‘Come and look at my shop…or how about some hashish?’

We caught a bus to a small rural town set in the valley between two mountains – Chefchaouen. We had a really quiet three days, doing our best to relax and get a little bit of sun. We definitely managed to relax, but unfortunately the sun let us down a little bit.

Chefchaouen has two main claims to fame…

We love monkeys!

The last major stop on our three-day tour was a quick visit to the Azrou Cedar Forest to have a look at the Berbery Monkeys that are native to the area.

Ever since our trip to South Africa five years ago, we have been a little bit in love with monkeys…they are by far our favourite animals (although hippos are a close second for Monique!).

At the sight where we stopped we were able to buy small bags of peanuts to feed them. We’re not too sure how that works from an ethical perspective…but Hassan had already bought two bags, so we just went with it. It was quite amazing how dexterous their fingers are when reaching out to take a nut. They would break the peanut open, and then peel off the outer layer of papery skin before eating the nut inside. It was fascinating to watch.

We had an amazing time on the tour. It was great being able to get to know Hassan and be free to ask lots of questions. It was particularly great to be able to ask some questions and gain just a little bit more understanding of the Muslim religion and Moroccan culture. 

My hump, my lovely camel hump...check it out!

After meeting the Berber nomads, we kept driving. It was quite amazing how the sand dunes suddenly appeared out of nowhere. What started as a small dot on the horizon gradually grew to a massive expanse of red rolling sand dunes, stretching out before us as far as the eye could see.

We parked the car, gathered our things in preparation for our overnight stay, mounted our camels, and we were on our way.

The man leading our camels was a Berber nomad called Alzane (or something like that!), and he proudly proclaimed that he could speak Berber, Arabic, English, French, Spanish, Japanese and Italian...although we're fairly sure that the extent of his vocabulary was 'hello' and 'you okay?' 

The camels are waiting...

The second day of our tour was a really special day. We woke up full of anticipation knowing that by sunset we would be riding camels towards an isolated desert camp where we would be spending the night.

We set off early and saw some amazing scenery on our way to the desert. Thanks to the cold snap the day before, we saw some snow covering the peaks of the High Atlas Mountains. It was quite spectacular to see red sand, palm trees, bright sunshine and snow in the same setting.

Before hitting the desert we briefly stopped off at the beautiful Todga Gorge, and then later stopped to see some interesting wells that were no longer in use. Huge mounds of dirt rose up out of the ground like enormous anthills. We climbed up to the top of one and were careful not to fall into the seemingly bottomless abyss below.

Before finally reaching our camels, we had to drive for about an hour off-road through a vast expanse of barren landscape. It was great fun in the 4WD!

After driving through nothingness for about 45 minutes we spotted a tent on the horizon. Hassan explained that it was a Berber nomad camp. He pulled over, and being a Berber himself, was able to ask their permission for us to take some snaps of their camp. It was quite a humbling experience. Not only did they let us take some photos, they also offered Hassan some mint tea while he waited. When we were done taking photos of their chicken coop, their hospitality reached so far as to offer us some mint tea as well. Sadly and regrettably we had to hit the road (well…desert plain) because the sun was starting to get low and the camels were waiting. Maybe next time :)

Rocking the Kasbah

When planning this trip, we needed to find a way of getting from Marrakech to Fes. Rather than catching a bus, we thought ‘heck…why not hire a guide to take us on a three day tour via the desert?’

So that’s what we did.

We were picked up in a 4WD by our lovely guide Hassan and wasted no time getting out of Marrakech and into the High Atlas Mountains. Unfortunately we got caught in some heavy rain and fog, so missed on seeing some stunning scenery. Hassan kept pointing out the window into a blanket of grey nothingness and saying ‘that’s normally a really beautiful view’. Ah well…you can’t win them all.

Thankfully, by the time we had made it through the mountains we had left most of the rain and mist behind and were lucky to get some really good light and see some great cloud formations.

The highlight of the day was definitely the Eit Bennhadou Kasbah - a fortified city. It was an amazing place…it was so surreal, and we felt as though we had stepped onto a movie set. Which was ironic, given that heaps of films have been shot there…Lawrence of Arabia, The Jewel of the Nile, Indiana Jones, The Legionnaire, Gladiator, The Mummy, Kingdom of Heaven and Prince of Persia.

The cool thing is that a handful of families still live in the Kasbah and are pseudo movie stars, having featured as extras in many of these films.

To continue with the theme, we spent the night in a town called Ouarzazate where there are two major movie studios that cater for the many films that get shot in the area. When we arrived at our Riad we took to opportunity to enjoy a gorgeous sunset on the rooftop and watch the locals going about their business.

Life at the Port

Essaouira is primarily a fishing village, and as such has a really vibrant and active local port.

We strolled down to the dock late in the afternoon and had an amazing experience soaking up the hustle and bustle of boats arriving in with the day’s catch. Given the somewhat unsteady state of our bellies, things were not helped by breathing in the stench of fish guts littering the ground, and the sight of locals gutting fish to sell all along our path.

It was a humbling experience to look in on the true definition of an honest days work. We watched the locals work extremely hard fixing and maintaining their boats, unloading and sorting their catch, and scrape together a living by selling a few fish in the evening.

Twelve hours in Essaouira

From Marrakech we took a three hour bus journey to the beach-side town of Essaouira where we spent two nights.

We had planned on using the time to get some Vitamin D on the beach, but instead spent a couple of days stuck in the bathroom with a nasty bug that we picked up in Marrakech. No sooner had Daniel recovered when almost immediately Monique was struck down with the same bug. As we’re sure you can imagine, three hour bus trips are not much fun in the state that we were in.

Anyway, we were fortunate enough to have about 12 hours between our respective illnesses to see the town…and we loved it!

Where Marrakech was intense, Essaouira was decidedly more calm, chilled out and relaxed. It was just what we needed. We…

> Had a massage at the local hammam…

> Did some hustle-free shopping and purchased some locally made artisan goods…

> Stumbled across Season Three of Game of Thrones being filmed at the Port…

> Ate three consecutive meals at a very clean looking French-Moroccan restaurant because we were feeling too fragile to venture any further afield…

> Enjoyed exploring the beautiful old-town with its white-washed blue-shuttered houses. The medina of Essaouira was the first town that we have ever been that still has dirt roads running through its centre, again making us feel like we really had stepped back in time…

>  Traded a t-shirt for a tiny teapot with a travelling Berber salesman who had come down from the mountains for the season. We gave a fair bit of thought to the morality of trading something that had most likely been made in a developing country back to a developing country, in exchange for a piece that had been hand crafted. However, he was really keen to make the trade so we went for it…it’s not every day that you get to partake in some good old-fashioned trading.

Marrakech - A sensory explosion

Stepping out and into life in Marrakech was a sensory explosion, making our experience in Naples feel more like a serene getaway in the countryside by comparison. Words and pictures just can’t get close to capturing the 360 degrees of dizzying intensity that was happening around us.

Sights - Snake charmers, performing monkeys, beautiful architecture, abject poverty, vibrant colours of Moroccan goods mixed with the dull red of the buildings that is ubiquitous throughout Marrakech…

Welcome to Morocco - Hello Marrakech!

Arriving in Marrakech was like stepping into another world. It was almost impossible to believe that we were only a short (made to feel a lot longer by screaming children right behind us) three hour flight away from London.

We were picked up at the airport by a driver from the ‘Riad’ that we were staying in, and driven right into the heart of the old town – or Medina. The first thing that struck us was how unbelievably out of place we felt. More than anywhere else that either of us have ever been, we felt very very white and very very Western. From those first few moments, we knew that this was not going to be anything like the average European holiday, which was both quite exciting, and a tad nerve racking.