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Published: December 14th 2007
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Ve'Lib in Paris
Getting around Paris on bikes! Adam had never been to Paris, so we flew from Paris to Marrakech, taking the TGV from Geneva. We met up in Paris with my uncle, JB, his wife, DIDI and my aunt, Chantal and rode bikes around to discover Paris by night. Yap! Bikes! There is a new system in Paris, called Velib (www.velib.paris.fr): every 300m are bikes stations where you can pick up or return a bike for super cheap (free for the first 30min!). Outstanding!
Someone recommended that we take a taxi from the Gare du Nord to the Orly airport. Big mistake as we got totally ripped of. Apparently, taxi drivers know where the traffic jams are and intentially go into them: we ended up paying 60Euros for the ride, instead of the 30Euros he told us it would cost. The trip was off to a bad start.
Marrakech is only 1.30hr away from Paris by plane. And therefore, it's hard to prepare yourself for what awaits you there: Third World, in all it's beauty: it's loud, vibrant, cars share the road with donkeys and motorcyles riden by 3-4 people, etc, people try to sell you things non stop, bargaining is a religion and the mosques go
Arc de Triomphe
Adam's first time in Paris! off 5-6 times a day (starting at 5am)! Our first day there, we were TOTALLY overwhelmed and frustrated: we got ripped off on the taxi ride to the airport in Paris, and then from the airport to Marrakech, then again on the hotel room (well, I wanted to have a decent at least for one night for our honeymoon, so that was OK), and the scene on the Djema El Fna square was litterally unreal: dances, singing, snake charmers, tons of food, fresh juices and dry fruit stands, people coming to you for money non stop, etc. We were too tired to enjoy any of it and were ready to get out of there ASAP. The next day, we rode a really manky bus to Tineghir, 10hrs away from Marrakech and then a Grand Taxi to the Todra.
The Todra Gorge is a highly touristic place that is visited daily by huge buses full of tourist who buy souvenirs from the nearby vendors and eat at one of the two hotels in canyon. Not knowing any better, we stayed at the hotel Des Roches, but the touristic feel of it made us run away the next day. We had
Snake Charmers
We were not impressed. real tourist trap on our first day! The guy looking at the camera ran to us for money, "threatening" us with a snake in his hand! We made sure to turn our head the next time we saw the snakes! not stepped out of the Grand taxi that someone was already trying to sell us the guidebook to the area, that he had made himself. Sure enough, we bought it... and got ripped off. The guy pointed us to a horrible sector and soon, we were wondering what on earth we were going to do here for a whole two weeks! Adam was frustrated and was really wondering why his wife needed to go to an exotic place for the honeymoon and why France wasn't good enough for her! I knew that my friend Denis Burdet was in the area and we connected early the next day.
He was there with a teenagers from the Swiss Youth Organization. They had first gone to Taghia and then walked across from Taghia to the Dades Gorge, where a taxi took them to the Todra Gorge. They were all blown away by the experience. Wow!! That sounded great! They were leaving that night and the person who had organized the mule, Mohamed Amagar, for the traverse was coming to pick them up. This was the perfect opportunity to organize the reverse trip for ourselves. As they were leaving, they left us two
Food stands at Djema El Fna in Marrakech
We ate well for less than 3Euros each! Wild place. helmets, a set of cams, an extra rope, and the guidebook to Taghia. I was thrilled as I really wanted to make the most of this trip! They also pointed out the best spot in the Todra gorge. And to top it all off, he recommend that we stay at Moha's, where they were staying: cheap and great food! So we did!
As we settled into the Todra, we discovered some amazing climbing on ocre rock and the food was a pure delight: we ate Tajine every night. Tajine is the local specialty. It's cooked in a ceramic bowl, topped with somekind of a ceramic hat. They cook any sort of meat with any sort of vegetable, adding tajine spice to the mix. And the result is always outstanding! Moha would cook for us, making amazing fresh salads and tajines every day! The whole would be helped down with Whiskey Berbere (really just tea with mint and tons of sugar!!). Outstanding!
We also headed out to the desert, in Merzouga (which means the highest dune: 300m), where we rode camels (full on tourist style), ate Berbere pizza, slept in a Berbere tent and hiked up a dune! Just as
Hand paintings
Before I knew it, she was drawing on my hand. This was our first day in Marakkech and obviously, people had a feel for it as they systematically rushed to us to sell us things. We felt overwhelmed! Adam was settling into the rythm of the Todra, the date planned for us to traverse across to the Taghia Gorge came up!
It was hard to leave Moha's! We loved it there! And it was even harder when, after travelling all the way to the end of the Dades Gorge (60kms), we woke up to rain! We had met the mule man, Mohamed (they are all called Mohamed!), the night before in the little Gite of Ossikis. We had just talked 10hrs from Zaouia to meet up with us. And we were about to walk back with him, but the weather and the cold and the snow was making him - and us - doubt. Should we go back to the Todra?
We decided to give it a try. Bundled up, we started hiking into the storm. After 3hrs, Mohamed decided that we should turn around: we were drenched, cold and there was still 7hrs to go. Right then though, the sky cleared and we walked on! We walked for hours up this canyon, crossing riverbeds after riverbeds until we reached a plateau. Mohamed recommended that fill up on water at the fresh source on the high
plateau. I drank and drank... and I would soon regret it. We crossed a pass in total mist, dropped down into another valley, stopped for some bread and sardines in a little Berbere hut to hide away from the rain, hiked up to the next pass in a full on snow storm and finally reached Taghia by dusk!
It was cold and grim at Said's (there are two little hostels in town, Said's one of them) that night. The place was full of French. I stomach was churning. Adam was a little down: "my wife, she HAD to go see Taghia! We were all nice and comfy in Todra, but no, she had to go and see more!!!" true enough, the weather wasn't looking promising!
Our room was a bad damp matress and there were barely enough covers to keep us warm. But the next day, the weather cleared and we got onto "Le Rêve d'Aicha", the easiest route there, 15mins away from the hostel. The red limestone was amazingly featured! the smile came back on Adam's face, but that night, the water from the traverse worked its magic on me: I was sick all night. We tried
to climb on Taoujda the next day, but I was so sick that we had to turn around. It started to rain. Despite being still very sick, we climbed another route, "Classe Epinal". Nice, nice!
Our time there was soon up. Said was going to market on monday, so he took our bags to Mohamed Amagar's hostel in Zaouia (the person who organized our traverse) while we climbed a last route on the Tarzazate wall: "L'Ane Sale" (for topo info on Taghia: www.onaclimb.com).
A weekly bus took us to Ait Mohamed, where we took a Grand taxi to Marrakech. Big mistake! the driver thought for sure that he was in Formula1: he was driving so fast and not respecting any of the lines on the road. Scary. There was a total of 7 of us in the car and soon, two people were throwing up. Instead of slowing down, he stopped to get more plastic bags at the local store!!! Unbelievable... I mean, why treat the cause when you can work on the consequences!
We spent the rest of our time in Marrakech, shopping around in the Souk, soaking in this wild atmosphere, enjoying the Hammams and
Tajine
Tajine is the traditional dish in Marocco and can be found on each corner of the street at any time of the day. our last Tajines!
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