In October 2001, we went to Morocco for a short winter break. We went with Exodus
Adventure Travel and our route is highlighted in blue on this map. We arrived just as the Americans started dropping bombs on Afghanistan, so kept a low profile. However, the Moroccans were
really friendly and we never encountered any resentment. I wonder whether this would still be the case today. I have far more photos than I could reasonably display here, so let me know if you would
like to see more - use the email address at the bottom of the main page to contact me. Click on any of the thumbnails below to open a new window with a larger copy of
the photo. You can step through them all if you like.
Our trip started in Casablanca, where we visited the Hussein II Mosque, which is one of the few that is open to non-muslims. It was fascinating to find out a little about their religion and rituals
and to compare the simplicity of the mosque's interior to a typical cathedral. The area nearest the coast was considered highly sacred and so there were religious police there to make sure that
nobody went near the crash barriers; any transgressors were shrilly whistled at. From Casablanca we went to Rabat and visited the mausoleum of Mohammed V and the Kasbah des Oudaia. The kasbah was
painted in bright blues and was very peaceful - plenty of picture postcard shots.
We then headed on to Meknes, a charming town where we spent our second night. There were magnificent tiled gateways everywhere and we were left to wander on our own. We found the local wool market,
where the traders were beating the wool with thin metal rods before grading it and the local market was well stocked with all sorts of produce including plenty of mint for the obligatory mint tea
(which was just as well, as none of the meat was refrigerated, so the spices and mint helped to freshen the air!). . The Bab Al Mansour is a famous gateway, but is now a gateway to nowhere (or so it
seemed). We were ushered through by one of the locals and followed on to find ourselves on a building site!
The next day we headed on to Fez, stopping en route at a vast Roman town called Volubilis with ruins that stretched for as far as the eye could see. Unfortunately, they do not have enough money to
care for the ruins as they would like and so there are incredible mosaics left exposed to the open air. UNESCO and other organisations are trying to help, but there is a lot to do, and in the meantime,
the storks are busy making themselves at home on the top of the columns and the water lies in pools on the mosaics. It was Sue's birthday and we all went out for supper where Pip had laid on a cake and a band as a surprise.
Unfortunately, nobody really liked the cake and so everybody piled their portion onto Pip's plate when she disappeared to the loo! The band was fairly memorable too as the guitarist plunked out a version of "Happy Birthday"
In the morning, we went to visit a tile factory and pottery where they made mosaic table tops as well as pots, bowls and tiles. Rather than painting a pattern onto the tiles with a glaze, there was a
boy who chipped away with a pointed hammer at a glazed tile onto which he had drawn a pattern to reveal the design. We had an excellent guide in Fez, who took us around the old city and knew a lot
about the history. (I'm afraid to say that I have forgotten most, if not all, of it). I'm sure that we would not have ventured so far, so confidently without him; we ended up in weaving shops,
mosques and had lunch up an alleyway, in a house we would never have found had we been on our own.
We had to get up really early the next morning as we were supposed to go to Merzouga and the dessert in time to see the sunset. This is normally a long day of continuous driving, but this was not to be the case on this trip.
It decided to rain for the first time in seven years. We didn't think much of this at first as we came from England where it rains all the time, so it wasn't until we stopped
while the local municipality dragged another waterlogged vehicle out of the road that things finally sunk in. Rivers sprung up where there were usually none and normally dry fords became impassable.
Most people just sat patiently waiting for the river to subside, but some Spaniards were trying to run a rally and kept pushing to the front of each obstacle. We eventually arrived in Merzouga well after midnight and
transferred into Land Rovers to speed across the dessert to our hotel and bed.
There is more to tell when I get the time, but in the meantime click on the map to go to a website with maps, history and other useful information if you would like to find out more about Morocco
