Blogs from Doukkala-Abda, Morocco, Africa

Just a few notes about the journey so far. Generally the whole experience has been amazing. I think our anxiety and nervousness is starting to subside. We have realised that our grasp of the English language is starting to fade quickly, this blog has been a nightmare to spell for both of us. I usually am the most confident at speaking French (Grade C GCSE 15 years ago) although I do seem to speak a combination of French, English and German which is confusing for everyone involved i.e. Je voudrais two crepe, danke. Marrakech is so busy. Our first experience was when our driver from the airport tailgated everyone the whole way to the hotel. Mopeds and motorbikes snake wherever there is space. And at junctions everyone wants to get to the stop line, so you ... read more

The best laid plans and all that! Our intention had been to head South from Agadir but we found out that a good friend was about to start working in Rabat and so we took the opportunity to head that way instead. On the way up we decided to take a look at the small town of El Jadida where the underground cisterns were made famous by Orson Welles in his 1952 version of Othello. Getting there meant a very long day! The alarm went off at 0700 and, after breakfast, we got a taxi out to Agadir's remote bus station. Three and a half hours later our Supratours bus got to Marrakech. We had half an hour before the train to Casablanca left which was just enough time to grab lunch - at McDonalds!! Yes, ... read more

El-Jadida nad Oceanem Atlantyckim-zalozone przez Portugalczykow na początku XVI wieku. Gdy sultan Muhammad III. zajal miasto, portugalczykow przesiedlono do Brazylii. Obecnie jest to miejscowość wypoczynkowa szczegolnie dla marokanczykow. Pozostałosci portugalskiego miasta wpisano w 2004 roku na liste swiatowego dziedzictwa UNESCO. ... read more

What photos!!!! What colours, I hope they azll make the trip home!! Have had no luck with the possibility of uploading them;, but who knows soon. -smile- Me and Maria, just spent two nights in Safi, on the coast 200k from Marrakech, and are heading to Essaouira this afternoon. where we will spend so,e days. Marrakech was really lovely, and we saw a number of contradictory towns squeezed into one space. The Souk or artizan selling quarter was particularly atmospheric, many beautiful colours and light games from sun coming through the mats over head, the yellowy glowing lights in the tiny shops piled hight with merchandise. everyone sitting languidly in the 40 something degree heat. We sat to eat with the locals, and got lost in the back streets, literally, not int he romantic Lonely Plantet ... read more

Ok, so it sounds like we have an addiction to crepes, but we have only had so many because we had to buy our own syrup for the first lot. We sat and ate the crepes whilst waiting for other people to turn up for the collective. We only had to wait about forty minutes for the taxi to fill up and we were on our way. Strangely enough we didn't receive the whole you can buy out the whole taxi spiel which we normally do. When you are the first ones to arrive for a collective they will tell you the price of the whole car, almost expecting you to pay it. What is worse is when there are four or five of you waiting and they all look at you as if to say ... read more