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Published: December 10th 2011
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It's amazing what 'liking' a page on Facebook can get you- in this case a free tour of Morocco. Although I think the word like may be a bit of an understatement for this Country- we absolutely LOVED it.
Our trip started briefly with dinner and meet and great in Marrakech before departing for the Sahara bright and early Sunday morning for our three nights in the desert. The drive to the desert was great with lots of diverse stops along the way. First off we went to a very local souk (market) in the hills where all the Berbers (native southern Moroccans) were selling their produce and going about there daily life. It was great as we were the only Westerns. Next we drove high up through the Atlas Mountains to snow-which was quite a sight to see in Morocco! We also passed through the Hollywood of Morocco where such films as the Sex And The City sequel was made, and through valleys full of palm trees. We reached our camp just as the sun was going down and was surprised to see we had massive tarp like tents with actual beds in, and a toilet/shower tent. It got
really cold at night and after dinner of tagine we sat around the fire and watched the local Berbers play some traditional music and sing.
The next day was 4wheel drive day. Firstly though we stopped at a local community and saw their houses underground and them going through all the steps required to make ceramics. I loved all the pottery and brought a salad bowl and a couple of small bowls. We then rode the 4wheel drives through the Sahara and stopped for a picnic in the middle of no where. We had a cook who made amazing salad and meat balls we also saw a nomad walk past with about 30 camels. Was definitely an amazing day. The Sahara is not that big when you do 110km everywhere though. Tonight we camped at a different camp- same set up as the last one but this one was further into the Sahara so more stars to see at night! When we arrived we climbed the largest dune there to watch the sun set.
Next was a day we had all been waiting for- Camel riding! If we had known how painful the day was going to be
I don't think we would have been as excited though... We spent about 5 hours on the camels (with another amazing picnic lunch cooked for us inbetween)- and it was a full 5 hours of pain. We all wore shorts and the camels had scratchy carpet rugs and since our legs were swinging back and forth ended up with bad rashes up our legs. I also pulled my groin muscles and couldn't walk straight for about 3 days. The boys all gave up in a matter of minutes and opted to ride side saddle- anything to ease the pain! Apart from all the pain it was still a great experience to be ridding camels led by Berbers through the Sahara Desert! We stayed back at the same camp as the first night and all had a fairly early night as were so tired and sore from our camels!
We all woke up the next day in pain all over our bodies- everyone had sore backs from being thrown around on the camels. I also had sore hands from gripping the camels to hard! Today was pretty much a bus day with a long drive to the Coastal town of
Agadir- the exciting stop along the way was seeing goats in trees! These goats are only found in Morocco and they climb the Argan trees to eat their fruits. They are everywhere and sometimes you see many goats in one tree. Once we arrived in Agadir we went to an Argan oil shop and saw how they turn the argan kernels into oil for skin products and cooking. Once we arrived at our beach front hotel we watched the sun set into the water and then we headed to a local house for dinner (Some relative of our tour guide Abdoul). The dinner was great- massive salads and two tagines. That night we walked around the touristy town of Agadir and went to a couple of bars.
Unfortunately I didn't get much sleep as woke up with what turned out to be the start of a 5 day (and still going) stomach bug. Not fun. That morning we walked along the beach which was beautiful- and totally uncrowded as its the off season. Still warm though so I am not sure why more people aren't going there to escape winter. Walking around the actual town you could see how
set up it was for summer with resorts and bars everywhere. We then drove up the coast to Essaouira (with me throwing up along the way)- the drive was beautiful along the water- similar to Montengero. The windy roads- not so beautiful for my poor stomach. Once in Essaouria we did a tour of the town and went to a place where they make silver jewlrey and woodwork. That night everyone went to a seafood restaurant and I stayed in bed and watched a great 90's kids movie (baby geniuses) as it was the only one in English.
The next day constied of checking out the markets in Essaouria in the morning (a new scarf for me)- and we had a a quick look at the port area before hoping on the bus to head back to Marrakech. Once in Marrakech we headed pretty much straight to Djemaa el Fna aka the town square. The sqaure is an amazing open air theatre with snake charmers, acrobats, food stalls etc. There are orange juice stalls everywhere where you buy freshly squeezed orange juice for about 30pence! Behind the square there is an amazing labarinth of markets with so much to
buy. We spent the evening wandering around doing some bartering and ate our last group dinner in the square. We then all went into one of the terrace restaurants that surrond the square and had mint tea with views of the chaos that was happening down below.
The next morning was the end of our tour, but we had booked an extra night in Marrakech. We headed back into the square and set out on a mission to find the tannery- which is where they turn the animal skins into leather. We knew the tannery's where in the back streets but we werent really sure where so we just started walking. We ended up getting walked there by a local (about 20min walk)- which we would never have found ourselves! Once we got there we were given mint to hold to our noses and then shown around the tannery- which was interesting but discusting all at once. They were using skin from camel, goat and cow- and they use natural forming pigments for colour such as saffron, cinnamon and henna. After we were shown around we got taken into a shop were some dodgy sales man tried to talk
up all his products and prices. Then outside the guy that showed us around the tannery was of course waiting for money. Then we got walked back to the square by the same local guy that walked us there. Was definately an interesting experience- espiecally seeing all the back streets where everyone was going about their daily buisness. We then spent the rest of the afternoon and night walking around the markets some more and we went up the terrace resturants again - this time for sun set which was really nice. Once the sun went down it was cold and I was not feeling the best so we said goodbye to this amazing city and headed back to our hotel where we had to try squeeze all our purchases into our bags.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Love, love, love it!
We were in Morocco in October / November and loved it. What a wonderful country. Thanks for the memory.