Another February two week school holiday, another trip! The holidays feel insanely packed together here, I’m not sure how everyone does it. Or why, with their two hour lunches. But we managed to get ourselves to Morocco as a family, and for a reasonable cost, which I will describe (look for the tally at the bottom if you are interested). I came back with “traveller’s tummy”, the only one of us who did, and also had the great excitement of thinking I’d lost our 11 year old for several hours in a Berber town made of mud brick on the edge of the Sahara, (I hadn’t, but it was exceedingly alarming), but aside from those hiccups, Morocco is an exotic, yet safe, very photogenic and memorable place to visit.
We flew to Rabat, the modern capital (72 euros/return each), rented a car (xxx euros), and took off for the North to see the famous blue city in the Rif Mountains, Chefchaouen. It was visually arresting, and a relaxed city, so a good way to acclimatize.
We had two nights in ‘Chaouen, as they say, and could take our time wandering the maze of tiny blue streets filled with shopkeepers. The kids did their own bartering, as Portable Kids should learn to do. They watched, as they would all over Morocco, artisans at work in doorways, doing all of the following and much more: carding and weaving wool, carving wooden furniture, chiseling stone for graves, grinding argan nuts for oil, and sewing leather.
I’d love to add more blue photos. Anyway, we left Chefchaouen and headed back south, now “Finally” heading to the Sahara (the kids couldn’t understand why we had gone anywhere else). Staying and eating cost us, as it would throughout the trip, approx 50 euros/night for accommodation (including breakfast), and 35 euros/day per food, eating one meal at a restaurant and typically one meal more ‘pickup’, either created ourselves or from stall vendors.
We headed to Meknes, stopping on route at Volubilis, a partially excavated Roman city. Such a striking change of styles, gods/goddesses, and culture through time kept my head spinning. The kids were feeling less portable and spent most of their time sprawled on the grass nearby.
We finally arrived in Meknes, with the help of much needed popsicles, famous for the imperial city, and noted for enormous city walls sprawling everywhere and dazzling enormous tiled gates leading through them. We were staying in the medina in two bedrooms in a riad with the highest* rooftop terrace in Meknes (*just by chance: we booked late and took what we could get, leftover accom at our price point, 50 euros/night). Breakfast was up there every morning, it was chilly but dramatic.
Meknes has a main square like Marakesh, full of action, lanes leading off of it into the souks. Monkey handlers and snake charmers, donkeys rides, lots of tagine pots for sale.
We left Meknes after two nights and headed south for the Sahara (“FINALLY, WHY did we have to stop so long there?”), and in the course of a 5 hour drive left our rooftop in Meknes to travel a forest with monkeys happy to be fed peanuts on the side of the road, snowy mountains with sheep grazing on them where entrepreneurial Moroccans were renting sleds, and a hilly desert-like land with kasbahs along the oasis like palm-tree filled river valleys. Lots of drama. But STILL not at the Sahara! That would be the next day.
I should mention: Police, everywhere. Car checks on the highway, officers forever waving us through (or not, but that’s another story. Don’t speed or break any road signs in Morocco! They’re after some cash.)
And then, finally, sand. Lots and lots of sand. We had three nights down there in a gorgeous apartment in the Berber town near Merzouga on the outskirts of the dunes, and one night in a tent in the dunes, reached by camel.
And one terrifying morning for me when Kate ran off and joined the others and they all headed off thinking I knew she was with them…. Instead of laundry I spent 3 or 4 hours in a panic, driving the town and to the dunes and back, with the help of the hotel owners brothers who were driving the dunes on 4x4s and asking everywhere. It ended well but I made sure the kid and adult she joined up with learned a lesson in communication when they showed up over the dunes, ahem….
Our apartment, spacious and full of character, even a little kitchen. The main complex was also amazing, as was the owner. Happy to give recommendations if anyone contacts me.
But: back to sands! They are really good exercise (or exhausting depending on your outlook), and memorizing. Beautiful in every light. We climbed the highest dune, and the kids tore down breakneck slopes at top speed, eventually losing control to spin head over heels, necks intact thankfully.
The night out in the dunes was the magical kind, I think they have it perfected down there. On the camel you go with a small overnight bag. The camel lurches up to its feet, throwing you alarmingly back and forth through a big arc. You squeal. Your group gets on and you are led by a Berber through the dunes. More squealing when your camel goes down steep slopes since you feel like you will pitch over his head (and it’s high up there). Arrived at camp, a selection of Lawrence of Arabia tents, you are free to climb the dunes and watch the sunset while dinner is prepared: a mixed salad, tagines, desert of sliced spiced oranges, served to the whole convivial mixed group of travelers in a tent seating on cushions around low tables. Sweet Moroccan tea, of course. Our kids were so tired (except our youngest) that they missed the drumming and african songs that we were led in around the fire. In the morning, to our confusion, (nobody spoke much english) we were led out to the camels before breakfast, and taken back to our hotel rooftop terrace for breakfast.
A few pics! Oh and now that we’re down here we won’t discuss the lost child horrible excruciating experience except to say the hotel guy was awesome.
And then to quickly zoom us back up to our flight home, we did the trip in reverse (night en route, more tagines and fries, look at the snow, feed the monkeys) to Fez from whence Jordan and I were flying off early for his chess tournament, the National’s qualifier. Sad to say, we sat on the tarmac on the plane listening to an ominous sounding arabic update and then looking at a lot of disgruntled faces and noise around us as they cancelled the flight and herded us off the plane due to a snowstorm in the South of France. Go figure. Then the whole flight stood around the Air Arabia counter for 6 hours arguing with the poor staff and yelling passionately and making friends with each other. Anyway. We ended up on our original flight home two days later with the others from Rabat. (AND great update: Jordan, who was crushed, and half the tournament who missed it (all the highways closed) were moved on to Nat’ls).
And home we flew, two weeks later, flight landing at midnight and in our door an hour away at 2 am, me with a sick tummy that would last a week.
Total cost in euros for the fabulousness of the whole two week trip for 5? (*est, working on exact..): around 2400 euros
Flights (not including missed flight to chess tourney): 435.41
Car rental (160 (?)and 56 euro 2 week car parking in Spain and trip to Spain 70):
Accommodation: (approx 50 euros/night): 700 euros
Food: 600 euros
Night in desert: 160 euros for 5
Misc: 150 euros (camel ottomans 70 euros, entrance fees were about 1 euro per place, fair bit of donations to outstretched hands of people in need. Should have budgeted for speeding tickets! but didn’t and walked away unscathed).
