Malham to Marrakesh

I arrived back in Europe yesterday and headed along the N7 coastal road to the Costa Del Sol as I have never experienced this part of Spain before………huge shock to the system both in terms of the weather but also the place; more of that later😉 My last day in Fès was fascinating as I was invited to lunch with one of the few remaining Jewish Merchants who still lives in the Medina after I had spent an hour with him discussing (and finally buying), an old ornate silver embossed plate at a price both he (and I) were happy with….but more than I will admit to Viv 🤫🫣 His shop was in an old City synagogue which was closed in 1979 when his father, the last Rabbi, died.  He converted it into a shop selling Jewish pottery and silverware as well as local goods.   Unfortunately, he explained that whilst the Country is religiously tolerant, he really suffered from the local guides refusing to bring tourist groups to his shop (without significant ‘baksheesh’ payments) to the point he was t...

  I can’t help myself whenever I walk round Roman Ruins but think of the definitive film of that era ie Life of Brian…..an all time classic😉 Things got a bit lively in Ifrane forest with winds gusting to 80km so I headed north to Fez with the intention of going to the vast Roman town of Volubilis; this was at the extremity of this part of the Empire and is a huge site of c. 40 hectares although only about 20 have been excavated. I arrived at about 10 on a cloudy but dry day and cannot have seen more than 50 people in the 2-3 hours I was on site.  All is in the open and uncovered and I was free to walk round and look in awe at the dozens of unrestored but nearly perfect mosaics.  At the risk of boring I have added some photos below. Love the mosaic of the guy riding a horse backwards…..reminds me of  The Boy’s equestrian prowess when he was a kid and we went riding in Cornwall🤪.   Whilst in Fez, I also took the opportunity of testing the one bit of kit on the L...

  What a difference a day makes……two songs in the first lines, got to be a record (pun intended 😉). After Todres, drove round the east of the High Atlas over to the Mid Atlas range (not the most imaginative of mountain range naming, I admit) and what a difference 250 km makes! First there was more greenery and the start of almond and walnut orchards and then moved into a plateau where there was grassland! This was at a height of approx 2100m. The change of temperature was great (dropping to the low 20’s) but of more note was the huge improvement in air quality as I moved from the dust of the desert. I have spent the day around the town of Azrou, and in the surrounding cedar forests where I have been ‘lucky’ enough to encounter the Barbary Macaque’s which inhabit these wonderful woods…..great to see truly wild Barbary ‘ape’s’ unlike the colony that live on Gibraltar. As I never discussed how ‘Ape-proof’ the  Darche roof tent was when I bought it, I took the cowards way out and...

This blog will probably only make sense if you have read the previous one😉 There are some pieces of music that take me immediately back to a point in history…..the Frog Chorus is one of them and as it is such a bad song thought I ought to explain why I inflicted it on you in my last blog… It is a tradition in the French Army that following Regimental Dinners the assembled Officers sing heroic songs often telling tales of former victories…(mainly very historical as they haven’t had many recently 😜).  When therefore we discovered at Sandhurst that our final exercise prior to Commissioning was going to be hosted by the Officer Cadets of the French École Militaire at Saint Cyr we decided in the best traditions of maintaining the ‘entente cordiale’, that we, the Officer Cadets of New College, should also learn a song which we could sing in response……. For no other reason than McCartney’s musical talent, we chose the Frog Chorus 😉. The song was received as intended and following the f...

So I have finally left the deeper desert and moved 20km from the official ‘edge’ of the Sahara back into the High Atlas Mountains up the Todra George at an altitude of 1900m.  The river which flows through this impressive gorge feeds the underground aquifers and rivers under the Sahara and despite it being narrow, it is host to some great local farms; waking up to the noise of frogs and the almost overpowering smell of orange blossom is fantastic after the last week 😜 The photos of the local fauna also tell a story of the past few days from this critter I found down in a dried river bed 20m from where I camped yesterday to this frog (it was big, body around 10cm), which was in the palmerie just behind where I have stopped today….. apologies for the quality of the scorpion photo……it goes without saying I used the zoom to its max🫣 .  These things scare me!  I also was lucky enough to see 2 North African Ostrich at a distance which was a real treat as I didn’t know their r...

  Requiem to a fallen comrade It is not the critic who counts, nor the one who points out how the strong man stumbled or how the doer of deeds might have done them better.  The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred with sweat and blood and dust; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, if he wins knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, if he fails, at least fails whilst daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. RIP I found this famous wreck of a fallen 80’s Paris Dakar raider in the desert of Erg Chigaga on the same day I visited an old Foreign Legion Fort which was the site of a massacre in the latter part of the 19th century……..thought provoking🤫 Desert Have stopped early for the night as I have had yet another f**king flat tyre 🤬 and...

  After a lovely week with ‘the gaffer’ ending up in Marrakesh it was back over the scary Atlas roads to the Sahara proper. The route was great, passing palm groves, old kasbah’s, and huge desert hills and outcrops. The Sahara is living up to its reputation as being a destroyer of vehicles as after 48 hrs my rear suspension has failed (not the suspension itself but the bolts which have shaken loose and in the process worn the threads of the main suspension to polished bare metal).  Managed to recover from the desert and drive the 80km to Zagora where I found a great mechanic who was able to sort the suspension and as a bonus he greased all my nipples and transmission which was nice of him (but still walking with the limp🤫) This place is magnificent, the scale and heat of the desert is immense and when I have finished the vehicle repairs tomorrow I will be heading out to the first dune areas of soft sand where I will be loosing myself for a couple of days. I also had some succ...