MOROCCO

Sahara trip

Essaouira: location of Game of Thrones filming

Taghazout

Paradise Valley

After making our way down the coast of Spain we departed Tarifa and arrived in Tanger. This is where we began our 10 day excursion of the North African country, Morocco. After a long day travelling by train to Marrakesh we arrived around 9pm. Given directions by the taxi driver to follow his friend (someone we were obviously obliged to pay) we strayed and quickly became lost in a foreign and chaotic city. After many 'locals' offering to take us to our hostel (one leading us down a dark alleyway) we were almost ready to give up. Suddenly, we saw two other tourists who fortunately happened to be staying at the same hostel. Our saving grace. Our first day in Marrakesh was off to a bad start and as we would later discover, finding any address in Morocco is like solving a riddle. Lucky for us our hostel was amazing, free tea and shisha at any time and the most lovely staff. The perfect sanctuary to hide away from the chaos outside. Whilst we were in Marrakesh, we decided to do one of the popular Sahara desert excursions. We did a 2 day, 1 night one. We left really early, before the sun had risen to hop into our mini van and make our way to the Sahara. It was a long drive and wasn't as picturesque as expected, but the desert itself was incredible. We were on our camels for about an hour and a half to our campsite. The sun was setting and created the most beautiful lighting. My camera phone didn't really do it justice. That night at the campsite there was live music from locals, and some of the best tajine I've had. We were up again at dawn the next day, for a shorter camel ride back to the road for the drive back. Overall I would definitely recommend it if your time is limited and hours upon hours of camel riding isn't really your thing (the 2 hours all up was about all my very sore bum could handle). 

From Marrakesh we made our way down to Essaouira. Essaouira is a smaller city than Marrakesh and was a much less stressful experience. Although, directions to our hostel literally were a riddle, "turn left of the wall, go up the clock". Essaouira is a well-preserved 18th Century European fortified sea-port town. The Medina is completely surrounded in a French inspired military wall and one part was even used for a few scenes in season 3 Game of Thrones.It had the perfect view for the sunset and watching the waves crash up against the rocks. When we weren't exploring the many local shops, we were relaxing at the beach. It was great to get some of the last summer sun. 

Last stop was the even smaller town of Taghazout. A few people had recommended this place so we decided to give it a go. None of us were expecting it to be so small, we missed our stop and drove past it completely! It is known as a great surf spot, though none of us really surfed. We spent a couple days at the beach and on one of our other days we went to the idyllic Paradise Valley. Paradise Valley was fantastic, for about 25 Euros each we spent a day in this amazing palm tree filled valley, cliff jumping into blue pools. Transport and lunch was included! If you aren't keen on staying in Taghazout, trips also run from Agadir.

After Taghazout we made our way back to Marrakesh for a night before flying out. It was here we said our goodbyes. The girls were back off to England and I was flying onwards to Madrid, Spain. Our 10 days here had been great but Morocco is a third world country, some of the things you see are heart wrenching. A country like this really does make you count your blessings.