Day 3: Next stop Marakkesh
1smc8am No signs of breakfast staff, so decided to forfeit it and not rush. Left 150MD- (2.50pp,pn) for local tax on reception and headed out loaded up onto the very quite streets of the Medina. Nowhere opens early but children were on the way to school although it was Saturday, Holy day was Friday.
8.45am Arrived at Bus office with loads of time paid another 10Mdr (80p) to put both bags in hold having paid the 100Mdr (£8) each yesterday for our fare
9.15am off on time, pringles and warm water for breakfast.Time to catch up with the blog.
10.30am comfort stop Sidi Mokhtar, Boots snacked on a pain au chocolate 10mdr (80p). Plenty of other places to get refreshments apart from the one coach parties are herded into.
12.55pm Arrived hotel in Marakech.
13.52pm backpacks dumped again and our first geo cache in Morocco found. Nice find in Healthy restaurant only 300m from hotel, hence a spot of lunch is in order
Back on track to do a Lab Cache. First destination, Koutoubia Mosque the largest mosque in Morocco,
From here we spotted a storks nest. Turned out to be an expensive photo shot as from here we were led to believe we could learn about Argan oil products free today only and we took the bite £50 later I had wonderful red lips with lip stick made from poppies so i was told as well as argan oil for salad and the body and some ras el hanout.
On to the next stage of the cache. On the way we spotted an excursion office and decided to enquire about the trip we plan to do to a Sahara camp.
20 minutes later we are all booked to leave for the desert on a luxury safari which was far cheaper than prices we had seen online.
Off to find the El-Badi Palace the next stage of the cache, we failed this one as the palace appeared to be closed. We showed an interest in some Terracota items, that turned out to rough skin removers which later became a gift, which led us to listening to all the very informative spiel. We bought Eucalyptus crystals, the vapour from which seemed an excellent decongestant and also some dye pigment.
We certainly needed a drink so turned the corner into the palm surrounded Tinsmith square
6pm we decided to try and get the last two parts of the Cache, the first being just around the corner at the palace. The last step led us 700m through the narrow allies of the medina. It appeared to be rush hour through the Alleys with pedal cycles and motorbikes coming from both directions. How nobody got run over I will never know, I sandwiched myself between two Moroccan ladies the theory being they would not knock them down. The alleys opened up eventually into the Jemaa el-Fna square where we found the Answer we need for the cache.
The light was just going and the square was coming alive, the street food all seemed to be of the same offering and eventually gave into the hassleling.
The menu was priced for individual items and appeared very reasonable and looked good. We seemed to just go with the flow, eating a meze style meal on bench tables. The food was good and at 400 mdr (£32) was great value for experience.
The square was buzzing with all kinds of activities including a type of hook a duck with bottles of pop, if it had been wine we may have had a go!
Henna tattoos, tarot card readings, live entertainment and photo opportunities with snakes, monkeys and even pigeons.
It had been a long day, so we decided to make tracks and walk the 30 minutes back to the Hotel, taking a slight diversion to carrefour in the hope of finding a can of beer or bottle of wine with no joy.
Bravo for a fabulous healthy day.
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