Advertisement
Published: January 23rd 2011
Edit Blog Post
View from my balcony
The now that delayed my flight Well, hasn't that gone fast? I just looked and it has been a bit over 3 months since my last blog! In that time, I haven't done a whole lot of travel but I've still managed to get quite a lot accomplished anyway. After my 27 hour flight back, landing at 6am and going straight work (mental note: never again), unsurprisingly it took me a little while to recover. But over the next month I managed to get a flat sorted with Ben as we scored ourselves a very cool 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom bachelor pad with great views over the city of London.
As winter strengthened its grip on London over the following months, I was kept fairly busy with Hapkido, watching Leeds all over the UK, gigs, and a guys stag weekend to Dublin which included seeing the All Blacks against Ireland. Most of what went on over the weekend will stay underwraps, but suffice to say it was a good and exhausting weekend with the bonus of a solid All Blacks win. Over this time, I also booked in a trip over Christmas and New Years to Morocco.
As the day of my flight crept closer,
Gatwick Airport
The whiteout that grounded the planes winter got colder and colder and I was forced to keep an eye on the weather as snow was predicted. I was fairly confident up until Friday when it started coming down in buckets full and my workmates started ribbing me by saying I would be back at work on Monday. To quote my Nana - Not bloody likely! It was late on Friday afternoon when I got the text saying my flight had been cancelled. Neat. After a frantic hour, I booked in another flight leaving only a few hours after the original (for 5 times the price - thank you travel insurance). As to whether it would leave, who knows?
The following day, I headed to the airport more in hope than expectancy, especially as the train got further out of central London on the way to Gatwick. The piles of snow got deeper and deeper, and the visibility got less and less. I had just managed to check in when the announcement came through that all runways would be closed. So now it was the waiting game. I kept myself occupied with watching the snowfall, reading and refreshing the football scores on my phone (Leeds beat
Fes
View over the city. Look at all that blue sky! the league leaders 2-0!) as the delays continued. From an original flight time of 12pm, I waited with no communication from the airline as the board continued to read 'Please Wait'. At 9pm, we were eventually told to come back tomorrow and I slumped off home to grab a few hours sleep before coming back.
The next morning started off better as I checked in eventually and ran into a group of others who were on the same tour as me, including a couple of other Kiwi's, Amanda and Sam. And in a very small world story, I already knew Sam. I had met him 2 and a half years previous on a tour through Ireland. They ended up putting us in the same room as well. We all waited around and as the skies were looking brighter, so were our hopes of taking off. Eventually we got the OK, and after waiting a couple of hours on the tarmac, the plane took off near 4pm, only 34 hours after my original flight time. We landed in Casablanca and as the tour hadn't waited, we started our mission to catch up to them in Fes. From the airport, we
jumped on a train and made our way north to Fes. We got there and grabbed taxis to the hotel and stumbled into bed at 3:30am. None of us were looking forward to the 6:30am wake up call.
In the morning, we met the others from the tour and I'm sure we didn't make a very good impression as personally I felt like a zombie after so little sleep over the previous couple of nights. The activity for the day was a nice 4 hour walking tour of the markets, so at the end of this, the majority of us returned to the hotel for a nap before dinner rather than exploring. As to the markets, they were a good experience, but most of us had previously travelled to Egypt and we were all noticing the similarities between the two North African countries. As you could imagine, after dinner, it was an early night.
The next day we were on the bus as we headed through the northern passes of the Atlas mountains towards Erfoud. It was a long driving day only interrupted but our stops for nous-nous. Nous-nous is a local speciality of half espresso and half
steamed milk in a cup maybe twice the size of a shot glass. It certainly packs a kick and ensured we weren't sleeping on the bus. As we arrived into Erfoud, we dumped our stuff into the rooms and some of us headed out on a mini jeep safari across the desert to the sand dunes of Merzouga. We had perfect late afternoon weather as we trekked to the top and watched a beautiful sun set across the sandy plains. For dinner, we went out to a local restaurant and had what would be a staple food (because they don't seem to do a lot else) of tagine. We also had great fun at a couple of the girl's expense about their inability to attempt to use a squat toilet.
The following two days were my highlight of the first week as we crossed the Atlas Mountains on the way to Ouarzazate (Not sure how it is pronounced but I just said 'Where's za cat' and I was generally understood). The scenery was truly breathtaking especially with the contrast between the greenery and the red coloured rocks, and also the little oasises that popped up every now and again.
Leather Tannery #1
The tubs they use to colour and treat the leather. It is not the nicest smelling place as one of the processes used is soaking the leather in animal urine. They were what I had expected from the Arabian region with miles of nothing followed by small towns surrounded by palm trees. Especially beautiful were the Todra gorges as you can see by the photos.
We also visited Kasbah Ait Ben Haddou, one of the most authentic and well-maintained villages in Morocco - most of the buildings still intact having used the old techniques of a mixture of mud and other ingredients for the walls. Parts of this region have been used in quite a few movies, including Gladiator. After that we were back on the road to Marrakech. And it is here where I will finish the blog at the halfway point of the trip. Stay tuned for the second half and a truly festive Christmas Day story…..
Advertisement
Tot: 0.192s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 27; qc: 94; dbt: 0.1432s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb