Moroccan Beaches

This beach just below the cliffs of our hotel was at least 1 mile long with only 2/3 people on it. Big waves, no seaweed and loads and loads of pure white sand. What more could you wish for. Check out the hotel at one off places a website we use for all our holidays. If you don't want to stay in the usual hotel or villa try this for something a little "one off".

Video of the shops on the Trek to Toubkal

Shopping on Mt Toubkal, I thought I would share this with you all. There are a few little shops along the trek up towards the refuge. If you are short on liquids then have no fear they have the coolest sprinkler system to keep the bottles cold. Food is in short supply however there are endless packs of Pringles if thats your bag.

Shopping in Marrakech

Slippers everywhere, the colours are amazing and if you have small children (especially girls) you could loose yourself forever.

Beautiful materials abound in the backstreets and bazaars. Layer upon layer of different colour, clothing and especially the odd pouff.

Enough to make any wife happy, scarves by the bucket load.

One of the busiest squares in the world let alone Africa. The Djemaa el Fna is in central Marakech and spreads quite far. It is surrounded by 3 storey building each of which have   restaurants  and bars on top from where you can survey the ogranised chaos below. In the distance on the left you can see the towering mosque Koutoubia one of the largest in the world. In the foreground are the orange sellers and beyond the alleyways that lead into the Medina.

Always carry a map or take a guide when you enter the labyrinth that is the Medina. Its quite simple to find your way as long as you keep an eye on the dierection you are going and just retrace your steps once you've seen enough. We took http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shopping-Marrakech-Susan-Simon/dp/1892145782 this amazing book has a series of walks in that will guide you to the best of the best as far as handbags and slippers goes. The maps are simple and very accurate although some of the shops have since disappeared.

Day 3 Marrakech - Imlil - Refuge Toubkal

After another cracking breakfast at Ksar Anika we boarded a rather spacious wagon for the 1.5 hour drive to Imlil . Imlil is the starting village for any treks into the Toubkal region and is perched on the edge of the hills at 1700 metres. Bizarely i recognised the second village where our guide lived. Making me feel old i realised i had been here 18 years before on my gap year. There are lots of hostels to stay at but the one that really screams magnificence is the kasbah Toubkhal. A Scholes like Berber hotel  standing out about 200ft above the rest of Imlil on its own precipice. This would be the ideal place to spend the night prior to climbing to adjust to the 1200 metre altitude difference between Imlil and Marrakech. 

We were greeted by our guide Abdullah and porter/chef/donkey driver who made us feel very welcome and answered all our queries. Being the organised people we are we hadn't packed any crampons so had to hire some from the village shop, according to Abdullah "not the wisest move, in Africa we don't make good crampons."

Perot the donkey porter

The Temperature was around 20 degrees in the sun and having packed several layers we ended up walking the whole day in just thermal top and bottoms with a t shirt on top. The route is blessed with sunshine for almost all of its 16kms. The first 2 hours are fairly basic footpaths climbing steadily towards sidi Charmouch a shrine to the mountain. This is where we stopped for the first of husseins fantastic fodder with mackerel, salad and bread. Along the way there are several little shops offering the last chance to buy and scarves or even jewellery. Just in case you hadn't had the chance in Marrakech. These all offer assorted soft drinks and of course endless bottled water. The refuge was another 3 hours up the mountain following a well beaten path with occasional snowy patches. The proper snow came at about 2900 metres but was not difficult to walk on without crampons and you can actually see the refuge for some time so have a good target to end the day on. Including stops it took us 6 hours to get to the refuge but then i walk very slowly. Abdullahs record is 2 hours and there are several annoying people who a Actualy run past you and back during your struggle. 

Finally someone tells Fran where to go

The refuge appears looking like a lift stop in the alps without any lift and sans frites and vino. It does however cater for lots of groups and we thinks there must have been 40/50 people in there that night. There is wood burner in the main room and several dining areas all clean cosy. There are 4 dormitories each with giant bunked layouts so you plonk your bag down and grab a thick blanket from The chef de refuge and bobs your uncle your home. It's pretty chilly outside once the sun has gone in at 5 ish so the door is kept shut. Once again hussein produced the goods, I foolishly had five bowls of soup only to discover the second course was a full blown lamb tagine and a bonus plate of spag Bol. I was in heaven! 

The refuge from below, you then head up the sharp face on the left of photo.

The bedroom was another thing altogether though with torches constantly shining this was and that and the archetypal Frenchman who opened the door and then walked off for half an hour. Needless to say the temperature was below freezing but bearable thanks to the bodyheat of others and the overpowering smell of the unwashed. Some of these guys were staying for four nights and I can tell you the showers were not well used.

The lovers embrace.
www.rjseven.com is the company we used to climb Toubkal.

Day 1 Morocco, Mararakech, Ksar Anika

Flight EA1411 was remarkable in many ways and everything you might expect from the worlds cheapest airline and more. The plane couldn't take off for half an hour because the staff had done a miscount and had to ask passengers to announce the missing names in Arabic (lutons finest aren't exactly linguists. We took off half an hour LATE but arrived half an hour EARLY, nuts i know!
Marrakech airport looked stunning and we prepared for the usual international hub queue's in immigration. The gods were smiling on us and after a brief wait at the back of the longest queue a plain clothes magician/official pointed us to the diplomatic passport queue with a grunt EMPTY!
To round of this magnificent display of efficiency our bags were already on the turntable and 12 minutes after the doors opened we were in the arrivals hall looking for our man from Marrakech. We can forgive him turning up a few minutes late as we weren't even meant to be in morocco yet. Our driver Mohammed then whisked us away in a brand new Toyota land cruiser with more space than business class on Emirates. All in all a welcome change to airline travel anywhere else in the world.

Our hotel ksar Anika proved its security on arrival, the security guard took 5 minutes to open the door. Made very welcome with Moroccan tea on arrival the porter wanted us to relax after such a stressful time at the airport. Alas we had to inform him that we were indeed early And the airport had been a breeze and that a gin and tonic would not go amiss. As with all things too good to be true the hotel has one minor flaw. There is no gin! I asked for a beer?There is no beer! We were then offered white wine! There was no white wine! At last a bottle of fine red wine appeared. It appears a group of 20 English have left this morning having drained this quarter any liquid with alcohol in.

Our room is huge and unfortunately we have destroyed it already. Fran has pulled part of the loo wall off ans our clothes make a nice Moroccan carpet feature. After a lovely dinner including my personal favourites a mezzo of stewed oboe rhinos and two other types of vegetable based goo and a bowl of olives. The chicken taggine however was delightful and much to my taste. Fran of course is in heaven.

We ventured out as all tired idiots do on their first night in a strange town. After 5 minutes casually strolling down dark alleys the lovely security guard from the hotel appeared on a bike to escort us to the square. He actually gave the wife a little bollocking for carrying an open bag at 11pm down dark streets at least that's what I understood. A quick check of handbag city and we decided to refresh the thirst and hailed a horse drawn cab to the la mamounia the old palace refurbed into one of the most opulent hotel in the world containing the Churchill rooms and amazing furniture bands and bars.after the largest vodka martini in the world we headed home to prepare for shopping day.aaaaargh.