Morocco
Morocco was the first non-European country that the kids visited when we holidayed there in May 1975. We were on a two centre holiday initially flying into Tangiers where the culture shock was immediate with camels on the beach and the sounds, colours and smells of the place. We were offered mint tea to drink whilst we negotiated a price on a djellaba which I took home and used for many years as a dressing gown. Gill bought a kaftan for the same purpose. Everywhere there were fez-covered heads and the spices on the market stalls in the souk were both colurful and pungent. One day we decided to see a bit of the countryside outside the town of Tangiers which of course faces out into the Atlantic and hired a little Renault 4 which we drove along the coast eastwards towards the Mediterranean coast. The coastal road passes by numerous pristine beaches. We chose and empty one for lunch and then drove inland through some attractive small mountain villages, eventually hit the customs post at Ceuta - one of the Pillars of Hercules on Moroccan soil by owned by Spain (a bit like Gibraltar - the other Pillar). Of course Spain want THEIR Pillar back but won`t reliquish the one they hold on the African continent! Can you spell "hypocrites" Spain?
From Tangiers we flew on southwards for our second week which was in Marrakesh. This was even more of a culture shock! Sitting close to the Atlas Mountains and at the time we were there with avenues of stunning flowering jacaranda trees. The central square in the rown is called Jemaa el-Fnaa and HAS to be one of your top bucket list places. It`s now been added to the UNESCO World Heritage site. It`s full of stalls, storytellers, snake charmers, odours, colour - it simply buzzes like nowhere I have ever been to since and that`s more than 80 countries. Close by is the medina full of carpet, brassware, spices and dried vulture merchants displaying their wares and hoping to sell something to you. There is a strong French influence in this part of Morocco and this has resulted in many good places to eat. We went to a sort of fiesta/jamboree just outside the walls of the city with horseriders rushing around firing ancient flintlock muskets and other stuff until a huge dust storm blew in from the desert and drove us off and back to out hotel. There were huge locusts around and we brought a couple of dead ones hom to show people just how big they were.
Once again we hired a little Renault 4 and set out for the Atlas Mountains one day. Gradually we climbed up and up until the poor car was struggling with the altitude and we had to stop evet mile or so as it boiled over!. In the roadside drains were little isolated pools of water full of tadpoles at one of our stops. They seemed to be able to mature without very much water at all. Along the roadside as we climbed we came across local lads who had dug geodes out of the mountainside, broken them open and were selling them. We spent quite a time haggling - you have to haggle everywhere in Morocco or you pay way, way too much. and eventually came away with a beautiful amethyst one and one like orange fingers (Chalcedony/Quartz stalagmite) - both of which you will see in the pictures below
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