Intro to Morocco...the journey ends here!

People say that you can smell Morocco from across the waters in Tarifa, Spain, but it is not until you arrive that you know what these smells are. In every Medina that we have frequented, we have been engulfed by the dizzy smells of mint and heavy scents of simmering Tajine.

Mint tea is the warm welcome that you receive where ever you go, sweet and syrupy it invites warmth and comfort. This is how we were greeted by our hosts in Chefchaeoun, along with a drag on their Kif! We arrived in Morocco hesitant about what we would find. Our first stop was a wonderful way to settle any uneasiness, Chefchaeuon is a modest town set into the folds of the Rif Mountains. It is a rabbit warren of blue painted alleyways that house the multi-lingual inhabitants in its cramped space. We stayed in the house of a mad scottish family who have settled 100m above the Medina. We spent some very happy hours soaking up the sun and the lush view of the surrounding Mountians and Valleys on their comfortable rooftop terrace.

Our endearing but somewhat scatty hosts generously offered us a lift to the bus station on our last morning with them. We eagerly accepted but readily acknowledged that the bomb that they called a car had a strong possiblity of not starting. As expected, we found ourselves pushing the dusty mercedes backwards up the hill before clambering in. Silently we prayed that the car would start once we had the momentum of the downwards "slope"of the Mountain. It started thank fully and the breaks brought us to a halt once at the baron location that they referred to as the 'bus stop'.

Our next stop was Fes, actually our next stop was a tiny orange stall on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. Our bus driver had decided to carefully hand pick a whole sack full of oranges whilst we sat waiting patiently on the bus! We had a good old giggle about it with our new friends Jo and Chris, a lovely couple from Sheffield. We fast became friendly stalkers for them, leeching onto them to find the accommodation that they had booked and we hoped to book into (thanks to our "winging it" attitude). Our new friends became our devoted side kicks over the following six days....starting with a guided tour of Fes with our proud guide, Albi. He was very thorough, taking us through an unfathomable network of market streets with stalls selling everything from socks to snails (I was genorously offered a back pack full of them by a playful stall owner)!

Although there are many lovely Moroccans (like the affore mentioned snail man), there are three times as many scammers. Unfortunately it meant that we did not want to trust anyone by the end of our sixteen day adventure. Befriending opening lines always led to a hard sell and the method of guilting you into buying their merchandise. It was unfortunate that every "nice" local was generally only out to make a profit from you. Despite this we actually felt very safe traveling through Morocco, you just have to keep your wits about you and be prepared to juggle manners and an attitude to not be suckered in.

Our friendship with our new buddies continued into the Sahara desert and through the Atlas Mountains when they invited JJ and I to join their five day private tour. It was an amazing experience, the first day we drove mostly through the Rif mountains to get out of Fes and then slowly we headed further out into the desolate landscape that is Morocco (out that way at least), our first night was spent way out over the 30 metre tall sand dunes in the Sahara desert in a traditional tent. We helped our guide, Mohammad, prepare the evening meal of Tajine in a traditional cooking tent before devouring it with bread and our sandy fingers!

The next day we woke at 5am to watch the sun rise and then trek back to the 4x4 (on our camels), we had a monumentally long day driving from 7am till 9:30pm!!! I woke with a gurling stomach that fast turned into an aggressive bout of stomach upset...stuck in a car for the entire day whilst driving through the desert (which in turn means no readily available toilets) meant that it was possibly my least favourite day of our travels! The sights that we passed in the car that day though were rather majestic!

The three days following we spent doing some pretty serious mountain hiking through the Atlas mountains...if we knew how much there was going to be and how intense then I am not sure we would have done it, but I am glad that we did! We stayed the first two nights in a little Berber town called Imlil which sits about 1700m above sea level. The first day we took it easy, climbing to 2500m. It was a pleasant walk through villages, down rocky hill sides, over streams and along the man made irragation systems. It took us around six hours in total. Day two we started with an 800m hike directly up to the top of the mountain where the soil was rocky and soft and hard to grip; thankfully we had a mule to carry our ruck sacks and a mulateer to provide us with lunch at the top! We spent the night in a tiny Berber village where we slept on concrete floors and had no particular comforts (a foam mattress was as luxurious as it got)...it was freezing...there was snow on the mountains!!! The third day was much easier, we only climbed another 400m and then back down through the valley to the pick up point, although by that time I must say, our hearts just weren't in it! The first day we walked 22km, then the second day we walked around 30km, followed by about 15km on the last day. A grand total of 67km!!!

Our next stop was spent in a seaside town called Essouira, where we took the time to recoup and enjoy the creature comforts like hot showers, and western style loos...I never thought that I could be so excited to see a western style toilet...until my nasty dose of diorreaha!! We spent a comfortable four days being lazy on the roof terrace that over looked the bay and the fishing port. We enjoyed laid back mornings consuming crepes and the fresh OJ that Morocco does so well. We have been consuming the stuff by the jugful...which led me to my second bout of bowel tangling smelly horror! My last evening was once again spent in friendship with the loo...although by this time we had at least made it to our luxury Riad in Marrakech! Oh, and to finish of the drama have I told you about the flea bites that I got from my towel in Essouira?

Despite these small dramas the whole of our trip was issue free. We had an amazing time consuming all of what Morocco had to offer. I wish I could provide you with a better picture of the extremes in landscape that the country threw at us, but it is one of those things...it will never be the same as being there. All I can say is, it is and was an adventure worth exploring!

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” - Mark Twain