Mauritania, it's ok

Now stationed in Nouakchott, Mauritania's capital. I think the people are lovely. And very funny. And they like playing cards. There is excellent fish. The scenery crossing the Sahara from Morocco was amazing, breathtakingly beautiful. It's a shame these things are currently tarnished in my mind by the most annoying man in the world, who we crossed the border with. A Frenchman called Didi (??!) who has made me think some very ungracious thoughts over the past couple of days. More details to follow with a better computer. Hopefully off to Senegal tomorrow or the day after.

Bye for now.

Anneliese

games on the up, games on the decline

On the up
Black jack
Cat
12s
Guess the time (Ross has an uncanny knack at this, there must be a way to exploit him and make some money?)

On the decline
Rummy (Anneliese is too impatient)
Taxi (formally known as battle hat)
Animal, vegetable, mineral (flawed)
Horse (no thieves)

camera no more

A sad day. My camera died. No more photos from our trip I'm afraid.

It is far too hot in this internet cafe so I will keep this brief. We went to Tafraoute: painted rocks, walking in the Almeln Valley, good. Now we are in Sidi Ifni, quite simply "the most romantic art deco military town ever built", I'm wondering who the other contenders are? Tomorrow we start heading for Mauritania and there is likely to be blog black out for a while.

Now in a much cooler internet cafe, a good thing as it is bloody hot outside. People here are also commenting on how hot it is, this makes me feel happy that I am not just being a wuss about the heat but I fear that where we are heading temperatures are pretty constantly hotter than this and there will cease to be comments from the locals along the lines of "c'est tres chaud aujord hui".

We are about to get on a 15.5 hour bus in this heat. Bum.

We left Sidi Ifni this morning, it was a lovely town and deservedly described as romantic. Very sleepy compared to other towns we have been too. The beach was only so so but the waves were exceptionally strong, much being knocked over and whacked with fist-sized rocks carried by the swash (note, geography teacher).

Much love,
Anneliese & Ross

Before haircut and shave

Slightly scared with dead foxes at the Taroudant tanneries

At the Immouzer waterfall

to Paradise and beyond

We had to take a horrible bus from Essaouira to Aourir. It smelt. I didn't like it. Then there was a most annoying man who kept interfering and making simple things complicated but we ate a kilo of lovely lamb tagine and took a taxi for a reasonable amount despite his best efforts to "help". Then we were in Paradise Valley. Jimi Hendrix went there in 1965. This is pretty miraculous as he was first in Morocco in 1969. It tells you just how special a place Paradise Valley is. We stayed in a lovely although very warm auberge with our favourite hotel person to date, Mohammed. People visit Paradise Valley to swim in the pools created by the river, a simple 3km walk... according to the Rough (very) Guide...  from our guesthouse. It was 8km. It was very hot. There was no shade. It didn't feel much like paradise at this point. After many hours of searching we found a friendly Moroccan hippie who showed us the way and gave us bread and honey, I think Ross would have married him at this point, had he asked. The valley lived up to its name and we did some swimming and jumping and sitting in the very refreshing water. Mostly I sat while dozens of tiny fish nibbled away at my toes (AG). Then some Dutch people turned up and spoilt it all. They may have been young, tanned, toned and beautiful but this didn't stop one of them from being wrong. As we retreated around the corner to change out of our wet things one of the "gentlemen" in their party swam around, out of sight of his friends, but into full view of us and proceeded to lower his trunks and add his own fish to the waters of Paradise Valley.

After some slight illness on Ross' part we carried on further into the mountains to Immouzer. Site of a large waterfall at times but after years of drought and at the end of the dry season a mere trickle. Still very pretty and we got to do some more swimming, this time in the coldest water known to man (ish) in the very very very deep plunge pool.

This morning we left there and are now here. Taroudant.Inland from Agadir dir dir.... (Ross insisted on this).

Goodbye for now.

The Castle Sahara

An old Essaouirian legend tells of a majestic castle in the sand. It grew up from humble beginnings: a bridge, a simple sand wall, a moat. Over time more and more was added to the Castle Sahara; mighty towers of sand overlooking the surrounding dunes, an enourmous impenatrable keep with walls inches thick and a vast surrounding wall over 6 centimetres high. But the people of Castle Sahara had no water. After much deliberation the people of the town decided to build a holy sanctuary close to the castle. They hoped this structure would earn them god's favour. He answered their call and sent two mighty giants to the castle. Using nothing but their enourmous hands and feet they dug a ravine henceforth known as the Mighty Gorge of Akabar. The occupants of the castle waited for the gorge to fill with water. However, the Mighty Gorge of Akabar was many metres in length and would take some hours to fill. Raiders on horses, camals, bikes and quadbikes all attacked the Mighty Gorge of Akabar but the giants stood loyal repairing the damage after each attack. Slowly the water crept up the Mighty Gorge of Akabar and finally the joyous day that had been waited and prayed for; for so long arrived, the moat and reservoir of Castle Sahara filled with water. But god had not sent the giants to save the city because the water did not stop, cutting deep into the sand upon which the city was built. Sheltering inside the holy sanctuary the citizens of Castle Sahara watched in horror as the mighty towers and walls crumbled. Their screams could be heard for minutes across the dunes as the water finally dissolved their once imposing home.

The end.
By Ross.

Marrakech to Rabat to Essaouira

7 days.

Marrakech was as Marrakech is, hectic and busy and chaotic. We were hassled to buy, we were hassled to eat and we were certainly hassled to not go down that way because it is closed. It is never closed.

We then travelled by train to Rabat. The capital city. Fears of a dull and unpleasant capital proved groundless, calmer and friendlier and richer than Marrakech, it was a nice place. We had one aim for the city, to procure visas for Mauritania. This proved exceptionally easy, a mere few hours and a jump to the front of the queue for being a woman (not Ross) although we did have to commit a minor forgery on our visa application...we had to supply an address in Mauritania. We didn't have one. Nor did we have the guide book to look up a random hotel. Ross came up with the cunning plan of making up a hotel. Anneliese came up with the cunning plan of choosing one from the Morocco guidebook. Hotel Sahara. Turns out that is the first hotel listed in the Mauritanian guidebook. We are geniuses.

The visa collection meant we were in Rabat for the end of Ramadan and Eid on Friday. It was a little difficult to find places to eat for a few days.... there were a couple of sneaky bananas wolfed down behind the Medina walls (Ross is insisting this sounds sexual) and some guilty gulpings of water on the streets of the souk. With the arrival of Eid, every streetside cafe filled with men chain-smoking cigarettes and downing coffees, something they had clearly been desperate to do since Ramadan began. Towards the end of the afternoon the entire city seemed to descend on the seafront promenade. Some came to swagger in their best threads. Plenty came to stare at the swagger-ers. And even more were boys, who came to jump repeatedly off the rocks into the sea. One of whom made a fairly persistent attempt to chat me up (not Ross) culminating in some kissing on the cheek. A sign, I am sure, he thought me a woman of less than perfect morals....

And so, on to Essaouira. We arrived last night after 7 odd hours on a bus. A damp hotel but it does have the highest terrace in the town. Today, all day, on the beach. Some sunburn.

Signing off.
Anneliese & Ross

The day before

I have a horrible cold.
Anneliese

i said goodbye to my parents.
ross