With thanks to Calvin & Hobbs for this insightful cartoon.
East, west home is best and nothing can quite beat returning from a trip to sleep in your bed, with the familiar sounds surrounding you.
That being said, my wife and I are constantly planning and preparing for more adventures and experiences.
There is a week-long trip to Cape Town coming up shortly that will no doubt be followed by bush time and then we are also planning a cruise for 2025. Destination as yet unknown, but we are considering Spain, Portugal and Morocco as an option.
This gull seemed to sum up my mood on that particular. Wet and hungry.
At least she could fly to wherever she wanted to go, while our group was faced with yet another ride on our coach back to Casablanca and the final day of the tour.
It might sound as if I am being dismissive of coach tours, but I have done several. Some with groups of almost 30 people and both my wife and I have decided that these are no longer an option.
The group dynamics in a holiday of this sort can make or break your experience and being confined in a vehicle for several hours with strangers can be a trying experience. When we did a European tour, at every border crossing we had to wait for passports and travel documents to be checked and verified. And we wasted hours having to do that.
Perhaps if you are between 18-25 and all you want to do is PARTY, then a coach could be an option. But the older I get, the more I want to enjoy the peace and tranquillity of the places I visit…and on my timeline.
Did you know? A padlock was given to protect love— the key would be kept by the man as a token of his enduring love.
In this case, it seems that either love will endure forever or the man has left with the key and won’t be returning any time soon.
An early morning view from a rooftop in Marakesh. Often I was the first to breakfast, not because I was hungry, but because I wanted to be awake to capture images like this.
Vistas like this inspired me to wax lyrical…
In the quiet desert’s golden hue,
Sunrise paints the sky anew,
Pink and blue clouds softly swirl,
As dawn awakens the desert world.
Amidst the sands, a lone palm stands tall,
Casting shadows against the light’s gentle sprawl,
Its fronds a graceful dance in morning’s embrace,
A sentinel of time and ancient grace.
The sun ascends with radiant glow,
Casting warmth on the earth below,
A tranquil scene, a timeless sight,
In the desert’s dawn, a moment of pure delight.
Sunrise. This was part of the covered breakfast area on the roof of our accommodation in Marakesh.
The vibrant glass was backlit by the rising sun.
Morocco usually receives its first snow in December or January, with March being the last month when the country experiences any sort of snow. Hence us still finding the last remnants of the 2023/2024 snow season.
However, climatic changes in recent years have pushed the first Moroccan snowfalls forward to the autumn months of October and November.
On Sept. 8th 2023, a devastating magnitude 6.8 earthquake hit Morocco just after 11 p.m. local time. The earthquake’s depth was 18.5 km, and the epicentre was 70 km southwest of Marrakesh near the town of Adassil, in the High Atlas Mountains, Al Haouz province.
Despite the devastation that the earthquake caused, Morocco continues with the work required to allow the country to bounce back from the tragedy.
My wife and I shared a moment of quiet contemplation at this spot as we wondered what happened to those who lived here when it was still a house. We found tile remnants as well as evidence of a kitchen. But aside from knowing it had been destroyed in the earthquake, we knew nothing else.
It must have been terrifying for those who experienced this disaster as there was nowhere to run to and nowhere to hide. One moment there was a house(and possibly a family) and then in a heartbeat, there was neither.
Just one example of the spectacular wall art that I found on many of the city walls.
This portrait ‘guarded’ the entrance that we used to get to our accommodation while we were in our penultimate tour destination, Esquerra.
This large male gull was keeping a beady eye open to score a meal from an unsuspecting tourist. I suspect the locals are far too aware of how fast these birds can remove food from a plate on a table or a hand.
I would have liked to be a fly on the wall…but seeing the conversation was probably in Arabic, I would not have been able to understand a word.
As an aside, I have always said that if I could have a superpower, I would like it to be that I could understand every recorded language. I don’t need to speak the languages, just be able to follow conversations that people would assume I could not understand.
So far, this power has eluded me! And both here and in Egypt last year there was a lot of smiling and waving on my part. (Much like the penguins in the movie Madagascar). That being said, smiles got me out of situations that might otherwise have had a different ending.
Sunset from a rooftop in Marakesh. One of the very few sunsets that we got to experience.
The only reason I say that is that more often than not both sunrise and sunset were obscured by buildings in the towns where we spent the night.
So it was only when I had rooftop access that I got to see the spectacular show put on at the beginning or end of the day.
This fellow was not begging and seeing he was sitting nearby I took an interest in what he was doing. It turned out he was looking after goods belonging to a friend who had gone off to a toilet nearby.
A laundry in the medina in Fes.
What do Cape Town, South Africa, and the Medina in Fes have in common?
There seem to be many of these establishments supported by the locals in both cities.
But unlike South Africa, the Moroccan ones seem to operate almost continuously.
Let the buyer beware…
Tizi n’Tichka. On the mountain pass between Ouarzazate and Marrakech. There is a sign at the Col du Tichka signifying that it is the highest point of the pass at 2260m
And it has been believed for the longest time that 2,260m was correct
In November 2022 a GPS measurement by Hans Mülder indicated that the actual height above sea level was 2,205m. This was then confirmed by Google Earth.
Now, people might wonder why the height difference of 55m is so significant, but trust me, to those who set out to prove the height above sea level of any mountain, every metre counts. Or perhaps some conspiracy theorists might believe that it is due to climate change or some similar natural phenomenon. Or, perhaps it was simply a mistake in the original calculation…
But back to the fossils in the picture. Morocco is well known as the country of fakes, but the majority of fossils from Morocco are authentic, although prepared commercially, you just need to know what to look for.
Some fossils are polished for display purposes, other large pieces of marble may be carved and polished to make tables, fountains, soap dishes, bowls, pendants and a variety of decorative items. These items can be purchased in the souks of Marrakech and Fes.
Trilobites are the most common fossils found in Morocco, and orthoceras are also frequently found. Other fossils that can be found in Morocco include coral and shark teeth. Dinosaur fossils are relatively common in Morocco compared to many other countries, especially in the Cretaceous-age Kem Kem beds.
Getting goods to market or home for that matter can be a back-breaking process.
Dinner for four? Columbia River Gorge. Seeing that there are a variety of stalls along this gorge, food may be available for sale. Or perhaps it is for the vendors to sit and compare sales for the day?
Much like the vastness of the oceans and seas, the desert stretched out in front of us.
Sahara’s vast dunes,
Ocean’s endless blue expanse,
Both worlds in stillness.
The Sahara Desert derives its name from the Arabic noun ṣaḥrāʾ, meaning desert, and its plural, ṣaḥārāʾ. It is also related to the adjective aṣḥar, meaning desertlike and carrying a strong connotation of the reddish colour of the vegetationless plains.
The Sahara covers large parts of Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Western Sahara and Sudan as well as parts of southern Morocco and Tunisia. It covers 9 million square kilometres, 31% of the African continent.
Some fun facts about the Sahara…
The desert is home to dunes that can reach 180 metres in height. (higher than a 30-storey building!)
Emi Koussi Volcano is the highest point in the Sahara at 3,415 metres.
Sahara became a desert around 2500 BCE, and for the past 13,000 years, the Sahara desert has remained at the same dryness.
Approximately every 20,000 years, the Sahara transforms into a savannah covered with lush grasses due to the angle of the Earth’s axis changing.
The High Atlas Mountains.
They form a high sill separating the Mediterranean basin in the north from the Sahara in the south, thus constituting a barrier that hinders, without completely preventing, communication between the two regions.
The ancient Greek poet Hesiod wrote about Atlas, a Titan, condemned to stand at the end of the earth and hold up the celestial heavens for eternity. This myth became commonly identified with the Atlas Mountains and is how the mountains came to have their name.
It is tales like this that add to the mystery and mystique that visitors to Morocco experience.
This was the company we utilized for our tour.
There were issues along the way, but nothing that could not be resolved on the spot. It did give value for money and if Morocco is a bucket list destination then the tour host, Linda, will give you that in spades.
As I have said many times before, if you go with no expectations then you cannot be disappointed. All my wife and I require is a comfortable bed, reasonable connectivity, hot water(most of the time) and a breakfast that sets us up for the day. On this trip, we almost had a full house of requirements. Those that were lacking, we accommodated and smiled. Making it all part of the overall experience and adventure.
Travel is the proud winner of this prestigious award from the digital British lifestyle magazine Luxlife. The award is in the category Best Travel & Experiences Blog 2024 – South Africa
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