Blogs from Morocco, Africa

On Thursday, October 17th, we arrived in the coastal city of Essaouira from the vibrant city of Marrakesh. As much as I enjoyed that great city, and even earlier visiting the red sand desert climes of the Sahara, I could't wait to be near the ocean again. Visiting Essaouira and reveling along her Atlantic shores is a panacea for anyone who, like me, cannot resist the siren call of the sea. Surprisingly, the strong draw I always feel for being near the ocean was nearly eclipsed by the charms of Essaouira’s terra firma. I knew then I would be forever under the spell of Essaouira. It combined all the features I find most interesting about any town – geographical beauty, history, architecture, culture, and most definitely a friendly disposition. Essaouira had all of these. Its medina, ... read more

Yesterday our excursion exploring some of the Ourika Valley had begun early and ended late. We welcomed a somewhat later wake up call on Day 12 (Thursday, October 17, 2019) -- the only problem was the wake up call never came, or did we sleep through it? We’ll never know but we were glad that we had set our own phone alarm just for situations like this. We had to scramble to do some last minute packing to make sure our luggage got placed outside of our hotel room for pickup before breakfast. Thankfully we had taken our showers the night before so we felt reasonably presentable for the day! We enjoyed our last breakfast at Hotel Opera Plaza’s La Rossini Restaurant where we managed to have time for omelets, fruit and coffee which was plenty ... read more

16th April to 4th May - We are going nowhere! The daily normal becomes slow, not too stressful! The weather is mixed warm, still sometimes cooler over night! We have one peak over a weekend when it hits 40c a taste of what is to come, and for us and Poppy sake we need to get out before those temperatures become the norm!! But that doesn’t sound or look hopeful, our booking has been changed to the 12th of May still with our destination as Barcelona, but we know that is an issue with Spain still in lockdown. As much as we try some 6 phone calls to GNV (The ferry company) to change the booking to the end destination of Sete in France they are unwilling to make that change! We hang on to the ... read more

Marrakesh --- just the name conjures up images of the exotic. A colorful tapestry weaving together not only the old and the new, but an intoxicating blend of cultural influences derived from the continents of Europe, Asia and Africa. Marrakesh has been called the “Jewel of Morocco” and it certainly seems to live up to its title. Marrakesh was one of the four ancient Imperial cities, once a celebrated capital that lies only 150 miles from the present-day capital of Rabat. Today this sprawling 4th largest city in Morocco seems to be growing in all directions. Founded around 1070 AD by Abu Bakr ibn Umar, a cousin to the then reigning Berber Almorovid king, Marrakesh was once a very important stop and trade center on caravan routes crisscrossing the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa. It was at ... read more

Stuck isn’t a word I think of often! Its for children who get their arm wedged in the fence at a playground, those idiots at bream sands who get stuck in the sand, or that annoying jar lid that won't budge, but we have had to accept that for the last few weeks we have been stuck too, how did we get to this point, well if you have the stamina read on! 12th March Tanger Med Port closes - Our time with Laura and Martin was coming close to the end we had had an amazing 3 weeks together, some amazing memories. We were heading to Marrakech party town for a few nights together before they headed back to the UK and for us to have a couple of weeks downtime before we continued to ... read more