Farewell Morocco

From Marrakech we headed to Rabat and then to Asilah the next night. Both are pretty chilled places which made them fairly relaxing places to stay but it did mean we had a low key farewell to a generally buzzing country. Last night we stayed at a friend of Becka's near Malaga and I type now from Laura's porch, looking out over the Andalucian hills. The sun is shining and we only just finished breakfast at about midday. Laura is sending us away with arm fulls of lemons and oranges fresh from the trees, yum. We will be three more days in Spain before catching the ferry and this relaxing time with Laura should be setting us up for a easy, freewheeling ride up to the north. Looking back at Morocco, it was everything I hoped for in this trip, we saw so many spectacular sights, got in some rewarding offroading and experienced the intimidating emptiness of the desert. The best part was staying with a Moroccan family though, it offsets all the hassle on the streets to give a true flavour of Moroccan life.

High times in the High Atlas

We had discussed that it would be great to spend a bit of time with some Moroccan people and perhaps accept an offer of eating together, should it come up. Yesterday, towards the end of a road based day trying to get north, we picked up a hitcher. He was a quiet enough chap but he surprised us be asking us in for food when we dropped him off. He spoke no english or french but had a calm yet insistent manner, and we accepted with some tripidation. What would we talk about for a start?

We ended up spending the whole evening wth Hussain and his family, learning and forgetting arabic words for everything and clowning around with the children, of which there were four. We left this morning and felt that our gifts were small compared to the amazing time we had spent with them all.

Our trail over the High Atlas today also turned into a great adventure, there was some gnarly, washed out stream beds to cross and then a snowy piste that led to an awe inspiring view of the High Atlas, the peaks towering thousands of feet above the valley floor. A view all the sweeter for us being the first vehicle to pass that way since the snow arrived.

Tonight we are in Marrakesh and we now wend our way back to our hotel room and then, home.

All time top ten

Best thing since my last post: Driving across the desert to reach Smara in Western Sahara

Worst thing since last post: About 16 mosquito bites to my ankles in one night at Fort Beau Jerif

Becka: Still talking to me

Highest external temperature: 33 degrees

Car: Just had the spare wheel carrier welded up for 4 pounds.

Best food: 2 quid tajine yesterday in a cafe at Sidi Ifni

Worst food: Becka had a very disappointing and expensive camel tajine in Fort Beau Jerif

Biggest surprise: Amount of traffic on the desert pistes, local dudes in Landrovers everywhere

Alex notices: All the old cars and trucks

Becka notices: Plants and flowers

-3 to 23 degrees in 48 hours

Finally things are warming up! We've been dogged by rain and low tempertures for a while and the day before yesterday we set off for the Sarhro mountains and camped out near the top of the pass. There was nice moment as a chap came by on a rickety moped when we were cooking, he pointed at the broccoli "What's that?" he says. We gave him some to try at home as he seemed quite taken with it.

In the morning everything was white, slightly predictable at 2250m it had snowed in the night, and gingerly we made our way down and below the clouds. The view was spectacular and both yesterday and today it has been one amazing vista after another as we wind our way through mountains and jolt across stoney plains.

Last night we stayed in a nice low-key town called Taznakht and tonight we are in Tata. Both are worlds away from the tout ridden areas and people just go about their business, which makes for relaxing places to end the day's travel. The best thing about today though is that it is finally warm!

More pictures on the Flickr page too.

Morocco at last

We arrived in Cueta with some apprehension, but managed the border formalities with little problem and travelled on to Chefchouan, a pretty mountain town in the north. The next day we travelled south and ended up camping in the cedar forests of the middle Atlas, it was very rainy and we apprehensive of the touts we had seen along the road.

The night passed without incident and we had a great day winding our way down narrow tracks in the mountains to end up in Midelt, a Berber town on the edge of the High Atlas mountains. We tagged along with a party of three Spanish 4x4s yesterday and tackled some very tricky terrain, inching our way into and out of rivers and through an amazing gorge. The night finished perfectly with card games and whiskey.

We have parted ways and have just stocked up in Tinnehir and are now heading to the Sarhro massive. Photos took a long time to upload, so there are a small selection on my flickr account:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49817855@N00

The rain in Spain...

We set off from Merida, a town chock full of roman ruins and stopped along the way at this huge roman amphitheatre, one of the largest in the world. Tonight we're staying in Ronda and tomorrow we'll catch the ferry to morocco. Heavy rain has dampened our spirits a bit tonight so we're hoping for blazing sun Africa.

2 villages, a town and a city.

This the view we woke up to, chilly outside but cosy inside. We managed to pack a lot in today; a walk around a mountain village, visit to a fortified village in the process of being restored, coffee in an alcoholic truck stop, walked around a walled city and finally stopped at a town with roman remains, a roman festival and great tapas. Phew, at a camp site tonight and had better get some more miles covered tomorrow.

Sunny Spain

The photo shows our lunch stop just outside Santander in a warming sun. We trucked on through the afternoon, dashed through Salamanca, pausing only for bakery stop, and stopped in the hills to park up. Now we're fed there's time for a few tunes on the guitar before sleep and the prospect of a sunrise over the mountains.

Stocking up

The car, Becka and i were provisioned up to the max at Jennie and Richard's; fabulous food for the human's and fuel and water supplies for the car. Next stop Spain.

Becka drives the tlc

Where TLC is a toyota land cruiser:) We went off road driving at the scottish off road driving centre. Both the course and the car were ace.