moroccan marvels

Morocco; I had not pictured the smells. Shelves upon shelves of auromatic oils.Sacks of herbs and spices. Some of the sacks tops rolled down to show the smooth red henna. Lumpy ginger stems, shiny black carob sticks all letting off their spicey, incensy perfume into the air! Visiting souq after souq these smells will linger forever in my mind!
Morocco; I had not pictured the Grand Taxies! The Mercedes, normally built for four or five, in Morocco the drivers fit in four people on the back seat and two passengers on the front seat! Although in Sidi Ifni there was SIX people on the back seat! It is compulsory that one passenger is at least obese! Everybody pays for one place! You have to be squashed as a tourist and you have to have at least one elbow in your kidneys! But it gets you there, to you destination, faster and cheaper than the local buses!
Morocco; Where the young boy in the pizza bar plays with the knife as if he is shaving himself, than wants to cut your pizza with the same knife! I don;t think so! Morocco where you ask for a sprite and they open a coke! Where it doesn;t matter because the teenager working in the pizza parlour finishes off everybody;s soft drinks anyway, and he likes coke! Morocco ; where in the south the people have difficulties giving change! Always in their favour though!
Tomorrow I will go over the Mauritania border. I am aware of the dangers, I have heard of the three spanish aid workers who were kidnapped! I am taking an informed decision. Just know that I love you all. Life is good and god is great!

home alone

In Agadir Peter flew back to Oz. I went on alone. I came from the mountains with a headcold, which transformed itself into bronchitis. Hence I stayed put in Agadir, where the bed was soft, the pillow fluffy and the water could nearly pass for hot. Then Tiznit; Mifelt and Sidi Infi. Sidi Infi has a great surf for you surfers out there. I have a roo with a view and wonderful people in the hotel. Boiling hot water and vicks to help me along. Internet access far and few between plus if it is there it is extremely slow. Don;t expect too many e mails. I am on the way to Mauritania. Keep you all informed.

sounds of silence

After the BIG cities of Rabat, Casablanca and Marrakesh we moved on to Imlil, a wonderful little village in the High Atlas mountains. On the bus there we met a deligthful young man, Ahmed, whose family had a guest house. Pure fluke the moslim feast of Aid Kabir, the slaugther of the sheep, was on for five days. It is based on the Koran story of Abraham, who wanted to slaugther his son because he had no sheep. His son was named Abdullah, for people who want to know. The story in the Bible is slightly different; but we didn,t point that out to anybody. We stayed in the mountain lodge and literally could hear the silence at night. We became guest of the family and trotted along to grandparents and the like. Of course we paid for it all, but it was definitely a highlight of the Moroccon visit. The mountains are stunningly beautiful albeit extremely cold. The next day two man got dressed up as the ghost of the killed sheep and scared everybody by yelling and smacking people with a rubber hose. The actual cutting of the throats was not something I wanted towitness, ask Peter for details and photographs.