With new years eve rapidly approaching and friends in Accra escaping just as fast it was time to come up with a sporadic, impulsive and exciting plan to relieve ourselves from the madness that is western Africa. After checking all direct plane routes out of Accra to find which location would provide a change of pace to Ghana, be cheaper than Europe but still culturally inspire us without depriving us a healthy wallet... The answer came surprisingly easy...Morocco! To be honest Tara and I really had no idea what to expect from this journey. So after cramming my pockets full of money and taking it to the Royal Air Maroc agency, once again (much like my ticket to Ghana) ticket in hand we prepared to go to a land of which we only knew provided the world with tagines and the movie 'Casablanca'.
It's 2am boxing day 2011....yes 2am...it does exist. Santa is fast asleep after his all night global tour, and Jesus is probably over carols for another year, but Tara and Jason are outside their house weary eyed waiting for a taxi... the only thing stirring is Jason’s Christmas belly. We arrive at the airport and just before check in...'it' happens. The Christmas eve ham starts a boxing day match with the Christmas day turkey and sends Jason running to the Kotoka International Airport bathroom. So after throwing up for half an hour, Jason is adequately nauseous and ready to check in and begin the adventure!
Casablanca
After touching down and feeling relieved that we didn't require a visa for immigration, Tara and I sat at a cafe and utilized our grand knowledge of French linguistics to order our first real coffee in about 8 months, it was made even more special by the fact that the foam of the cappuccino made a perfect Mercator map projection of Africa on the side of Tara's coffee cup...an omen of good times ahead and that indeed we were on the right continent! So we grabbed our bags and hit the train line headed for Casa Voyageux train station, the heart of Casablanca.
There's one thing you can be sure of in morocco (apart from receiving olives and bread at every meal); when you walk out of a train station and look up you'll be sure to find an Ibis hotel. It was there that we sought refuge and rest for Jason's belly. From there we got our first taste of local cab drivers who meet you outside the front of every station to rip you off...they feed off the ignorance of little witted tourists of whom they can smell a supposedly loaded wallet a mile away. So after paying the usual double fare we headed to the Hassan II (Grand) Mosque which certainly rivals any of Europe's grand churches. Standing at 210m tall and ornately hand decorated with mosaic tile work from top to bottom, built standing over the ledge of the Atlantic Ocean, it truly is a site to behold. The structure is massive and boldly makes the statement Islam has been here for a long time and it isn't going anywhere anytime soon!
On the cab ride back to the hotel seeing 'Ricks Cafe' from ‘Casablanca’ really didn't seem that important in comparison. Having seen all the major tourist attractions in Casablanca it was time to board the train to Marrakech the true heart of Morocco.
Marrakech
It's a three hour train trip from Casablanca to Marrakech, you watch the landscape slowly change from fertile pasture land to rocky and cactus abundant desert. As you approach Marrakech the imposing snow capped Atlas Mountains make an exciting backdrop for the ancient medina. As we made our way through the medina to our riad (guest house) the layout of the city rapidly changes from wide roads and five star hotels to dark alleyways 1 car wide, full of riads, and donkeys carrying wares for busy stalls. After passing through several dark alleyways we eventually found our riad which wasn't too far away from the central square, the renowned Jamaa el Fna. The square is a great place to find a bargain during the day. you'll find bargains on leather bags,multitudes of spices, brass lamps, colourful throws, Berber carpets, all of these in multiple sizes, colours and patterns.
You'll bargain hard and come away believing you've won a great victory, until you hear somebody getting the exact same item in the shop next door for half the price. But when you're talking a few dollars you don't really care, especially on items you would find back home from four to ten times the price. I found this to be one of the great joy of Morocco. As long as the amount of savings you made on shopping equals the cost of the return plane ticket, you can feel pretty good about your holiday really. At least...that's how we came to justify it...not that going to morocco needs any justification at all! While wandering around the square you will meet with snake charmers with cobra's, dancing monkeys and ladies painting intricate henna patterns on young ladies hands.
Yes you will have to pay a few durum's when a snake charmer comes from behind you and wraps a python around your neck... He probably deserves a punch in the face, but I prefer not to mess with men who hypnotize king cobras for a living... At night the square transforms into a foodies paradise when hundreds of stalls get set up, filling the night air with an array of spices drawing you into the chaos for a closer whiff. Just like shopping you will be harassed at every stall with men outside claiming their stall is the best, and you'll find no better in all Morocco. They all have catch phrases that range from the highly original like;"Its finger licking good" or "You look like starvin Marvin, take a seat!" to the blunt "it's f#*%ing fantastic mate why go anywhere else!?". In the end they all serve fairly similar food at a much cheaper price than many of the surrounding restaurants and cafe's. After safely meeting up with Alex it was time to begin our Moroccan tour from the Atlas Mountains to the the Draa Valley and ending in the Sahara Desert for New Years Eve!
Atlas Mountains
After being picked up in our 4wd and meeting with the rest of our tour group we set off up the snow capped Atlas Mountains. The further up you drive the more daring the road engineers seem to have become. With single lane roads carefully following narrow ridges up steep cliffs. Its the sort of road where you look out the window but can only see a 700m drop outside onto a jagged cliff side. Yet this doesn't seem to have deterred eager salesmen from setting up stalls beside these roads hoping to sell you a fossil, quartz crystal, an "ancient relic" or a colourful Berber plate. Tara was of course, more interested in the toilets at such a high altitude…
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| A room with a view |
On the way up we were also taken to a coop where they make argen oil. While we were convinced it was very rare and hard to find we have since been plagued by it all over Morocco. It's apparently a magical oil, able to preserve (or bring out) beauty and long life and worth shelling out what appears to be ridiculous amounts of money for. It is apparently the new olive oil so look out for it at a deli near you!You can begin to appreciate some of the difficult living conditions Moroccan people have had to tolerate living in the mountain passes, with many of their homes hundreds of metres above any fertile lands and cleft into the side of steep mountain passes. It does however make a stunning view for tourists as you travel up the winding mountain pass.
Anti Atlas and the Draa Valley
After finishing our winding decent from the Atlas mountains we entered the region known as the anti-atlas. Many of the ancient Kasbah’s (fortified buildings) found in this region are located along old spice and slave routes. They were used for enforcing slavery in the region and keeping locals in check. However many have since been burnt to the ground or have been left in ruins. Some however are slowly being restored to their former glory by descendants of those families or by government assistance to boost tourism.
It proved to be to be an excellent place take pictures of olive groves surrounded by mosque’s, ancient Kasbahs, all with a backdrop of snowy mountain peaks. It was here that I learnt that in fact I could get used to the taste of olives, something that had been a constant source of disappointment to me being a long time lover of olive oil.
As we made our way through the Anti Atlas we eventually come upon Ait Ben Hadou, you may recognise it from such movies as Gladiator or Lawrence of Arabia…or at least as we were continually told this by tour guides.
If we thought Ait Ben Hadou was fun, the next day we were taken to a proper film set which they had recently used to create scenes for Kingdom of Heaven and some other film which is coming out soon… by this stage I was beginning to get information overload from the tour guide. You can probably tell from the photos below we had a great time. Alex got so excited she nearly pushed Tara down a well…Well at least Tara thought so…
By this time we were beggining to pass through the Draa Valley, which consists of a gorge filled with over 200 species of palm trees and runs for hundreds of kilometres. Into the clefts of the walls of the gorge are ancient houses. people still life in these caves and at the foot of the gorge…although how I am still pondering.
Sahara Desert
Eventually we made it to our very much anticipated destination the Sahara Desert! The day consisted of 4wd over sand dunes, riding camels, sipping mint tea with Berber people, watching a glorious sunset and eating a full spit roasted lamb by the bonfire watching the a clear star populated sky pass over us. Unfortuantely for us on the way to the site we were beginining to feel a little sick in the stomach, so we had a bit of a bittersweet time. I’ll let the video I made below show you what we got up too!
After waking up completely drained of energy we began our 600km trip back to Marraketch…It was a full day…and it really, really felt like it! For Tara and Alex who were sick at the start of the day, 2 hours over sand dunes and back over the Atlas Mountains was not the greatest remedy.
Back in Marraketch
Before travelling on to our next destination we were lucky to spend a few more days in Marraketch. This meant more shopping and some time to recover our strength. I personally think Marraketch is the top destination for shopping in Morocco and I can demonstrate this to you buy showing a picture of the pure delight presented in Tara’s face in this lamp shop.
Essouira
We had heard much about Essouira and a couple of days by the sea side was just what we needed. So we set off for our next destination, the wind city of Africa (Much to Tara’s pleasure). Essouira is a white washed town built inside an ancient fortress built by the portugese. Designed by the same designer who designed Brittany in France the name Essaouira means beautifully designed. You may recognise the castle from such films as Othello. This was one of our favourite destinations. We got very lucky in finding accomodation right by the sea in a beautiful white washed spacious riad, with A terrace that overlooked the entire harbour.
It was also good for sunsets!
It was in Essaoura that I was able to barter for our sea food dinner consisting of Lobster, Crab, Callamari, Scampi, Fish, Morey Eel and chips for under $80. Naturally I was very proud of myself…but once again they probably still got away with the bargain. We were able to have traditional massages and so much pizza and fresh gelato we came home each day rolling out of our jeans...much to the delight of the massouses I’m sure…The city of Essaouira is not only inhabited by people but also a multitude of cats and seagulls.
There was the occasional cute dog as well..
You haven't done morocco properly until you've purchased a ridiculously large, awkwardly shaped but awesome relic of some kind which you must then figure out how to lugg around for the rest of your trip. There are plenty of things to chose from including giant ceramic plates and ofcourse rugs. Alex chose a giant orb lamp in Marrakech while we fell in love with 'the door to the Sahara' in Essouira. But alas it as time for us to take the train to our final destination, the ancient city of Fes.
Fes
What a vet!
Eventually we made it back into the kitchen and got cooking!
So in the end we learnt the secret of cooking Zalouk Salad, Harira soup, chicken tagine, macaroons, and a few other starters. the end product being thus!
While Alex and Tara were told they were useless failed women if they didn't know how to do something as simple as bake bread I was fortunate enough to be offered a job at the communal oven by this guy!
We trully feasted that night..
While in fes we once again scoured the shops for our last opportunity to pick up any remaining nick nacks and visited one of the many tanneries where leather is treated and died with such ingredients as cow urine and pidgeon poop. Hey you asked for it!
Fes was a maze of a city, and getting lost is a must if you are a foreigner. we were frequently lead down dark alleyway to shop keepers familes shops when they didn’t have exactly what we wanted…funnily enough often their cousin didn’t either! It was here we were probably most exposed to the muslim call to prayer. A very memorable one was when we were sitting very peacefully on a terrace right aboce the medina, when we realised as we sat down we were placed right next to the megaphones of one of the mosques….that was really….fun…
After two weeks and draining most of our banks accounts it was time to head back to casablanca and enjoy one last meal in ricks cafe… strangely appropriate given that Alex had just been told her flight had been cancelled and she'd be stranded in Casablanca for another day with nothing to do - just like the movie! Now that's the true Casablanca experience. We enjoyed a stunning fancy meal and said our final farewells to Alex and began our trip back home to Ghana.
