EE & S Adventures

Our tour to the Moroccan desert started with an early morning pick up in Fes where we met our guide Ismail and driver Hassan.  The first day was a long travel day as we headed south from Fes in a 4WD, across the Atlas Mountains to finish in the Sahara desert near Merzouga a short distance from the Algerian Border. We only stopped briefly as we crossed the mountains, thought the Atlas scenery from the car was very interesting (particularly from an orienteering perspective!).  We did get out to feed the monkeys which was one of those things we probably shouldn't have done but didn't really have time to make the ethical and healthy (for monkeys and humans) decision.  It was easy to see they were used to taking food from humans though. As we moved further away from the mountains things became more arid, with the occasional vivid  contrast from yellow and brown coming from date palms and other vegetation wherever a trace of water could be found. Eventually we a...

Volubilis was one of the Roman empires most far flung outposts.  Located in current day Morocco, it was a thriving Roman provincial capital during the 1st to 3rd Centuries, producing wheat and olive oil for export around the Roman Empire.  Rome lost control of the city and surrounding regions late in the 3rd century, however the city probably continued to be inhabited until around the 14th Century when it was finally abandoned.  Since the late 19th Century, both France and Morocco have worked on preservation and restoration (and some reconstruction) of the city and it's now one of the pre-eminent Roman historical sites in North Africa.  It's also a big tourist attraction for visitors to Fes being just 90 minutes drive away. One of the key attractions are various mosaics, many of which are in amazing condition considering their age.  Most depict various Roman gods and other figures of mythology (like Hercules).  The first mosaic below depicts Orpheus (...

Trying to organise your own tour of Fes is just about impossible even for the most seasoned first world traveller.  We wouldn't be caught dead driving (we might have ended up dead!) and didn't even bother to start investigating public transport.  Through our Riad we organised a guide for a day to take us around those sights too far to reach on foot and too complicated or tricky to find and visit in the Medina ourselves. Part of the Medina from the outside Our guide knew literally everybody in Fes and quite a few celebrities beyond (including Mohammed Ali and Michael Douglas - he had the pictures on his phone to prove it).  After taking in a view of the city from outside the walls, we visited some public gardens which were very impressive given the semi arid climate. After driving past a few monuments and the kings palace (he has many palaces all over Morocco), we visited the Jewish cemetery. Apparently relations between the two religions are quite cordial in ...

Visiting the Medina in Fes can be an amazing, yet intimidating experience.  Tiny streets (over 9,000 apparently), some covered, some uncovered twist and turn in every direction.  When you travel to your accommodation, the taxi can't drive up to the front door.  It stops in a barely wide enough street some distance away and you load up your luggage into a handcart for the rest of the journey to your Riad, generally an old house that has been turned into an accommodation oasis for visiting tourists (Elise is writing more about Riads in another post - suffice to say we were fortunate enough to stay in Le Grand Alcazar, one of the most luxurious in the city). Elise taking tea in the Riad courtyard on arrival next to the enormous door to our room Our Riad was near the blue gate which provides one of the more impressive entryways to the Medina. Walking down the shopping streets in the Medina is very interesting. You can buy all sorts of trinkets and souvenirs, alth...

Before heading to Morocco, Eric had been keen to take in an orienteering event in Spain.  El Pedroso a small town in the hills just north of Seville was the venue for the Iberian Championships.  The town was very small, just a few thousand residents plus 1000 visiting orienteers mainly from Spain and Portugal with a small number from other parts of Europe. For the event the town opened its sports hall and a camp for many competitors.  We got lucky managing to find accommodation in a lovely rustic farmhouse (with pool) about 5km out of town.  It was a great way to enjoy some of the Spanish countryside. The venue for the first (middle on Saturday morning) and third (long on Sunday morning) races was alongside a large dam.  The forest was nice - fairly open but steep and with lots of rocks.  In fact the rocks and landform were quite similar to some parts of Australia, excepting the vegetation of course.  The weather was very hot which made ...