Wow, Morocco, where to begin?! I’ve just spent 2 weeks in this absolutely incredible county with a group of amazing Aussies on our Geckos Adventures tour, check out the itinerary here! From the bustling medinas, beautiful mosques, seating heat of the desert, hiking in the mountains, bargaining in markets, delicious food and of course relaxing by the beach, my time in Morocco was so full on I’m going to have to divvy it up into 3 posts! After a relaxing week in Switzerland, I was craving adventure and cultural challenges again, and boarded my flight to Casablanca, Morocco, with slightly nervous anticipation and excitement. With a window seat on my Royal Air Maroc flight, I was able to appreciate the contrasting landscapes, changing from the lush forests and lakes of Switzerland to the dry crops of Morocco.
My tour group was made up of majority Australians, one American and me, the token Kiwi. A mix of 6 girls and 4 guys, we quickly bonded over the first few days and I am so stoked to now call this crew friends and to have shared this amazing experience with them! When I arrived in Casablanca, my roomie Christel wasn’t around but her clothes were everywhere and I instantly knew we would get along and it turned out she was a crazy, outgoing mess just like me! Our tour guide Said was a descendent of the Berber nomad people, from the mountain regions of Morocco and has been a tour guide here for 11 years, since he was just 18!! We couldn’t have asked for a better guide and friend to help us along the road through challenging climates, and his local knowledge and the experience he gave us are unforgettable.
The only mosque I have visited before was in Kuala Lumpur last year, and the differences between the two were obvious even as we walked up, taking in the colourful architecture and mosaics dotting up the main tower and taking in the enormity of the complex. All of the materials in this mosque had been sourced from their own resource-rich country, with the exception of the 57 Venetian chandeliers. With a retractable roof, the Hassan ll Mosque can host up to 25,000 people praying inside and an extra 80,000 around the greater complex!
Our Geckos tour began with a 3 hour public train journey inland to the religious town of Moulay Idriss. After my experiences on public trains in Sri Lanka, I had low expectations of the comfort level and was pleasantly surprised! Once we found an air conditioned cabin, the journey was smooth railing and it was awesome to get to know the dream team I would be sharing the next 10 days with.
Our first meal together was a beautiful tagine, the first of many wonderful tagines throughout our trip.
Volubilis is located 10 minutes away from Moulay Idris, and absolutely blew me away. Volubilis was the southernmost Roman settlement, active from 100BC until approximately 4AD. The Ancient Roman ruins of this town are approximately 2000 years old, with a massive earthquake in Portugal in 1755 destroying the area. A UNESCO world heritage site, excavations are continuing in the area and the initial excavated section of the town visible today took around 50 years. They used underground sewers, there was evidence of raised aquifers and olive oil was the main business of the area here.
As my first Roman ruins and not even knowing they crossed into Africa, I was so impressed with our visit and the knowledge of our local guide here. We were among the first visitors of the day, and it was crazy (if a little stupid in hindsight) how close we were allowed to inspect the ruins. The Christchurch blood in me was a little worried about the possibility of another earthquake as we took in the view.
Our journey continued through the heat to Meknes, where we had a quick local tour before catching the train onto Fes. King Moulay Ismail made the city of Meknes famous when he made it the capital of Morocco for a while. The current king of Morocco is a descendant of Moulay Ismail, and this city remains important to the country today. We enjoyed the beautiful doors of the 17h century royal kasbah before exploring the ginormous old granary. Hundreds of tones of grains were stored here as a strategic reservoir of food provision in case of siege to allow for 6 months worth of food. The architecture of this building was almost characteristic to that of a church, and the 3-5m thick walls doubled as a cooling mechanism, I would imagine this building would provide an escape from the heat in the summer as it did for us on our tour. Adjoining to the granary were the old horse stables, so old and unstable we were warned not to stand directly under the arches, just in case!
We jumped back on the local train to head up to Fez, the next destination on our journey and one of Morocco’s most famous and renowned religious cities. When we arrived it was hot, very hot! No time for rest, we were straight into a city tour and ready to explore the sights and sounds. Before hitting the world’s oldest medina, our local guide Muhammad took us to the Morocco’s largest Royal Palace along with an old castle with epic views of the city. We also passed by a free vet hospital, set up by an American lady in 1927 to provide treatment to all animals in the region which I thought was super cool! Enough of my own friends questioned my trip to Morocco in 2017 so I can only imagine how hers reacted 90 years earlier!
As we continued through the medina, we observed the finest craftspeople of Morocco, hard at work with their incredible metal work, creating ginormous lamps and plates, along with knife sharpening, painting and textile artists.
We had a lot of fun at the textile shop discovering the handmade table cloths and scarves, before learning the art of twisting a turban and selecting several scarves to protect us from the desert later in the week.
I cannot compliment the food of Morocco enough. On reflection of 2 weeks of incredible cuisine, I would say that the lunch in Fez is in close competition for first place. Chicken pastilla, tender beef and a selection of Moroccan salads quenched our hunger and led to an afternoon nap! As a brief aside, during the first week especially, we were limited in eating options during the daylight hours and we were very lucky with the places we could track down. After we left Fez, our daily lunches revolved around a group shop at the local markets and bakery, collecting fresh salad ingredients and giant watermelons for picnic lunches which was also an amazing (and entertaining) experience!
Our journey continued toward the High Atlas Mountains as we picked up our comfortable AC minivan for the next week got comfortable with slightly windier roads and surprisingly dropping temperatures. One stop along the way was at a ski resort town (whaaaaat?!), inspired by the French with a very European feel and chalet styled buildings. Surely we couldn’t be in Africa! With such a diverse landscape, some parts of Morocco in the winter receive more snow than the Alps, and this resort town is a very popular destination for European tourists and Saudi kings who own houses in the area.
The over-sensationalized NZ media is reposting a forecast of the worst snowstorm in years to hit home in the next couple of days, I’m thinking of you all and happy to be heading to the sunshine in Greece! Until then,
A Kiwi xo
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