Essaouira, Morocco

Essoueira is a fishing village on the coast of Morocco. Wandering around the town (it’s a GRID PATTERN for a change, yahoo!!) I see a lot of backpackers, young and ageing hippies. We had lunch in a small café of fresh sardines (they were very salty) and salad. I am here to try the seafood, which is caught fresh and sold daily - you buy them whole, and then there are a lot of men with knives around, ready to clean them for you. The whole village paints their shutters, their doorways, and their boats in a lovely blue wash colour (a little like you see in Greece). The idea of that is no-one wants to be seen by the 'evil eye' and so they copy what others do, so they don't stand out.
After breakfast we wandered down to the fishing boats and met Abdul, an elderly fisherman who explained (in French and using a notebook with drawings) they types of fish caught here, and now the nets work and so on. They catch sardines, tuna,
This morning, 5 of us decided to take a Moroccan cooking class www.lateliermadada.com and it was well worth it! The kitchen was beautifully decorated, modern, soft music playing, candles. Our instructor Mona and her assistant Nourdenne were so helpful and it was the most relaxing and enjoyable thing we have done this whole trip. Ten stars! We made a Moroccan cooked salad and chicken pastille (which has been our favorite meal here in Morocco) and then we got to eat it! There was only 8 in the class, a perfect number. We each had our own station for preparing, and cooking the flavourful delicious lunch. I would recommend this class to anyone coming to Essouiera.

Goats in trees on the way to Essaouira

Goats in trees, you ask? Well...it all has to do with the argane tree, which is famous for producing nuts that are then made into argane oil. The oil has 3 separate phases, one is for cooking, and the others are for medicinal/cosmetic purposes. Mixing equal drops of argane oil and arnica is a great massage oil for bad backs. Now, the goats. Well, they love munching on the nuts. So in the mountainous areas (apparently) they climb up the trees themselves and spend the day gorging on the nuts. Below the mountains, enterprising Moroccans put them up in the trees and wait for unsuspecting tourists to drive by, stop to take photos, and get charged a 'fee'. I hope the goats are getting something out of it!

Marrakech

Today we explored Marrakech, visiting the museum and an old palace, viewing the wives’ quarters (4 huge rooms, the largest for the main wife) and the concubines’ quarters (12 rooms, 2 to a room). The concubines were virtually slaves, bought for the king, entrapped in the palace for the purposes of giving birth to the King’s children, belly dancing and entertaining. Interesting. I picked up a few things I had the riad staff wash for me. My new favorite crisp white shirt is now…BLUE! Anyway, I digress. Meandering through the souks, it was fascinating to see the welders welding wrought iron window grilles without safety goggles, or in some cases, even shoes…yikes. People fashioning leather slippers, sewing fabrics, making buckets and even picture frames out of old Michelin tyres (leaving the Michelin name on the photo frames!). We passed by a line of women, sitting on the edge of the alleyway. Apparently they sell and trade stolen gold. I did a little shopping. Well, a lot of bargaining, and a little shopping. There is so much to see in Marrakech. Lunch was at a restaurant on the second floor, overlooking the town square. I could spend days just people watching, hunchbacked men and women, motorcycles hurtling down the narrow alleyways, the whole place is fascinating. The boys went on a mission to find a hidden grog shop to buy beer and wine for dinner tonight, they were successful, bringing back newspaper and black plastic bag-wrapped bottles. I also won another game of Scrabble (yeah!).

Skoura Oasis and Ait Bennhadou

Visiting an ancient Kasbah in Skoura Oasis was a wonderful sight of mud brick fortification, extravagantly decorated rooms and a labyrinth of rooms, corridors, and stairs. What a great place to play hide and seek.
Arriving in Marrakesh today later a long, spirally, windy old road through the Atlas Mountains, it felt like another world. Lots and lots of people, traffic, noise. A lot of the women here, especially the younger ones, dress in a more Western style than we have seen lately. There are heaps of tourist and backpacker/hippy types wandering around the town square. And what a town square it is….monkeys, snakes being charmed, water carriers, chaos. Motorbikes are everywhere, zooming around. It is really difficult to get a handle on anything because you are constantly watching what is going on around you, while dodging traffic, because it is the town square, not an actual road. The markets and souks are immense, stalls selling mirrors, shoes, pottery, djellabas, hats, bags, anything you want is available here. I am glad I was able to buy a new memory stick as mine is full of photos already. The funniest thing we saw was a table in the middle of the town square, with nothing but TEETH on it. Yes. Human teeth. Plus a few false teeth and forceps. Is this the town dentist? would you get a tooth extracted here?? Shopping is not for the faint hearted. You need to bargain, and bargain hard. Luckily my French is coming along rather nicely, and I remember numbers. Now the only thing I need to do is convert the currency in my head quickly enough so I know what I’m spending. Mum bought a beautiful lantern, and I picked up a great Moroccan wall hanging yay!! I’ve been looking for one all week. The shopkeepers hassle you incessantly, so browsing is virtually impossible without being harassed. Tonight we went back to the town square, only a few minutes’ walk. Around 10pm it was packed full of people and chaos and traffic and horses pulling carriages and people wanting you to pay to take a picture of their monkey/snake/clothing/stall etc. We are staying in a beautiful riad here. The entrance is a tiny doorway in a nondescript street and is a little daunting. But once inside, is a big courtyard with tables and chairs and plants and mosaic tile and it is just lovely. I kicked ass playing Scrabble with the girls over a cold drink and steamed almonds. This place is an oasis in the middle of such chaos. Only about 12 rooms here and our group are the only ones staying at the moment….my room is on the third floor, up steep and narrow stairs, overlooking the courtyard. Above me is a rooftop terrace where you can see all around for miles, it’s just immense. This trip is incredible.

M'Goun Valley

Today we enjoyed breakfast on the terrace: fresh orange juice, warm flat bread straight from the oven, honey, fig jam and tea. It was a lovely morning. We went off on our 10k trek around the river and hills of the Berber village in the M‘Goun Valley. Along the way we saw many women tending small crops, children playing, very shy and waving to us. A lot of the villagers here seem to be camera shy, they cover their faces and you need to respect that. Unfortunately they are so photogenic! the women have tattooed faces, the children have great smiles. We trekked along the riverbed, not much water at the moment but in winter when the Atlas Mountains are covered in snow, it melts and the river rushes through the villages. That would be a sight to see. Stopping for lunch in a shady spot, we chopped up tomatoes, red onions, red capsicum, anchovies, cheese, cucumbers, carrots and avocado and ate it all with fresh flat bread bought from a nearby village. The temperature is very hot and we all caught the sun today. We are staying in a gite, a Berber family-run guesthouse. It is very rustic and quaint. They have only had electricity since 2006 here. Mum and I have put a couple of pairs of pants in to be washed, I hope we see them again.

Camels in the Sahara

Arriving at our small hotel in the Sahara after a long drive along corrugated roads (reminiscent of my time in The Kimberley, Western Australia), we organised our gear for our night in the Sahara. We had a relaxing drink and enjoyed the surroundings: a vast expanse of reddish sand dunes. Now, THAT’S a desert! We met our camels, who were tethered in two lines, and started to climb up. The camels have no names, but I named mine Mo-Mo (short for Mohammed). He was gorgeous with a scruffy patch of fur on his head. Off we went into the dunes, up the dunes, down the dunes. It took a while to get used to the lurching sway of the camels and I decided, I do not like the downhills much! We rode for about an hour to our desert camp, unloaded and took in the scenery, big dunes as far as the eye could see. Our original idea was to skip the tents, which were decked out with rugs on the walls and the floors, and sleep out under the stars……the weather had something to say about it. The wind sprung up and we were blasted with warm and very very sandy air. We moved inside the communal tent for a delicious dinner of chicken and vegetable couscous, warm flat bread, and fresh honeydew melon and oranges. After dinner the wind died down somewhat so we dragged our mattresses (yes! a luxury I had not expected!) onto the large central carpeted area. Listening to the camel guys and our guide sing and play instruments, and watching our one intrepid member of the group dancing, we lay under the sky, waiting for the cloud to disperse, and a few hours later were rewarded with the incredible starry night sky of the Sahara….priceless.

Beautiful Berbers in Sefrou

Sefrou is a gorgeous Berber village, home to one of Morocco’s largest Jewish communities. It is about 30k from Fes. I loved this village, it was not full of tourists, just the most lovely natured Berbers, a Moroccan people. They seem gentle and also friendly, I said ‘bonjour’ to heaps of people, and they smiled and said hello back. Some of the elder women have tattoos on their faces, a line on their chin and tip of nose, and between the eyebrows. The children are so giggly and friendly too, 3 small boys walked with me for a while and giggled a lot. While two of them were camera shy, the oldest boy was thrilled to pose for a picture and see himself on my camera. The Berbers eat a lot of soups made with lentils, beans, and…..hooves.