Geo: 31.6334, -7.9996We enjoyed our final breakfast in Marrakech by vowing to a) eat no more bread. Ever. And b) detox for a year to allow our insulin levels to return to somewhere in the normal range. Every breakfast we have had has been laden with sugar - sweet bread, jam, croissants, pains au chocoats, pancakes, cake, sweet orange juice and fruit yoghurt - a combination of any of these have been the mainstay of our breakfasts, while sugary mint tea has been our welcome drink in every hotel and attraction we've visited. All incredibly delicious but our digestive systems now need a good dose of protein and some simple sugar-free food!We had another mini celebration as we crammed our bags for the final time, managing to cleverly pack our belongings into contortions that resembled Russian ... read more

Geo: 31.6342, -7.99994We were up early for one final breakfast with the group, before squeezing our things into our backpack (more inappropriate celebrations at zipping up the bag first time...) and then we left the quiet of The hotel for the bustling new city streets. Our destination was the serene Jardin Majorelle, a meticulously planned twelve-acre garden designed by, and housing the former studio of, French painter, Jacques Majorelle. After Majorelle, Yves Saint Laurent owned the beautiful jardin. As we arrived to queue up, there was a fracas between two taxi drivers, several other drivers were also involved, and there was loud shouting and barging, adding to the frenetic atmosphere of the traffic honking and the the squealing of brakes. It was with a sigh of relief that we left the whirlwind of noise of the ... read more

Geo: 31.5093, -9.76345Despite what promised to be a sleepless night, the stone walls and high ceilings of the riad bouncing every footstep, word and whisper directly into our room, we slept surprisingly well, and even missed the sunrise call to prayer. Our breakfast was a delight of pastries and hot coffee, served in the traditional dining room, bright textiles adorning every surface - cushions, wall hangings, carpets and curtains all in the distinctive rainbow of vibrant, almost neon, colours. It certainly woke up the two bleary eyed travellers, and set us up for our walking tour in the beautiful city of Essaouira. We stepped out onto the quiet streets, the weather much cooler and greyer than we had been used to for the rest of the trip. Wrapped up against the cold, we met our guide, ... read more

Geo: 30.48, -8.88During a fitful nights sleep (the beds were titled on the sand, giving you a perpetual feeling of rolling out of bed, while the pillows appeared to have been constructed from excess sand from the floor,packed tightly into a pillowcase), we took a trip to the outhouse of the camp. The moon illuminated our path, the millions of stars above creating a diamond drenched ceiling above us. We woke again before dawn ready to witness the sunrise in the desert, eager to see and photograph how it would change the faces of the dunes. Grateful for the relative cool of the morning, we mustered our strength and scaled the high dune, settling down on the cool sand to enjoy the sunrise. From where we were sitting, we could make out narrow, twisting tracks in ... read more

Geo: 30.33, -5.86"Holy Hell I look like Shrek!" was my response on waking with the jarring Call to Prayer and stumbling into the bathroom. My eyelids had swollen to twice their normal size - I had woken several times during the night, coughing and sneezing, but assumed that this was the remnants of the cold that had been plaguing me for the entire trip. It would now appear that there had been some form of allergen in the room - animal hair would be my first culprit, followed closely by feathers - both guaranteed to leave me looking like David Guest after 8 rounds with Tyson. I prised my eyes open long enough to stagger out of the door and appreciate the sun rising majestically over Ait Ben Haddou from our terrace before heading to the ... read more