New Year & back to Rabat

The view with Perpignan in the distance

We spent New years eve at home expecting we would have a grandstand view of any fireworks, but clearly fireworks are not a big deal in that part of the world. All we saw were a few lights in the distance, still the champers was cold and we had a good time.

We took a couple of trips into Spain and another day trip to see the tallest bridge in the world at Milleu. It opened in 2004 and at it's highest point stands over 340  meters (1,100 ft) high. The Eiffel tower or Canary Wharf would fit underneath it. It is also just under 3 kilometres long. We were watching a UK TV show called Top Gear and they drove across the bridge, which looked absolutely spectacular. Then we discovered it was about 200 kms away we decided we had to see it for ourselves. It was a fascinating day out and although the weather was very overcast it still looked very beautiful.

340 meters above the valley and 2.4 kms long

We watched lots of English TV and movies, ate too much and had fun catching up with Peter. He is heading back to Australia for a visit before returning to his boat which is in Sardinia. Hopefully we will catch up with him again on the water sometime later in the year.

Now we are looking forward to catching up with English friends and visiting the London boat show.

Mas Coq

Mas Coq is the 800 year old converted farmhouse high in the hills overlooking the south of France where we have been staying for the past week. The name means 'chicken farm'! Some how it sounds nicer and slightly sexier in French!:)

The views are spectacular and we are in wonderful isolation with few nearby neighbours. The buildings are all made of local stone and the walls are are a foot thick. There is a swimming pool, although it's much too cold to swim. The main house has a huge farmhouse style kitchen with a center piece of a massive wooden table and benches which would seat about 20 people! The lounge room has a lovely open fireplace, an eclectic mix of antiques from all over the world while gorgeous rugs cover the flagstone floor.

We are sleeping in the 2 bedroom self contained caretakers cottage. The previous caretakers did a runner stripping the cottage of all its furnishings including the cooker! So it it rather bare, although we have the basics, 2 new beds, a leather sofa and brand new  satellite TV. It is because of the caretakers that we are here. The owner didn't want to leave the main house empty in case they returned, so he asked Peter to come and stay while they spent Christmas in their English mansion (formerly owned by ex Brit Prime minister Edward Heath)

Christmas lunch was  a HUGE leg of Aussie lamb (half the price of French lamb) grilled in the oven, along with grilled Christmas cake. Yes, grilled, we discovered the oven doesn't work! The cake turned out a bit weird, but the lamb was fine (I covered it in foil) and the roast potatoes were very crispy!

For my birthday Alan took me to Spain for the day! We are so close tot the border here and there are no formalitites you just keep driving. The food and booze prices are much lower in Spain than France so there are miles of hypermarkets to service the coach loads of French visitors who flock there to save money.

Today all 3 of us are taking a drive down the coast. We only have a few days left before it's back to the boat for a few days before we fly off again to the UK.

Check out the location on our map. Mas Coq is pin pointed on our interactive map on the web site.
http://www.sunflowercruising.com/mapinter2010.html

Just move up to France and click on the top most blue thing and use the "more" to zoom in.

Six days in Marrakesh!

The very winding road over the mountains

After the cooking school we did a day trip in a 4X4 to the High Atlas mountains over a high mountain pass. On the way we stopped at Telouet which used to be a major stop for all the caravans traveling the only route over the mountains. Now there is a good road over the mountains and camels no longer haul goods around the country so Telouet has reverted to a small village, unchanged since the middle ages, which still hosts the weekly souk or market which brings nomadic Berbers from miles around to buy, sell and trade goods. We were there on a Thursday which just happened to be the souk day. It was very interesting although not really my sort of market, mainly foodstuffs and second hand clothing(and lots of donkeys!:). But it was busy with people arriving on everything from foot to donkey to VERY overloaded vehicles! After a quick mooch it was off to the kasbah; an old fort which has fallen into disrepair but still showed signs of the extravagance which had once been lavished upon it.

Once over the mountain pass we stopped for lunch surrounded by the snow capped High Atlas mountains. Then it was on to Ouarzazet, the Hollywood of Morocco where there are several film studios. We drove for many hours through the red desert, so reminiscent of the red heart of Australia. However unlike Australia, here houses built of red mud brick seem to grow up out of the earth looking as if they have just sprouted, like organic life forms. It was therefore a huge shock to suddenly be driving , not on dusty dirt roads, but immaculate dual carriage ways with the most ornate street lights disappearing into the horizon. Instead of mud brick homes there were fancy 2 and 3 story houses, street cafes, fancy shiny cars, kids roller blading and not a donkey in sight! Movies obviously pay well! Many movies have been made here even if they were not set in Morocco. Morocco doubles well for Egypt, ancient Rome and any middle eastern or dessert setting. Among some of the films made here were Sahara, Lawrence of Arabia and Gladiator.

Our driver Boujemaa

We wondered around the movie museum which we had all to ourselves and was very interesting. Nothing is as it seems! Then it was time for the long drive back over the mountains. Such a contrast between the cities and the rural poor, who live as they have for centuries except perhaps for the addition of satellite TV, whose ubiquitous dishes are seen on even the most humble dwelling. But the women were out scouring the barren country side for wood, with or without their donkeys. It was not unusual to see women stooped over with a child bundled on their front and a massive bundle of firewood strapped to their backs. Life is hard out here.

We then enjoyed another day wandering around the souk back in Marrakesh, although by now the constant haggling and feeling of being ripped off at every opportunity by the locals who view the tourists as an endless money pit was starting to pall. Thank goodness it isn’t like that here in Rabat or I don't think I could cope!

When we got to the station to come home it was very busy, being a Sunday afternoon the locals were on the move. To our horror we discovered that first class was full! Oh no, we had to travel second class! It wasn't too bad but we were very glad we got there early and where the train commenced or we may not have got a seat. Everyone including us had luggage and although the train didn't stop all that often, and whenever it did more people got on than got off, so by the time we got to Rabat, 5 hours later we were somewhat cramped and very relieved to be able to stretch our legs. We will be riding the train again next week as Ryanair only fly out of Fez. But it is only a 2.5 hour train trip this time and in the other direction!

On Tuesday we're off to the south of France for Christmas and New Year ! Yes, it's a bit of a shock to us too! We got an email from an Aussie mate of ours who we met in the San Blas about 6 years ago where he was chartering his 60 foot boat, Golden Eagle. We have stayed in touch and he sailed from Panama to Europe about the same time we were crossing the Atlantic, but our paths never met. He is now in Sardinia and had received an offer from his old boss to house sit his mansion in the south of France over Christmas. Peter wondered if we would like to join him? Would we ever!!!Luckily we are now in the area of cheap flights with the likes of Ryanair, so for $100 we managed to get a return flight for both of us. We leave on 21^st December and return on 2^nd January which gives us a couple of days to say 'hallo' to Sunflower and re-pack before heading off to London for a month long visit with friends.

All this land/air travel is very tiring, it's just so much easier to take your house with you!

Good grief! It's Alan Jamie Ramsey Dark!

Alan Jamie Ramsey Dark!

Yes today goes down in history as the day Alan attended a cooking class and actually made edible zaahlouk! That's eggplant pate to you and me, also known as Moroccan caviar.
As well as the Darkies, there were a lovely Mum and daughter from Liverpool (England) and another cooking virgin, a young guy from Salt Lake City, who was as clueless as Alan! First we went shopping for all the ingredients, which took about 2 hours, wondering around the various souks, including the very interesting spice market. The menu was assorted cooked salads, including the now famous zaahlook, sardines baked in the local communal oven with a chermoula stuffing (lots of herbs and spices) then followed by a veggie couscous and egg and meatball tagine, with almond and cinnamon biscuits to follow. We finished the day by eating our efforts and wandered off at about 4 pm.
We were pretty tired as we had a full day shopping yesterday. This bargaining lark is very exhausting, not to mention time consuming. Alan is so much better at it than I am, I lose interest and give up and walk out with desperate vendors running down the street after me! Alan enjoys the game, so much so that one of the stall holders asked him if he was Berber!
Tomorrow we are up early for a trip into the Atlas mountains and a 4X4 journey to a Berber village and the local market day which will be very interesting. We are also going to the foot of the Sahara to the main Film studio on Morocco. so that should be another fun day!

Oh no there are tourists Everywhere!!!

Lovely train stations,including a spectacular new station at Marrakesh which looks like a work of art, comfortable train (we went first class, about A$25 ea) for about 5 hours.

Marrakesh is much more frantic than the sedate cities of Rabat and Sale which we have become accustomed to, and so many tourists! But everyone is very friendly even when trying to get you to buy something!

The Riad (our traditional hotel) is stunningly beautiful and every detail is handcrafted down to the intricately painted ceiling in our bedroom. Breakfast was 3 different type of pancakes, pastries,fresh juice, fruit salad and yogurt. Yummy! If you want to have a look go to::www.riadbahiasalam.com

Today we are hitting the souks for some serious shopping! I am thinking of shipping a container back to our storage unit in Australia stuffed with gorgeous rugs, lamps, carved furniture and ornate knobs and knockers!:)

The weather here is hot, 28 degrees which is unseasonably warm for the time of year, but better than cold and wet for walking around.

Got to go the souk is calling....

We are off on holiday..Yay

Yes it is a while since we have had a holiday so tomorrow we take a
taxi to the train station and a five hour train ride to Marrakech. We
will stay for 5 nights and it will include a cooking course and maybe a
safari into the High Atlas mountains. V exciting....

More soon....

Three weeks in Morocco

We are now well into our third week in here in the marina and have turned relaxation into an art form, or maybe we are just being lazy:) Somehow knowing we are going to be here for so long has taken most of the urgency out of doing anything on our jobs list. While it's true we have spent long times in other places, it has never been knowingly done in advance before, we have always just lingered on. I suppose we will have to snap out of it or we will have a mad last couple of weeks here when we realise we still have loads to do and have idled away our time! 

  

The Kasbah on the river

 Right right now the weather is gorgeous, bright and sunny and warm during the day, which makes it perfect for exploring by foot and certainly keeps the flies down in the foody parts of the Medina. Although around 5 pm when the sun starts to dip down the temperature drops very quickly. We are still enjoying exploring Morocco and yesterday we went to the Kasbah des Ouyadas on the Rabat side of the river, which is a medieval fort built by the Spaniards and is right on the southern promontory of the river with spectacular views out to sea and up and down the coast. We saw the river mouth where we had come in on Sunflower and watched the waves rolling in and crashing against the seawall. (the marina entrance has again been closed for 3 days due to high seas, although the marina itself is mirror calm)

A kasbah "blue" street

As well as the spectacular view, the Kasbah is home to 3000 locals with only one street navigable to vehicles, the rest is all tiny, twisting turning lanes and alley ways. The buildings are painted white from the roof down to about 5 feet above ground level when they are painted a stunning shade of bright blue.(blue is supposed to deter mosquitoes!)Doors are huge timber affairs with ornate knockers or intricately painted designs and flower boxes abound with bright geraniums and bougainvillea climbing everywhere. It was stunningly beautiful.

That's a front door!

We took the easy option of getting to Rabat (rather than walking the couple of miles over the noisy smelly bridge) which was by riding in the marina's Zodiac inflatable, the same one they pilot the boats in with. There are 2 docks on the Rabat side (all new floating docks) where the local fishing fleet tie up. You can also take one of the rowing 'taxis' which constantly ply from one side of the river to the other. The boats are very sturdy wooden craft and are rowed by the 'driver' standing up. They seat about 6 passengers and the cost is about 30 cents. The only problem on our side of the river is you have to walk thorough a building site to get to the dock. This renders your feet and shoes either very dusty or very muddy depending on whether it has rained or not. The plus side with using the marina boat is they will also collect you when you want to come home, although we did have to carry our hand held VHF radio with us all day so we could get hold of them in the evening.

The marina dinghy takes us across the river to Rabat

After our visit to the Kasbah we strolled back through the bustling Medina and bought a pair of slippers each (for the chilly evenings) they are made from lovely soft goatskin. The ladies slippers come in every colour of the rainbow and are decorated with sequins, embroidery or embossed patterns. Very hard to choose, but at $6 a pair I expect I will be buying several pairs! Alan got a very nice pair of manly coloured tan ones (not a sequin in site!) Many of the locals wear these slippers out on the street, the local men favour the ones with the upturned pointy toes and bright yellow is a popular colour. I suppose they have to be cheap as they would wear out in a couple of weeks on the rough roads.

A Kasbah shoe shop

Then it was time for lunch so we returned to the restaurant we had been to last time and had another yummy lunch of tagine and lamb. Then we went in search of hardware stores! One was a walk away from the lunch stop, the other required a petit taxi as it was several miles away in the new town. From there we taxied to a big mall, complete with a MacDonalds! (No, that wasn't the reason we went there) It was very modern with a food hall and huge French hypermarket. Although by this time we were both fairly exhausted and it was dark, so it was a quick grocery shop and another taxi back to the dock where we called for the marina boat who dropped us and our shopping right back at Sunflower!

Driving in Morocco, or indeed being a passenger in a taxi, requires nerves of steel as there seems to be little regard for either road rules, pedestrians or lane markings! Crossing the street should be an extreme sport as the traffic gives way to nobody, even on a pedestrian crossing! Still we are getting the hang of it and it's a good adrenaline rush trying to get from one side of the road to the other in one piece!

A busy "street" in the Medina

So that's our 'news' such as it is. We have booked a flight to London on Jan 6th and will stay until the end of the month. Not an ideal time to be in London, but that is when our immigration expires so we have to leave the country anyway. We are flying Ryanair who fly in and out of Fez which is about a 3 hour train trip from here. When we return our flight lands at about 7.30 pm, just too late to get a train back, so we are going to stay a couple of nights and have a look around there. We were last there 30 years ago and remember the tiny narrow streets, too small for a car but full of donkeys and their carts. As the old city is about 1000 years old, I doubt it has changed very much. We will try and stay in a Riad (a restored traditional house) in the Medina and I would like to do a 1 day cooking course. They take you to the souk in the morning to buy your fresh ingredients, then you cook a traditional 3 course meal and then you eat it! Sounds like good fun to me! I'm trying to convince Alan to come with me, but he's muttering about preferring to pull out his toenails with a pair of pliers?!