Blogs from Anti-Atlas, Morocco, Africa - page 2

Day 9 - Goodbye Merzouga, hello Todra Gorge Another early morning, but today was different, no alarm, just Marcel! It was his wish to do the morning assault call! He did it well. We were up and away very quickly. The camels were ready and waiting for us. We slowly trekked our way back across the Sahara to the hotel. It was about an hour trek. On the way we stopped to watch an amazing sunrise unfold across the horizon. We arrived back at the hotel, I was not too cold in my body, as I was well wrapped up from head to toe.... But Awww.... My hands were like ice, I could barely move them! We went in for breakfast, everyone went straight to the hot coffee. The first one was just to warm my ... read more

We were in the High Atlas region in my last blog. I chose the wrong section. We are now in the Anti-Atlas. We left Tinghir this morning after two nights. The hotel wasn't very good. The one now is fantastic. I have only 20 minutes before dinner, so just some notes. Three of us went to the haman, the bath. Very different from all the others I've gone to. (The Korean one in Atl., the Swedish one in Copenhagan, plenty of Turkish ones, even the one in Phila in the vast areas under the city.) Our guide had arranged for two women to take care of us. We each paid 100 dirham and we got scrubbed, oiled, washed with olive oil soap and had several warm buckets of water poured over us. There were a lot ... read more

Greetings my lovely readers! This entry will be short as I haven't been feeling well. I just wanted to send a quick update that I'm alive and considerably well as I've received several emails concerning my whereabouts. About four or five days ago I met up with my travel group in Casablanca and we've been traveling all around Morocco. I got really lucky because they are all lovely people. There's the mother-daughter duo from New Zealand, the father daughter team from Australia, aunt and her niece from the Midwest, Italian woman and her Austrian boyfriend, middle-aged German woman, and then three solo travelers including myself--one guy from Italy and one from Australia. Chris, the Australian dude & I took an instant liking to one another and connected immediately over music, graphic novels, and then he blew ... read more

Week 3 continued It was difficult to know what to expect but we felt quite excited about the prospect of camping three nights in the desert. We approached the dunes on a very uneven track and pulled into a large level area which happened to be next to a camel station and even more surprisingly a very smart looking Auberge. Our tour leader had omitted to tell us about this hotel which had toilets, showers, a restaurant, live music and even a swimming pool which we were allowed to use! The sun shone on us and we were all delighted to be in such a special place with stunning views of the ever changing sand dunes – our favourite location so far. The second day we were there a group of us decided to picnic in ... read more

We were four bleary eyed travellers waiting outside our apartment in the French Quarter of Marrakech. It was early, that morning, as we observed the stirring of life and the awakening of the village. Savouring the taste of our recent strong black coffee, we inhaled the brisk morning air, and shrugged off our backpacks. The welcome and expected arrival of Rachid and Mustapha loomed toward us in the form of their sleek black mini van which would transport us to another place, and to another time. Little did we realise the extent of the adventure we were about to embark upon, and the lifetime bond we were going to share. Welcoming smiles greeted us, as their faces appeared through the front windscreen. Rachid, with his twinkling eyes, and a raised eyebrow, that promised a time to ... read more