leavign tinehir and stop at a world heriatage site. it is a kasbah and a site where the trading caravans were guraded from. Our driver is good and that makes me very happy as we go over a mountain highway thatis far and away the most impressive I have seen or travelled. Huge exposure on tight narrow winding road. then get to Marrakech and the traffic is beyond description. all kinds of vehicles with no apparent rules exhibit the bigger vehicle has right of way. It kind of flows with individual drivers weaving in and out. Got to our Riad and settled and I took Verne and Liz and Phil out to the restauarant I found earlier on the square for dinner and a brief tour of the souks and square and to bed.
Brekkie - walk with Robbin to Museum and then I find my way back and over to Artisans |ensemble for some painless shopping. fixed prices and noone husseling me. I've seen the souks and and wandered through them but find them overwhelming. Was going to mail some stuff home but can't do that (for reason I don't understand) until the day after I leave. OK. Went with Hamman with group and found it interesting and enjoyable. steam bath and then a woman attendant puts savon noir on me front and back and then after further steaming rubs me all over with a coarse mitt visibly taking off skin. then a shower and relaxing with some mint tea. One more sleep and then off to London.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
more morocco posts from london
tues sept 28 - long drive with a stop at a hotel for a moroccan pizza. meat & other stuff baked into a pizza shape. tasty. talking to young man there who said itgot to 45 - 50 degrees in summer. continued driving and entered beginning of Sahara desert. hard flat black gravelly area such as most of the Sahara is I understand. got to a hotel where we are to meet camels and were early and had time for a swim. wonderful and incredible. after swimming and lazing about got ready for the camels. camels came and we got on and rode them out on to the orange coloured dunes. camels on the flat and uphill aren't too bad to ride but going downhill is not so good. If I rode them much I would develop calluses in some new and interesting places. rode them out to a desert campsite about an 1 1/2 hour out. getting off was interesting. met an interesting couple from london who recommended a play in london called Warhorse. & 3 women from Australia. had a good dinner. after dark wandered away from the lights of the campsite for a piss. weird towander into the dark and see a group of camels resting there. defintely not what |I am used to. stars and milky way were incredable. lie outside watching the stars until i fell asleep. there was a young nomad girl from the nearby nomad camp selling some crafts. a hard bargainer. we ride back to the hotel and after breakfast take of. stop at a well exhibit where they try to sell us stuff we don't want for too much. stop at a fossil/mineral shop where they show us the process. lots of beuatiful stuff but we don't buy much. stop for lunch at the museum of the oases. good lunch and I enjoyed the museum. tried to buy the dvd of the exhibits but they are out. on to tinehir to stay at the Tomboktou hotel and access the internet next door. Manage to print off my Ryanair Boarding Pass which is good. can't access my email. oh well. On to Marrakech.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Further Morocco post
Sat Sept 25 - we hike over a mountain pass and down about 500 feet and up AND over another mtn pass. about 4,000 feet gained. we were to get up at 7 but i got up for a bathroom break at 6 and the light was so beautiful and the day so quiet I stayed up. took some pictures and enjoyed watching the camp and the village come to life. After we started to hike I went to take apicture and my camera informed me that my battery was dead. my spare battery was in myother pack. Oh well. As we were walking up the first pass we saw five camels coming up the way behind us. It was a Berber nomad with his camels. He walked with us for a while talking to Mo and then his way separated from ours. came down a long loose rocky slope from the second pass and on the way down I figured out a way to dry my clothes that would save energy and money. will start keeping an eye out for internet as I have to print off my Ryanair boarding pass. lots of time yet.
Sunday Sept. 26 packed up and started moving down the river valley. steady downhill & went through an amazing gorge and then thru a second amazing gorge. walked in the stream for 2-3 k ankle to knee deep. Much fun. Got separated before lunch and a few of us were going to wait for the others at an intersection at the beginning of a village.stopped at a store with a fridge and cold drinks for sale. Wonderful. |good day. tomorrow short day and the van and the gite.
Monday Sept 27 walked down rough road through Berber villages. as before women were beuatifully dressed to work in the fields. this morning we all contributed to a tip which will be divided among the guide, cook and muleteers. We stop at a 200 year old kasbah which is 4 stories high and houses a family of 20. we get a tour and have sweet mint tea in the courtyard. we buy water and it is cold. Yeah! the women who go back and forth wear beautiful dresses that all of the women in our group admire. we walk on skirting farmed fields and occasionally picking a ripe fig which taste amazingly better fresh than dried. we stop for lunch and our van comes and the trekking part of morocco is over. we pack the van and say goodbye to the guide, cook and muleteers. he van driver takes group pics of us all. they will take 3 days to walk back to their homes and we will take a couple of hours to drive to our hotel in the Dades gorge which is amazing and spectacular andlined with new hotels and restuarants. I shower and change my clothes for the first time since starting trekking. |Feels very good! Before goign down to dinner Brenda asks me whether we 'dress for dinner' I say no and start to figure out what she has in all her luggage. she is nice but without any background in backpacking or travel where she can't take her hairdryer. |Good dinner at beautiful hotel in wonderful location and soto bed.
Sunday Sept. 26 packed up and started moving down the river valley. steady downhill & went through an amazing gorge and then thru a second amazing gorge. walked in the stream for 2-3 k ankle to knee deep. Much fun. Got separated before lunch and a few of us were going to wait for the others at an intersection at the beginning of a village.stopped at a store with a fridge and cold drinks for sale. Wonderful. |good day. tomorrow short day and the van and the gite.
Monday Sept 27 walked down rough road through Berber villages. as before women were beuatifully dressed to work in the fields. this morning we all contributed to a tip which will be divided among the guide, cook and muleteers. We stop at a 200 year old kasbah which is 4 stories high and houses a family of 20. we get a tour and have sweet mint tea in the courtyard. we buy water and it is cold. Yeah! the women who go back and forth wear beautiful dresses that all of the women in our group admire. we walk on skirting farmed fields and occasionally picking a ripe fig which taste amazingly better fresh than dried. we stop for lunch and our van comes and the trekking part of morocco is over. we pack the van and say goodbye to the guide, cook and muleteers. he van driver takes group pics of us all. they will take 3 days to walk back to their homes and we will take a couple of hours to drive to our hotel in the Dades gorge which is amazing and spectacular andlined with new hotels and restuarants. I shower and change my clothes for the first time since starting trekking. |Feels very good! Before goign down to dinner Brenda asks me whether we 'dress for dinner' I say no and start to figure out what she has in all her luggage. she is nice but without any background in backpacking or travel where she can't take her hairdryer. |Good dinner at beautiful hotel in wonderful location and soto bed.
morocco update from London
wed 9-22 1,000 m elevation gain and 700 m elevation loss down to our camp on a broad plateau that we share with other trekking groups and noads and their herds of goats. Overcast but very picturesque. tomorrow we go to the peak of M'Goun which involves a hike with an elevation gain of about 5,000 ft (1,650 m?) and the same amount of descent on the othedr side. We are going up to an elevation of 4,070 m. It works fine and I am glad not to have the nausea or headache I know that some people get at such altitudes. Liz 73) is a bit slow and I hang back to encourage and distract her and it all works well. Long relatively level ridge is the final approach and quite nice. We share the ridge with other trekkers, mainly French, but they all return the way they came and we descent to the M'Goun river valley several thousand feet below where we find camp, the muleteers and the members of our group who chose not to go up to the peak. Descent included lots of scree and was much fun. my repaired ankle has given me no problem at all. In camp we are just hanging about and chatting about travel arrangements among many other topics when someone says to me 'you heard about the labour problems that Air Transit is having didn't you?' Actually I didn't but that is quite a ways away and I am sure will sort itself out even if it invovles me coming home a different way than planned.
MonfRIDAY sEPT 24 A short day of 6 hours on the trail that ended up being 8 hours walking. all tired and thirsty. stopped at a tiny store in a very small village. bought water, fanta, cookies and apples. |Terry asked the price of a fancy dress. ratherthan telling her the price the shopkeeper put the dress on her with a fancy head scarf and proceeded to do her make up in a traditional Berber pattern and |Terry ended up buying the dress and head scarf (200 dirham about $25 canadian)she looked amazing and very different. she took the dress off as we walked through the village but still had the makeup on to the amusement and amazement of the women and children in the village. Women were working in the fields in fancy dresses and makeup? We got to camp and discussed alternative routes for the remainder of the trek. Original route had lots of walking in the river which people were looking forward to but Mo was concerned with rising water levels. We decided to take alternative route thatinvovled crossing two mountain passes and some walking in the river. Good decision I think.
MonfRIDAY sEPT 24 A short day of 6 hours on the trail that ended up being 8 hours walking. all tired and thirsty. stopped at a tiny store in a very small village. bought water, fanta, cookies and apples. |Terry asked the price of a fancy dress. ratherthan telling her the price the shopkeeper put the dress on her with a fancy head scarf and proceeded to do her make up in a traditional Berber pattern and |Terry ended up buying the dress and head scarf (200 dirham about $25 canadian)she looked amazing and very different. she took the dress off as we walked through the village but still had the makeup on to the amusement and amazement of the women and children in the village. Women were working in the fields in fancy dresses and makeup? We got to camp and discussed alternative routes for the remainder of the trek. Original route had lots of walking in the river which people were looking forward to but Mo was concerned with rising water levels. We decided to take alternative route thatinvovled crossing two mountain passes and some walking in the river. Good decision I think.
London
out lining up plays to attend and wandering around. it is relaxing to spend time in a city where people speak the same language, have no interest in you and you don't have to fund off hustlers. going for lunch and then will complete the Morocco entries. Beautiful stuff in Morocco for relatively little but I am proud of myself in that I bought little. There were these beuatiful leather bags in 'carry on' size which I looked at. they cost 550 dirham which is about $65 and would have cost several times that in Canada and were beautiful but of course I have absolutley no need of one and walked away. suppressed my urge to acquire. off for some cheap pasta.
london briefly
booked a ticket in the globe last night and off shortly to the 1/2 price ticket booth to see what I am gonig to tonight. London for all its traffic and hustle bustle seems so much quieter and more orderly than Marrakech. cooler as well of course. Morocco update will resume later this afternoon. Hope all are well in Canada and I will likely be back in a few days (likely as I hear my carrier Air transat has some labour issues)
Sunday, October 3, 2010
minor catch up from London
Hello
a minor catch up today as I am tired from travelling from Marrakech and need some food and a shower and ... It is so different here from Marrakech - the people, the heat, the noise, the traffic etc. I took the bus in from Luton airport to Baker street underground station and was trying to figure out the tube conection to St Pancras where I was going and realized I was just outside of Madame Tussaud's and only about a mile from my hostel so I just walked. This keyboard is so easy compared to the keyboard in Marrakech. that one was based on a french keyboard with letters in different places and had arabic characters as well so that some of the 'letter' keys had 4 possible functions! Going to get myself sorted out a bit tonight and start thinking of what I want to do here. When I was walking over from Baker Street station/Madam |Tussaud's I walked by the Royal Acadamy of Music. There was a young chines woman unlocking her bike who I passed and who catching up to me at a crosswalk asked where I was from. She saw the maple leaf on my pack and was herself from Burnaby and studying piano and performance at the Royal Academy.
Anyway now I go back to Morocco to catch up with where I left off. the fi9rst time I went to the Medina (old city - world heritage site) I was at the internet cafe and met Carla and Mohammed both from england and ended up going with them for coffee on the edge of the square for a oouple of hours of conversation and the best people watching I have ever experienced! Mohammed a moderate and thoughtful muslim originally from Sierra Leone. went down a long narrow alley with shops on both sides and scooters going thru and found laundry. haven't taken any pictures of the square or the soukks as they are too long, caried, colourful, rich etc to be captured with pictures.|Got hassled/hussled by a guy who was going to show me an auction. I reacted slowly and got pulled through many shops before getting back to square. I gave him change from pocket. He wanted more which I didn't give. Lesson -- DON'T GO WITH HIM IN THE FIRST PLACE! Unpleasant experience.
Next Day - met group. seem nice. Packed stuff that I am not taking in my pack each day trekking in a small sports bag that willl be given to the muleteers to take to our camp each day. drove over a mountainour terrain in a small van until reaching our accommodations for the night in Happy Valley. Our guide 'Mo' for Mohammed is from here. he took us for a small walk around the village so we meet him and him us. Bought a scarf which I understand may be very useful. I was concerned about the froup and me but this seems like it should be a good group with a good guide.
Next Day - leave the next day at first light after a light but good breakfast for a s short day walk to a high camp defintely in the mountains. Mules arrive a bit after us with considerable supplies. We don't travel light. - Yesterday Mo explained to Liz that in Morocco he could have 4 wives, one chines, one canadian etc. It dawned on her that he was kidding her and she exclaimed 'bullshit! He was dumbstruck in surprise but got her back when he let her explain to him what cookies were. more to come but shower and food needed now!
a minor catch up today as I am tired from travelling from Marrakech and need some food and a shower and ... It is so different here from Marrakech - the people, the heat, the noise, the traffic etc. I took the bus in from Luton airport to Baker street underground station and was trying to figure out the tube conection to St Pancras where I was going and realized I was just outside of Madame Tussaud's and only about a mile from my hostel so I just walked. This keyboard is so easy compared to the keyboard in Marrakech. that one was based on a french keyboard with letters in different places and had arabic characters as well so that some of the 'letter' keys had 4 possible functions! Going to get myself sorted out a bit tonight and start thinking of what I want to do here. When I was walking over from Baker Street station/Madam |Tussaud's I walked by the Royal Acadamy of Music. There was a young chines woman unlocking her bike who I passed and who catching up to me at a crosswalk asked where I was from. She saw the maple leaf on my pack and was herself from Burnaby and studying piano and performance at the Royal Academy.
Anyway now I go back to Morocco to catch up with where I left off. the fi9rst time I went to the Medina (old city - world heritage site) I was at the internet cafe and met Carla and Mohammed both from england and ended up going with them for coffee on the edge of the square for a oouple of hours of conversation and the best people watching I have ever experienced! Mohammed a moderate and thoughtful muslim originally from Sierra Leone. went down a long narrow alley with shops on both sides and scooters going thru and found laundry. haven't taken any pictures of the square or the soukks as they are too long, caried, colourful, rich etc to be captured with pictures.|Got hassled/hussled by a guy who was going to show me an auction. I reacted slowly and got pulled through many shops before getting back to square. I gave him change from pocket. He wanted more which I didn't give. Lesson -- DON'T GO WITH HIM IN THE FIRST PLACE! Unpleasant experience.
Next Day - met group. seem nice. Packed stuff that I am not taking in my pack each day trekking in a small sports bag that willl be given to the muleteers to take to our camp each day. drove over a mountainour terrain in a small van until reaching our accommodations for the night in Happy Valley. Our guide 'Mo' for Mohammed is from here. he took us for a small walk around the village so we meet him and him us. Bought a scarf which I understand may be very useful. I was concerned about the froup and me but this seems like it should be a good group with a good guide.
Next Day - leave the next day at first light after a light but good breakfast for a s short day walk to a high camp defintely in the mountains. Mules arrive a bit after us with considerable supplies. We don't travel light. - Yesterday Mo explained to Liz that in Morocco he could have 4 wives, one chines, one canadian etc. It dawned on her that he was kidding her and she exclaimed 'bullshit! He was dumbstruck in surprise but got her back when he let her explain to him what cookies were. more to come but shower and food needed now!
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