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Published: September 21st 2017
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It was too early for the Riad to have any baguette, pain au chocolat, or pancakes, so breakfast was just coffee and a granola bar from Canada. Mary supplemented her breakfast with some Imodium because of recent stomach problems. Geo: 31.3958, -5.92163
Some crazy storms last night - howling winds and rain, made it difficult to sleep. There was also this loud banging, perhaps the metallic door that leads up to the rooftop terrace was flexing in the wind. And I haven't heard this until today since I normally sleep with earplugs, but at dawn there was the Muslim call to prayer, creating an ethereal hum that seemingly envelops the entire city. Apparently, Mary was freaked out by this the first morning in Marrakech - it does sound a little ominous.
But what was really scary were the roaches that we encountered in the room last night - still not as big as the ones in the Canary Islands (see blog entry entitled "Is that a cockroach, or a small dog?" http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pwong/canaries-2007/1198797120/tpod.html), but still rather large. Smart little buggers too, as they quickly hid when I tried squashing one of them. I had been keeping a little bag of cookies in my backpack, and decided to move that outside of the room, in case it was attracting them. I left it on a table out in the sitting area last night, and when we woke up this morning, it was gone.
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I, on the other hand, supplemented breakfast with some Imodium simply because I like the taste. It's the breakfast of champions! It could have been the Riad's workers cleaning up, but I don't doubt that these giant roaches walked by and took the entire bag!
Mary was quite concerned last night that they would crawl all over her as she slept, since she's now been traumatized by the repeated feasts that fleas/bugs have had on her legs over the past four trips. She's become quite a popular Bug Buffet with various insects.
Up at 6 AM to get ready and pack up for the start our 3-day tour to the Sahara dessert. Despite the limited amount of sleep, it was quite a good night's rest, as it was some pretty high-quality sleep. The minivan came to pick us up and continued on to the Place, where additional guests boarded. I am sad to report that it wasn't like in the pictures shown to me last night by the tour rep, and there were no Spanish females on board 😞 I quietly sobbed in a little corner of the van ...
The tour is quite inexpensive, so our driver didn't function as much of a guide, only occasionally announcing where we were stopping. Really, all we were paying for is transportation to and from the
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While waiting for additional guests, I popped out to grab some breakfast - the only quick option nearby was the cafe where we dined last night, which happened to have some pains au chocolat available. Though as is typical of pain au chocolat in Morocco so far, it was far too much pain and way too little chocolat. departure point for the camel tour into the Sahara.
We later stopped for a bathroom break, where I picked up some mint tea in the hopes of warming up - no such luck! But it did help ward off motion sickness later on, as the van whipped around tight and twisty little corners up in the mountains.
There is some very interesting scenery in the mountains and valleys of Morocco, which is quite unexpected, given the common notion that it's purely a land of desert and Nomads. Interesting rock formations, palm trees, and streams ... some of the valleys are much greener than you would expect.
Our stop for the evening was somewhere in the Dades Gorge - a very cold hotel! Though temperatures are much lower in Canada, the inside of buildings are frigid here because they lack any sort of heating or insulation. Too bad it was dark by the time we arrived, because the hotel's terrace probably had spectacular views of the stream located at the base of a rock face. The hotel's basement was pretty creepy - dark, and ominous.
The dining hall was the only place that was warm in the entire building, with a
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I regretted packing away my jacket in my backpack which was thrown atop the van, as temperatures dropped quite quickly as we ascended into the High Atlas mountains. Our first stop for photos was very brief for me, as the wind had picked up and it was drizzling. Back into the van, which wasn't much better - there was no heat aboard, and the driver had cracked some windows to keep from fogging up, so the van provided not much more than a slight wind break. fireplace and a propane heater fired up. We wanted to sleep in the dining hall because it was so warm, but unfortunately, had to trudge back up to our little igloo of a room. It wasn't so bad once you were underneath the sheets and three blankets, but once you stepped out it was a shock to the system. It was a long, cold night in the dessert!
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Mary
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Of course you didn't notice him, you were inside the restaurant. I took this picture because I thought it was cool how he was just standing there staring into the distance.