Morocco - Camels, Mules and Grand Taxi's

vquinlan
Sep 30, 2019
6 min read

Updated: Oct 24, 2019

29th August to 22nd September

Lilian - The entrance into Rabat was amazing; we were led by a guy in a RIB from the marina so we didn’t ground Danu. We motored under a large castle and up a short section of river; we had to dodge the ferries going across the river. Everyone was shouting and waving and really friendly.

The police and customs came on board, that took ages and then they brought the dogs on to sniff for things you shouldn’t have like drugs. We were then allowed to tie up on the marina. We spent a good few days getting used to Rabat, it is SO different from Ireland, the smells, the calls for prayer, crowds in the medina (old city), lots of flies, shopping for food was very different! Take a look at the call for prayer video in the video section.

One evening we went to buy a chicken and we had to point one out then the seller said a prayer and chopped the head off and plucked it and gave it to us. It was still kinda jumping, I found it sad and considered being a vegetarian but I like meat.

In Morrocco they eat a LOT of tagine, it was nice at first but after the trek where we had it EVERY night, Im not sure I ever what to see another one. Mum was talking about buying a tagine pot, you use it to slow cook the tagine on a stove, thankfully that didn't happen!

The other big difference is that I had to wear long sleeves and long trousers or a skirt and sometimes wear a scarf on my head (in the country areas). Most people are Muslims and all the women are dressed either in a burka (only eyes showing) or hijab (face showing). I didn’t think it was fair that Ruairi hardly had to change at all, although he did get Moroccan clothes, I think he will do Morrocco for next International day at school! I don’t like how the country is for women and I wouldn’t live in Morrocco.

After a week we packed all our gear to head off on our trek, we were going to walk from the North side of the Atlas to the south and then into the desert. We jumped on a train to Marrakesh and stayed a few days there.

We leave Rabat for Marakesh and the Atlas Mountains

Ruairi;

The main square in Marakesh is called D'Jemaa el fna, the smells we so different, sometimes spices, animals, sewers (double yuck), or mushed fruit. I was really really angry with the guys who had the monkeys, they dressed them up in nappies, or stupid costumes and put chains around their necks. It put tears in my eyes. There were snakes also, some cobras, I wanted to see them but their owners teased the snakes to react all the time. I don’t want to have anything to do with that, I will come back in a few years and set them free.

Lilian – We walked for 6 days over the Atlas starting in Kalat M’Gouwn and finishing in NKoub. We had two mules and two muleteers called Hassan and Youseff, and a guide called Hamou.

We plan our route through the Atlas with Hamou

The first day was really hot, like really roasting, mum said about 32 degrees and Ruairi had a problem with his ankle so it was really tough. Mum said it would cool as we got higher, it did a little bit.

On our trek we saw lots of different coloured rocks which were really cool, blue rocks, purple rocks, red rocks and even pink and green rock!

We saw great rock formations that looked like animals like elephants and Camels.

Elephant rock - not clear from this angle:)

Twice on our trek we went down beautiful gorges. When we went down one gorge we came to a river, it was great to cool down.

We learnt a lot from our guide Hamou, sometime we arrived at villages and its amazing to see how they grow their crops with so little water, they dig channels to capture the water, this is called irrigation. We picked dates and figs and ate them from the trees.

One afternoon Ruairi had a problem with his foot, so for an hour he went on a Mule, he said it was harder riding the Mule than walking as you had to hang on lots as we went up and down some steep mountains!

We tried to follow the river but then it dropped over a small cliff so we had to climb out, that was fun as we got climbing, mum only mentioned the snakes in the holes after!!

Every night we camped out, the stars were amazing and it was very quiet, though I didn't stay awake long, after walking so much I would fall into a deep sleep. We got up at 8am each morning and took down our sleeping tents, then we would set off after breakfast at about 9am. Youseff and Hassan would pack up the mess tent (where they cooked and we had our meal) and load up the mules with all our tents and packs.

We would walk with just water and some snacks. They would pass us out during the day and then go and set up the lunch spot and then the evening camp.

Lunch was mostly tinned fish and salad (amazing what you eat when you are hungry) and then tagine and bread for dinner, which I got sick of. I dreamed of ‘normal food’..

We all got the Moroccan squirts at some point, Ruairi got it bad one day and I won’t explain how that went as he will go mad at me, but he had to stop 7 times!!

We made up lots of songs about ‘squits’! To the tune of 'Momma mia'.... it starts - Diarrhoea , Diarrhoea , here we go again ... Oh my **** here it comes diarrhoea... Mum says I can't write all the words here, I'll sing it for you when I get back LOL

There was a lot of conversation about the topic.

Moving on, here is a family shot taken by Hamou:)

After 6 days I was totally knackered especially after the last day which was long very long and hot very hot.

So did I enjoy it? Yes I did but it was hard work and hot, mum says this is what she calls - 'type 2 fun'. She explained that sometimes experiences are hard work and that if they are too easy and we don't work for them they may not have the same impact. I do look back and say yes it was an 'interesting but mad experience', I do feel that I had a big adventure.

After that we went to a hotel called the Kasba baha baha and spent 2 days in the pool which was glorious and I slept and slept and slept.

Ruairi;

After we were all able to walk again, we got a 3 hour taxi ride to where our camel trek started. It was an interesting start as we got a grand taxi which got a grand puncture! We were in the middle of nowhere, it was now 45 degrees and it was like stepping out of the car into an oven!

I was very happy that we were riding camels, me and Lilian and mum loved it. We all had names for our Camels, mine was Sandy and Lilians was sunset and Daddys was Ball Cruncher which is why he didn’t like it! Ha ha.

It was really cool to see the huge sand dunes and me and Lilian ran down them.

We rode the first day in the late afternoon so it wasn’t too hot, but it was still 40 degrees Celsius! Then a storm came in and it went crazy for a while, you could hardly breath or see anything and I nearly lost my scarf. There is a video on the web site of this. Look in the video section. Its cool.

We only walked for about 10 minutes and you needed water, I think you would be like this in only a few hours, the air was SO dry your mouth felt funny and you had to drink, it wasn't even a hot day when we were there!

Ruairi demonstrates walking in desert with no water

Then we stayed overnight in a camp and did some drumming. It was SO hot in the night, I thought it would be colder. We got up really early and rode in the dark and watched the sunrise then we got outta there before it became a furnace.