

HEADING BACK TO THE BIG SCHMOKE - MARRAKECH

WEATHER: Hot today in Essaouira 30C and HOT and 44C in Marrakech.

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: The bus from Essaouira to Marrakech was air conditioned!!!!

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Saying good-bye to Essaouira

BUYS OF THE DAY: Sending my stuff back home for the grand price of $250AUD

WORD OF THE DAY: Enshallah – If it’s god will - in Moroccan

No plans this morning till 10am when we were to meet Issam, so he could take us to the post office to send all our stuff home.  The post office was quite good with all us Westerners walking in with bags of stuff.  There was a dude that helped put all the boxes together, with the help of Issam, and they just stuffed what they could into the boxes.  Initially they were just going to make one massive box, but there was no way Michelle was going to be able to lift a box 1m x .5m, let alone get it into the car.  So I have sent 2 boxes, and on recommendation of the postage man, it has gone FedEx (yes so extra money to be paid) and they will arrive in Australia within 10 days and can all be tracked online.  They seemed to know what they were doing in there, so I have complete faith that they will get there no worries.  In the end I had 14kg, so the total cost came to around $250AUD, but once again, it is worth every penny to have the knowledge that I have bought some pretty cool souvenirs and the side bag is now GONE!!  I also got my stamp in my Globetrotter book, so another thing that I can cross off my list.  He wouldn’t put an ink stamp in unless I bought a stamp, which is fine, so I now also have the Moroccan King in my book as well (on the stamp), the lucky thing!

On the way back to the hotel, Lesley and I stopped in a shop that George bought this really nice skirt from yesterday.  They didn’t have my size and I thought nothing more of it.  But when we went into the shop today, the tailor was actually in there, so I asked him if he had any of the skirts in a larger size, and he said no but he could make one for me no problems.  I told him that we leave in 3 hours, and he said no problems, come back in 1.5 hours and it will be finished.  So I went back at 12.30pm and what would you know it was done!  So I got this really cool skirt, made to order for $28AUD!!!  What a bargain!

I pretty much spent the rest of the afternoon on the computer doing some bill paying, emails and messages I needed to catch up on.  I have also managed to load 4 albums of the 9 I have taken on this trip so far, so I hope to get some more loaded on tomorrow at the hotel in Marrakech.

2.45pm and it’s time to leave.  We have hired again the cart guys to wheel our bags the 10 minute walk to the bus station.  I tell you for the 1AUD we pay, plus a small tip, it is worth every penny to not have to carry the backpack, and now that I am side bag free, it feels AWESOME!!!  Once we rounded the last corner out of the Medina we could see the bus station and there before us stood our bus and it was not what we were expecting at all.  It looked fairly new, had tinted windows and it looked AIR CONDITIONED!!! We even had assigned seating – what a relief we weren’t going to be travelling in a sauna today!  On the road again for the last time, the bus rocked and rolled like we were on a ship on the ocean, but apart from that, with one stop we had for 20 minutes to stretch our legs, we made it to Marrakech with no problems and feeling refreshed – a 3 hour bus ride for us is like a walk in the park after some of the days we had on the road.

The bus station to our hotel in Marrakech was only a 10 minute walk, no cart guys here though, so we had to carry our own bags, but that’s okay as I have NO side bag!!!!  We saw 2 weather signs, one said 49C and the other said 44C which Issam said the second was probably more correct, but it is still hot no matter what way you look at it!!  The hotel has a pool, a LIFT (the first one all trip) free Wi-Fi in reception and AIR CONDITIONING!!! So it is going to be great place to spend the next 3 nights.  I have to say I am a little Medina’d out, and the heat tomorrow is going to be insane, so I am thinking of just chillaxing by the pool and getting some rays.  Hopefully the sun will be out tomorrow, as we currently have the Spanish Spree curse, the days we have free, it has rained or overcast, so fingers crossed that tomorrow will be sunny.

After freshening up, we started our 40 minute walk to Djemaa el Fna.  Along the way we saw some more temperature signs and at 7.45pm it was still 44C!  It was still daylight, but you could definitely still feel the heat this late at night!  The traffic is pretty manic.  I am not sure if it is just because we haven’t been in a BIG city for 13 days, but between the motorbikes, bikes, cars, busses, carts and horse and buggy’s there was a lot of traffic on the roads.  Djemaa el Fna is a massive square, and as we walked up to it, you could just see the hundreds of people all thronging in the square.  There were buskers, well the Moroccan equivalent, we saw a snake charmer, but the snakes were sleeping, a guy selling what looked like human teeth, there we hundreds of them on his mat, large groups of mostly men gathered around performing artists, people selling the wares and at one stage a guy with a monkey chained to his arm also came up to us and this is to name a few things.  The square was mayhem with people everywhere and it was a little disconcerting to be honest and pretty over whelming!

We had dinner on Djemaa el Fna and what an experience it was.  Basically there are over a hundred stalls selling all sorts of food and they are all numbered.  So for example no.70 may sell brochettes and no.25 will sell lambs brain, no.56 will sell orange juice etc….  Each stall has seating, so you sit down, order what they have on their menu and tuck in.  We were at a stall that had a large selection of food, and was served tapas style.  There were bowls of food bought out over the course of the meal from olives, to calamari to some brochettes of lamb, chicken and mixed vegetable, to cous cous and the list went on.  Some of the more adventurous had pigs brain, which looking at Michelle’s face when she popped a large piece into her mouth, tasted disgusting, but at least she gave it a go, but I passed on that and also the bowl of snails that made the rounds.  No thanks.  The guy next door sold eggs and potatoes in a bread roll.  He basically hollowed a bread roll, added cream cheese in the bottom, peeled 2 eggs and mashed them in, add in a boiled potato and mashed that in, added some salt, added some Spanish onions and then a dash of olive oil, slapped it into a paper napkin and there you have what Issam called the most filling thing you can buy on the square.  It looked delicious and I would have loved to have had one of those. The meal was a ‘real life experience’.  I ate most things and I am glad that I did it, but I possibly wouldn’t do it again, except to go back and order from the egg and potato man.

After dinner Issam took us for a quick walk around Marrakech’s Medina to give us some orientation for tomorrow which a joins the square.  I have to say I think I am shopped out and Medina’d out as well.  I’m not sure if I will go back there, but I am glad that I can say I was there and I saw it.  There are 4,000 shops in this medina and it reminds me a little of the Egyptian Bizarre in Istanbul.  Once you get through the first few stalls, they just start repeating themselves again.  I’ll see how I am going tomorrow.

Back onto the square, its 10pm and the temperature is still 40C!!!  We decided to catch a horse and carriage home just for something different, and man it was pretty hairy.  After mentioning the traffic earlier, well that is what the 2 horses pulled us through to get us back to the hotel!  It was quite surreal to have cars and motorbikes whizzing past us as we plodded along!  We had a bit of a lean to on one side and Tom was a little dubious to one of the horses, but we made it back in one piece for the grand total of 2AUD each which was well worth the experience.

A free day tomorrow – Marrakech is my oyster – or not.  I will see how I pull up tomorrow as to what may lay in store, but it is good to know that nothing has been planned except out final dinner at 7.30pm.

ESSAOUIRA WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN THE LAST 11 DAYS

WEATHER: A mild 28C – heaven in Morocco

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: The morning tour of this charming town

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Can’t think of a single thing – we are in Morocco heaven after all

BUYS OF THE DAY: Where do I start – this place is the cheapest we have seen all trip

WORD OF THE DAY: We LOVE Essaouira

We haven’t been here 24 hours and we all love this place.  It helps the weather has dropped between 15-20C and a sea breeze pretty much follows you everywhere you go.  We had a walking tour this morning that showed us the main points of interest of the city. 

We started at the busy fishing port.  As the boats come in with their catches there were people milling around to buy a fish for their dinner that night.  It was an organized chaos and great to see how their daily life runs.  So with fish, comes the seagulls and there were what seemed like hundreds all flying around hoping to steal something from the dock.  They seemed a lot bigger than the ones back home and we were waiting for one of them to ‘drop’ a little something unexpected onto us as we walked around the port.  I am happy to report we managed to escape unscathed.  It was a cute port if there is such a thing, with bright blue boats all moored, with the bigger boats to one side, men fixing their nets, seagulls swooping around and the old Portuguese Gates as a back drop – pretty cool indeed.

Essaouira presents itself as a city full of culture: several small art galleries are found all over the town. Since 1998, the Gnaoua Festival of World Music is held in Essaouira, normally in the last week of June, so we missed it by 4 days. It brings together artists from all over the world. Although focussed on gnaoua music, it includes rock, jazz and reggae. Dubbed as the "Moroccan Woodstock" it lasts four days and attracts annually around 450,000 spectators. In the early 1950s film director and actor Orson Welles stayed at the Hotel des Iles just south of the town walls during the filming of his 1952 classic version of "Othello.  Essaouira is also renowned for its kitesurfing and windsurfing, with the powerful trade wind blowing almost constantly onto the protected, almost waveless, bay.

Once we had walked through the gates there were the fish cleaners.  So once you had bought your fish, if you didn’t want to clean the fish yourself you can take it to them and he will do all the ‘messy’ work for you and you can go home with fresh filleted fish.  Not a bad system and I am sure the whole process is not that expensive.

We walked through the Jewish Mellah with its beautiful doorways and alleyways.  Moroccan Jews were encouraged to settle in the town and handle the trade with Europe.  Jews once comprised 40% of the population, and the Jewish quarter, or mellah contain many old synagogues. The town also has a large Jewish cemetery. The city flourished until the caravan trade died.  We also visited the Scala aka the fort, for 12 years, Mohammed III directed a French engineer, Théodore Cornut, and several other European architects and technicians, to built the fortress and city along modern lines. Originally called "Souira", "The small fortress", the name then became "Es-Saouira", "The beautifully designed".  There were also cannons that Dutch made in La Hague in 1744, was installed in Essaouira – pretty impressive.

I can’t express just how pleasant the weather is here and it was great to be able to walk around and not have to worry about the sun, how hot it is or all of us fighting for a piece of shade.  Our last stop was a co-operative that promotes local artists and at the same time gives piece of mind that the visitor is buying quality and also getting value for money as well.  They had a silver shop and also a Thuya wood shop.  This wood is the most precious wood that Morocco has to offer and it is known to be better than cedar.  It was a great tour and Hassan our guide was laugh a minute!  This really is a charming town.

We had free time for the rest of the afternoon.   The guys actually did the fish option for lunch. They went to a fish market; purchased some seafood and then they went to a restaurant that cooks your fish for you for a small fee.  Aimes, Susan, Georgie and I were a little over the fish, so we didn’t join the rest, but apparently it was a good lunch.  We decided to pass on Moroccan altogether and went and had pizza for lunch.  I can’t say it was the best pizza I have ever had, but it was delicious and it was nice to have a break from the tagines, which up until yesterday I had been eating a tagine Kefte every day of the trip.  They are just delicious and it is basically meatballs in a tomato sauce cooked in a clay pot (Tangine).  Now that is DELICIOUS and I will miss that when I leave.

It was a little bit of a shopping afternoon and I can honestly say I haven’t really had one of them at all on my trip.  Mainly due to space in my bag, but also most of the countries up until now, I have been to before, so if there was anything to buy in those places I have done it already.  Where Morocco is all new, new things to buy that I haven’t seen before, so I have gone a little wild knowing that I will be heading to the post office tomorrow to send all my gear back including the 4 tagines I bought in Fez and my carpet I bought in Todra Gorge.  It made a nice change I could buy some stuff, and it was cheap, so there was no breaking the budget either – what a great way to spend an afternoon.

I then headed back to the hotel, as I had to re-arrange my bag.  I had to work out what was going to be sent home and what was going to be packed, this was the million dollar question.  I actually did okay and I rekon, including the stuff I have bought, there is about 10kg I need to ship home, so I am expecting the postage bill to be around the $150 but to get rid of the side pack and to be sending what I am home, I will be happy with that and think it is definitely worth the cost.  Now to re-pack the big back pack without the additional room on the front and the few items that made it from the side pack.  After about an hour, it looks like it is all going to fit in okay.  My main backpack is still going to be over the 20kg, but once again I can’t fit more than 23kg in there, so this is something I just cannot change at this point in time, so I will have to suck up any additional baggage charges that arise.  But once I arrive in London, I will be able to off load my winter things and all my dresses and ‘nice’ clothes at the Royal National storage, as these won’t be needed in Africa, so hopefully this will lighten my load a little more for the next 3 months and then I can collect them again in October on my return back to the UK / Paris.

I also found out today, after 5 schedule changes, my flight from Marrakech to Lisbon has been cancelled and is now leaving a day later.  Bugger.  So I went online to change my accommodation, transfers and my day tour and there is now a fee due to the lateness!!  Double bugger!  If I had of found out a day earlier there would have been no charge.  Anyway it means I now only get 3 nights in Lisbon instead of 4, but the upside is I now don’t have a midnight flight but a lunch time flight, so there is that silver lining again.  If TAP even think about charging me excess baggage when I check-in, I will certainly be saying something to some-one, and I can do it now with a bit more confidence, as I now don’t have the additional hand luggage of the side pack.

We leave Essaouira tomorrow afternoon at 3.15pm.  We will be travelling on a public bus that takes 3 hours to Marrakech.  After the last train we caught nearly 2 weeks ago that wasn’t air conditioned, we are expecting the worst and with the temperatures there in the mid-forties, we are all a little ‘bummed’ that we have to leave Essaouira, but we are now on the last 3 nights of tour and we know it all has to come to an end eventually, so we will head back to the city again after 13 days in small villages and towns.  I think it may come as a bit of a shock getting back to the BIG smoke.

I have to repeat I am super stoked to have rid myself of my side pack – it really is quite liberating that I am now only travelling with 2 bags – it’s a small thing I know, but trust me it was a pretty big deal for me.  WOO HOO!!!!  I feel like a new woman – sad I know – but I don’t care.

On a side note: Susan’s bites have gotten worse and had to go to a doctor to get them seen to.  It looks like she has had a reaction to what ever has bitten her and the bites have turned into red ugly welts and they were painful and super itchy.  So she got a shot of quarter zone in the butt from the doctor, so we will see what happens overnight.  No good – no good at all.

THE SEASIDE TOWN OF ESSAOUIRA

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 

OUR HIKE TO A MOUNTAIN GITE

WEATHER: Hot and 38C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Reaching 2260m above sea level and getting my jump there

BUMMER OF THE DAY: The 45 minute uphill walk was actually a MASSIVE HIKE

BUYS OF THE DAY: Silver cuff bangle for 8AUD

WORD OF THE DAY: Man it’s hot

What an uncomfortable sleep we all had.  It was so hot in our rooms, and even with the wet towel trick, it made for a very warm night of sleeping.  We are all pretty tired this morning as we were all in the same boat.  This is a real life experience, we are in Morocco and not everyone has the opportunity for air conditioning, so we just need to suck it up.  After a wonderful breakfast on the terrace we leave the beautiful Ait Benhaddou for another driving day today to get us to our family gite in the Atlas Mountains this afternoon.

We are still in the Atlas Mountains and the scenery is just amazing.  Lots of valleys and the roads today are really windy, if you suffer from travel sickness, then today is the day you would want to take your pills.  It didn’t stop all day, winding up, winding down, winding up, and winding down.  George, Aimes and I are the back seat bandits, so if anyone was going to feel it would be us, but we actually were doing okay.  Our first stop was at the Tizi n Tichka Pass 2260m in the High Atlas Mountains.  They have a sign here with the altitude on it, so it was pretty cool to get a Bernstar jump in front of it.  I think that has to be the highest jump so far!!!

The best ‘quick click stop’ was just past the Tizi n Tichka pass sign and it was overlooking the valley and you could see the road zig zagging down the 2260m to the bottom, it made for some really good photos, and thanks again to Issam for doing the stop for us all – it is awesome that we get so many stops. 

We drove through to Imlil and Toubkal National Park around 1pm.  We are storing our bags at a café in the town and then walking 45 minutes to a mountain gite for the night.  Now in Issam defence, he did say that we needed walking shoes for the walk, but I thought he was meaning once we got to the gite, that you would need your walking shoes for the walk from the gite, so I had on my sandal thong shoes: totally the wrong shoes for what was to come.  AND he did mention we were going from 1750m, which is where Imlil is situated to 2000m which is where the village was BUT in Intrepids hand notes, it says and I quote ‘ you will then walk uphill for 45 minutes to get to your accommodation’.  WELL let me tell you the ‘walk’ part was for like 10 minutes, it then turned into a HIKE up a MOUNTAIN on loose stones, a donkey track, river crossings and loose stone steps.  Where the hell was the walk???  There was an option to take a donkey up for 5AUD, but I think I would have been terrified being on top of the donkey seeing the angles and the loose stones that they had to walk over as well, I am still glad I walked but it would have been nice to have had a bit more warning on what we were to expect.  Needless to say with the wrong shoes (nothing to do with my fitness level of course) I was the last to arrive, but slow and steady wins the race and I was just glad I made it up after 50 minutes.  Thanks to Jeff, who was keeping an eye out for me, literally keeping me in his eye sight the whole time.

As mentioned the walk/ HIKE took 50 minutes to the village of Armend which had a magnificent view of Morocco’s and North Africa’s highest peak Mount Toubkal.  We stayed in a Mountain Home Stay called a Gite – which is like the western term of a hostel.  Shared facilities and people sleeping in the same room.  We had Tom, Lesley, Aimes, George, Susan and I in one room and the others in the second.  I got to the room first so I got first pick of the beds, thank goodness, cause Susan ended up getting eaten alive from something in her bed, which was right next door to mine, and I didn’t get one bite.

So we had free time in the fresh mountain air for the afternoon and that night.  It was like stepping back in time in Armend which was an amazing experience and well worth the walk up – you can ask me now, as I was a little upset on the ‘trickery’ of the terminology of the actual HIKE.

Susan and Tom not well are not well, with Jeff feeling a little off and Lesley taking some medication.  I just hope it isn’t contagious, I had my sick day earlier on in the piece, and I got mine over and done with early.  Most of the things we have had have only been 24 hour bugs, so we have been quite lucky all round on the health front.  But we have all had a down day on the trip.  I think it mostly has to do with the heat, it really shows that you need to keep your liquids up in such hot conditions.

Sitting on a chair, looking out at the valley onto Morocco’s highest peak has to be an awesome way to finish of a fairly hectic afternoon.  I am glad I HIKED in my sandals and hope that I don’t pull up too sore tomorrow morning for the HIKE back down again.  The mountain air is awesome…..

SAY HELLO TO MOLLYWOOD

WEATHER: SUPER Hot and 40C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: The local markets at Tinghir

BUMMER OF THE DAY: 40C is pretty hot – heard the news that Marrakech is going to be 44C

BUYS OF THE DAY: Well quite a productive buying day – goat slippers for 5AUD, a silver bangle from the Tinghir markets 10AUD and silver earrings from Ait Benhaddou for 10AUD

WORD OF THE DAY: Saha – thank you in Berber

We left our friend Speedy and out wonderful 2 day s at Todra Gorge this morning with our final destination being Ait Benhaddou this afternoon.  Our first stop was at the local town around 10 minute drive from where we were staying to visit the Association IGHIR Tinghir.  Also known as Project Handicapped Horizon, it is supported by the Intrepid Foundation, which donates dollar for dollar any money from their web site especially designed to help local communities in the countries where they operate tours.  The Melbourne Intrepid office, donates it’s time for free in the running of the Intrepid Foundation and 100% of the money goes to the cause, there are no admin fees etc.   Project Handicapped Horizon helps the disabled people in the community to earn a living, re-set their social skills and give them a better quality of life. From metal work, cooking and jewelry making, they then sell their completed projects in their store.  Their overall goal is for the social integration of people with disabilities, for them to learn skills at the Association that will help them find work and success in life.  If you want to donate you can do so on www.theintrepidfoundation.org 

From the Association we then traveled another 5 minutes down the road for Tinghir’s weekly market.  This is a pretty big deal across Morocco, as the smaller villages rely on the weekly markets from the buying and selling of food stuffs, to shoes, to chickens, to anything you can think of the weekly markets has it.  It is not set up for tourists, so we got to see the real deal and the place was amazing.  The weekly markets operate on different days for different towns and I guess it is a little like a travelling supermarket, as some of the stalls travel around to each village for ‘their’ weekly market.  The sights and sounds were awesome, and what I love about the Moroccans is they are so nice and easy going.  As there are not many ‘westerners’ found at the markets, we do look out of place, and not once were we hassled, they are my most favorite people by far.  We walked through the fruit and veggie section, the meat section (and yes there were some things that were a little stomach churning) through the grain section, the date section, the chicken section and we did a stop at the shoe section.  Now this story starts with Speedy when we arrived at Todra Gorge 2 days ago, and he met us with these funky looking flip flops.  They basically looked like there were hamsters on his feet.  They were thongs with goat hair on them and the hair was long enough to be touching the ground.  They looked so wrong that they were cool!  So we were able to purchase a pair of these from the markets while we were here for the grand price of 5AUD!!!!  Not sure how they will go getting back in via customs, but I will be posting mine, so we will have to see, but they are just hilarious.  I also bought a silver bangle for 10AUD and a bag of fresh popped popcorn for 10c!!!

We have some drive time today, so back on the road with just a roadside stop at the Oleander Valley, named appropriately as the valley is full of pink Oleander trees.  It looked beautiful!  A quick click stop, as we liked to put it and back on the road again.  Passing Rose Valley, also named for obvious reasons we stopped at a roadside café that not only offered free Wi-Fi and Nos Nos (coffee) but they also had a rose shop next store with ‘rose’ products as their local industry.  I couldn’t help myself and I got some rose hand cream – which just smells divine for the grand total of 2.50AUD for 300ml!!!

Our second last stop was at a town called Ouarzazate (pronounced Wherezazette) for lunch.  It also has a claim to fame as the ‘Mollywood’ ( M for Morocco) and the film capital of Morocco.  It has established itself as a cheaper option for the big Hollywood films to be shot here rather than in the US for example and they get a lot of bonuses if they film in Ouarzazate.   Films such as Lawrence of Arabia (1962), The Living Daylights (1987), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), The Mummy (1999), Gladiator (2000), Kingdom of Heaven (2005) and Martin Scorsese's Kundun (1997) Legionnaire (1998) were shot in the Ouarzazate area.  The weather here was SUPER hot and we were all really struggling today, the last ‘horse sign’ we saw said 40C and it felt every bit the degree of it.

As we were in the movie capital of Morocco, we had the option to stop at the Atlas Corporation Film Studios, which also happen to be the oldest in Morocco and at present, it hosts the largest movie studios in the world. Several historical movies were shot at these studios, including Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra, Lawrence of Arabia, The Man Who Would Be King, Kingdom of Heaven and Babel. It was also the location of the November 26, 2006 episode of the television series The Amazing Race 10.  Here we paid 5AUD for an hour’s tour of the outdoor sets of some of the major movies that have been made here.  It was pretty cool to see some of the sets up close, as they are really just made of Styrofoam, as we knocked on each set to make sure, but to look at it; it looked just like the real deal.  As most of the sets were outdoors on such a hot day, we all sucked it up as it was pretty interesting, even in the heat and it was certainly worth paying the money to go through with a guide.

Our final destination and what an amazing place was the grand Kasbah of Ait Benhaddou. It is known to be one of the most beautiful Kasbah’s in all of Morocco and is also a UNNESCO World Heritage site.  It is basically a fortified village that has been so well preserved that it has also featured in some Hollywood movies over the years including Lawrence of Arabia, The Jewel of the Nile, The Last Temptation of Christ, Kundun, The Mummy, Gladiator and also Alexander.  It was about a 40 minute drive from Ouarzazate to the Kasbah and our accommodation was at a family run guest house for the night.  Mr. Action (as he is affectionately known) has starred in a lot of the above movies, 11 in total (and some he missed out on) – but I can see why he did make the extra’s on the movies, as he has a very vibrant personality.  This family hotel has also seen the generosity of Intrepid.  When the company first started using the property they only had 4 rooms, Intrepid has given them an interest free loan, to add on an additional 9 rooms and to boost their family business.  The accommodation was great, with an amazing view overlooking the village.  The only gripe we had was after such a hot day, the rooms were not air conditioned.  They did have big windows and a pedal stool fan, but there wasn’t a lick of wind, so we all got a restless night’s sleep with the heat, but I guess the weather is out of Mr. Action’s hands.

After we had time to settle in, have a rest and wait for the afternoon to cool a little.  Issam took us on a walking tour to the fortified village and we climbed 216 steps (I counted them all) to the top for an amazing panoramic view of the valley that the village layed in. Centuries ago the village was an important stop for the caravans as they carried goods to and from the Sahara.  Today, there are only a handful of families that still live here as there is no electricity.  It really is amazing at how well preserved the village is.  They have done some restoration over the years, but not too much as they want to preserve the original village as best they can at the same time.  It made for some great photos and we came down the other side of the village (214 steps) to get us back to our guest house.

Just before dinner Action gave us a simple Cous cous and tangine cooking lesson.  Needless to say dinner was a home cooked affair of a goat tangine cous cous served with vegetables with melon for dessert.  I do have to mention the flies here were just a nuisance.  We had to put cups over the top of our beers, so the flies wouldn’t get inside them; they were really quite bad here though while we were eating dinner.

A beer on the upstairs terrace to finish off an exhausting day hit the spot and hen off to bed for our big day tomorrow driving to Toubkall National Park and then walking to our mountain gite for our stay in the Atlas Mountains.