L'Arganeraie Essaouira

... then sat and Mohammad cooked for us a tradition Morrocan feast, we had soup again for starters with lentals and chick peas in it then he brought out some salad of tomatoes and peppers covered in olive oil and lemon, some bread and a big tagine of beef with olives and peas and green beans it was an amazing meal and both Ian and I stuffed our faces full. We are off tomorrow to fez on the train and it takes 7 hours so we need to get some rest.

... us on. Eventually dismounting at Ground Zero (a decidedly g-forsaken tumble of thorny scrub that no Lonely Planet guidebook would dare to include among the "Gottasees in Morocco") Mohammad gallantly (albeit still dubiously) helped hunt amid the parched thicket til... we finally found the geoprize (an overturned rusty can concealing a trinket-filled tub of Tupperware) - yippeee!<br><br>Other Essaouria highlights:<br><br ...

... 8211; Sahara &#8211; was a bit temperamental and in truth he actually frightened me a bit by shaking his head around and flicking his tail about &#8211; he seemed agitated and I think he sensed that I was a bit nervous of him, so he took full advantage of that &#8211; which meant that I ended up being led round, which wasn&#8217;t quite the same. <br><br>Johnboy on the other hand was a complete natural &#8211; he looked decidedly unsure when &#8211; after two minutes of ...

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.<br><br>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 ...

... need assistance planning your day (perhaps a hike to explore the lovely<br><br><br>Atlas Mountains?) or a babysitter for the kids so you can have a night out alone on the town.<br><br><br>The list of entertainment possibilities is endless.<br>Both within and outside the hotel's walls. Pace through the courtyard of Heure Bleue Palais<br>and let the gorgeous palm trees and breath taking fountain put you ...

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 ...

... a horse and carriage to drive us back into town. As there was 5 of us the cost turned out to be only a couple of euros, but we still haggled until we got a fair price. It was a weird feeling being on the road with cars zooming past while we just clip clopped along. We walked through the main square and to one of the main avenues to get some lunch, I had some icecream but some of the girls had kebabs from one of the street vendors, and another had some ...

... we just wanted money from him and ate all his food and he would no longer allow Americans to stay there (although Claire is not an American and I was not the one complaining). What had been a pretty nice stay ended on a bad note unfortunately and we could not get out of town quick enough!! movies filmed here: Kingdom of Heaven (2005), Alexander (2004), Othello (1952)

... the perfect antidote to bustling Marrakech. This is a beach town; it's more laid back, in some ways more tourist friendly and yet lovely and less crowded. Maybe this is Morocco-lite, but it's still very nice. You could honeymoon here. We went to the guidebook recommended restaurant el Bab Lachour for dinner, where a stray cat was very interested in Andrew's sardines-- it practically climbed into his lap, before settling on using him as a scratching post ...

... be Mirhleft, about 4.5 hours south of h**e.  It is a v**y small place recommended to us by Colin, the ex-pat in Marrakech.  He spent a lot of time th**e in the '70's doing the Moroccan hippy trail-thing, and from his descriptions it sounds like wh**e we should have gone to laze and read, aft** MarraK. But it hasn't all been doom and gloom whilst we've been h**e.  Moroccan postal s**vices have been providing us with some ent**tainment.   A parcel to send back to ...