Day One - Aldershot to Gatwick to Marrakesh to Essaouira

Wednesday 2nd June 2010

'Adventure is just bad planning.' Roald Amundsen (a good motto for our trip)

It has begun!
We touched down in Morocco just after 10 this morning, neither of us really believing that, finally, we were on the road (and not just walking down the road from my house to the train station).
We left home late last night, bags packed, goodbyes said, moisturisers decanted into plane friendly bottles and a bottle of champagne in hand (with plans to drink it at the airport). After a little blip en route to the Airport, where we ended up getting off at the wrong station and had to detour to get a later, and the last, train to Gatwick Airport (it wasn't the best feeling that we had stopped before we even got to the Airport) we got there. We made ourselves comfortable on the floor and opened the champagne which gave Djalma a little bath when it opened and fizzed all over his lap - it had to happen, a little blessing for our trip! We played a couple of uninspired games of 'I spy' whilst drinking our bucks fizz and had a quick snooze.

One four hour plane ride later with some very friendly crew and lots of uncomfortable snoozing, and here we are on the first leg of our trip. Marrakesh Airport is really pretty especially when you get outside except that is, for the taxi drivers. We haven't read much about Morocco since we finished planning it 4 months ago, so no french, certainly no arabic, no idea of bus times or departure locations we were feeling pretty much at the mercy of the taxi hounds all waiting in a big group talking and chatting next to their beige cars, until, a tourist. Sniff sniff, money! We ended up getting a taxi to the bus depot where we kicked back for an hour and waited for our (air conditioned – hooray!) bus to Essaouira.

First impressions of Marrakesh from the little we've seen – it's hot and still, almost no breeze to lift some of the heat. Lots of people on skinny scooter/motorbikes, from young men in suits, to a middle aged couple with the wife hanging on at the back, from old ladies going about their business to young women with their headscarfs waving in the wind.
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It's almost 10 in the evening and we have spent the evening wandering around the little Medina in Essaouira trying to take it all in. We arrived just after 3pm to find the 'little' coastal town covered in a heavy sea mist, so heavy it looked like someone had been having the mother of all barbeques for at least a week. A short friendly man dressed all in white befriended D and took us to our hotel, which did not live up to the images they had put on the internet, but, hey man, we're in Africa, it's real life (as one of the men working in the hotel told us when D brought it up) at least there aren't any bugs and there is hot running water, well more of a slow ambling rather than running, we also have electricity and our own bathroom... at the top of the hotel, 5 floors up (needed to get fit anyway).

From Morocco

The town is really pretty, very photogenic, very crumbly, very fragrant and full of cats and kittens.

From Morocco

On the way into the centre and to our hotel from the bus station we traversed a wide range of smells, from very strong wizz, to old fish, to bird poo, to mint, to the salty sea air and variations in between. In the medina it smelt strongly of the sea and loads of different spices and perfumes as well as mouthwatering cooking wafting out from the many little food stalls, cafes and restaurants that were tucked in the walls and alleys, just like all the other stalls and shops. We had lunch in one such restaurant ordering enough food for three people although D did very well and polished off pretty much everything I left. We had vegetable couscous, kofta tajine, vegetable salad, a massive baked potato filled with 3 cheeses and sweetcorn as well as the most beautiful olives I have ever eaten, bread, chilli water?! And a little pot of mint tea. It was really too much but utterly gorgeous and the man in charge was very happy that he had provided our first meal in Essaouira. Everyone is very welcoming and friendly, some a bit pushy, some out to make money from you but on the whole, really nice and genuinely friendly. As the afternoon wore on the streets and alleys started to fill up with more and more children running around and playing together, especially boys of about 8 or 9 sitting in noisy groups playing knuckles.
We spent a little while finding the seafront because it was so foggy but we did find it eventually, we spent a while wandering around and checking out the harbour and the fish sellers. Really cool and despite all the seagulls overhead we didn't get shat on once!

From Morocco

I was desperate to get rid of my jeans and so on our way back to the hotel I bought a pair of hammerpants, despite having been secretly mocking the people who wear them for the last few months, which are so comfortable and roomy that I just don't care if I look like I've pooed my pants – you might not want to but 'you can't touch this' dah nah nah nah HAMMERTIME! And time for bed.

From Morocco