Africa – But first let's travel

July 22, 2015August 21, 2015

Sleeping under the stars

Whilst travelling on your own offers freedom and the opportunity to do exactly what you want, when you want; travelling on a tour like our Intrepid Morocco adventure allowed us to see so much in such a short period of time. And gave us the opportunity to see things that would have been pretty tough, or pretty scary to do on our own. At one point we were less than 10KM from the Algerian border! Here’s the final installment of the Morocco trip.

Sahara

As we neared the desert the temperatures continued to rise and our poor van struggled to keep us cool. But slowly the scenery began to change – the greenery was left behind and camels appeared on the side of the road. Then we saw them – rolling sand dunes stretching out ahead of us – and a group of camels, patiently waiting for us.

A quick stop to pack our overnight bags with the minimum necessities (plus a few smuggled bottles of wine) and a lesson from Abdullah on how to tie our headscarfs so we would look the part, and we were off to meet our camels.

We set off on convoy and slowly civilisation was left behind until all that remained around us were dunes and a slow setting sun, casting a beautiful light and long camel shadows beside us.

Now camels are pretty incredibly animals, able to walk for long distances in the heat, and over rolling sand dunes – but they are anything but comfortable! After an hour of riding we were ready to jump off and explore our camp for the night.

The camp consisted of tents surrounding an open area with a table for dinner and room to relax. Our camel guides transformed into chefs and produced an amazing feed of couscous and tagine and we chilled out with our wines as the heat slowly left, sun faded, and stars began to shine. We opted to take our mats outside and slept at the base of the nearest dune under the stars. An early start saw a few of us climb up the dune to watch the sun rise before we climbed onto our camels and headed back.

Atlas Mountains

An unexpected surprise of the trip (probably should have read the trip notes more) were the many opportunities for walking in the countryside of Morocco. We stayed at a number of local home-stays (Auberges) giving us the chance to explore.

The Atlas Mountains provided a beautiful backdrop for an afternoon stroll, before we wandered through a local village providing a curiosity for all the local children.

Another night we stayed near the base of Mt Toubkal, the highest peak in Northern Africa. We walked for about an hour up the hills to get to our base, and from there chose from a range of walks to explore the area. Our walk wandered through the countryside, and a small village where a young boy was bawling his eyes out.. Our guide questioned his nearby sister and he was on the way home at the end of term with a poor school report to give his parents!

And finally we stayed in the Todgha Gorge at a lovely spot with a pool. Another guide took us for a wander that lead through the vegetable gardens of the village, showed the complex aqueducts and lead us through the massive gorge.

Ait Benhaddou

By now we had seen so many ancient sites, we were getting a little hard to impress. That is until we headed to Ait Benhaddou. The site is now a UNESCO protected site and thankfully any modernisation of it is not allowed. Apparently when it is high season, the area can feel quite touristy with many of the little buildings re-purposed as shops and loads of day-tripping tourists from the surrounding area. Thankfully for us, it was Ramadan, and almost completely empty – we were free to roam around it on our own.

The site has been the base for many movies including Gladiator, and the owner of our Auberge was named ‘Action’ as he had been an extra in so many famous movies. He also put on an incredibly amusing couscous cooking demonstration.

Essaouira

As the heat in many parts of Morocco soared past 35C we all looked forward to Essaouira, the beach town of Morocco. This laid back town provided the perfect spot to relax, with markets to stroll around, a beach, and port as well as many interesting laneways and the first opportunity for us all to head out for a few drinks at a bar. A few good nights out were had here!

Marrakesh

Our final stop on the tour and time to say our goodbyes to our new friends. Our final dinner was a feast in the open air markets in the central square. Surrounded by snake charmers, monkeys, women ready to strike with henna pens and general chaos – it was the perfect way to end the trip.

Africa

July 18, 2015August 21, 2015

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Fantastic Fes

Fes is known to be a city full of artisans and we had been promised a tour of some of the best during our visit. But first, it was time to feast. As soon as we had arrived, we were taken into the Medina to Restaurant Dar Hatim, a small family run restaurant to try a local specialty – pastilla. Our guide explained this as chicken pie with sugar and cinnamon which didn’t sound that appealing! But once we got there, we were served the most amazingly tasty feast. Salads, breads, lentils, vegetables, and the most delicious chicken pies -thankfully not sweet at all.

It was made all the more incredible when you consider it was Ramadan and the chefs making our meals had not eaten or drunk anything since 2.30 AM – they couldn’t even taste the food to ensure the flavours were right.

Fes is home to over a million people, and not even the locals know their way through all the windy lanes – no amount of detailed maps would help us navigate this without getting lost. So wisely, Intrepid gave us a local guide for the day. We started at the Royal Palace.

According to our guide the palace grounds are incredible even including a golf course behind these walls. Unfortunately, although we knocked, there was no invitation in to view.

As well as wandering the streets we were treated to many behind the scenes tours, starting at the mosaic workshops where we saw them labouring over intricate tables and fountains.

This was followed by the tannery, where workers cured leather in large vats of liquid and dyes. We were warned about the smells and even given mint leaves to put under our noses to block it out – and we were a couple of floors above the vats. Can only imagine the smell for the poor men who work in these every day.

You can find anything you want in the medina and although we probably only saw a fraction of it, it was mind-blowing.

Grains, spices and vegetables

Fish and Meat

Soaps

Lanterns

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July 16, 2015August 16, 2015

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Roman ruins in Morocco

Every few hours as we drove around Morocco our guide stopped to show us a hidden gem. On our way to Fes we winded down a small road, and came to the ruins of Volubilis. The Romans built this city in 3BC, and it had been part of the kingdom of Mauretania. At a later stage it was also the capital of Morocco.

The ruins are now recognised by UNESCO and significant work has been done to restore the area.

Starting at the bottom of the hill were smaller houses for the poorer people and shared bathing areas with running water.

Closer to the top of the hill are the larger houses of the more affluent members of the city, which contained ornate mosaics, columned atriums, running water and heating and cooling systems.

Many of the mosaics still exist, and by throwing a handful of water on them, our guide showed the brightness of the original tiles that covered the floors.

Africa

July 13, 2015August 16, 2015

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Casablanca, Rabat and Meknes

Exceedingly high expectations, a tour group of random people, extremely hot weather and visiting during Ramadan; our trip to Morocco could have been a disaster… But it wasn’t. Intrepid’s Best of Morocco tour was a highlight of the travels so far, and Morocco is one of the most magical countries I’ve visited. In just 15 days we covered so much of the country, from high in the Atlas Mountains to the Sahara to the beaches and more, with a fabulous guide Abdullah sharing so much about this beautiful country.

Due to very patchy internet coverage, and the need to sort through almost 1,000 photos, the Moroccan adventures will be split into a few posts.

Casablanca

Mosque Hassan II is one of the few mosques where non-Muslims can visit and it is breath-taking. The mosque looks old, but was in fact only completed in the 1990’s at an eye-watering cost of $700M euro. It can hold over 25,000 people inside and 80,000 outside. During Ramadan the courtyard outside is completely full during prayers

We’re standing a good couple of hundred metres back to get it all in the frame.

Walking around the outside of the Mosque it’s immediately clear the building is huge, but its not until you walk inside that just how big, and how detailed it is becomes apparent.

A one hour tour runs a few times a day ($12) and provides some great insights. The intricate carved wood roof is retractable and can retract in just 3 minutes. And the Hamam (bathing area) in the basement is only for show and is not used.

Rabat

Next up was Rabat, a quick train trip from Casablanca. Here we spent the morning exploring our first Medina (old town). Moroccan cities are an interesting contrast with the old town sitting right next to the modern area of town. Stepping inside the medina is like a different world.

One of the benefits of visiting during Ramadan is that the normally busy towns are quite empty – both as tourists stay away, and locals are often resting or inside. Rabat’s old town is beautiful – all painted blue and white, and narrow winding streets.

The doors are all ornately decorated.

Not quite sure where we’re going, but it’s pretty.

Meknes madness

The low light of Morocco came early in the trip, on day 2. We were all given a free morning to explore, and a map.. only the map was a little light on detail. Couple this with the fact that no taxi driver seemed to know where any of the ‘must sees’ were, and almost all of our tour group being taken for a ride by the locals, and we were all pretty happy to get out of Meknes. In our case, we were ‘befriended’ by a local offering to take us to our location, only to take us on a 20 minute ‘tour’ of the medina – and no doubt half his friend’s shops. It was only once we had got rid of him at the main square we realised we had only been 100 metres from where we needed to be when we first met him! Still, no harm done, and a funny story to look back on now.

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