Blogs from Marrakech-Tensift-El Haouz, Morocco, Africa - page 4

Another delightful Moroccan breakfast. Well really Moroccan with the lot. Here the olives still accompany breakfast dishes but so do piles of fruit, petit tubs of slightly flavoured yoghurts, a mixture of cheese and meats more extensive than we’ve seen for a while, an array of cooked dishes again extensive but far beyond what we can even look at and then cakes, pastries and little Arabic pancakes that are great with goats cheese and strawberry jam (sort of east meets west fusion food). Additionally the juices are terrific with the stand out exception of some cucumber based concoction that no amount of doctoring could render it drinkable. Breakfast is around the pool but it’s a pool that I’ve never seen anyone in or even near. Sure they have a pool complex not far away but this ... read more

It was our final day in Marrakech today, and we were sad to leave the friendly staff of our riad! But before catching our train, we scheduled a hammam experience, which is a traditional spa originating in the Ottoman Empire and widely used throughout the Islamic world. I'm sure the experience varies by spa location, but in a word, here's what it was like for us: Intense! The spa room itself was quaint, accommodating only two people at once. Two platforms joined in an L, so Sean took one and I took the other. It was steamy and smelled of oranges. Our hammam technician was swift and efficient! In limited English, she told us "Robe" and gestured for us to remove our terrycloth robes. Sean was in his swimming trunks, and she told me to remove ... read more

By bread and salt we are united ~ Moroccan Proverb HE SAID... Today we were travelling northeast from Taghazout to Marrakesh. After a late morning surf, I met Ren on the beach and headed back to our comfy room at the Sol House surf resort, which sits about a stone’s throw south of Taghazout (a small fishing village on Morocco’s Atlantic coast). We needed to organise our packs for the final leg of our month-long Moroccan adventure – we were returning to Marrakesh. We walked to reception, loaded our packs into the minibus and headed off. We drove a short distance along the coastline to Agadir, then turned inland and travelled northeast to Marrakesh. Despite having driven through Agadir a few times over the past few weeks, I was still surprised by the endless rows of ... read more

One cannot hold two watermelons in one hand ~ Moroccan Proverb HE SAID... Today we were travelling east from Essaouira to Marrakesh. We walked from our riad (Chakir Mogador) to a bus stop just outside the medina, loaded our packs into the underbody storage compartment of a public bus and headed off to Marrakesh at 2:30pm. As we made our way through the outer suburbs of Essaouira, I realised we had rarely ventured outside the old medina’s walls during our two days in this relaxing coastal city. We climbed from the Atlantic coast and headed inland, driving through flat agricultural fields on the way. Every so often the bus ground to a crawl as we slowly edged through small villages where busy Friday markets had spilled onto the main road. The bus trip was very comfortable, ... read more

Even the loftiest of mountains begins on the ground ~ Moroccan Proverb HE SAID... Today we were travelling south from Marrakesh to Aroumd. We left Marrakesh around 9am and drove through the city with the snow-capped High Atlas looming on the horizon. This alluring and pervasive mountain range dominates the southern skyline of Marrakesh, and it wasn’t long before we were climbing and winding our way up towards the snow. As we ascended, the road narrowed and the scenery changed dramatically. There were steep drops to one side with barely enough room for two cars to pass. Tiny villages were set into arid hillsides, and I wondered what prevented them from tumbling down into the valley below. And all the while, the ever-present High Atlas Mountains towered above us. Near-empty river beds ran along the valley ... read more