Day 22......

8.00am    Awake...   No call to Prayer.    Breakfast and 2 cups of coffee.  No hurry now.

Picked up Layla & Dobby from the kennels in Nerja and we were back home by lunchtime.

We will return to Morocco just as soon as we possibly can!

Day 21 Essaouira .... Safi .... El Jadida....Homeward Bound

5.30 am   Awoken by the calling to prayer in the distance. Very sad thinking that it could be the last time for us.
Up before 6 am and on the road at 6.40 am. It's going to be a long day.

A good half hour wasted looking for the coast road to Safi and it was light as we drove the 5k back to the roundabout and the Safi Road.

Beautiful scenery. So pleased that Ray had recommended it.  Another gem.
He also recommended a stop at Moulay Bousselham but we have run out of time.

The going was clear for a while with a few clouds over the sea but as we drove further north the weather worsened until 50 k before Safi we could only see a few yards in front of us.

Around 30 k before El Jadida we stopped for a late breakfast.

12.30pm  Casablanca Toll.

1.30pm  Rabat.

Maamora forest.  Cork oaks for simply miles.

2.05pm   Kenitra.
2.10 pm  Toll.  Cloudy looks like it's going to rain.  

Crossed a really wide river.  Oud?

Plastic greenhouses for  while.
Eucaliptus forest.
More greenhouses with bananas.

Banasa historic site.  A huge area of water on our right.  Sand dunes on our left.
2.30 pm  'Sidi Allal Tazi' and just after a stop for diesel.

3.20 pm  Larache.

More Cork Oaks.

Tanger Med.

5.15pm/ 6.15 pm Crossed the border into Ceuta.   Time change.

8.15pm  Ferry departed Ceuta.

10.00 pm  Disembarked onto Mainland Spain.

10.35 pm Turned in at 'Casa Bernados' car park after a slight detour.  Restaurant and Bar all closed. 

Is it really all over.  So suddenly.  I feel a huge loss.  Could have stayed....... in Morocco.........

Day 20.....Marrakech to Essaouira

Up at the crack of dawn!
Ray had said we needed to arrive at the next camp early as it was very small.
Sorry to be leaving Marrakech.

On the road again driving through arid, desert like regions.  Dual carriageway all the way.

Chichaoua, almost half way.  Single carriageway only.  Seems as if the villagers want to slow down the traffic!
Later the countryside is more green, fertile.  Shepherds, sheep and goats take their lives in their feet crossing the motorway.

Three and a half hours later. Essaouira.  Camping  Sidi Magdoul.

1.00pm Meeting. Chair, plate, cup, knife & fork.  Buffet lunch.
Cold meats, pickles, cheese, bread & orange juice.

Walked along the sand around the enormous bay.  Detoured around a football pitch with a game in progress and paddled my feet in the sea.   We were warned about the wind and yes, it is extremely windy.

Eventually reached the Harbour.

                                  Choose your fish and wait whilst it's cooked for you

Then into town and sat at a cafe people watching for a while. 

Walked around the shops and later took a ramshackle old taxi back to the camp. Phew!


Tonight is our last night.   We are having to leave Morocco a day early and will miss the 'Last Supper' hosted by Desert Detours in Essaouira tomorrow night.   Mismanagement - on my part I hasten to add.

Said our goodbyes then turned in for an early night as tomorrow is an early start.

Day 19 ....... Marrakech

Awake at 7 am but no sound of the call to prayer here.   We are 8 km outside of Marrakech on the Casa Blanca road.
Breakfast is bananas and oranges.

There are so many Peacocks wandering about the camp site.

9.30 am  Bus to the government's price controlled shop.  No bargaining here but the prices are higher than expected.  It is a huge emporium full of the most fantastic objects, artefacts  you could ever want to decorate yourself or your house with.  Not just from Morocco but from all Africa. And from China I noticed.  Souvenirs and presents galore.
Walked back to the Medina.  Tried to buy a plant of the 'Retama', sweet smelling white Broom that is on all the cut flower stalls but no luck.

Cokes and burgers at the cafe opposite the Koutoubia Mosque.

1.00pm  Minibus back to camp.   Drove back past the golf course and expensive looking houses and apartments and then through a desert park area with camels here and there to be hired for rides.  Saw two very sweet baby camels, one white.  This must be the 'Palmeraie'.   

Now very hot again. Relaxing by the side of the van in the shade.

5.00 pm  Back to Marrakech for the evening.


Walked around the Medina for a while.  Saw a Snake Charmer, the Monkey Man,  Dancing men dressed as woman - drawing a huge crowd,  a Henna Lady and couldn't resist offering my hand.  She sprinkled some irredescent powder over the wet henna. Very pretty.

So many orange juice stalls and flower stalls as well as all the hot food stalls.  Such busy, bustling people.  The atmosphere so different from the afternoon. 
As it grew darker we sat with coffee and coke watching the goings on whilst waiting for the others to arrive for the meal that was planned on the first floor of the Argana restaurant over looking the Medina.
The view was terrific as was the atmosphere; noise, lights, drums, music.  Blue bubbles floating up from below which turned out to be a children's toy.

The food was excellent.  Soft delicious omelettes,  melt in the mouth meat tagine,  sliced oranges with cinnamon. Oh those spices.

Walked back to opposite the Mosque and drank tea while waiting for the mini bus at 9.30pm.
This must be the latest night we've had yet.

Day 18.....Marrakech .... 'Camping Ferdaous'

Awake around 7 am.
Ian caught two mosquitos.

 9am  Minibuses arrived to take us on the Marrakech tour.

  First stop was the 'Jardin Majorelle'.   Eve St. Laurent's Garden.










   Oh, I was out of this world and could have stayed in the garden all day....and then not wanted to have left it.  Took hundreds of photos but none can really capture the magical atmosphere.

It was, too soon, all over and we were back in the mini bus and on to The 'Saadian Tombs' housed in a beautiful 500 year old building.  Lovely Carrara marble columns.  Very poignant were the small children's tombs.

The tombs date back to the time of Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur (1578-1603 CE) but weren’t actually discovered until 1917.

Approximately sixty members of the Saadi Dynasty – who originated in the Draa River valley – lay buried here among them, interred in the mausoleum, is Ahmad al-Mansur and his family.

 Outside the mausoleum are the graves of the soldiers and servants.

Back in the minibus we were off to visit the Royal Bahia Palace.
 The palace was built principally by Bou Ahmed, a powerful vizier to the royal court in the 1890s.

The walls are decorated in traditional Moroccan zelije tiling, with sculpted stucco and carved cedarwood doors and ceilings. The fireplace on your left as you enter is quite impressive too. The palace includes extensive quarters that housed Bou Ahmed's four wives and twenty-four concubines.

                                                                                 

The gardens are full of Seville Oranges, planted originally for their exceptionally sweet perfume.
Also planted for their perfume were the Brugmansias, the stamens from which,  the guide informed us, is made a blood pressure reducing tea.

Then we walked...to the Cafe 'Al Badia', to the top floor and refreshed ourselves with delicious mint tea and a small cake.   Quite close to us were the old town walls and turrets on which the storks had built their huge nests.   Fascinating to see the storks flying around, standing on one leg, or mating.
The roof terrace where we were siting in the shade had lovely old wrought iron work around the perimeter.

Soon, we were back on the street where we walked...and walked and walked  at a fairly fast pace so no time for loitering at shop windows or for stopping to shop, as we were fearful of losing the guide or the group.
  

   Suddenly, we were into the Souk and just as I was getting seriously hot and bothered, we stopped at a Spice/Herbal Shop.  "Huile de Rosa".    So surprising and quite refreshing.
We were given a talk by the chemist, for want of a better name, who knew his amazing products inside out.  Sample pots of oils, creams and spices were handed around and it became a case of 'must have' to the tune of 600 dirhams but no regrets.   The neck and shoulder massage for just 20 dirhams was the best value ever.

                                 
 Out on the street again we walked...back to the mini bus via Jemaa el Fna Square.  The bus was very late and the sun very hot.

                                      A better way to see the sights

                                            
We took in the 'Marjane' supermarket on the way back arriving at  the camp simply exhausted at 4.00pm.

The intention had been to return to the Medina for the evening but..... it was all too much for one day.

A tuna omlette sufficed and an early night.
No mosquitos tonight.


                                                           

Day 17...... Ouazazate...Tizi n Tichka Pass...Marakech.....

5.30 am   Awoke to the sound of the 'Call to Prayer'  from at least 4 mosques in the area of the camp site.

7.30 am  The birds were singing away in the trees above us.   Later, the sound of a plane taking off
                somewhere quite close.

Out of Ouazazate, past small shops on the roadside.    Past women doing the washing in the stream down below the road.

5 miles out of Ouazazate on the road to Marrakech we sailed past  the Atlas Film Studios.
Reviews are very mixed.

 "At present, it hosts one of the largest movie studios in the world, Atlas Studios. Several historical movies were shot on those studios (e.g. Astérix et Cléopâtre, Lawrence of Arabia, The Man Who Would Be King, Cleopatra, Kundun, Gladiator and lately Alexander, Kingdom of Heaven and Babel). It was also the location of the November 26, 2006 episode of the television series The Amazing Race."

 Slowly climbing up into the mountins, landscape very arid.

Lunch stop at Cafe Mohammed at Assanfou.   Restaurant Assanfou   
Their Berber omelettes are melt in the mouth heavenly.

                                                          

Then on and up in to granite and  horrendous hair pin bends and fantastic views.

We stopped on a particularly wide bend and spent lots of dirhams at a small Berber shop which seemed to be just precariously clinging to the edge of the mountain.

Very friendly people.   A father and his son.  As we left, much later, the father was outside praying.  It seemed too intrusive to photograph him.

         The Tizi n Tichka Pass 2,200 m above sea level, built by the French in 1936.

On the way down to Marrakech.

We stopped for some Asphodels and sweet smelling white Broom.

The temperature is rising!

Arrived in the outskirts of Marrakech in the rush hour.  Sheer Madness.  Lots of people grouped on one of the larger roundabouts.  Police about. Ian said he saw some of the Army as well.   Someone said later that it might have been the King passing through. 

4.30 pm  Reached our destination 'Camping Ferdaous'.    Very, very busy.  Squashed in, no privacy.
Lots of Peacocks wandering about, very pretty.

5.00 pm Meeting.  We had been told to bring a glass as well as a chair.
Ray produced a 5 litre bottle which was over half full of 'red'.   Berber wine he called it.
It did seem quite strong.
Didn't get back to the van until well after dark and were plagued with mosquitos all night because we had left the windows open.
No malaria here fortunately, it being one of the things we hadn't even considered.  Apparently the desert acts as a barrier.    Didn't sleep too well.