Al Jasira Essaouira

O.k. perhaps I best explain...

Coming up for air here after many adventures all across Morocco. Am presently in Essaouira - a most lovely seaside town along the Atlantic coast, about 3 hrs. southwest of Marrakech.

The techno explaination:

I arrived yesterday (well actually "today" as it's now Oct. 4, but I shall leave the date above as that's when I first arrived) and whilst ...

I’d always had this romantic notion of riding a horse along a deserted beach with the wind blowing through my hair – well it sure was windy, but it wasn’t quite as romantic in reality due to having an extremely sore bum!! I won’t sit down for a week I reckon!! Yep, another dream was realised today.

At breakfast we mentioned to the owner of the riad we are staying in that we wanted to go horse riding – he says that he has a friend who could ...

... conversation and answer questions about England. Yassir invites us to join him at the restaurant he works at this evening and we agree and say we’ll see him later. We wander off to visit another of Alex’s friends who is also extremely welcoming and hospitable – more mint tea flowing – I really am getting addicted to this stuff. Again we chat about life and Alex recounts various funny tales about previous visits and incidents with ...

At 7 A.M. we already left the hotel to move north to the ancient port town Essaouira. It was a Pirate port and has a lot of history to tell and to show us.

The trip was much more dangerously now. The Serpentine is so scary, and the driver of the bus drives like a mad man, but of course, he's just very experienced, but sitting near the window made some people almost sick. The road took ...

... of the natives as well as the tourists, the gnaoua music whispering in the
background. The hotel is located in the heart of all that is happening in Morocco.



If you aren't sure how to start your day, a friendly hotel concierge would be more than happy to


be of help to you. The staff, though discreet, is always at your call to meet your individual


needs. Whether ...

... the sea air. Despite the fact it took about 4 hours to get here, by actually driving remotely fast, Abdul managed to get us back to Marrakech in 3 hours (why he couldn't have driven like that on the way there is still a mystery!). The sunset over the countryside was beautiful aswell. For dinner we repeated the excursion of the last two ...

Breakfast was surprisingly wonderful in my little hotel along the road, I got a very nice French Crepe, a thin crispy pancake, and a fruit salad. The bus to my next destination Essaouira left at 8 am but I didn't want to spoil the day with the sound of an alarm clock. I was sure there would be some other possibility to get there, and I was right. It was the time of some mutton-eating festival in ...

... awful. The two women were still without their luggage and their wet weather gear would have come in handy. Liz was starting to get panicky now as she would be joining her next group soon for the Antarctic trek and all she had were the clothes she stood up in! That evening we all went to a restaurant that The Aussie Cliff Richard recommended, which had good food and even heating! I warned Mohammed if I didn't get a warm, decent room when we arrived at Marrakech, he ...

... in. But the views from the top of the dune 1 hour later are just reward... the view across the sand is like looking down on a rippling golden ocean. And like the rocking of the ocean, you can feel the relentless push of the Sahara in the wind, as it continues its march northwards to engulf once fertile lands. As it stands, Algeria and Morocco aren't exactly the best of mates. In a mutual get stuffed match, borders between the two countries have been closed for the last 15 years ...

... pictures of the port area and stroll along the lovely beach. That evening we found some sort of community building where an awesome band was playing! Foreigners, locals, and even little kids were crowded in the room dancing and enjoying the lively Moroccon music. The next day we had to leave because we had both purchased flights on the 20th of June leaving from Spain and we wanted to spend a little time there too. However, we had a few hours in the morning before ...