Hotel Amazir Tinerhir

... they use. She washed each of us in turn then gave us a rinse by pouring a bucketful of water over us. She gave us more soap and gestured for us to wash ourselves with this. When we rinsed and had been in there for what seemed like hours, she gestured for us to follow her into the next room (thankfully a little cooler). She gave me a scrub with a loofah and made horrified clucking noises at the dead skin that was coming off. In spite of lying on the hard tile floor ...

... half of the group got ready for an optional evening out at a traditional restaurant where we stuffed ourselves with 5 courses, while being entertained by musicians, magicians, belly dancers, drama performers and drummers. The room where we dined was absolutely beautiful, the roof was very high and decorated in crazy moorish tiles, and huge pillars stretched around the outer rim. Lush curtains hung from the walls, and there were rooms with huge couches and stunning wall decorations ...

... the ropes to catch you as you come down. And as much as you know that all the equipment is tested and it's all perfectly safe, you still know every inch of the rocky surface that you'd fall down if something were to break. You reach the bottom and your legs are jelly, and then you realize that it's over, you've just climbed a wall of sheer rock, and you're bruised and sweaty and exhilerated and completely on top of the world.

... the lush palmeries just below the hotel, before dinner. Olives, pomegranates, almonds and fruit grow in abundance in the oasis. The centre of Tinehir was fairly modern but the outskirts were traditional old Moroccan houses, made mainly of mud and often by the owner himself. We ate in the hotel, it was a set menu but I was still recovering and just nibbled at an omelette. Annika was complaining about having to eat with so many people ...

... speak;). It's already 2 pm and we really need to get back. The last train, which leaves from Marrakech for Fes at 7 pm, is impossible to catch, so we hope to succeed in getting on the last 9 pm train for Rabat [at least]. Because of this reason I dedide to test my limits and have a 6 hour long race to Marrakech [since you're reading these lines by now, we've survived, Allah akbar]. There are some events that try to spoil it, such as police roadblocks ...

... Remnants of this past are something you still see today in Morocco in the form of numerous well-equipped campgrounds and some of the characters who visit. One such personality I encountered at the Eggplant House was a very stereotypical middle-aged American hippie from Lake Tahoe named Barry. With thinning but out-of-control hair, horn-rimmed glasses, stubbly beard, soul patch, and a vocabulary that consisted largely of the words cool, rad, awesome, and dude ...

... just amazing!!! Taking the camels over the dunes was a fun experience, but the sight of what lay out beneath us, in front, to each side and behind us was just incredible. We Laid the camels down, hiked up the hill to watch the sunset, which unfortunately on this evening was a non-event due to the level of cloud cover, but it was still an amazing sight non-the-less. Just to add to the whole experience ...

... of a foot or more. It is seldom the pourer misses the glass! We were told that, in the Berber culture, when a man is interested in a woman he has her make tea for him. If the tea is very sweet she wants to pursue a relationship, but, if she does not care for him the tea will contain salt rather than sugar. While in Tinerhir we visited another carpet shop. This one was much was much less hard sell than the one we went to in Fez! (Martin barely got out of ...

... there are channels of blood on the sides of the road dripping from the butchers stalls, fish heads on the floor, peoples buying dates, figs and sweetmeats covered in flies and wasps (again, Claire, stop being so squeamish...), donkeys and horses loaded down walking through and pushing you into the walls (I got my arm head butted by a passing donkey and someone swung 2 live turkeys bound by their feet into me). But NO Bou Inania or clock was to be found and it's now 4.50. Decide ...

Au réveil, c'est le top... le silence... et puis, à l'ouverture de la tente, la magie du lac et de la montagne. Tout est immobile, je m'assois 5 minutes, cachée derrière pour ne pas avoir à parler, en regardant ce spectacle fantastique avant d'affronter les autres, et surtout, avant de parler. On déjeune et on a des spectateurs ! Un groupe de 5 gamins nous regardent. D'abord de loin, puis ils se rapprochent. Quand on finit de déjeuner, Tata ...