Taroudant as seen from our original Palais Salaam room
Left early. Drove from Ouarzazate To Taroudant – uneventful drive, 300 km.
Arrived at lunchtime Palais Salam – super place. Terrace in room. [See headline photo] Took light lunch of Moroccan delights, minced lamb samosa type and liver tajine – superb.
Relaxed on Terrace and afternoon – dined on pre-arranged pigeon tajine in evening – delicious.
Tucking in to tajine (above) and sweetmeats (below)
Went to bed early to relax, but earlier “have you farted?” sulphurous smell pervaded and after several comedy sketch attempts by plumber with no sense of smell, [we] got upgraded to a magnificent suite.
Headed off quite early – visited Dadès Gorges – went in as far as car will sensibly go – attractive.
Drove through relatively hassle free villages…
The reference to “relatively hassle-free villages” was actually a throw back to the previous day, when we had encountered several instances of “little treasures” finding it amusing to throw stones and pebbles at our car as we passed through their villages on the Erfoud to Tineghir run.
…then drove out to Ouarzazate – arrived at hotel, nice and early – relaxed around pool.
Rested in room and unexceptional dinner in overflow room at Riad Salam, with monotonous music and interesting Irish journalists.
I don’t think we were wild about that hotel, with the “interesting Irish journalists” being the only highlight. We didn’t photograph the place at all.
Rose at 4:30 am to head off for sand dunes with our guide Hassan.
My abiding memory of this early morning jaunt is setting off from our hotel in our modest Renault 19 with Daisy at the wheel. Daisy, because I didn’t have the confidence even to attempt driving “off piste” in a Renault 19 before daylight. About five minutes into the tentative journey, Hassan said, with some authority, “if you want to get to Erg Chebbi in time to see the sunrise, you’d better let me drive.” So he did – and so we did see the sunrise.
Watched the sunrise at the large dunes, then went to examine the smaller ones…
…before home for shower and breakfast. Set off in direction of Tinerhir – an unremarkable, Sub-Saharan drive until we reached Todra Gorge…
…drove right into the canyon.
Todra Gorge CanyonTinerhir looking at its very best, as seen from Todra Gorge
Got to hotel in Tinerhir, to discover the whole town lacked water. After two to three hours of contingency planning we [decided to] stay put – [the] water came on – [we] ate an unexceptional meal.
We flew out to Fes (or Fez) on the evening of 7 November. We stayed at the Palais Jamai there – we liked that place, although it flattered a little to deceive with a flashy outward appearance – much of Morocco was like that.
We had arranged a walking tour of the Fes Medina (only feet and mules are allowed) for our first day in Morocco. Our guide, Abdl Jawl, arrived promptly and without ceremony.
A selection of the photos and yarns follows. More photos can be found in the Flickr albums, linked at the bottom of each piece about this holiday.
Examining the snailsColour-co-ordinated Moroccan womenZawiyya (mausoleum) Moulay Idriss IIMedersa El-AttarineKairaoine MosqueDebating with Abdl Jawl in Seffarine MedersaLittle treasures in a Seffarine District schoolYou’ll be grateful that the tanneries are not shown on a smelly-visionIn the souk we were neither persuaded to buy a carpet, nor a Fassie outfit
Having failed my audition as a Klansman, we took some lunch back at the Palace – Pastilla (Moroccan pigeon pie).
25 years after the event (March 2022) I am starting to write up the wonderful 1997 trip Janie and I took to see Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, followed by some restful time in Eilat.
Hopefully my diary/log together with the many pictures we took will prompt my memory to tell the whole story, as my notes are light and even the Abercrombie and Kent itinerary (a bespoke jobbie for us as independent travellers) seems to have gone walkabout in the intervening quarter of a century.
Writing about it now is tinged with sadness, as I realise that many of the things we saw have been destroyed and can never be seen again. The artisan depicted in the headline photo, working away in the Aleppo Souk, is but one example of that.
The photos have been available on Flickr for some time, so Ogblog readers who like to look at pictures and read captions can glean much about the journey without reading the Ogblog pieces.
Here are links to the pictures divided by country visited:
The Ogblog pieces mostly cover a day each, with highlights from the photo albums (and some stock photos where desires/required) to illustrate the stories.
For reasons I hardly need to explain, we then did very little during the day, apart from lounging, reading and swimming.
In particular, we tended to skip lunch, other than perhaps some nuts and a beer.
We befriended a camel, whom we named Cadissa, convinced that this single camel had followed us all around the Levant and was now resting up in Eilat along with us. On subsequent holidays in the Middle East and Maghreb we would often encounter Cadissa again…or so we would say, anyway.
Cadissa was there on business that morning
In short, we had a very relaxing and enjoyable break at that place. Although we don’t normally go for that type of big hotel, it was just the ticket after a rigorous touring holiday.
Our flight home was quite late in the day, so we made an impromptu arrangement for our transport vehicle to give us a brief look around Tel Aviv-Yafo before we went on to the airport. I think we had used up all of our film ahead of that mini tour; in any case we have no pictures from it. Janie hadn’t seen any of it before – I hadn’t been up top to see the contrast of and views from Yafo before.
…I was given quite a grilling on exit by an Israeli security guy, who perhaps found our Lebanon, Syria & Jordan trip a matter of concern. He tried to wrong-foot me by telling me that I had been inconsistent in my account of where we had been.
When I repeated what I had said and then shown him the Abercrombie & Kent itinerary, he apologised to me and then let me through.
An apology from an official – there’s a first time and a last time for everything I suppose.
You can see all the pictures from this trip in a single, 300+ picture album, by clicking here or below.
Then straight off to Wadi Rum in open top jeep to see Lawrence’s Well plus rock formations with Nabatean and Thamudic inscriptions.
Not a poser
Another hugely photogenic place – Wadi Rum – we took loads more pictures than shown in this piece and it is well worth a click through to see the full highlights set (link at bottom of this piece).
Then on for weird border crossing alone but it all came right in the end.
This border crossing was quite a thing.
There had been a terrible shooting, subsequently known as The Island of Peace Massacre, at one of the few other Jordan/Israel road border crossings, just a few days before our crossing. As a result, the Aqaba crossing site was more or less completely deserted.
Unconnected with the extra security, there was a strict “passengers only” rule at the crossing, so our Jordanian driver/guide had to say goodbye to us at the Jordanian barbed wire and we had to do our own thing walking across several hundred meters of no-mans-land between the Jordanian side and the Israel side. The site was surrounded by hills from which you couldn’t help feeling an Island of Peace-type lunatic could shoot having secreted themselves there with ease, despite the enormous security presence at each side, but not in no-mans-land.
We each had a trolley for our baggage. The trolleys had traditional “minds of their own” making it extremely difficult for us to walk in anything vaguely approximating a straight line, which rendered the several hundred meters of no-mans-land even longer.
Worst of all, our trolleys were squeaky, which meant that the only sound we heard in the eerily vacant no-mans-land was the “eek…eek..eek” of our own progress wheeling the trolleys.
It felt a bit like a scene in a Sam Peckinpah or Sergio Leone movie. This scene might give you some idea of it:
Once we got to the Israeli side, we learnt that border control and all the additional security was the entirety of the waiting party…our Israeli driver/guide had not turned up.
A bright spark at border control asked to see our travel documents and quickly worked out which agency to call, placed the call and told us that our driver would be with us within 10 minutes…which he was. I don’t think anyone imagined that we would press ahead with the road/foot border crossing in the circumstances…no-one else had done so that day!
Spent a tired evening relaxing in [Princess] hotel.
Petra must be one of the most photogenic places on earth and it is not hard to take or find good pictures of it. Even our highlights album (linked at the bottom of this piece, with narrative on each picture) has more than 35 Petra pics and I have limited this post to just 10 – the highlights of the highlights – as eye candy.
Set off at nine – Ali introduced us to our [local] guide Talat. Went by foot to Siq and through Siq – saw Treasury [see headline picture] etc, streets of facades, Roman theatre, look at the royal tombs, central city, colonnaded Street, Kasr Al Bint…
One thing Janie and I particularly remember is how immature the local guide, Talat, was. He insisted on holding Janie’s hand a lot and we suspected that Janie’s natural friendly manner was being received as “the wrong signals” by him. He was quite a contrast with the rather gruff, fuddy-duddy guide, Ali, who has been showing us around the rest of Jordan – himself a contrast with the truly excellent Syrian guide Abdel.
Quick look at museum and then up “back way” to Zibb Attuf (Great High Place) – superb vistas…
No chance, Talat
…then secret route back (more amazing vistas) and tea with Talat’s uncle Mohammed…
I have long suspected that Petra’s “secret way back” from the High Place is one of the worst kept secrets in tourism. Lovely walk though.
…then short rest before dinner of Mansef and Musakhan at Al Mehbash.
