A picture paints a thousand words......

The Sahara

We spent the day traveling through the Atlas mountains to arrive at Elfourd ,which sits on the cusp of the Sahara Desert.

The desert is not what I imagined, sure there are sand dunes, but its not all sand..there are areas where there is water,therefore cropping; the Atlas mountains border it, so there are villages and towns in the valleys; the road winds around a very narrow corridor through mountains and flattens out ( but not widens!) to flat stony landscape. The buildings made from mud bricks with straw, ( called Adobe) generally two storey and walled in, almost blend into the background, as it's hard to differentiate the color.

We arrived at our accommodation - a mud brick kasbaah-styled hotel- to a group of singers and musicians to welcome us. We pulled in late afternoon and while looking around, Andrew discovered the quad bikes...well that was it...both the guys were for it..they had a fantastic time hooning around and over the dunes away from the hotel. Luckily they had a young guy with them..firstly to keep them from turning it into a macho contest (trust me they're just like they were thirty years ago!!- always trying to outdo each other). Secondly, so they could find their way back (admittedly though we weren't in a rush to see them...in the middle of the desert they were useful to have close by!!)

Welcomed by singers


Boys will be boys!!!

The following morning we had an early start(4am!!) to catch a ride out to the dunes to see the sunrise...the further out we drove it beacme more obvious that we were indeed in the desert, the Sahara desert at that..unreal in a way, pretty exciting when we stopped to think about it.

We got to ride camels led by the guides, to where we sat on the dunes and waited. It was so much fun, the guides were great, full of humor and entertaining, quick to stir us, and fill us in on on the Berber lifestyle. We got to play dress-ups, have our photos taken (time and time again, as one guide was in love with the camera) and savoured the whole experience :)

Laughs on the Sahara

I have included this link of a Moroccan map ( use it to trace our movements-Tangiers, Chefchaoen, Fez,Elfourd, Ouarzazate,Marrakech and Casablanca) because we spent ten days traveling through the most incredible land, full of diversity, sitting in the van and watching through the windows as the scenery rolled by and really words just don't do it justice

Just right click on the icon and open

Fez

View of Fez from Riad rooftop

What a place..only here for two days and three nights, we crammed in so much, atmosphere overload.

We stayed in a restored Riad (a house with an internal courtyard and garden),once again very ornate use of textiles, textures, mosaics, crystals and carved plaster cornices and walls; decorated with plush cushions rich in color, heavy dark furniture inlaid with brass and pearl and elaborately carved, brass and silver urns, Berber carpets; water fountains, mosaic tiled patios , greenery in varied clay urns and pots; a rooftop overlooking the cityscape of satellite-dished houses, ruins, mosques, minarets,cemeteries sitting amongst the sand colored land.

In the Lobby of The Riad

Courtyard and Door to reception

Our guide for the two days was Mohammed aka Momo. He was an ex-teacher, and a man who is passionate about Morocco. He also is a prime-mover in the effort to formalize artisan workshops under guilds, so that conditions are improved, money is forth-coming and skills are passed on through the generations. Fez has over two-thirds of it's population of 1 million, involved in the artisan industry and is the centre for crafts such as tanning and dying leather, pottery,tiles for mosaics,embroidery,silk and fabric weaving, carpet- making, brass,silver and bronze craftsmanship, for all of Morocco and in the case of leather world-wide.

Momo and Tony

Another UNESCO classified city, Fez is in the process of undergoing restoration, partially funded and supported by the current King, partially funded by UNESCO. The benefit is two fold as more tourists are coming as facilities are updated, therefore there is more money in the economy ,also the skills which are generations old are kept alive and passed onto the next.

Weaver

Momo was keen to tell us that his culture is very much slanted to passing on skills and cultural traditions onto the next generation. He said that his father had taught him how to slaughter and prepare a sheep for the table ( this is done at the end of Ramadan by the head of the house, according to the method in the Koran)and when his son is ten, he will do the same; his 12 yr old twin daughters are way down the track of learning the double stitch embroidery style unique to Morocco, though they are a long way off doing any solo work.

To the outsider, trying to take into account that as a tourist you might see only the good side of a place, it seems that their culture, the importance of family and harmonic relations between each other, are very closely linked to their ideology. We arrived in midst of Ramadan, so we were very aware of the importance placed on religion. Also, the fact that over the years this area has been occupied by numerous cultures that have been assimilated into the one that has emerged today, tolerance of others is apparent, the more so because it was unexpected. With the advent of the electronic world and MacDonalds, even "Westerners" are regarded better than they used to be.:)

We spent half a day walking through the markets in the Medina with Momo, which incorporates ten thousand alleys,some covered, all busy and overcrowded with stalls. Thank goodness he was there because there is no way we would have been able to find our way back, an absolute maze of lanes, that is unmapped because there are so many!

In the food markets we saw some very unusual things:- live hens "roosting" on the ground in a line, waiting to be taken home for that nights dinner; pairs of bull's body parts displayed on butchers hooks; a camels head hanging outside a butcher's stall; what looked to be camels tongues( they were huge!) thick and blue(gross!) - they were the most memorable, particularly the camel head! Donkeys are the only form of transport allowed in the Medina. They load them up with baskets tied on their backs and to their sides and when they come through, you have to back yourself into a doorway ! There were no smells...not "having to pinch your nose "or "dry retching" ones, just a few pongy ones - easy to cope with:) such a bonus!

Food stall and a Donkey being loaded with wool

Things we did:

Driving tour around Fez - fort, palace,ruins etc

Visit to the tile factory used for mosaics; pottery kiln fueled by dried olive pips.

Tour of tannery- processing and dyeing

Tour weavers,embroiders,carpets.

History of Medina

Roman Ruins

Listening to the call for prayer

EAT EAT EAT..couscous, tajines,pastries,Ramadan soup based on tomatoes, chickpeas and vegies (mmm..) nougat...

Tangiers

Arriving in Tangiers

We caught the ferry from Algeciras to Tangiers , the gateway from Europe into Africa. As soon as we disembarked you could feel the dry heat and were immediately immersed in the smells associated with a third world country...this is my biggest hurdle when traveling, so I will be breathing deeply(metaphorically speaking!) and focusing on the other aspects of what already appears to be an exciting place.

For this part of our travels Andrew organized a driver as a tour guide throughout Morocco ...soo much easier than trying to decipher Arabic and as driving seems to be more along the lines of Fijian style- a good decision . Idriss is a Berber who lives in Fez-( this guy can fluently speak four languages...I am envious of this ability which comes from the necessity of a lifestyle, while I would have to swot endlessly to speak just ONE more!)....met us just outside the ferry terminal and we pretty quickly headed off for our stop-over for the night...Chefchaouen in the Riff Mountains. He has a total disregard for blind corners, single white lines and oncoming traffic, so tomorrow we will be sitting at the back of the van!!

For some reason Westerners aren't encouraged to stay in Tangiers for long...so there was no sight-seeing other than what we saw on the way out It's a sprawling city with lots of re- development currently going on, particularly roadworks, but buildings too. The expected white box-like houses were scattered around the landscape, not a lot of"modern" glass commercial buildings...these were kept more in line with the proven style of architecture,solid,light-colored walls.

The country is awesomely dry- a dry dusty land, some olive trees(not many), mostly subsistence agriculture, melons. prickly pear, small livestock, herbs; the river beds are are a remnant of the large flowing rivers they were, water is precious in the countryside. The women work very hard...they grow and tend crops of wheat and barley, they shepherd the goats and sheep, they use donkeys with laden-baskets astride them to transport themselves and their goods from the fields, home, street-side and markets...don't ask me what the men do!!!!

Awesome!

Chefchaouen is a little city of 45k tucked in the lower slopes of the Riff mountains. It's very pretty...lots of small blue and white houses with flat roofs, narrow lanes ( dirt not cobbled), wrought iron covered windows, a large square medina (plaza) in the centre surrounded by stalls,cafes ,a mosque. and lanes leading off into the living quarters which are tucked into the side of the hills. Apparently it is the " Fez of the Sixties" and is THE place to be if you carry a bong in your backpack... though this recreational pastime does not discriminate coz Andrew , Cathy and Tony were invited to join in several times ,while out having dinner!!! ...

Just beautiful....

Things are a little quiet on the anecdotal front this blog as we all pretty tired..a really early start that day , plus 11 hours traveling..we all zoned out!

Surprisingly we are still talking to each other!

More on Andulucia ....

Seville: is a magical city, a meshing of wide open avenues, narrower cobbled roads, paved plazas, great gardens- for relaxing on stone benches, under shady trees with nearby water fountains adding to the ambience. We found several gum trees here !

Where exactly are we?

It's from here that Queen Isabella and King Fernando fare-welled Christopher Columbus in 1492; it was also the centre of the Inquisition; the home of Don Juan; home to Spain's only interior port -the river being 93k from the Atlantic( I can only assume the Atlantic salmon had for dinner that night was fresh!) and prior to Madrid becoming the capital it was the administrative hub of Spain.

Once again, there is a progression of takeovers of many cultures but the the French occupation was achieved with the least resistance. Apparently Bonaparte asked permission from the Spanish King for access through Spain, to Portugal, because they had interests there. permission was granted and the French moved in, took over and it took an uprising from the revolutionaries,originating from Fez, to oust them out some years later!!

We climbed the minaret which is the only remaining structure of the mosque which stood here prior to the now existing cathedral. An elderly man rode 31 levels of wooden ramp, within the minaret, on a donkey seven times a day to ring the bells for prayer. You reach the top and you're in the belfry overlooking the cityscape...the heat haze lay over the buildings and blurred the horizon..not so great for photos...however it was pretty speccy to see over the city and to realize the size and diversity of it.

The Belfry

My Favorite place in Seville- La Place d'Espanol

We were located in the Santa Cruz ( Jewish Quarter), a really pretty area dotted with cafes, eateries, galleries,bakeries and shops selling a variety of wares from tourist junk to upmarket pieces. This was my first attempt at hard-core shopping on the trip.. restraint won out however , only managed to pick up a gorgeous piece of pottery .

Ronda: Re-known for bullfighting, it's bridge and it's food, which we indulged in that night, on a patio overlooking the gorge," the bad moon rising" the only people for most of the night. Magic!

The Bridge

Our accommodation was located in a narrow street where four lanes converged..so we need to find a place where we could park the van. Man ..it was not easy. These roads are really only big enough for one car, so driving is slow and frustrating :( Up and down streets, around plazas, into church car parks and in the end we found what we thought might be one, in front of a building which proved to be the police station.

Admittedly there were signs which pointed to this fact, several police vehicles, policemen, yellow tape with "police" stamped on it, however we did see a car pull out of this spot and there others parked, so we thought why not give it a try (just think at least 35 in the car, way past our lunch time and overdue for the inevitable toilet stop :)!!)

We finally manouvered in and Andrew became aware of the witches hats which were lined up at the back of the car...the ones we must have had to weave our way through to park in the first place.. and said "mmmm I don't like the look of those" and promptly stacked the three up and moved them to the grass area at the front of the car. By the time he was at the back of the van there was a cop making his way towards him!! Tony goes the dumb tourist...uh we didn't know etc and Andrew tries to do a runner..not so quick says the cop...points to Andrew, points to the hats, indicates where they were and spreads his hands apart and waits, shaking his head. Andrew gets the hats, we get in the van, Andrew replaces the hats and we're back at square one !! We ended up in the carpark of a museum dedicated to the tools and methods used to torture Christians (we gave that one a miss!! :)

Gibralter: On Tony's wish list of places to see...we traveled the 50k from where we were staying, to see The Rock, knowing we would be back again early the following morning, to catch the ferry to Morocco.

It was well worth going..though we actually couldn't go over because we needed passports and we had left them in the convent(yes that's right a convent!! Not a place you would normally associate with either Andrew or Tony!! ask Tony about the lunch he had there..partridge). However we were able to see it from quite a long way back and we enjoyed the ice-cream and intended walk on the beach.

The following morning ,on our way to the ferry,we did go across. Gibraltar is an island linked to Spain by a causeway which is also used as a runway. We were lucky enough to be waiting in the queue of cars lined up at the edge side of the runway while a plane took off. Absolutely amazing!

The Andulucia

We have spent the last ten days traveling through Andulucia with Cathy and Andrew...we soon settled in to our roles for smooth transitions from cities, hotels and tourist sights. Tony was the driver, Tom-Tom and I were navigators, Andrew was the back-up with the map and Cathy verified from the tourist notes we had , where exactly we were meant to be!!

Andrew had spent some time prior to the holiday in learning some Spanish, and as English is spoken here pretty rarely (even the local tourist bureaus had staff who mainly spoke Spanish!) we certainly put his knowledge to good use...some times with some comical outcomes!! For some reason, even though Andrew would be the one speaking Spanish, the responses would come flying back to Tony( maybe thinking he was L'Espanol !) causing the utmost confusion in trying to sort it all out. By the end of our stay Andrew was feeling a bit bruised 'coz no matter what he said, it was like he wasn't there

Driving through this part of Spain you could be mistaken for thinking that you were in country Victoria/NSW. Very dry, reasonably flat...you could see the heat haze coming up from the ground; for the first part there were olive groves galore, very few used irrigation; as we got further south The Sierra's came into view. At first they seemed to be just hills but as we got closer they were very rugged, sparsely dotted with vegetation, ruins of castles or fortresses, on the hilltops; white-washed walls with faded- tiled roofed houses nestled in the valleys. We were really fortunate with the weather -around the mid-thirties with only one day feeling like we were re-visiting the Great Flood! The most amazing deluge..big fat drops of warm rain, ankle -deep rivulets of muddy water (there go the sandals!); drenching all possible available surfaces of clothing - even the covered ones!!

The thing that has struck me the most about this part of the trip is that there are centuries of different civilizations which have blended to make Spain what it is today. In one place - Toledo- there were three of the four different cultures of Romans, Jews and Moors which co-existed at the one time- when the Catholic Kings reclaimed the area, they exiled the Jews and Moors!!

When you walk around the township you would find a mosque alongside a church; the whole village was surrounded by a wall built by the Romans, a synagogue was built re-using the stones of Roman buildings as was a mosque. We spent an evening at the Flamenco and you could see the similarities with the arm movements to the ones used by the belly dancer we saw the following night, though the flamenco was a storytelling experience with the interchange between singers, guitarists and dancers. The passion with which they tell the story is fervent, feet-stomping rythmic and loud;animated faces, body movements determining the tempo of the music...a night to remember:)

A real blend of cuisines - the paellas( of course!), great fish dishes, pastas, seafood, specialties such as tongue, tripe , black pudding- afraid none of very adventurous here, though Tony did try Partridge! and Andrew the suckling pig!

Towns we visited
Toledo: a world heritage listed city. An intact ancient town, sitting on top of a hill surrounded by a Roman wall on three sides and a river-with bridge and moat- on the fourth . Under the town there is a network of caves which timeline the history of the city:- Hercules was said to have been there, alchemists used them as a base to work from as it was forbidden to practice, the Romans built aqueducts to provide the water for the city, and they were a hiding place during the inquistion. It is here that three idealogies lived alongside each other-Moslem,Jew and Roman Christians..( not to be confused with what is later known historically as Catholic Christians)....

Toledo Cathedral in background

A novel way to see the sights...

Granada: Another World Heritage listed town -as it was the last city recaptured by the Catholic Kings it has a strong Arab influence and heritage...the most well-known is the Palace Alhambra. Inside it's walls are the fortress Alcazabar( a Moorish King residence within which Spanish Kings later built a palace) and the Summer Palace - the Generalife, which has the most amazing gardens, fountains, patios, mazes...the Arab architecture is designed to bring the outside in, and as a result there is a blending of nature and brick using archways and internal courtyards to create a harmony, your eye is drawn to the symmetry around it, and through the arches to whatever is next..

Unfortunately, our visit here was encumbered with the only wet day we have had in Spain...it was a very challenging day and it had some very funny times as we and tribes of other committed, deluded tourists battled the elements with inappropriate footwwear and umbrellas which covered only the tiniest parts of us, as the wind constantly changed the direction of the rain! Once hypothermia set, in Tony and I ( he very kindly supported my decision to bolt!) set off for the hotel and a hot bath :)

Courtyard at Hotel

The boys


Cordoba: A Photographic Blog