Blogs from Morocco, Africa - page 8

En-route this morning we travel up to Casablanca, made famous by Humphrey Bogart in the film “Casablanca”. We will have the option of visiting the stunning Hassan II Mosque, which has the tallest minaret and the third largest mosque in the world, it can hold 25,000 worshippers at any one time. Overnight Casablanca (Breakfast & dinner included).“... read more

So, as Europe began to reopen again, we decided to head to Spain, with thoughts of doing a portion of the Frances camino, the one across Northern Spain. But somehow I stumbled on a discounted package to Morocco with Intrepid travel. Not usually our style, but it looked like a great way to see a new country. Intrepid prides itself on small group travel, and local interactions. So, we signed up and Patti and Doug decided to join us. It was a great tour!! There were only 6 other people on our tour, and most of them had done other Intrepid tours. 3 women from the UK, Anita from Australia who had been traveling since Dec, Angie from Columbia, and Iris from Toronto. We were fortunate to have a great Intrepid tour guide.. Mohammed was excellent. ... read more

I was really looking forward to cycling through the Atlas Mountains and I wasn't disappointed. The road to Taraoudant was flat. I was cycling parrallel to the mountain range. Sunlight reflecting of snow capped peaks. After Taraoudant with the road signs counting down the distance to Marrakech I really felt like I was on the last leg of this trip. Then came the last left turn and I turned to face the mountains. The climb started of quite gently and I made decent progress. It was only after the village where I stopped for coffee that the gradients really got steeper and I got more tired. There was no accommodation in the village so I pressed on. The shop keeper did offer me accommodation in the living quarters behind the shop, but it seemed I'd be ... read more

A couple of days cycling took me from Oualidia to Essaouira, a larger seaside town with a bustling fishing port. I stayed in the hostel for a couple of nights just off the seafront. I spent a lovely morning exploring the port and the old town. The fishing port was busy with fishermen gutting fish, chatting, smoking, drinking coffee and watching the few tourists that were wandering around. Some French tourists appeared to be on a painting trip and sat around in several little groups behind their easals. As you'd expect with so much fish around there were dozens of cats and hundreds of gulls. Some of the gulls manned the old fortifications around the harbour and kept a watchful eye below. I wandered through the medina letting myself get lost and re-emerging at the far ... read more

I decided to start my career break with a cycle trip to Morocco. The aim was to get fit enough to try and cycle over the Atlas Mountains and see how many bird species I could see. I started building my bird list in Marrakech. It was nice to see alot of familiar species such as blackbird, collared dove and starling. It was more exciting to identify common bulbul and house bunting. Over the next three weeks I cycled out to the coast at Ouiladia. Headed south to Agadir and turned inland for a couple of days before heading back to Marrakech via the pass at Tizi 'n Test. On the way I met brilliant people and saw some amazing birdlife. I hope to add some of those stories to this blog over the next few ... read more