Fès, 21.08.98

Our second day in Fès and the holiday seems finally to have begun. We left Casablanca yesterday for Meknès. On the train we met Youssef, a taxi driver from Fès who convinced us to go on to Fès inviting us to his home. Today he arranged a guide for us to visit the medina. Mohammed seemed quite reserved in the morning but livened up later. He knew all the women in the medina and had a special eye for all the tourists he didn’t know.

"Bellissima!, molto bella!" were the most useful word he knew in Italian. In the afternoon he confided that he was going to marry a French girl he’d met in Fès a couple of months before.

Fès, 22.08.98

We awoke at 6am after a night of lying baking on top of our sheets. We decided to get up (it must have been hot!) to go into the medina early before the hoardes of tourists. It worked, but we also got there before the Moroccans! It was so quiet when we first got there, then gradually the crowds arrived. We had a mint tea stop in Place Nejjanne which was lovely and relaxing. When we set off again the heat was unbearable and we felt completely drunk.

Meknès, 24.08.98

We have now been in Meknès for two days. Hotel Majestic is v. plaesant with smiley, friendly staff and a terrace for breakfast. We spent the first afternoon visiting the museum (a real treat) and medina. There was the usual hustle and bustle but no-one offering to be a guide so we wandered through hassle-free. The rest of the two days have been spent drinking mint tea in various bars!

Meknès, 25.08.98

Up very early to check out and then off to visit Moulay Idriss and Volubilis. The "grand taxi" ride at 8am was pleasant as it was still cool but after an unwanted guided tour (which actually turned out to be quite useful) up and down the steps in the narrow lanes we were pretty hot and bothered. Moulay Idriss is a holy town to which pilgrimages are made during a holy festival held at the end of August. It is also the home of the only round minaret in Morocco.

We were pleasantly surprised by the walk to Volubilis in the middle of the fields lined with olive trees and cacti, and the sound of mules braying. This alone was worth the trip. After wandering around Volubilis in the midday sun we set off back to Moulay Idriss and managed to hitch a lift standing in an open-backed truck (which I’d been longing to do since we’d got here). Waiting for the grand taxi back to Meknès an old Moroccan man asked for a drink of our newly opened cold mineral water and I just had to watch as he slobbered round it! We got back exhausted and after a tasty meal, went to arrange our bus trip to Azrou in the middle atlas mountains. "Complet!" was not what we wanted to hear. We ended up in another grand taxi (6 passengers in 1 mercedes!) and within an hour we had climbed the Atlas mountains in a thunder storm and were in Azrou, a cool, busy little berber town which was a pleasant change to the 40+°C of Volubilis. It hardly seems true that we were there this morning. If it weren’t for my sunburnt nose, I could have dreamt it.

In the evening we went down to the local bar for a bowl of harira (2DH!), the tasty local soup, and it was there that we met Hassan who gave us a lesson in Arabic. We arranged to meet him the next day for a walk into the mountains.

Azrou, 26.08.98

After an aborted attempt (a power cut at the bank) to change some traveller’s cheques we were invited to Hassan’s house for tea and then set off into the mountains with a bottle of water and some bread and cheese. It was very hard going as it was hot and he went very quickly. I was soon exhausted. While we were out he told us many things about the royal family (hated by most Moroccans) the corrupt government and its many informers, people who use ghosts to look for treasure and put spells on people. We even caught a glimpse of some barbary apes including a mother and baby.

Later that evening we went to the hammam. I went with Hassan’s sister who hennaed my hair first and Nicola went alone. The hammam was a very strange place, pretty squalid with lots of small rooms going out off the main ones. I was given a scrub by Hassan’s sister and I was then ready to go. What I didn’t realise is that you were supposed to soap yourself at least five times and the whole process took about an hour. I’m quite unused to spending so long over a bath and spent half an hour pouring water over myself aimlessly and attracting the attention of a little girl who stood in front of me for about 10 mins with her mouth open! Everything was done publicly in the hammam: full strip wash, shaving underarms and groin and the women took turns washing each other.

27.08.98

We left Azrou for Beni-Mellal at about midday and were accompanied to the bus station by Hassan. The bus journey was quite horrendous as we were stuffed into the back of the bus like sardines. As we set off some black plastic bags were passed around. We’d hardly been going for 20 mins when virtually everyone except us was throwing up. We tried to tell people to look out of the window at the horizon to make it better, but there was no having it. One bloke in the corner produced three bags and a bottle of the stuff which were later lobbed out of the window to make room for someone to sit down! We were exhausted when we arrived and ended up at the first hotel near the bus station.

28.08.98

Off to the cascades d’Ouzoud and another memorable journey! Crammed into a grand taxi for 1.5 hrs to Azilal. The view was breathtaking on the way as we saw the Bin el-Ouidane dam with its deep green lake. The waterfalls were amazing but the pools weren’t very clean for swimming in so we had to watch enviously as the Moroccans dived in (often from a great height).

29.08.98 - 31.08.98

Left Beni Mellal on Saturday morning after wandering round the town for a while. We hadn’t counted on there being nowhere to change money on a Saturday and arrived in Marrakech with 15Dr. I was quite anxious as I feared that we could be without money for two days but Nicola was very confident. Luckily he turned out to be right. It was a shame that we discovered this after walking from the bus station with our luggage on our backs in the intense heat to save 8 Dr! We stayed at hotel CTM which was a bit iffy (tiny room with no bathroom but v. peaceful) but in a wonderful position right on the main square with a rooftop bar.

Marrakech was extremely lively (especially after Beni Mellal!) but everything seemed to be geared towards tourism. We were hassled v. little (as in the rest of Morocco) and wandered around the medina virtually undisturbed. The temperature had thankfully dropped and there was a wind which billowed the smoke and cooking smells of the evening barbecues as far as our room.

In the evening the square really came to life and acrobats, snake charmers, potion sellers, henna painters, story tellers and musicians were dotted around inside the protective barrier of the orange juice stalls.

The highlight of our trip to Marrakech had to be the visit to the Palais de la Bahia, a palace gorgeously decorated and containing lush gardens within peaceful courtyards.

01.09.98

On to Essaouira on our first CTM bus. At lunchtime we ventured out to the fish grills around the port. The fish was fantastic and we sampled them all as well as the salad which was delicious but not to be trusted!

We had a very peaceful time in Essaouira, which seemed almost like a greek resort with mosques and we were sorry to leave behind the ramparts (where Orson Wells filmed the opening scene to Othello) the hippies and trendies and the sunsets (where we met the little girl who gave us flowers).