I’ve been sitting here racking my brains for a word that best describes Morocco, but all the good ones have been used….for example magical, exotic, spectacular, mysterious, alluring, intense, exhilarating. Others that would work might include “noisy” (try being in the Jemaa el Fna, which is Marrakech’s main market square, at night when the snake charmers, the bands, the story tellers, the food and drink salesmen, the henna artists and everyone else are all vying for your attention in a cacophony of competing sounds) or “hot” (every one of the last 11 days has reached at least 35 degrees and usually higher – yesterday for example we waited for a bus in a place where there was no shelter and the time/temp clock across the road reminded us every few seconds that the temperature was either 39 or 40 degrees).

However, I’ve decided my word for Morocco will be “orange”” because the one defining image of this magical, exotic, spectacular, mysterious, alluring, intense, and exhilarating country, among many images, will be the colour orange which, it seems, is everywhere we look. From the fifty or more carts lined up side by side in rows in the Jemaa el Fna, each with hundreds of oranges and sometimes grapefruit stacked high on the front and sides of the stall, selling incredibly refreshing cold glasses of juice for just 4 dirhams each (that’s about NZ60 cents); past the consistent terracotta colour of every building, public or private, in Marrakech where everything must meet the standard colour scheme; via the deep reddish soils of the High Atlas mountains; and on to the postcard perfect colour of the Sahara sands in the setting sun at near Merzouga where we rode camels far into the desert to reach our Berber camp – there are varying shades of orange everywhere in this country.

And, for posterity, we want to take some kind of defining image away from our last stop before Part 1 of the Adventure Before Dementia tour comes to an end…..and if orange does the trick, then so be it! Morocco has been so much fun, such a great place to visit, and we have seen so many amazing things, that we really don’t want to leave – so it looks like Morocco has made a late run to secure first place as “favourite country (so far)”…

Every single day here has been full of highlights, especially when we were on our On The Go/Nomadic Tour for 8 days with our excellent guide Brahim. That makes this part of the trip hard to summarise, so maybe we’ll just have to give you the best of the best…..
– an extremely well paced tour with excellent food (Moroccans seem to think 3 courses at every single meal is a minimum requirement!) and a delightful hotel each night. Included on most days was a lunchtime swimming stop, and when it’s 35 or so degrees, a dip in the pool is very welcome indeed.
– very informative commentary from Brahim about what we were seeing, the history and politics of the place, the cultural background, even his own family details to illustrate how mountain families live their relatively simple, uncomplicated lives. Here’s an example – Brahim is around 32 years old and has no idea whatsoever of when his birthday is! All his mother remembers is approximately when he was born (she knows 1980 but not the day or month) based on her recall of the seasons, the farming patterns like whether or not they’d harvested their crops at the time, and whether or not the nomads on their continuous wanderings had reached Brahim’s family valley yet or not. So, when he first enrolled at university he was ‘allocated’ a birthdate, and then subsequently when he applied for a passport he was allocated another (1 January 1980, along with all other 1980-born Moroccans without an exact date) which is now his legal DOB and then when he joined Facebook he decided to do a bit of thinking and worked out, based on family reminiscences that 20 July 1980 was about as close as he was going to get!
– visits to the UNESCO World Heritage sites of the Marrakech Medina (the old fortified city dating back to the 11th Century and containing iconic places such as the main square and the endless labyrinth of the souqs and market alleys) as well as the Kasbah at Ait Ben Haddou.
– shopping in those Marrakech markets, if you can stand the endless entreaties to “come into my shop – looking is free – I make you good price” and also if you can survive the continuous barrage of motorcycles and sometimes even cars which barrel down alleyways that are barely wide enough walk in let alone have motorised traffic! Add to that a visit to the adjacent leather tanneries which are large outdoor complexes of open vats which are used to prepare the hides of camels, goats, cows and sheep – curing, tanning, preserving, colouring etc. When your Berber guide showing you around uses the technical Arabic term “pigeonshit” for the active ingredient in one of the tanks, then it is little wonder that they give you a large bunch of mint to hold under your nose throughout the visit….this is known locally as a “Berber gas mask”!! Unfortunately, we were about two weeks early for the postcard shots of all the different bright colours in the vats – this apparently only happens in the hottest months of July and August when drying is at its best, so we only saw the sepia version of the process.
– a night in the Sahara at a Berber camp, one and a quarter hours by camel from the end of the road in the seemingly endless dunes of the Erg Chebbi, which is one of Morocco’s two ergs, large dunes of wind blown sand near the Algerian border. Erg Chebbi’s dunes are up to 150m high, and cover an area of around 200 or so square kilometres. When you’re sitting atop a camel silently padding its way toward your camp as the sun begins to slowly set in the western sky and all you can see is sand in every direction, or if you’re back on that camel next morning at 5.30am so you can experience the magnificence of a Sahara sunrise, and again all you can see is sand, then the whole thing becomes quite overwhelming. Add to all of that the fun of sand-boarding down a dune or two, a full Berber feast (3 courses again), and sleeping outside under the full moon and a million stars….and it all adds up to a pretty good excursion!
– rock climbing maybe 40m up the 160m high walls of the Todra Gorge was also a lot of fun although in the 40+ heat, it was no easy task, but again both the oldies on the tour (that’s us) managed to complete the job
– visiting the movie studios at Oaurzazate to see where films like Jewel of the Nile, Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven, Babel, and many more were made and discovering in the process that most of what we see in the movies is actually polystyrene. There was a full scale set of the Temple of Karnak in Egypt (we’ve been to the real thing) and it is all fake…..but very well done all the same. The studios have been there since the 1980s although the Moroccan film industry really started back in the 60s when most of Lawrence of Arabia was filmed there
– crossing the High Atlas mountains by way of the Tichka Pass at 2260m, on a road built by the French in the 1930s when they we’re pillaging Morocco for every ounce of mineral wealth they could find and needed a road to transport their goodies to port. It’s an impressive feat of engineering and matched only by another French built road in the Gorge du Dades where we spent a night – both roads twisting and turning back and forth, almost tying themselves in knots at times as they rapidly climb very steep slopes

There’s more, much more, than this to Morocco but I’ve gone on long enough….and it’s time for bed. To summarise, we have really enjoyed every minute in this country. It’s a great place, with great people, great weather, great scenery. What else can I say but……
…..ORANGE!!

For a few photos, just click here: Morocco