Ayoub Marrakech

Situé en plein coeur de la médina, à quelques pas du port et de la plage, le Riad Chakir Mogador est le lieu privilégié de votre escale à Essaouira.


Cette maison d'hôtes, entièrement restaurée dans le pur respect des traditions et de l'architecture ...

... through it to a large mosque but saw some homeless people
who were on their way to us so came back via a park with lots of horse drawn
carriages and then back home to pick dad up.

We had breakfast
at the riad and then dad and I had a very productive few hours of our ‘only one
day to visit Marrakech’, seeing as much as possible. Big sights to see were
fortunately located within walking distance of each other so it was good. We
first went out ...

From the fun flats of Marrakech...we made our way to the High Atlas mountains for well...mountains of magnificent hiking and views.

Jebel Toubkal stands at 4200m above sea level and at that is the highest most point in northern Africa and also a bit of a mission! We made it up the mighty mountain in a few days and did some sleeping, sun burning and Scrabble in there as well. An absolutely incredible adventure!

Back down and all set to embark on a road trip to Fez!

XXX

... reminds me of India and all the experiences i had there that live on in my mind but it is an odd amalgamation of the western and traditional. The main square is a magical place where all is alive by night and oh so chilled and interesting in the day.

We did a couple of days exploration of all it had to offer and then onwards AND upwards...

XXX

... carrying everything from bags to gutted goats. Our driver liked to drive with the hood ornament right over the middle of the road which, although a 2-lane road each way was, in fact, as many vehicles as could fit across all lanes and ½ way into the on-coming lanes at any given time. Clearly, bribes not withstanding, it was easy to get a driver’s license in Marrakesh. We park just out of the flow and follow our driver ...

... with
it a slight breeze, blowing away the kaleidoscopic spectacles of the
night before. We seized it with both hands and immersed ourselves in
the Majorelle Gardens. The impact of this place is immediate: the reds
and oranges of the medina become lost under the towering palm trees,
fruit trees and eccentric collection of cacti. Two ponds create an
oasis-like environment, which is heightened by the famous blue house
that remains ...

Marrakech is an incredible city. It has a huge walled city centre, the walls are 16 km long and still intact, and if you enter through one of the gates, the world is not like it used to be. People come dressed like in those movies about when Jesus was born, so I think it is a very adequate place to spend the week before Christmas. I wonder anyway how snow and Santa on a sledge came into the picture when the whole story ...

... br>Jantamos dentro da haima, um Tagine maravilhoso de frango,
arroz branco para limpar e muitas, muitas bananas, cola sem gás e pão,
o pão é divinal.
A noite, o silencio não consigo descrever, não tenho palavras, é é não sei...adorei.
As estrelas parecem que estão a meio metro dos nossos olhos.
Dia seguinte decidimos regressar a nossa vida de "Lords" pois não é facil a vida de nomada.
Meu Deus mais horas de dromedário.....AIIIIIII o meu rabo ...

... up to see the sunrise, then saddled up for the hour long camel ride back to base camp, where they served us breakfast. The rest of the day was all business as we drove 10 hours back to Marrakech. The trip into the Sahara was absolutely phenomenal, and exceeded our expectations many times over (Matt and Carolyn - bloody good suggestion!) It was definitely the highlight of our trip so far. Next stop for us, along with Jacqui and Patrick, is the port town of Essaouira (Ess-O-Where-A). Stay tuned...

... place. In fact, we're hoping for a chance to hijack one of the old wooden carts to re-enact the plague scene from the Holy Grail. We haven't decided yet who will yell "Bring out your dead!" and who gets to say "I'm not quite dead yet. In fact, I'm feeling much better." Anyway, time to go. We plan to putz around here for a couple days, letting our bodies recuperate, and then finish off back in Marrakesh before starting our marathon return flight late Saturday night. Talk to you later.