DogBlog

These are some images from our week trip to Essaouira. It’s a peaceful ocean town, with a great historic town centre.

We decided to get out of Marrakesh for a few days (we needed the break) so we took a three day trip to the Sahara… The three day trip is really the shortest trip you should ever consider to go to the desert. They don’t leave a lot of spare time on these tours, which means if you’re just a little late for something on the day you arrive in the Sahara, you’ll arrive at night, in darkness, which would be a real shame.

Given the money and time, we’d have stayed for a week, but the 12 hours we have would have to suffice for now. We were ushered into the desert on camels at sunset, which was spectacular, then a well needed chicken dinner, and a camel ride back out of the Sahara at dawn.

If this sounds a little chaotic and rushed, its because it was. The desert is spectacular, and vast, and deserves more than a fleeting photo call. we vow to return one day.

Our guide for the three day trip was Abraham, who drove us in a Land Rover Defender (110). It made me wish I was still in my treasured M

On our way out of the desert, whilst speeding by in our Land Rover, I managed to get this wonderful shot of the dunes, reflected in the standing water from the recent rains. Not bad for a shot from a moving vehicle!

Here’s one from the archives
Lian and I had a slightly extended 5 week trip to Morocco, thanks in part to RyanAir canceling our return flight and leaving a couple of hundred not very happy passengers at Marrakesh airport. Luckily for us, we weren’t in a hurry, so just waited the week (yes a whole week) for the next available Ryan Air flight…. what an incredible company!!

In total we spent around two and a half weeks in Marrakesh, which is (trust me) a very long time to be a tourist in this city  By the end of it most of the touts and hustlers knew us and we weren’t hassled as much.

There’s plenty to do in Marrakesh, the main square: Djemaa el-Fna “assembly place of the nobodies” is the heart of the city. Locals and tourists mingle amongst the food vendors, orange juice stands and snake charmers.

Only tourists buy fruit from these stands… They’re about twice the price of the sellers a little further into the market.

The juice from these stands is great… And it costs only about 50 us cents a glass…

On one of our nights wandering around the city we spotted a crowd of people and a film crew… It turns out the British ‘Naked Chef’ Jamie Oliver is in town tasting some of the markets famous delicacies…