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tinerhir oasis.
Hey! It's me! With an ocean of palms. OK. Morocco. Beautiful place. It was my first time in North Africa (and all of Africa for that matter). Flying into Marrakech hits you quick. I arrived 4AM or so and had no intent of finding my way downtown in the middle of the night so I bunkered down in the arrivals hall with some rogue cats. Terrible terrible moroccan music was blaring on the loudspeakers, probably to deter folks like me from some shut eye. Once the sun rose I decided to head in town. The sign in front of the taxi rank said that rates dropped by half at 6AM but clearly the taxi drivers were having none of this. A taste of things to come..... Well eventually I was having none of them and they folded.
Morocco. Gorgeous. Far out. Marrakech is amazing having just arrived from Europe. I walked around the deserted Djemaa el Fna trying to find the place where I had (supposedly) booked my Dad. Found it, nobody was answering, so I just roamed around for half an hour in the alleys. Everything smelled of refuse and excrement. Many carcasses were in the streets much to the delight of the millions of sickly street
yuck!
I felt as grubby as I looked. Merzouga cats. This place was neat-o.....
Eventually found Dad walking about the alleys. Crashed for 1 hour and then decided that we would go to climb Toubkal. I had no sleep but said what the hey. Made it to Imlil, did the climb (4-5 hours?) to the Refuge at snow line and bunkered down. I was pretty spent and managed a bit of a headache too. The next morning we powered up, I was so tired I fell asleep for 1.5 hours on the col overlooking the Sahara ca. 4000m. The top was a zoo (so many people... maybe 30? Ridiculous). The view was so-so when compared to the Rockies, but it was the novelty of looking out to the Pre-Sahara which stole the show. The glissade back down and subsequent hike out and drive to Marrakech were relatively uneventful except for Dad's eventually submission to a heavy bout of the Sultan's Revenge. The first casualty of the trip...
Next was the desert. Yes. Highlights:
-PALM TREES! My first oasis. Tinerhir was the best. 35km of straight palms. Just a big bush of green sandwiched between orangy-red hills.
- FLASH FLOOD! Yup, it rained. Not that much
dad on dune
Hey look! It's Dad! (or so it seemed) but roads in the Pre Sahara can't handle the flow from the Atlas. Soon we were fording streams which turned to larger currents which eventually became a torrential river/waterfall which backed up traffic forever. Possibly 50 cars on each side. One big transport truck tried it, but the current picked up his dump truck and pushed him over the side of the small bridge, flipped it over and fell down 6 feet or so but the guys managed to climbed out the drivers side door to get on top of the truck and be rescued with a rope. Nice.
- SAND AND CAMELS! Every tourist's dream. Isn't it? People at Erg Chebbi certainly tailor it to be so. We launched on camels for an hour into the dunes (some 150m high!) and slept out in Touareg tents. Unfortunately it rained (usually it rains 2 days per year they say) but worse was the wind storm which kept blowing open the tent until I found some sandbags near the camels. I swear the sand is still in my mouth. The highlight was definitely the solitude of sunrise on top of one of the tallest dunes. So
much pure sand and so much beautiful colour. The night before was equally awesome as I watched an intense lightning storm over Algeria, about 50km away.
After the desert we went to Marrakech - Casablanca - Rabat - Meknes - Fes, by train. Train in Morocco is (relatively) inexpensive and pretty comfy to boot. Mostly on time too!
Marrakech:
The Djemaa el Fna. What isn't it? Essentially it's a massive square which during the day is full of acrobats and snake charmers (I saw hooded vipers. Yes!). At night the food vendors and oriental (whatever that word means) dancers come out. Its PACKED and the food vendors sell anything - stewed snails, soup, lamb heads, brochettes, etc. THOUSANDS of people here. And easily the best orange juice in the world.
Casa:
New. What a different feel from Marrakech. Kind of looks like Izmir, or other vaguely colonial Mediterranean cities. Much more of a European feel. The Hassan II mosque is ridiculously massive, and most probably bankrupted the country but his royal highness had a dream.... From what I gather though it's now a source of national pride.
Rabat:
The capital. Also new. Much
camel train
Heading back out of the erg. smaller than Rabat but still a sweet Medina which was unbelievably packed.
Meknes:
Good stop before Fes. Kind of leads you into the shock of the Medina (old city) of Fes. And also prepares you for the sheer persistence of the innumerable touts. Neat square but not as otherworldly as the Djemaa el Fna in Marrakesh.
Fes:
Unbelievable; both the city and the touts. The Medina, as in other cities, is the old city which, by decree of the French, was not destroyed after colonisation. What remains is an absolutely massive maze of alleys, souks, madrasas, mosques, and hordes of moroccans and animals. it's impossible not to get lost. Some highlights were meeting the owners of an old riad (old moroccan mansion of sorts) and climbing up to the roof for glimpses into the main mosque (closed to non-muslims, as are all mosques in Morocco), as well as the tanneries. I still don't know what I think of the tanneries though. You climb up on a roof and look down into the stench of the pits of ammonia and feces and dyes which the tanners have to plod through every day. Kind of a sick sight
tizi-n-tichka
That road should not exist. but nevertheless it's unquestionably impressive.
Tanger:
Made it to the port, bought tickets, breezed through the police check and security (mysteriously empty) and walked up to the boat. Attendant takes passport. Sees no police stamp. Geoff sprints back 1km or so along the pier. Picks up stamp which attendant nonchalantly didnt stamp seeing as she was taking lunch. Sprints back. Misses boat by 30 seconds. Damn. Made the next one, bused from Tarifa Spain to Algecira (
Gibraltar) - Malaga. Picked up a car there (oh the liberty! And they accept 21 year old drivers at no extra charge!) and drove to Granada where we arrived at 1 AM or so. Hijacked the receptionist's computer to find that I had been accepted into med school. Shot back some Bailey's as a celebration and crashed.
Thoughts on Morocco:
- My God the touts. This is an example of how tourism has gone wrong, and apparently people say Egypt is worse. It's not bad to the extent of not enjoying your trip, but you have to extensively ask the price before EVERYTHING, as, at least in the tourist areas, people will likely try to take advantage of you
Djemaa el Fna
An amazing spectacle. By day, snake charmers and music performers. By neat, a massive eatery with some very foreign yet delectable foods and killer fresh-squeezed O.J. and overcharge. Its unfortunate but there's a definite environment of opportunism which was pleasantly lacking in Turkey. This being said, some of the highlights were meeting petit-fonctionnaires, marchands, and other Moroccans on the trains who were genuinely awesome people, and oh-so-excited that I knew French and liked their country. Some beautiful people.
Pax.
I'll write a bit on Spain on Portugal soon. But first I'll try and add photos. I'm already in Tehran and would rather be doing other things though..... Especially since the nightlife here in Iran is absolutely rocking. And by that I mean the metro closes at 9AM, it's a dry country, and I saw a police crackdown in a park yesterday on those unsavoury women who were showing too much forehead under their hijab. Oh yeah.
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