Essouira, coastal Maroc

We spent our last few days in Morrocco in the lovely coastal town Essaioura (that's essa-weera to you and me) . Not alot to do in this little town, but's its great place for a relaxing wander - alot more chilled than Marrakech. We visted the spice markets, got a henna tattoo and ate local fish. We also figured we couldn't leave Morocco without experiencing a traditional hammam. A little man turned up at our hostel and weaved us through the back passages of Essaioura until he pointed at one door for Greg and another door for me (aka ladies and gents). I wondered into a small dark room full of local women. A semi-naked women looked at me and indicated for me to take my clothes off (i'd already received strict instructions to keep my knickers on!) and then she escorted me into another room full of mostly naked women scrubbing each other down and dousing each other with hot water - welcome to a hamman! While the experience is slighlty different for men and women, the semi-naked and scrubbing bit is there (you should see the dead skin come off YUK). All in all a great experience, we came out clean and relaxed.

Now we head to our truck trip from Accra, Ghana. Where a very different Africa awaits us.

Tiznit, Tafroute and a very interesting man

We got a public bus to Tiznit from Marrakech and then took a grand taxi to Tafroute, a small town in southern Morocco. A grand taxi is an old Mercedes which goes to a certain place, and leaves when crammed full of 6 people, plus driver. Its a quick service but can take hours waiting for a full taxi. We were very proud that we worked it all out, but when we arrived there were about 100 campervans parked outside town! Our way was way more fun. Tafroute seems a popular place for grey French nomads.

Tafroute is at the head of the pretty Ameln Valley, which we wanted to walk through, so we set about finding a tour to take. It was here we met an interesting man. His name was Ahmed and he ran what looked like a very respectable guide/tour service. After some haggling and some good natured banter we decided on a tour of 2 days 1 night, staying with a family and with an english speaking guide.

The next day, ready to start the tour, we met Worrel and Gretha (not their real names - to protect their reputations, and our blatent inability with pronunciation, I hope they don't mind). As we began walking out of town, hopeful at leaving the Camper sea and satellite dish waves behind, cracks began to emerge in the tour experience. Our guide was fluent in French, which was Ok with some hand gestures and translation by our walking mates. The walking was ok but you really thought that we were walking along roads a little too much. We saw a rock formation which looks like the face of a lion, the locals say it keeps a protective eye looking out for the local women. That night we stayed in a big room, with freezing cold water to wash with, but our tagine meal cooked by the guide was brilliant and we had much fun just talking and joking.

The views in the morning were wonderful and the valley has a its reputation for good reason. Just after good lunch in town we again met our friend Ahmed (who hung around a lot and generally made a nuisance of himself) and told him we weren't happy and wanted a cheaper price. Unhappy was an understatement, he acted in a very childish way. We got a lower price, but that dummy of his was dusty from where it hit the ground.

The last part of the tour took us to a series of nice gorges, where we relaxed before heading towards a transport hub called Inezgane for dinner and sleep. We were grateful to have shared the experience with Worrel and Gretha as they made the experience a lot better.

ROAD TRIP!!!!!

Mustapha from our hostel told us of a tour that would take us to the mountains and the desert. 'A most wonderful experience, the sky in the sharan night is most wonderful' We were sold, and so joined the road trip tour that was to be defined by the music we endured in the hours of bus riding. From Marrakech we went to (insert Brian Adams here) Ait Ben Haddou. This old settlement has been used as a set of famous movies, the most famous being Gladiator (insert Mariah Carey here). Recent snow on the surrounding mountains was flowing down the river bed and so the enterprising locals were (over) charging for donkey rides across the muddy waters. (insert Hotel California here).

Later that day we made it to the beautiful Dades Gorge (insert Celine Dion here), where we spent the night. In the Morning (insert Richard Marks here) we explored the Todra Gorge. From here it was onto the Sahara (insert We Are The World, yes We Are The World here) Where we were to spend a night in the Erg Chabbi. But not before a 1.5 hour camel ride across the sand. With my ridiculous head scarf in place we began a lovely to look at, but butt and thigh tearing, trip. Tash couldn't get comfortable and I had the smallest and most nervous camel that jumped around alot. But that night the locals played drums and sang, we celebrated a 30th birthday in our party, and we ate well and had a great night.

Unfortunately one of our fellow countrywomen has let us down. Youcef, our tour guide, was absolutely great. Funny, full of information and very helpful. But a story he told us made Tash and I cringe. An Australian girl on a tour before us called our tour leader UNICEF, and didn't realise it, then went on to say that she needed to go to the Hamas. What she meant was the Hammam, which is a traditional Moroccan bath house, not Palestine.

Marrakech, Morocco - The capital of lost tourists

We decided to get picked up at the Airport and taken to our hostel located in the souks of Marrakech. It was one of the better decisions we've made, as it is absolutely impossible to find your way around without getting lost. There are no landmarks you can see and when asking people for help, as we did on our first day, you can end up at the tanneries near the edge of town instead of in the main square, like we did. But that's Morocco for you.

Marrakech is a wonderful place. We both really enjoyed ourselves and have extensive plans and shopping lists for our return visit. The old walled Medina joins onto the main square Djema El Fna. The main square is a really busy, loud, buzzing place that picks up during the evenings when snake charmers, story tellers, musicians, smoking food stalls, date sellers, orange juice merchants and henna artists take over. People everywhere. You can even play a game of hook the ring over the bottle of coke. Why? I cannot answer that one.Getting lost in the souqs (markets) of the Medina with their labrynthian roads and alleys is a great way to see things we wouldn't normally get to see. At point we went in complete circle and didn't realise it! There are souqs dedicated to leather, spices, cloth etc... Its really good fun to just wander through getting a feel for the place, just be ready for some attention if you even hint at looking interested at something.

London in the snow

After having enough of sun and beach (that's a joke) we decided to head to freezing, snowing, arctic (did I mention cold) London. We were actually pretty lucky to see London covered in beautiful soft snow, we made the most of it and went for walks through numerous London parks.

With my sister providing us with gourmet food, we had a very relaxing time enjoying the delights of western civilisation (dvds, indian food?, Australian red wine and hot showers).

With fresh African visas, we now head to Morocco.

RIO!!!!!!!!!

Rio is an amazingly picturesque city. A gorgeous city. With big stone hills falling to a city skyline and then the beautiful famous beaches and the blue water, the Statue of Christ benevolently overlooking the whole scene, a photographer could explode with possibility. But the city also has quite a dark side with muggings and Slums called Favelas. We stayed in Ipanema, about two blocks back from the beach. Although the weather had not been kind to us over the past few days, it was sunny when we got to Rio.


Moments after arriving at our hostel we were washed away by a wave of people to a soccer game in the famous Maracana Stadium (sorry that analogy isn't great, but hey we're tired!). Rio`s (and Brazil's for that matter) biggest team, Flamengo were in action for the first time this season. Only half the stadium was full, but the supporters could make some noise! The energy and passion was electric.

The next day we took the roller coaster ride (aka tram ride) up a winding road to Santa Teresa. Roaring up the hill it would occasionally screech to a halt to let more passengers hang off the sides or to avoid a head-on collision with a bus coming the other way. It is an colourful area of ageing beauty, once the preserve of the wealthy, the space is now occupied by artists and poets. Feeling arty, we then visited the colourful mosaic stairs created by Chilean artist Jorge Selaron. Inspired by the Brazilan people, he covered more than 250 stairs entirely in tiles people sent from all over the world.

To gain an appreciation of the less glamorous side of Rio, we went on a tour of the nearby slums known as 'favelas'. Located all over the city, squished in between the rich and famous and ignored by city maps lies about 750 favelas. Favelas have a reputation for being 'no go' areas of violence, danger and poverty. The tour allows a different perspective. You get to see the unique architecture which allows so many thousands of people to live in these small cramped conditions, see the significant lack of access to basic public services such as clean water and learn about efforts to improve schooling and social services for the locals.

Photos to come.....

UbaTuba and Paraty - with a touch of sun and two drops of rain

Ubatuba is a little area along the brazillian coast that is famous among brazillians for having over a hundred beaches. And in the Sao Paulo bus station a quick fire decision was made - and we headed to this resort town. We of course didn`t realise that 100 beaches are going to be spread out over quite a bit of coastline. So when the bus pulled into a glorified garden shed we knew we had our work cut out. But we came out ok. The next day we hit the beach and decided to hide from the sun under one of the many beach umbrellas. Brazillian umbrellas do not block out the sun`s rays, as our bright red bodies told us 2 hours later. We knew that we were in for some pain in the days ahead.

With our skin on fire we made for Paraty. Paraty is a beautiful colonial town dating from the Portugese gold shipping times. Unfortunately there was a flood in Paraty a week before our arrival, but the old town had survived quite well, and somehow our hostel was one of the few in town to still have water.

There are many boats in the harbour which run day trips out amongst the many islands and coves (and dodge trees swept out by the flood) that cover the coastline, and we decided to head out on a day trip. An easy relaxing day ensued with swims and cruising. Only for the weather to close in on us as we returned to port. Clearly Mother Nature had not received my memo asking for sunny skies to end South America and it rained on us liberally.

Meals in Brazil are definitely for people who like to share. Almost everwhere you venture, the menu will be full of options for meals for two, and we used this wherever we could for the obvious cost advantages. Brazil does good food.

Iguazu Falls

The Iguazu Falls are considered one of the natural wonders of the world. They sit on the border of three countries and they can be (should be) viewed from both the Argentinian and Brazilian sides. Based on some advice, we decided to stay on the Argentinian side of the falls. And a good decision this turned out to be. The Brazil side is a city of 300,000, where as the Argentina side has 32,000. Its cheaper and has a more local feel, not a hard one that.

In the Amazonian rainforest its always wet, but at the moment the rains are heavy and some flooding has happened. And so the falls are flowing with a LOT of water. The Falls themselves stretch over quite an area, there are 275 individual falls with heights up to 80m. There is an island that can be reached by boat which gives a unique perspective on the falls, but the huge amount of water had stopped the boat service.

Words like spectacular, magnificent and amazing come to mind, and the noise is amazing. At a couple of points you can go quite close to the fall of water, consequently we got a little wet on some of the walkways from the spray. The main part of the falls is called the Devils Throat, which is by far the most spectacular part of the Falls.