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Published: October 24th 2005
Atlas mountain scenary
Can you spot the village?Hi there...now for Morocco part 2,
To start you off here are a couple of pictures from the Atlas Mountains crossing....
So...we were traveling across the country heading for the Sahara desert and got caught in the middle of a sandstorm. The minibus drivers kept stopping at touristy souvenir places along the way with relatively new stone fossils for our buying pleasure. It was strange when we went into one, no-one bought anything and they basically didn't let us leave. People were starting to get a little hysterical/annoyed and the whole thing became even more surreal when we discovered a HUGE dinosaur skeleton in a warehouse out the back of the shop.
Fossil free we managed to leave, after a search for Giovanni the Italian man in our bus. He had wandered off into the sandstorm and not told anyone.
Time was getting short. It was on this night that we were supposed to have a sunset camel trek into the Sahara desert and the evening was fast coming on. People were getting anxious and a little moody. After driving for another 2 hours, Giovanni started getting more and more agitated. He was quite upset. We managed
Atlas mountain scenary_2
The ground was so dry, but the snow was melting and there were random waterfalls just surrounded by dry dust. It was truly amazing. to gather from a little bit of English and French (c/o the Norwegian couple), that he thought the tour was taking him somewhere and we weren't going there and he wasn't happy. We asked our driver. He didn't know so he stopped the car, got out, ran to the other minibus and brought back the sleazy driver.
This didn't help things all that much as although this driver spoke Spanish, Giovanni didn't and none of us in the bus did either. The solution was, everyone got out of the bus and stood around in the stony desert. That was when the Spanish group got out of their bus and we discovered that there was a French girl amongst them who spoke Spanish, English and obviously French, so the Spanish boys and she spoke to the driver, she translated into French to try and explain to Giovanni what was going on, and she then translated into English so that our bus would have some clue as well. After about half and hour of standing around watching the sun go down, the Norwegians throwing a tantrum and getting huffy because we were supposed to be on camels watching the sunset, finally
Fellow mini-bus travellers
This is Jane, "Giovanni" and the Kiwi/aussie/canadian/brit girl whose name I have completely forgotten! I told you I am bad with names! the tour agency called with someone who spoke Italian for Giovanni. He was calmed down. We all piled into the buses and continued on our way. It turned out he thought we were going to a particular sand dune that was meant to be the biggest sand dune of them all. The Italian translation must have got it wrong. Our explanations had said, that we were going to the shifting sand dunes of the great Sahara. Oh well. It was an amusing mid-desert, sunset pit stop.
When we finally reached the camels it was definitely dark. We all climbed onto our beasts of burden (which are actually quite awkward and feel like you are on a seesaw as they stand up) and were grouped into trains of 6 or 7 camels all roped together, head to tail.
So under the light of an (almost) full moon and huge starry sky we moseyed on over the sand of the Sahara for about an hour or so till we got to our campsite. Carpets were laid out and tajines were cooked so we all sat around and ate, chatted and under the night sky. After dinner there was a bit
Token Nami photo
There was a photo in the previous Blog which was a little closer to this town. This is the Kasbah a part of gladiator was filmed at. of a sing-off Kiwi/Brit/Aussie versus Spanish. I am sad to say the Anglo world was not well-represented that night and we were creamed. Might have been the people on the team.....just maybe... :-)
One of our Bedouin guides brought out a drum and was teaching us how to play and we all got up and started dancing around in a circle. It kind of reminded me of a Khmer circle dance minus the tree/branch.
Some of us were not so keen to go to sleep (Jane, me, Spanish boys, 2 American girls) so we were told to go and climb a sand dune. We did, and we definitely realized how hard it is to climb a mountain of sand. It was absolutely amazing at the top of the dune. We sat there under the stars in absolute silence, surrounded by a sea of sand stretching out before us. Amazing.
When we climbed back down the dune we realized that the camel saddles were our blankets. Interesting, but I was too tired to really care. They did smell though.....pretty badly....kind of like...old sweaty camel surprisingly enough.... :-)
The next morning we jumped back on the camels and
Souvenir stand stop
This was one of MANY souvenir stand stops along the way.....fossils anyone? moseyed back to the mini-buses. Where most of us had decided to abandon the tour at the first town and catch taxi's to Fez.
On reaching the town we found taxis and Jane, the Kiwi and the American girls and I were crammed into a cab together. As with all great cab rides it ended with lots of squirming and bad jokes that seem funny. Although I can't quite remember many laughs to my pineapple joke......not that it is a bad joke of course... :-)
We arrived in Fez and all 12 of us decided to try and find a place to stay together. Unfortunately half of Spain was in Morocco at the time (it was Easter holidays) and it was 9PM so there were no places to stay for 12 people....
Jane and I were also learning about the decision making process of a group of people who spoke several different languages but no of them the same as each other.
Eventually we found a hotel and went out to dinner with the American girls. When we got back we bumped into the Spanish group (who we now knew as Gusa, Chema, Richi, Louis, Miguel
Watching the sunset go down......
This is the sun going sinking as we watched Giovanni's distress about not reaching the biggest sand dune and we were meant to be already on our camel trek...It was about now that the Aussie boys were running around with a white flag hoping for a truce.... and Diego (Mexican) and Gwen (French)).
Chema and Gusa had made friends with a Moroccan man who had invited them out. We jumped in a taxi and joined them as they were heading out. When we were at the restaurant and Chema and Gusa's new friend was sitting with his arm around 3 very make-up-ed girls, and his mate in a black suit arrived to talk at us for an hour or so we figured out they weren't your average Moroccan guys and that it might be better to leave. So we did. Although it is nice to think that we had met a pair of Moroccan gangsters...apparently Chema has a reputation for making strange friends.... :-)
So the night ended up as me learning Spanish and trying to play cards but losing severely as a lot of Spanish was needed to win. Unfortunately the penalty for losing was a shot of whiskey. So it was a downward spiral for me.
The next day, Jane and I were determined to find the Arabic baths we had heard so much about...we started out with breakfast on the corner opposite the hotel at a shop that made great fruit
Sahara
Thanks to Richi for this photo of the Sahara. I had amazingly forgottent to take my camera on the part of the trip I had dreamt and been so excited about!! juices and had pretty good choc pastries, followed by coffee and then waiting. We had met up with the Spanish group and we all decided to head to the Kasbah/old city to check out the artisan areas, shopping etc. Unfortunately it was a Friday. This meant, most of the shops were closed. Instead we stopped for lunch at a restaurant in between going to the Arabic baths. Lunch went for about 3 hours though and by that time the baths were closed. So instead we continued wandering and buying from some of the places that were open. It was here we discovered Chema's fetish for bright coloured socks and cool hats.. (see photo).
At one point we stumbled on a restaurant that had a tourist site sign on it so we walked in. The whole place was so ornately tiled it was amazing. Not surprisingly it was apparently an old palace.
The next day Jane and I decided to part ways with the Spanish group as we actually wanted to see some of the old city, and the others headed off to Chefchaouen in taxi's ahead of us with the promise to book us a hotel room for
that night for us.
It was a semi successful second trip back to the old city....only soured a little by me getting gypped about losing my deposit on a leather jacket. When I returned to the shop they had closed up and were no-where to be seen. I should have seen it coming I guess... :-)
The bus trip to Chefchaouen was a little scary. It was dark, the bus was going extremely fast around corners and a strange man swayed himself onto my knee for a little too long than was probably necessary. If ever there was a time and place for a "knee jerk" reaction it was it...of course I didn't do it as it is one of those things you think of afterwards.
We arrived in Chefchaouen and discovered that with our now numerous bags, carpets, and ceramics we had to climb several hills and figure out our way to the town. The bus stopped at the edge of the town. Finally we discovered the hotel, bumped into the Spanish group in the entrance and found out they had discovered a bath that could replace the lack of Arabic bath experience in Fez due
On top of the sand dune at midnight
Here we are on top of the sand dune when we were told to let everyone else go to sleep....... to the VERY VERY long lunch.
So we headed off through the glowing blue alleyways of chefchaouen (see picture - the town is known for its half white half blue colour scheme) to find the bath. We arrived and the first thing I thought was it smelled a little musty. The as we turned a corner into the baths room we saw a woman sweeping up a fair bit of broken glass all over the floor. In addition to this there was no water around anywhere and it smelled even worse than the first impression had been. More like it was an open room toilet.
So, excuses were made and we left. Decided food was a good replacement we headed to a restaurant (see picture). The restaurant was great fun. It was jammed packed full of people (mainly Spanish travelers, it is a big travelers and adventure sports town). During dinner someone brought out a drum and just started playing. They played and played and then someone else joined them. It was so fast, so loud, so funky you just had to move to the beat. They were playing so hard they needed Band-Aids put on and then
Camels....
Note the saddle/blankets..... just kept on going.
The next day Jane and I wandered around the town exploring, chilling on the rooftop of the hotel for lunch with goat’s cheese and bread and some very bitter olives. It was good to be away from prying eyes. There was a lot of staring happening in Morocco. More than what we had expected I guess, but it was I suppose a strange leering kind of stare that we mostly got when Jane and I were alone without the Spanish group or the Aussie guys (in the trip up until the Sahara). Chefchaoen was definitely the most relaxing of the places we had been to and very picturesque.
After that it was time to leave. We had arranged to meet up with a couple of the Spanish guys when we got back to Spain and to maybe visit Chema in Toledo. So we all jumped in a couple taxis and headed off to Tangier to catch the ferry back to the land of cheese, wine and cured ham...........
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Nami
Nami Nelson
Kristina's questions
Hi Kristina, thanks for your comment on my blog. Camels are definitely higher than horses and a little awkward to ride but still fun. I wouldn't worry about it too much. We found it was a very slow pace over the sand dunes, like a relaxing walk but on a camel.... :-)...you can get coffee but more mint tea is definitely a staple drink! Have fun! Let me know if you post your own blog about your adventures....