Home again

IWell, after 26 hours of traveling, 12 of which was on airplanes, we are a home save and sound.  Tired but enjoying unpacking and finding all the treasures we bought and tucked away.

A heart felt thank you to Rachid, Fadila and Wadill, for making us feel so at home at Riah Linda, and to Linda for joining us while we were there. We would all highly recommended this as a place to stay, if you ever travel to Marrakech, Morocco.

To our two taxi drivers Allele and Abibe, who picked us up at the airport and were with us on all our travels, we stopped at lots of interesting places along the way and had lots of laughs.

To Amina, who traveled 12 hours on the train from Tangiers to meet us and helped as an interpreter, master barterer and guide us thought our 10 days.  It was also nice for her to see a parts of her country for the first time, the Sahara, and to ride a camel.

Even with all these special people we met along the way, the trip would not have been the same without the 9 of us who travelled from Ontario!  It was a great group of people and I thank each of you for sharing this experience.

Last day in Marrakech

We started the day at the Palace

Then off to the Hamman

Last dinner with Amina

Ahmed serving tea

Another rest day

Today was a rest day, Nancy J flew out this morning and we went shopping without her (sorry Nancy but we did pick up your goods).

The gang is out organizing our Hamman for tomorrow, we will get pampered before we leave.

This is Amina's last day with us, she has got her hands decorated with Hennas our plan we are planning a nice dinner out tonight.

Camp fire

Since I went to bed early in the desert I did not have pictures of the camp fire but here hey are

Sunrise in the Sahara

We were up waiting for the sun to rise.

And it finally arrives

In honour of Our Hospital this is why we give

Lining up ready to go

Although we enjoyed our camel rides our glouts, groins, abs, and lower backs were sure glad to see our vans and drivers waiting for us

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Camp

Dinner in the Sahara

Our home for the night

My bed for the night

Our tent

Washrooms and showers

Sunset in the Sahara

Our camel ride was about an hour and a half stopping to enjoy the sunset

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The camel ride

The chariots are waiting

Amina's first time on a camel

I named my camel Miracle, as it was a miracle that I rode the camel

Our fearless leader

Driving under the influence, after a nice warm "biere Speciale"the Nancy' were the leaders of the train.

Shopping in the Atlas and Sahara

Trip to the Sahara

An early start, up at 6 and on the road by 7:30 for our trip to the Sahara. Viola was ill so her and Lloyd stayed behind.  We went through the Atlas Mountains, we stopped along the way to take pictures and buy from the local markets.

Th

The roads wind along the side of the mountains twisting and turning, narrow roads meeting transports and buses on the corners were an adventure

The villages were built into the sides of the mountain 

The sights were spectacular 

Dinner in the square

Tonight we decided to have dinner in the Jemmaa, Linda suggested Stall 89 for the best fish. We have an early start tomorrow as we are off to the Sahara, so we decided to go early.

We arrived at the stall and sat down, no one was there, slowly the cooks started to arrive, the propane grills were lit, the pots of grease were filled and turned on. One was mashing eggplant another cutting lemons, them the pails and metal freezer boxes started to arrive with the food along with cases of bottled coke a cola.

The cooking started, first we were served bread, salsa dip and eggplant dip. Then came the fries (Burger World look out the competition is on). The fries were followed with a plate of calamari, then cod, then white fish, Northern Ontario pickerel was up for a challenge with this fish. The food was fantastic, fresh and hot.

Then the bill arrived 560 dirhams for 12 people, Richid and Wahere joined us for dinner. This is equivalent of $70.00 Canadian dollars for everyone.

Another memorable day

Lazy day

Today has been a down day, resting up for our big trip to the Sahara.

After the gang's 10 km run we enjoyed breakfast on the terrace.

We always seem to be out of money, so our first stop was the bank machine, after our close call the other night we decided it is best to go in the day light and keep guard for each other.

We then went to visit mosque, Cathy enjoyed a game of soccer with the kids. We were then asked by a group of young women from Marrakech to take their picture and of course they reciprocated the favour, very interesting to see the interaction of eastern and western women - young with the older.