October 2 Berber camp in Sahara Desert

I am now on the edge of the Sahara Desert!

The guy that was to pick me up was a bit late, so ended up at another guys place for about half an hour. Very tired and I need coffee!
He does show up and we head off down the highway. There is about 30 km to go. Most of it was on the highway but then he turns off and just seems to drive across the desert. Sometimes there is a track sometimes not! I guess you just go in the direction you want to go! Very interesting.

The hotel is great. Coffee is on and breakfast is ready. There are about 6 other people around. I get some coffee, get cleaned up and find out that there is a quad trip that I can take. So about 11.30 I head off to tour the sand dunes on the quad. Why not, it is camels tonight. Great trip for about 1 hour through the dunes close by. Actually there are dunes just outside my bedroom window and the dining room window! Amazing! 

The hotel itself has a swimming pool and the whole place is plastered with a mud and straw mix. Looking at some of the houses driving here some are also made with mud bricks and then plastered. The rest are made with a red brick.

Stopped at the oasis. Apparently there is always the same level of water in the well. It is only a couple of metres down.

There was some rain earlier in the week. There are mud puddles around and the bus actually had to drive through one area that had water over the road.

At 6 pm mounted my trusty camel off into the desert. There are 7 other on tour from the Netherlands. We ride for about 1 hour, about 55 minutes too long according to my butt! Arrive at camp and have tea and wait for dinner. way too many pictures of sand dunes! Dinner was harrira soup and chicken tagine. Excellent. By the time dinner was finished, the lights were turned off,yes they have LED lights all over the place. The stars are amazing. The the milky way is huge. You forget how much city lights affect the view.

The tents are covered in a very heavy wool blanket, with carpets on the floor. It did cool off in night but not unbearable. Rather nice. THe guys think that Ishould go back out tonight, but Ithink I will stay in hotel


October 1 on overnight bus to Rissani Morocco

I took it slow this morning as I have an 8.30 pm overnight bus, so I have the day to use up. Somehow Somehow it went by fairly fast.

I headed off into the medina, nice as it was fairly quiet and not a lot of people. I was headed for the Choudra Tanneries. They are the oldest and the biggest. All I needed to do was follow the red signs and then turn off on the blue signs. Easier said! I did pretty well until they seemed to go in circles - at least I was going in circles! Oh well, saw more on the 2nd or 3rd time around! I did stop at Museum Nejjarine. A beautiful 3 story building that has a history of being a medrassa (school) and then city hall, but now is a museum. 3 stories of artifacts, mostly from the 17 and 18th centuries. Household items, farm implements and religious. The best part was the building itself. There was also a great view from the roof top terrace. Every place has a terrace.

Continued on, stopped for lunch and then on to the tanneries. What an amazing place. All manual labour with the guys using feet to wash and die the skins. They are then scraped and brushed, again by hand. The old part seemed to be under renovation but still many big tanks. Of course you end up in the shop at the end. The poor guy in there. He first had trouble finding a leather jacket with sleeves long enough for me and then I did not buy anything any way. Some very nice leather goods.

Headed back towards hotel and stopped in for a coffee, and then to dinner. Of course it was a roof top terrace. This one, according to the guy was on its way to Mars in 1000 years! Out of this world! They will say anything to get your attention.

It was then time to head to the bus station. I allowed 30 minutes, it took 10 so I was extra early. Good thing as I ended up on the bus almost right away. This bus would take me to the station where I would have the catch my bus. I was told it would be a sleeping bus but turned out to be a regular highway bus. Try sleeping when you can not recline your seat, and there is someone next to you. The bus left at 8.30 pm and arrived in Rissani at 7 am. A long ride. There were a few stops along the way. The first stop was about 4 hours in. I must have fallen asleep for a bit as it went by fairly fast. The stop must also have been high in the mountains as it was very cold. So cold that they had meat, looked like halves of a sheep hanging in the road side restaurant. Interesting.

Continuing on the road was windy and rough. One of the last stops, about 2 hours before mine, most of the people got off. Great as I could stretch out a bit. I slept for most of this.


September 30 Fes Morocco

Today I was out of hotel at 9 am! I was doing a tour today. I ended up with a private tour with a car (Hyundai Tuson) and a driver. Very nice. We drove out of the city for about an hour. Once again in the city, same as Tangier, there are cell phone tower disguised as palm trees. What a great idea.There was a lot of agriculture land. Lots of apple tree which are now being picked. Amazing as the land is extremely rocky. So much so that the fences are mostly rocks and many houses along the way were also made of the rock.

First stop was Ifran. They call this the Switzerland of Morocco. They get snow and there is actually a small ski resort near by. Interesting to see houses with very steep roofs and winter type decorations on light poles, similar to what you would see at home! A very quiet little town that is also know for its very good private university. All the classes are taught in English!

 Then on to the Cedar forest. Not all cedars but there are several mixed in with what look like oak trees. It is here as well that there are wild monkeys! They know that people will by peanuts to feed them. There are many young ones and apparently they are indigineous to the the area. There is a dead 850 year old tree. Found by a Frenchman and given his name. The story goes that he came here and touch the ground and he died shortly after. So did the tree.

Then onto another small town, Azrou. This town is in what are called the Middle Atlas mountains. Middle as they are between the HIgh Atlas and Anti Atlas mountain ranges. We were about 1700 m above sealevel. Interesting as you could really tell the tempurature difference between here and the city. The sun was hot but the air was still cool. AT one point 15 degrees.
Had lunch in a small little restaurant. Excellent food as usual. This was 65 dirham, $9. For a large tomato salad and kafta (fried and spiced meat balls) with more salad and rice and french fries. Of course there was also excellent bread and olives. I have been having olives 3 times a day, with every meal! Very good, and I don't think I have had any that taste the same!

On way back to city stopped at another park area. Lake Aoua. A small natural lake. Very weedy along the shore for swimming but the cattle were sure enjoying eating the weeds! There are swimming spots further along the lake I was told.

Got back to city about 4, so off for coffee. I went to the same place as yesterday, and I was greeted with a big smile. I have no idea how they remember. As the restaurant people all remember as well. I have to stop and talk to each as I go by! All good.

Different restaurant tonight, and again a great meal. Chicken skewers. They were spiced so nicely. I also tried Moroccan soup tonight, harrira. The waiters had a good laugh teaching me to prounouce that word. But the soup was excellent. Rice, chicken peas (that is what he said) rice noodles in a nice broth. I ate too much again!
Enough for this day.