Blog Jan Marock'n Roll Pt2

Blog 27 – Jan '15 – Marock'n Roll Pt 2

Part 2 of the blog takes on the southern part of the trip, which you’ll probably notice (by blog length alone), was my favourite part of the trip.

While in Marrakech, Mum and I decided to do a cooking course which was great and was all the encouragement I needed to increase the amount of Moroccan cooking I do at home (I have already tried out some soups and biscuits). As Marrakech was the end of the northern section of the trip, and most people left the tour there, a few of the group and I had a ‘cultural eating’ night out at the markets which took us to 6 different places where we tried their specialities and came away spending about $3/person in total! Everything was delicious… except the sheep’s head. However, the sheep’s head stall also served an amazing Tanjia - a Marrakech favourite of slow cooked meat and spices - so they were redeemed. We then enjoyed the nightlife of Marrakech which was a lot of fun except for the public bus. Public buses in Marrakech at night are very reminiscent of public transport at night in Brisbane when the revellers have had too much to drink - a slight altercation with a drunk group of teens ensued before we disembarked.

Then, with the new tour group (a few from the last one, the same guide and some new people) we journeyed onto Imlil in the high Atlas Mountains. To get to our accommodation we hiked for the last hour of the journey, crossing ice-cold streams and throwing the occasional snowball (especially by Clancie who had never seen snow before). The roof of our accommodation was a favourite spot in sun lit hours as we absorbed the sun’s amazing warmth into our bones. But as soon as the clouds came over we flocked around the fire playing cards late into the night. Sitting by the fire, afraid to leave its warmth, Issam and I chatted about the reintroduction plans for the Atlas lion, the amazing national parks Morocco has to offer and all the wildlife you can see in the parks. I’m such a conservation nerd, I know, but I swear he started the conversation! I think this was the point, now out of the city and hearing about even more remote areas, at which I decided I needed to come back to Morocco. Never mind that I still had half the trip in front of me - one can always plan! Later that evening we attempted to eavesdrop (unsuccessfully, thanks to a language barrier) as Issam took a call that we’d been waiting for. When he hung up we found that our wishes were answered - the road for the next day’s journey was going to be re-opened just hours before we would reach it, after being closed for 11 days due to flooding. It turned out that it was closed again, the day after we travelled on it, for repairs - someone’s lucky stars were shining on us!

Ait Ben Haddou, an amazing crumbling kasbah (fortress), was our destination. Unfortunately the kasbah, a UNESCO world heritage site, was closed as it had been partially washed away by the floods. The views of it from outside were more enough to make up for it though. It isn’t hard to see why everything from Gladiator to Game of Thrones has been filmed here. As we drove up, we had Rachid Taha’s song Rock el Casbah (a cover of The Clash’s Rock the Casbah, for those playing at home) blaring on the sound system - we seemingly couldn’t see a kasbah without listening to it. That song, among so many of the songs I heard in Morocco (including one that I stole the name of this blog from), has now been added to my collection. The collection is growing with ongoing suggestions of must have North African music that I am getting from the guide. Here I must apologise to office-sharers, flatmates and family who get to put up with my new music.

Next it was onto the Sahara, we arrived a day earlier and went to a different area than planned to avoid as much flooding as possible (and so that bridges like the one above weren’t part of our journey). When you think Sahara you often conjure an image of an extremely dry landscape, and would probably imagine sweltering temperatures. This was not the case. I had planned to sleep out under the stars, even knowing the temperature would be hovering around freezing, but it was the moisture in the air that turned me off. I would have surely woken in a puddle of frozen condensation. The Sahara was so wet that the 1-hour camel ride to our tented accommodation for the night became almost 2 hours as we diverted around a lake. A lake in the Sahara - incredible! During the camel ride we discovered that one camel enjoyed biting people (poor Chats and Uma), we had cell phone reception (cueing a call from Lindsay to her mum in Canada to tell her she was on a camel in the Sahara) and that taking photos from atop a camel isn’t easy (many blurry shots and shots of legs and empty skies followed). The sun had set and the sky turned black during the last part of the ride leading to a very eerie end to the ride and some less than graceful off camel dismounts.

Unfortunately, from Essaouira it was onto Marrakech - unfortunate only because it was the end of the trip. The last night was spent in style. A delicious group meal was enjoyed before farewelling those that had early morning flights. The rest of us headed off to celebrate the trip in a few of Marrakech’s nightlife spots. The night took us to expat bars and local underground dance clubs, while we drank mojitos and beer, listened to live music, danced, ran into Intrepid tour guides and had the vehicle we were travelling in questioned by the police (I am still not sure what went on but no problems seemed to arise despite having 7 people in the sedan).

Unfortunately this is where my Moroccan adventure ended. Well at least for now...

After spending the night in the camp and then seeing the sun rise over the dunes we rode our camels back out to our minibus. That day we travelled to Zagora, a small town on the outside of the Sahara, and the next day’s desitnation was Taroudant where we stayed in what used to be a Danish Palace. Many hours were spent in the minibus hearing more local music - added to my list - and being told of more places in Morocco that one should see - also added to my list. It seems a road-trip along the Southern Atlantic coast will definitely be part of my next trip! From there it was onto Essaouira, a coastal fishing city with an annual Gnaoua Music Festival (also on the list). The city often sees an influx of visitors in the summer but when we were there it felt like we had the amazing town to ourselves - many visitors only travel in on a day trip. We experienced the food (seafood, yes please!!), the markets, staying in another traditional riad and the most amazing silver shop, a cooperative, that I have ever been too. I can’t imagine only going in for the day - I wanted to stay on after two nights. It was here that I finally replaced the rings that were stolen back in May in Etosha. The insurance money made the purchasing guilt free and a lot of fun!