Wallamble

The start of our longest day…

Up early for a traditional Moroccan breakfast our riad in Fes…

afterwhich we were picked up by Adil our driver for the next three days. He gave us a quick tour around the Ville Novelle, Royal Palais and Jewish quarter in Fes…

Before we headed on our way…

First stop Ifrane – also known as Moroccan Switzerland for it’s Swiss style architecture and nearby ski slopes.
(these photos really don’t do it justice)

To Ifrane National Park to see to see its Cedar forest, Barbarous apes and gorgeous lakes.

past a camp site

Through the middle Atlas mountains.

A quick visit with a native Berber family who live as Nomads  in the Middle Atlas mountains.

Stop for lunch at Medelt the apple capital of Morocco
(photo borrowed from the internet)

Further through the mountains

a dam (whose name they couldn’t tell us)

Past the stunning Erfoud Oasis
(suddenly the word Oasis makes sense)

On to Merzouga…

where we changed transport to camel and headed out into Erg Chebbi. We asked Ahmed our guide for the camels names and he told us – Whatever you like! Jimmi Hendrix and Bob Marley. So Eli and I left ours as Jimmy and Lachie called theirs Kevin.

We stopped midway to our journey to watch the sunset over the picturesque dunes.
(well some of us watched the sunset and others rolled up and down the dunes)

Then on to our tents where we stayed the night.  Dinner was a yummy chicken tangine (which Lachie luckily loved – phew!) and a desert of fresh fruit. Lachie ate three bananas!!!

After dinner we did a little star gazing and then went to sleep to the sound of native drumming humming across the desert. Good night!

After our big day yesterday and with another big day to come tomorrow- we took it back a few notches today.. Today was to be all about soaking up the atmosphere in the medina 🙂

We slept in until 9am! Then showered before heading downstairs for a relaxing breakfast and to plan our day. Breakfast was a yummy combination of pastries, baguette, Moroccan cheese, jams, oj, coffee, hot chocolate and figs.

Then we headed deep into the twisty-windy-vibrant-narrow streets of the medina for a wander for a few hours…

We found all sorts of shops…

Interesting doors

Fountains

past the cafes…
(often full of men conducting business)

along twisty windy streets

Past Mosques, museums and a mausoleum 🙂

A tannery where they dye the animal skins
(luckily they gave us some fresh mint for the smell)

past the shops showing the produce of the tannerie

The wedding street

through a carpet spinning workshop…

gorgeous ornate walls, roof tops, and more!

Exhausted we returned to our riad for some down time at our beautiful riad 🙂
(check out the cool space age green shower)

With the amazing view from it’s roof top 🙂

Before heading out to dinner- where again we ordered a combination of meals – skewers, pizza, lamb kefta- with the winner being the lamb kefta! Mum was floored! Whose kids are these?

On the way home we saw a wedding in progress 🙂

Go go go! We over-slept:(
We ran 30 mins late for our driver 😦

After a fabulous buffet breakfast in a Western hotel – it was time to venture into the heart of Morocco – we were off..

through the outskirts of the city

The road was being lined with soldiers & flags as the King would be traveling to Fes some time that day…

past Technopolis
(every country has one!)

past local farmers

we felt at home when we saw the Eucalyptus trees

First stop – medieval Meknes

Lunch somewhere Western to ease the culture shock

A stop to admire the view over the Meknes medina…

The second stop was for the Roman ruins at Volubilus

View of Moulay Idriss…
(a holy town which is a common pilgrimmage destination for its mausoleum)

Gorgeous view of inland salty lake…
(with a family picnicing near by. We love that the Moroccan families love to picnic too)

This was beautiful farming country- we saw farms of olives, almonds, wheat, figs, oranges, poppies- to name but a few…
(Meknes is known as the agriculture capital of Morocco…we can see why!)

local towns and people…

Hard working donkeys…

and into Fes where we would be staying for the night 🙂

Finally our riad in Fes – which gave us a lovely welcome of Moroccan whiskey (I.e. Mint tea) and coconut biscuits.

We had a brief break before gaming the medina for dinner. Nathan did an amazingly incredible job finding the restaurant Cafe Clock which has live music on Sunday nights. We ordered an eastern- western combination- lamb burger, lamb tangine, hummus plate & fries – surprisingly the winning dish was the lamb tangine!

Observations thus far:

• We won’t be needing those shorts and knee length skirts that we packed
• Meknez – medieval  capital, Casablanca- economic capital, Fes – agricultural capital (apparently Marrakesh will be the tourist capital!)

After a rocky start – Royal Air Maroc changed our seats to*better* ones than those we reserved (back row, intermittent tvs & B’s seat wouldn’t stay reclined) and our airport-hotel tranfer didn’t turn up to meet us at the airport – we are finally here 🙂

We arrived at 8:30am and after the usual logistics pattern (immigration, local sim card, cash out) and a few not usual logistics (missing transfer – better that than the bags!)… we grabbed a taxi and were offf!  We reached our hotel mid-morning and the kindly gave us an awesome room on the top floor with a sea & mosque view – incredible (Thanks Novotel!).

After a brief refresh, we headed out for brunch  to La Sqala and had their traditional breakfast and amixed pancake platter to share, Yummo!

Next we walked to the mosque with a few stops along the way for a touch of soccer and for drinking water…

The Mosque was stunning….
(and Lachie got lots of ideas for his Minecraft designs)

Then into the medina…

A little downtime back at the hotel, before heading to the fishing port…

walking past interesting modes of transport…
(petite taxis – for 3 people; 3 wheeled vehicles driven by motobikes…do they like 3’s?)

… for dinner at Restaurant du Port de Peche.
(it even had Turbot on the menu!)

Then home to enjoy the stunning view,

What a great first day 🙂

We’re off…

Where are we flying tonight…

Here is the plan for our trip….

Random family comments heard today:

Lachie said:
I am going to fill two of my life long dreams in Morocco:
1. To ride a camel.
2. To pee in a hole.

Eli said:
Hopefully your wiggly tooth falls out this week Lachie because the Moroccan tooth fairy doesn’t bring money, she’ll bring you a chicken! True! I read it in a book.

We can’t wait!!!