Almost a year after returning from 11 months of travelling myself and my friend, Flip, decided to venture to unknown territory and take a 2 week holiday to Morocco.
For Flip (my best mate of 6 years, from uni), the journey there began at 5:30 am on 12th July when she drove down from Dumfries to Birmingham. From there we drove to Gatwick, having great fun tackling the M25. Luckily we arrived with enough time for a cheeky cocktail at the airport before boarding the plane for our 3 and a half hour flight.
Arriving at 7:30 pm local time, it was still noticeably hot (a good 30oC!!). It didn’t start too well when out hostel pick up didn’t arrive but we eventually made it into the old city to dump our stuff and have a wander. Like many other developing countries I have visited, markets are always an entertaining experience. Men trying to lure us in to their shops to purchase anything and everything. A separate blog will feature a collection of our favourite quotes from the holiday!
The following morning was an early rise as we set off for our three day dessert tour. We were picked up form the hostel at 7am, driven 200m down the road and dropped off, where we then waited an hour for the rest of our tour group to arrive. The distance was definitely walkabale and we could definitely have benefited from the extra hour in bed!
The first day mainly consisted of sitting in a minibus but we did visit some pretty cool places along the way. Ait Ben Haddou Kasbah was amongst these; this is a berber castle that has featured in films such as Gladiator and Prince of Persia as well as Game of Thrones.
Unfortauntely we did stop here at midday so walking round for an hour in 40oC as a very hot and slightly sweaty experience to say the least! After our guided tour we had lunch here and decided to try some traditional Moroccan food; tagine! Our feedback from is that it’s pretty yummy and worth a try (although eating it constantly for 2 weeks can become slightly boring.)
Other stops during our first day included Oaurzazate, Roses Valley and Road of the Kasbahs before we arrived at our hotel in Dades Gorges around 6pm. After a short wander through the valley and a paddle in the stream we decided to clean up for dinner. The shower looked like a normal working shower, and it did work, however I’m not sure I’ve ever seen water come out of this part of the shower before! It certainly made washing my hair an interesting task! It was during this night that the Asian-European divide started to become prominent. While Flip, myself, and Alex (a French guy) played cards, the groups of Japanese/Taiwanese/Korean/Chinese decided to form their own little group to play cards……did they think to join us?! Don’t be so ridiculous!!
The following morning we arise to a rather dismal breakfast in the hotel before continuing our journey to the desert. The main stop along the way was to visit the Todgha valley and it’s gorges. This was a really interesting tour where we learnt about the local crops being grown (figs, dates, olives, pomegranates etc.), the local culture and about a lot of berber carpets. The berber carpet experience was a little extreme as we spent over an hour being shown carpet after carpet after carpet in a sales pitch attempt. We did manage to hold our ground though and came away empty handed but others weren’t so lucky!
The gorges in this valley are incredible and gave us a chance to cool down by dipping our feet in the stream. After a quick lunch and ice cream (heaven!) stop we arrived in Merzouga where we were welcomed with mint tea. Moroccan mint tea is only of the nicest teas I’ve had. Known as “berber whiskey” I dread to think how much sugar they put it in, but it is delicious!
From here we took a hour camel ride into the Sahara desert. As painful as this experience was, it was definitely a worthwhile one and was very surreal. Once we had arrived at camp Flip and I ventured up the dune to take some photos.It’s exhausting walking up the dunes and on arrival back down to camp I thought Flip was going to kill me when I realised I’d left the lid to my dad’s camera at the top (oops!)….back up to the top we trekked!!
Dinner was another tagine (our third in 2 days!) and the best we’d to date. This was followed by singing and music around the camp. The stars and the moon were incredible, with the moon being so bright it meant no torch was needed. Flip and I were starting to fall asleep under the starts (romantic or what?!) when our guides decided to take us on a walk to the top of the dune (our third time climbing it!) where we could see the local villages. The wind at the top was so strong it felt like we were being whipped; everything and everywhere got covered in sand! I was still emptying sand out my pockets, belly button, hair, ears, everywhere, a week later!! After a rather steep decent we finished the evening with mint tea and jokes/riddles before hitting the sack at 1am.
We had another early rise at 4.30 the following morning to begin out camel ride back to Merzouga, along which we caught a really nice sunrise. For days, our bums and legs absolutely killed and needed a good rest before beginning our trek the follwing week! A very comfortable (because half of our tour had taken taxi to Fez so we have two seats each!) 10 hour bus ride later and we were back in Marrakesh!
Whilst on this tour we discovered a number of things about other developed nations. If you thought the phone culture in the UK was bad then think again; others are more than happy to have their phone out at dinner and mid tour, and when no phone signal cam be acquired in the middle of the desert (unsuprisingly) you would have thought all hell had broken lose. Much to our annoyance an Asian – European divide managed to form which we found rather rude to be honest! Certain people also apparently cannot last without make up; I mean what’s the point in putting it on when it’s just going to melt off over the next 2 hours and you’ll then have to reapply it?! It seems utterly pointless to me! We also discovered that we both lack the ability to stay awake on minibuses, no matter how bumpy/windy the roads.
Back in Marrakesh we decided to try the food stalls in the main square for a cheap but very good dinner of cous cous royal (piled high with various meats and enough to feed a family of four!) As we’d spent most the day sleeping neither of us were particularly tired so we sat in a cafe with some mint tea, people watching across the main square. Trying to work out whether people are couples or mother/son or daughter/father; it was very entertaining!
The following day we were up early (yet again!) for our 3 hour bus ride to Essaouria (as if we hadn’t spent enough time in buses lately!) Luckily it was much cooler at the coast and we took the opportunity to explore the town as well as sunbathe by the pool and beach for 3 days. Having managed to get a good deal on booking.com, we were staying in 5 star luxury! The first night we decided to splash out and hit the rooftop terrace and bar (Taros) for some of the best food we’d had in morocco to date (although this will soon change again!).
The second day we decided to try the local fish grill stands for lunch and in the evening we visited a small local restaurant called the Loft. This had such a cute art deco interior and also served amazing food. Here we tried another local favourite called pastilla; it is a bit like a big samosa, filled with seafood in a tomato type sauce; amazing!
Friday started stressfully as Flip and I tried to keep ourselves distracted before my results came out at 11am. We succeeding in doing this with a big breakfast at the hotel (which was amazing) before lying by the pool. 11am struck and we waited while the poor wifi signal loaded the results page. You’ll be glad to hear I passed all 3 which means I’m now part qualified; only 3 more to go before I’m a chartered accountant! We celebrated with cocktails by the pool before being persuaded to do a free aqua aerobics session.
After this we headed into town for a rather unhealthy lunch of banana splits, which were incredible. After a few more hours of sunbathing by the pool we got ready and headed back to town for dinner. This night we decided to splash out even more than the first night, on one of the top rated restaurants in Essaouria. The ambiance was very pleasant; we walked into a candlit cave like room with tables separated by drapes and two men playing musical instruments. It was very romantic (again!)!! We had starters of calamari and smoked salmon followed by two different fish tagines; mine was monkfish and flips was cod. Chocolate mousse was flips dessert of choice (standard) and mine was clafoutis; a mix between a custard tart and a summer fruit pudding, with peaches and pears to add to the mix.
Back at the hotel we hit the piano bar for pina coladas and mojitos. It may have been an expensive evening but it was definitely worth it and a great way to celebrate my results! I know this has been said many times already but this really was the best meal we’ve had so far!
The following day was a fairly lazy one; breakfast and laying by the pool in the morning before jumped on our bus back to Marrakesh where another one of my best mates, Tin, was waiting for us!!
Stay tuned for part two!
Defying the Stereotypes of an Accountant 