MOROCCO-APRIL
Country
Saha from Morocco, North Africa!! We are now back in our comfy hotel in Seville, Spain with Pedro around the corner itching to hear all our stories. Morocco, was amazing, such a country of contrasts in everyway and like no other with medieval cities, Roman ruins, Berber Kasbahs, Islamic monuments and massive palaces. Firstly, it was very cheap (very important to us as you all no doubt know!!). We stayed in 3 and 4 star kasbahs (amazing ancient castles) for average 40 (A$60), same price as a 1 star hotel in Spain, so why not!! The food, mama mia, harira (spicy lentil soup) tajines (meat and vegetable stews)and couscous, so tasty and so healthy; great homemade yoghurt and mint tea to die for. The roads were in fantastic condition, built by the French, amazing to cruise around the mountains, down the valleys and up the gorges on our magic carpet ride. The motorbike simply purred along and gave us not one moments problem- she loves travelling as much as we do!! The people, especially the Berbers in the Sahara Desert, showed us amazing genuine hospitality and it was very hard to leave. We played the drums with them and they sang ancient songs to us around the campfire and we went moon walking in the Sahara sandunes with them- an amazing feeling. Morocco has been discovered by the French and the Germans and there were hundreds of motorhomes and lots of German bikers on their big BMWs. Highlights were skiing in the highest ski mountain in Africa, in a town called Oukaimeden, for A$15 per day and hiring the skis outdoors on the snow at the base of the mountain with the ski hire guys fighting to get us to try their boots on in a uniquely Maroccan way!! Crossing the High Atlas Mountains and cruising the Draa Valley, Dades Gorge, Todra Gorge, Ziz Valley and of course, the magical Sahara Desert were fantastic. We also really enjoyed the ride to Tafraoute and Taroudant and the ride over the Tizi-n-Test to amazing Marrakech. Marrakech is our favourite Maroccan city with a huge central square which comes alive at sunset with snake charmers, jugglers, story tellers, musicians, great food and drink stalls and thousands of locals and tourists. We loved checking out the Kasbah Hotels and the ruined Kasbahsand riding a camel at sunset in the Sahara. We were even offered 100 camels for our motorbike. Camels are the main currency in the Sahara!! We met up with 3 trucks doing training in the Desert for the Paris- Dakar Rally and had a great chat to the mechanics- Pat was envious of their life, but they think he has the better life!! Now we are off to Barcelona to catch a ferry or cruise ship across the Mediterranean Sea over to Croatia and Greece. As usual we cant wait for the next leg of our journey and wouldnt want to be doing anything other than what we are doing. We will leave you with a great quote we read the other day; "The person who travels long knows more than the person that lives long".