Northern Africa

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A hard sell

After breakfast, I tried going to Menara Gardens.  It’s a botanical garden to the west of the city near the Atlas mountains.  Descriptions of it sounded quite appealing but no luck for me today.  No taxi would take me there. So instead, I went shopping instead.  That’s on my “hate” list while travelling.  But I […]

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Museum, monument, tomb and palace

For me, Marrakech is special because of the carnival-like atmosphere of the square at night.  But it does have some brick-and-mortar sights to see.  So, that’s what I did today. Marrakech Museum After breakfast on the terrace, I wandered through the souq to the far end where the museum was located.  It had an impressive […]

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Medieval carnival

Moving on to Marrakech It may be fair to say that I’m not the only person that’s been fascinated by images of Marrakech.  So, it is with a bit of excitement and anticipation that I head there today.  I took a petit taxi to the Ourzazat bus station where there was a fifteen minute delay […]

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Ait Benhaddou

Slow start The plan for the day was to visit another kasbah, Ait Benhaddou.  I walked into town after breakfast to find the taxi station (for shared out-of-town taxis).  Bad luck, I found that the out-of-town taxi station was out of the town centre.  Arrgggh!  That required me to take a petit taxi there.  And […]

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Welcome to “Hollywood”

Moving on Today, I move on to Ourzazat, the Hollywood of Morocco.  Parts of Gladiator and Jesus of Nazareth was filmed there … and many other movies.  But I’m going there for more traditional sights; there are a number of kasbahs in the area. I said goodbye to my hosts at the Palmeraie and waited […]

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Freezing, this time in Todra

It was cold when I woke up, so I enjoyed having breakfast in the sun on the rooftop.     I began my exploration with a walk through the palmeraie and following the stream which would take me to Todra Gorge. Some how, I ended up on the road which took me to my destination […]

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Ripped-off

Above:  View of ruined kasbahs and palmerie at sunset from outside my pension. Unpleasant finish I have the morning free before moving to Todra Gorge.  It made sense to explore the beauty of the Sahara again with short walks in the sand.  When the time came to pay my accommodation bill, I was presented with an […]

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Sahara at my doorstep

My bus from Fes arrived at Erfoud around 0630 instead of 0500.  From the bus I saw the sun rise over the sandy horizon.  It kinda made up for the night trip. My accommodation, the Auberge du Sud, had arranged a pick by a nice Land Cruiser.  The kasbah was a lovely mud/straw building on […]

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Night bus

Massage? I have a night bus from Fes to Erfoud tonight, meaning that I have lots of time to kill in Fes today. I started off with a further exploration of the old city, with an intent of getting a better photo of the tannery in better light.  The weather so far hadn’t been the […]

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Moulay Idris, Volubilis and Meknes

Setting off Today, I make a daytrip to another imperial city, Meknes and the surrounding sights of Moulay Idris and Volubilis. I started by walking downhill to the taxi station after breakfast.  I asked, in Arabic, if I could be dropped off close to the Volubilis taxi.  Wow!  The driver understood me.  Great! The ride to […]

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