Morocco - Saturday 5th May

We were ready, ready to hit a new continent - AFRICA. Morocco had been on our list ever since the beginning and we couldn’t wait to see what culture shocks we would experience.

We took a very civilized lunchtime flight into Marrakech, flying over Spain and then the desert in beautiful clear skies.

The first thing we noticed was the heat, it was HOT. But not unbearable. We had arranged for our hotel to get a transfer to pick us up from the airport, but he didn’t show which was a bit annoying. Finally got that sorted and we were driven at top speed down roads with no road signs or road markings, down little alleys that didn’t even look like roads until we reached our little Riad. This was just a taster of the mental driving style of the Moroccan people.

We checked in and had a glass of mint tea in the courtyard of our Riad. Riads are essentially massive houses that rich people have converted into hotels so they all have open air courtyards which is lovely in the sun, and rooftop terraces.

We were keen to head out and explore so we tried to follow the most useless map ever and found the Djemaa El Fna, the main square.
This place was insane, there were just random buskers, people yelling and trying to sell you things. We saw snake charmers, old storytellers, henna artists, monkeys and all sorts of other weird locals trying to get money off tourists. It was really overwhelming! We also passed the famous Kintoubia Mosque which was a good wee landmark for us.

The origin of its name is unclear: Jemaa means "congregational mosque" in Arabic, "Fanâʼ" or "finâ'" can mean "death" or "a courtyard, space in front of a building." Thus, one meaning could be "The mosque or assembly of death." Charming.

We wandered around for ages; Hamish treated himself to a fresh orange juice for a grand total of 40 pence, best juice ever. Moroccan oranges were “the” find of the trip.

Now Lou had done her research and was weary about the market food stalls (pretty much everyone she talked to had gotten sick from eating there) but her foodie inquisitive nature took over and we found ourselves a spot in one of the hundreds of market stalls.

We had the first tagine of many, which was delicious, and also the first loaves of Khobz, which is kind of like Turkish bread, which we were to find out they served at every single meal. We treated ourselves to desert by buying a mixed box of traditional Moroccan pastries, but felt a bit let down as they were all essentially the same (pastries wrapped around a nut mixture).

We found our way back in the dark (harder than it sounds!) and crashed at our Riad, only to be woken up at 3am in the morning to the sounds of a massive cockroach in the bin. Nice.
Once that was taken care of, we were just back to sleep before the Muslim call to prayer went off. That was loud, and didn’t leave us feeling in a very religious mood…

Highlight: The first glimpse of the square, it was a real wow, this is crazy moment.
Lowlight: The call to prayer waking us up, why can't people just set their own alarms? And the Mcmassive cockroach in our bin wasn't nice.
Interesting Fact: “The spectacle of Jamaa el Fna is repeated daily and each day it is different. Everything changes — voices, sounds, gestures, the public which sees, listens, smells, tastes, touches. The oral tradition is framed by one much vaster — that we can call intangible. The Square, as a physical space, shelters a rich oral and intangible tradition." – Unesco World Heritage Site

Morocco - Sunday 6th May

Lou had spent heaps of time trying to find a tour out to see some of the Moroccan countryside and the desert but as we were only in Morocco for 5 days, it was tough. She eventually found one and we were picked up by our guide Iddir, at 8am in his styley new Prado, ready for our adventure (which was a relief in itself, as the whole booking process was very old school – Western Union).

His story was that he was part of a Nomad clan when he was younger, and a group of Oxford Uni people came through the desert trying to get the nomadic children to get an education. So he learned English and was going to be an English teacher, until he decided to pack it all in and start up his own tour guide business. Interesting (if it’s true!)

So we made our way up the Atlas Mountains, through the dramatic Tizi ntichka pass which is 2260m high, and had pretty spectacular views. There were heaps of little Berber villages that we passed, Iddir explained that the government wanted to keep people in these villages to prevent a mass exodus to the cities so they supplied them with satellite TV and mobile reception, so the little mud huts all had satellite dishes which was a bit weird looking.

So we were cruising down the highway before the driver abruptly made a turn off the road onto the desert path, no warning, no sign posts,and then said you might want to take off your seat belts – you will be more comfortable….WHAT? A million things were racing through Lou's head and she was pretty convinced that this was going to be the start of the kidnapping (we had already had a discussion about which guy we could take down if they started anything funny).

But, it was all kosher, apparently we were taking a short cut in order to spot some chameleons and the "road" was pretty bumpy. We did manage to see a couple, and Hamish swears he saw a snake even though no one else did.

Our next main stop was the famous Ait Ben Haddou Kasbah, the largest Kasbah in Morocco, a UNESCO matrimonial historical site, now, a house of many Glaoui family members. A Kasbah is defined as a building with 4 columns, built defensively to protect a villages wealth. They kind of looked like massive sandcastles, filled with tiny little winding tunnels. This is also where Lou made the comment that this place must have influenced the famous Clash song – "Rock the Kasbah", and Hamish rubbished this claim and refused to believe those were the lyrcis….look who's laughing now (Lou is always right - sometimes).

We had a late lunch in one of the little restaurants set up to catch the tourist trade, a set menu of harissa soup, more tagine and fresh fruit which also included dates that were growing everywhere in this area.  

We continued on the “Road of the thousand Kasbahs” through the Dades Gorge, then we
hit the town of which they have dubbed the Hollywood of Africa, known locally as Ouarzazat. They have filmed many movies like Gladiator, Lawrence of Arabia and the classic Sex and the City 2. And they have a movie studio set up which doubles as a hotel, it's all quite weird but we had the obligatory photos outside, before moving on.

Next stop at Kalaat Mgouna, “the rose’s city” known for roses and its annual festival during the roses harvest in May. Our guide bought Lou a love heart made of fresh roses and the smell was incredible, it was so pungent (you will be pleased to know that Lou carefully transported it back to London and is now drying in our flat). And every little shop along the road was selling rose based product, a big seller was rose water which they seemed to want spray all over you as soon as you walked in the shop.

We continued on to the heart of the Dades Gorge, with our final spot being the amazing rock formation “the monkey toes”, mountains that actually look like they are man-made babies fingers and toes, so we stopped and took the obligatory photos.

We stayed the night in the gorge, in a hotel that was pretty average but we were real tired from the drive so it didn't really matter. We had chicken cous cous for dinner which again was pretty average but filled us up.

Highlight: The tour guide not kidnapping us as in Lou's dream, and the amazing diversity of landscapes that we saw.
Lowlight: Probably the hotel dinner?, not many lowlights on this day at all!
Interesting Fact: Our guide must have made some of this up, but it seemed that every time there is an area with lots of one thing in it (ie roses, Kasbahs, iguanas) then the road through is called "the road of a thousand <insert name of object here>.

Morocco - Monday 7th May

After breakfast in the hotel, which was probably the worst we had in Morocco (stale crepes and brioche) we drove towards Tinrghir and the Todra valley. We ended up in the Todra gorge which is pretty breath-taking, a little road has been cut through and we walked between these massive cliffs which apparently are like Mecca to rock climbers. We also came across a herd of little goats from a nomad tribe that had brought them down to drink at the stream, they were little cuties. And Lou showed off her bargaining prowess in purchasing a Berber scarf for the half the advertised price. Result. (and then left Hamish to pay with his smallest change being 3x times what she bargained it down to...awkward).

We hopped in the car, destination = the desert. We were both pretty excited, with not really knowing what to expect, maybe we thought Richard Attenborough would pop up somewhere?

But on the way we got another great surprise, we stopped at the market in Rissani and Iddir bought us desert scarves to use as turbans and we got a quick lesson on how to put them on, pretty awesome. He also picked up some fresh meat and vegetables from the market and took us to his sister’s house in the village where she cooked us up a traditional Moroccan meal which was delicious. Her family was there and they didn’t speak a word of English and they seemed to be engrossed on the Mexican soap opera that had been dubbed over in Arabic, which made for a very weird lunchtime experience!

We had a kind of pizza thing stuffed with vegetables and spices, followed by a chicken tagine, more khobz and fresh fruit. As they don’t normally use knives and forks, they use the bread as their “utensils” which means you end up eating a hell of a lot of food! Iddir's sister taught us one word in Berber which meant "eat more". And not wanting to insult our host we kept eating. And eating. And eating.

We left waddling out the door but really excited about what we had just done.

We got to our hotel where we left our bags and had some more mint tea before getting on our camels. It was pretty uncomfortable to be honest, and it was hot! But the scenery was absolutely stunning, as far as you could see it was just golden sand. We trekked for about an hour and a half before we got to the twin dunes which were towering over the rest of the dunes. We got to our little base camp and then the guide suggested we climb the dune to watch the sunset. This seemed like a great idea, it was honestly the hardest physical we had ever done on holiday. Every step you took up I felt like you were going 2 steps down. It was hell! But we got there and it was simply beautiful. Amazing. Got some great photos.

Our Camels - Bob Marley and Jimmy Hendrix

The way down was a breeze! The part of the desert that we experienced is called Erg Chebbi, one of Morocco's two Saharan ergs – large dunes formed by wind-blown sand. The dunes of Erg Chebbi reach a height of up to 150 meters and altogether span an area of 22 kilometers from north to south and up to 5-10 kilometers from east to west.

Our guide cooked us up an amazing feast, probably the best meal we had in Morocco. Hamish was still feeling sick after lunch but Lou got stuck in. We had another tagine but this was more lamb based with peas and had egg baked on top, so delicious. We were so tired but our guide wanted us to listen to him singing with the bongo drums, and then really awkwardly wanted us to sing a traditional New Zealand song. I hate it when they do that, we have no cool traditional music. We ended up with the national anthem as Lou didn't know all the Maori songs Hamish learned in primary school. But after that we made a hasty retreat to our little tent with just carpets as beds.

All was peaceful until….

Highlight: Too many today! The traditional lunch, the sunset in the desert, and the meal under the stars.
Lowlight: Being way too full after lunch, like uncomfortable full and then having to sit on a camel in the heat.
Interesting Fact: During the warmest part of the year, Moroccans come to Erg Chebbi to be buried neck-deep in the hot sand for a few minutes at a time. This is considered to be a treatment for rheumatism. And they must be crazy as the temperature reach about 55 degrees Celsius.

Morocco - Tuesday 8th May

We had an awful night's sleep, about 30 mins after we retired to our tents, a 4 wheel drive full of really loud French people rocked up and proceeded to stay awake drinking, playing the bongo drums and yelling their obnoxious French language! Their guide also tried to tell Hamish he was King here so yeah grumble grumble.

So when our alarm went off at 5.50am we were not happy Berber's. We quickly got dressed and headed out in the other direction to watch the sun rise. It was pretty cool, amazing how light it gets as soon as the sun showed up. We hopped on our camels again, and we are not going to lie the pain was quite intense. A Berber massage on a camel is not a pleasant experience. The trek back seemed to go on for ages, but we did notice that the sand does change colour depending on the time of day (morning as opposed to evening). We arrived back to the hotel where we showered and packed up and had another 'brilliant' Moroccan breakfast. A selection of bread, jam, and olives but with the welcome addition of yoghurt. Yahoo.

Today was the driving day; we drove back through Rissani where it was market day. We cracked up when we saw the parking lot, and it was just a whole lot of donkeys with carts attached. Man donkeys make the most horrendous noises, and they all look miserable all the time.

We headed back east by the Sarhro mountains, which were formed through volcanoes, some great landscapes and views. It actually looked like we were on Mars (cos we know what that would look like - thanks Total Recall).

We stopped for lunch in the Draa valley which is renowned for its valley of palm groves. Finally we got a change from the tagines and cous cous. Hamish had lamb shish kebabs and Lou had grilled chicken….with bread.
 

Back in the car we retraced our route up the Atlas Mountains into Marrakech. It wasn't until about 7pm when we found our new Riad. Our guide helpfully paid a little old man to lead us through the winding streets as we never would have found it. Our new riad was gorgeous, there were only about 6 rooms, and there were beautiful Moroccan art pieces everywhere and the rooftop terrace was great. We were pretty knackered but as the hotel was charging three times what you would pay in the markets for dinner, we headed out again to the hustle and bustle of the central market.

Dinner number 2 was ok, we weren't hungry after snacking all day in the car but we had chicken shish kebabs and veges. Lou started feeling a little bit dodgy on the way home, so we had an early night.

Let's just say Moroccan food hit back at Lou that night. Enough said.

Highlight: Finally getting back to our Riad after a very long day but the seeing the sunrise on the dunes was pretty magic.
Lowlight: All the km and weird bites Hamish had on him from the Sahara...
Interesting Fact: Rissani is an Arab settlement which meant that the women wore all black as opposed to the Berber communities where women can wear brighter more patterned robes.

Morocco - Wednesday 9th May

Lou had a pretty bad night and was feeling pretty rubbish on our last full day in Marrakech. Hamish sorted out breakfast from the hotel, bread and jam (but this time it was French bread, what a treat). We decided to take it easy and top up our non-existent tans on the terrace which was a nice break.

Mid-morning Lou was feeling better so we decided to do some sightseeing. First stop was the Saadian tombs. These date back to the time of the sultan Ahmad al-Mansur (1578-1603). The tombs were only recently discovered in 1917 and were restored. The mausoleum comprises the corpses of about sixty members of the Saadi Dynasty that originated in the valley of the Draa River. The monuments to the dead are made of finely worked cedar wood, stucco work and Italian Carrara marble.

Compared to tourist attractions we had been to in Europe, it was very obvious that Marrakech was still in its tourist infancy. There were no information signs or anything, we just wandered around amongst the wild cats that lived in the tombs. Next on the list was lunch.

Again the markets seemed like the best option, but man oh man it was hot, close to 40 in the bright sunshine. So we broke a cardinal travel rule and went into the ridiculously overpriced air conditioned restaurants on the fringe of the square, where we bucked the Moroccan food trend and had an omelete and spag bol (and bread).

Next was tackling the maze of the souks to find our next destination. Maybe cos it was hot, or maybe cos it was Lou was feeling a bit fragile but that walk seemed to never end. The comments from all the stall owners were getting really old as well. Apparently Hamish is a very lucky man, and if I had any sisters I could marry them off in Marrakech with no problems.

We eventually found the Ben Youssef Madrasa which was an Islamic college and the largest Medrasa in all of Morocco. The college was founded during the period of the Marinid (14th century). The building of the madrasa was re-constructed by the Saadian Sultan Abdallah al-Ghalib (1557–1574). Its 130 student dormitory cells cluster around a courtyard richly carved in cedar, marble and stucco. The carvings contain no representation of humans or animals as required by Islam, and consist entirely of inscriptions and geometric patterns. Closed down in 1960, the building was refurbished and reopened to the public as an historical site in 1982.

It was beautiful in a peaceful sense, and the carvings and mosaics were gorgeous. Lou was fast running out of steam so it was back to the rooftop terrace for some more chilling out in the sun.

Our last night in Marrakech and we wanted one last bit of the square. Our third dinner was a mish mash of all the things we had tried and liked over the last 5 days. Including caramelized honey peanuts with sesame seeds – amazing! But Lou won't be in a rush to make a tagine at home any time soon. As the sun was setting we popped up to one of the roof top bars looking down on the square for some night shots before wandering home.

Highlight: Probably chilling out in the sun! We never get to do that on holiday and it was a nice break.
Lowlight: Dodgy tummies! And annoying little Moroccan men... no I dont want to buy your junk and if you keeping yelling out to my fiancée you will meet thunder and lightening!
Interesting Fact: The Ben Youssef Madrasa housed 900 students at a time and had only one bathroom.