6th of October - Morocco - road trip, red soil and friendliness

My final Saturday in Morocco began kind of half spontaneously. The night before I had a bit of inactivity-anxiety. I had though about what one of the guys had talked about the day before. He told me about places worth seeing in relatively close vicinity to Marrakesh and I figured, what the smeck, why not. When will I be back in Africa again? No idea. So I googled it a bit and booked a day trip starting the next morning. I booked it so late, close to midnight, that I wasn't sure it would go through as pickup time was 7:30.
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The whole thing ended up in a waay too short night. All my clothing was used up so I did some old fashioned backpacker's laundry (hand soap and lather in the sink). I decided to try sleep as long as possible and got up at a bit before 7 AM to give myself just enough of time to get my stuff packed for the day. Breakfast time at the riad hadn't started yet, but I thought I'd just figure something out later. Lucky me getting up early enough, because as it turned out my pickup was early too, 7:15. So I skittered around in my room to find all that I needed to bring with me. Contact lenses into backpack, water bottle, sunglasses and a sweater.
The pickup guy drove me to a spot near the main plaza where the rest of the day trippers would show up. I didn't have enough cash to pay for the trip and had to look for a working ATM. The fourth (4!) one I tried actually functioned normally.
When the minibus finally arrived it was quickly filled with screaming Chilean women... well, actually three (but it felt like a buss load) and a young Italian couple.

We were swiftly outside of the city and I soon fell into an observer mode and completely drank in the fantastic, red scenery. At one point I was very surprised to see something that seemed to be a female lion, lounging in a dry river bed with its back to the road, somewhere in between Marrakesh and the mountains. I was so stunned that I didn't get a pic of it. A lion? So far from the mountains? Maybe I was imagining it.... A huge dog maybe? But it looked just right for a lion. I don't know.

Our first stop was in the mountains on a col of a sort and offered the chance for me to grab my first coffee of the day. Really good coffee at that. Two espressos, yummie.
At another scenic spot I took a pic of the Italian couple, so that they got something with both of them, together. The girl then took a pic of me and kept laughing since the wind held my hair in every other direction than with gravity.

The next stop was at an argon oil shop, where grabbed the chance to look at some products and actually bought a little. I received a quick history of the production of handmade oil. I highly doubt that that is the way the oil is made these days, though. The women showing off the process were veeery bored too ;)

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A bit poorer, but all the happier our trip continued toward Aït Benhaddou, through the red landscape mottled with desert bushes and palm trees.

I started noticing my skipped breakfast at midday. Luckily I had a single slice of bread (totally crumbled by now) left in my pack. That became the energy source of the first half of the day.

We arrived in Aït Benhaddou at 13-ish. Our guide didn't really know anything about the place so I had to google it later. The area is nowadays a UNESCO world heritage site and the old buildings are quite interesting. They are made of adobe and I find they look like big sand castles, some having four towers, one at each corner. Some famous movies have sections filmed there, Gladiator for one...

There was a fantastic view from the top of the hill. Aït Benhaddou used to be an important stop in the trade route between Sahara and Marrakesh.

I was very fascinated by this place and was so immersed in looking at everything that I was totally taken aback when Chris and his sister suddenly stepped out of a little house in front of me. Such coincidence.They were wearing backpacks and day-packs, sunburns and smiles. How fun and funny. I would've thought they'd be only halfway on the 1000 Kasbah road by that time.
They seemed to be having a great time. Wow, would've loved to join them yesterday, but, as previously said, wouldn't have wanted to crash a sibling-party, although some people just spontaneously seem like easy ones to travel with. Very sweet people.
After a little chit-chat and a couple of hugs and farewells we went our separate ways and I kept smiling the rest of the day.











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My day trip group had lunch there in Aït Benhaddou before heading to Ouarzazate. That town was really not very interesting. It has a film museum, which I have little interest in. I don't think that anyone from the group went into the museum. Instead some of us headed to the nearby souk. I bought a couple of tiny tajines, took pictures and was happy.

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The trip back went the same route again and I got even more lovely pictures of the red soil, red buildings, people and mountains. The feeling of wanting to just grab my backpack and go walking in that nature was palpable... but not now... someday maybe...

I got back to Marrakesh, feeling completely at ease. I spent my evening at the riad and began preparing for my journey back home.

Home... so strange, feels like I've been away for months...
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This trip has really given me a feeling of needing more travel and to focus on what is important. I suspect, however, that the feeling is based on the people I've met and spoken to during this week. Some I'd really love to meet again. I also want to meet more people, new ones, as well as these ones in their own habitat. I mean, we know that we have some interests in common, that is why we've met in the first place, but how different are we in our everyday lives? How alike or unlike each other are we really? During this week some have been peppery and quick, others silent and unobtrusive, some functioned as older siblings, hearing and taking care that no one was left outside, and some took the lead and set the pace and made sure that everyone kept hydrated and fed. All in all I guess the people in the groups completed each other.

So... what now? Tomorrow I'll head home. It's going to be a long and boring trip. 
I have no more travels planned for this year, so no blogging for a while, at least not travel blogging. I will add some fixed posts regarding different outdoors topics when I have the time. Stay tuned for those...
Also, I need to work on my French. I suspect I will be needing more of it in the future :-)
Well then, Lis over and out!

29th of September - Morocco - Getting to the venue

Wont be posting so many pictures these next days. Internet is too slow. Will be adding more as soon as I can.

The day started off super chill. I had set the clock for 07:15 (8:15 back home) and got up at 8. Super rested, as in no traces of tiredness anywhere in my system. Wow... been a while.

Breakfast was French style, jam, juice and coffee, bread and pancakes. Being gluten allergic I have my own bread with me. The coffee at Riad Diana is known to be very good and actually it was. VERY good. No fuss, no explanations to get enough of it for a big cup and not too strong so as not to resemble espresso. Ben if you're reading this, Morocco is where we need to go to get real coffee! And a whole can of it for breakfast.

Last year in the mountains of Italy it took us days to get it right at one of the hotels where we were staying, but to their credit, they listened and adjusted into the biggest cafe lungo ever. It was fun actually.
In the French mountains this summer we went with our lessons from Italy and got double allongé, sometimes three.

Ok, enough of breakfast.
The meetup with the group was at 16:00 at the airport.
I spent a few hours at the Riad reading and working (instead of hiking and sweating in town - will have time for that next week) before heading back to the airport.

There I met up with half of the group. Most of the attendees are from the UK, and a couple from Ireland and the Netherlands. Most are medical doctors, but there's one med. student and one lay person. The other half of the group came later in the evening. I haven't met them yet.

The distance to Kasbah du Toubkal was about 70 km, but took about 1,5 h to drive. The roads were quite rough. It seemed like it had been raining not too long before we passed. There was a river on the side of the road and it was red with sediment. Red like the ground and the mountains around. Fascinating.

Arriving in Imlil the air was a tad chillier than in the lowlands. Wearing a fleece sweater was actually comfortable. Until we started walking that is. There was a short, but steep ascent up to the venue. Luckily there were porters awaiting us with donkeys to carry our backpacks to the Kasbah. It was getting dark and we could hear the local mosque in evening prayer. The air was very humid so the short walk quickly turned sweaty. The short ascent had me totally out of breath and I couldn't help wondering how on earth I would survive the actual ascent to Jebel Toubkal.

Arriving at the Kasbah we were offered water perfumed with rose to wash our hands and a date to replenish the energy we had used on the walk - A Moroccan tradition, of which the rose water was repeated before each meal. And more sweet mint tea of course.
The Kasbah is a very comfortable space hosted by local berber people. They do not want to be seen as a hotel, more like a hospitality center. Local tradition is important and the food served is local.

https://www.kasbahdutoubkal.com/home.html

We spent our nights in dormitories. There were 9 girls in my room. I had one corner of the lower room with Carleen. Dani, Miranda and Hillary had the other side. 5 girls stayed on the upper level. I had an empty bed beside mine where I could store all my stuff. It's funny how quickly things turn into a mess as soon as a backpack is opened.

Dinner was traditional Moroccan style, soup for the pre-course, lamb and vegetables for the main course and something that resembled an apple pie for dessert, topped with ... suspense... sweet mint tea....

Tomorrow the actual course will being. I'm looking forward to it :-)

Pre-Morocco 4 - Just about done

So, my old backpack is packed and quite tightly stuffed. I'm bringing my retro Haglöfs 45 L backpack. Some (and sometimes I too) would argue that it's waay too small for any kind of traveling, but it has served me so well for many a year. I bought it when I was 19 and thought that I would go inter-railing with a friend. We ended up being more dreamers than not, though, and the backpack stayed in my closet for a while until I really realized how great it was and now it has been with me on the other side of the Atlantic ocean and most every country I've visited... and it has traveled without me too. A friend borrowed it to Ghana for 6 months once, so it has been to Africa before I ever thought of going there.

It's a really old backpack now, but I'm so attached to some of it's features that I haven't been able to find anything worth the expense of replacing it. It's still water repellant to some degree and ridiculously durable. It has a rain cover attached to a top compartment, has broad, comfortable straps, zippered front opening, opening in the bottom to the main compartment, possibility to separate the lower portion of the main compartment and it's easy to attach stuff to the outside and those things will fit inside the rain cover. It does have those silly pockets on the sides however, but that is not enough of a reason for getting a new bag.


I complained in the last post that I couldn't find any smart coffee for traveling, but then I stumbled upon a "coffee bag" as in "tea bag" kind of coffee in the store. I'm pretty excited to find out what kind of coffee these will bring. This coffee brand is quite good, so I have high expectations. On the other hand, I don't know about the water I'll be using. The coffee might taste quite different every day depending on if I'm scooping something up from a pond and through the mini Sawyer or if it's tap water. Actually I'm pretty much unsure of the conditions at the refuge, or Kasbah, I'll be staying at. Hoping for the best, preparing for the worst. ;)

Ok so, I'll write the next post when I'm in Marrakesh the day after tomorrow.

Cya :-)