Thanks to Ken, here is a sample of the output from our talented artists after their two weeks in EVocative Morocco. This was the “show and tell” session after lunch at Rick’s Café yesterday (Monday).
And then it was time to farewell most of the troop in a mini bus (with mounds of luggage) from the Sofitel Hotel to Casablanca Airport and into the caring hands of Emirates.
Still more posts to come when I get home and can share some more photos.
Our last day together as a group. After four weeks, it’s hard to believe it has come to an end.
We began with a visit to the Habous district, near the King’s Palace (he was in residence). Painting in a charming square or in the olive market were the options for the morning while the non-painters did some last minute shopping in the remarkably uncrowded shops.
At midday, we were at the Hassan II Mosque, the world’s third largest and with the highest (200 metres) minaret. It’s the only mosque in Morocco where non-Muslims are allowed. An amazing structure, built in only six years, on partially reclaimed land (the Koran says the Kingdom of God is over water), it opened in 1993.
Then a relaxed farewell lunch together at Rick’s Café with an opportunity afterwards to review a stunning selection of the art produced during our tour. Great acclaim all round.
Most of the group are heading to Australia tomorrow while Pam and I go back to Óbidos for a week. Looking forward to being at home tomorrow night.
It’s been fun doing the blog. A bit frustrating trying to upload photos at times but hopefully you’ve enjoyed our adventures. I will add one more chapter when I get home to cover some of the pictorial memories of the trip, particularly the early part of the journey from Marrakech.
Shukran and bessalma (thank you and good-bye) for now.
A highlight of the whole tour today – a visit to Moulay Idriss, a village near Meknes, and home for the past seven years to Englishman Mike Richardson.
We left Fès in two mini buses at 9.30am and then spent three and a half wonderful hours in Mike’s multi level home overlooking the town with panoramic views over the hills and the stream below.
Moulay Idriss was the Prophet’s great-grandson who established Islam in Morocco in the late 8th Century. His mausoleum is the centrepiece of the town and Mike’s house has a bird’s eye view of it and the mosque.
Mike is the owner of Café Clock in Fès and Marrakech and he served us the most wonderful lunch, with a personalised menu incorporating our tour logo.
The painters were busy and the non-painters just enjoyed the view and hearing Mike’s amazing stories. We had a quick “show and tell” of the artists’ work before clambering down the hill to our buses for the long journey back to Casablanca.
Dinner – our last joint dinner together – was at Rick’s Café, created by our good friend Kathy Kriger to bring the famous Bogart-Bergman legend to life in Casablanca. (Rick’s in the movie existed on a Hollywood movie set — this is the first and only one in Casablanca). A wonderful and special meal while Issam, Kathy’s general manager, played As Time Goes By on the piano.
An active day – 5 km of walking through the medina of Fès. The medina has 9600 alleyways (30% of them dead-ends) and we must have traversed many of them seeing old ruined palaces, an exquisite medrasa from the 9th century, donkeys, souks and more souks.
This was an opportunity for everyone to get a feel for the medina and the life of ancient Fès. We were in four small groups (everyone now recovered, with one exception), which made the visit manageable.
Lunch was at Mike Richardson’s Café Clock, next to the medrasa, that was to be his home but quickly became the site for a great restaurant spread over many levels in two co-joined riads. Camel burgers anyone?
After lunch we walked through more shops to the tannery, newly renovated, where our artists were due to spend a couple of hours, but the smell from the vats and the attraction of shopping, meant a change of plans.
More injections into the Moroccan economy including from me – bought a great wool and camel hair carpet and felt good about bargaining him down 2200 dirhams, but realised I could have done better when he accepted too quickly! It’s a lovely carpet and we have just the place for it in Casa do Javali back home in Óbidos.
A few more had a rough night so elected to stay in the magnificent Riad Fès to recover while the rest of us set off for the Glaoui Palace – yes, our old friend the Pasha from Telouet. He was obviously a very wealthy man.
His Fès digs were in this amazing place only a 10 minute walk from our hotel, where we’d arranged with the family (Glaoui descendants), who still live there, to spend several hours painting.
It was a memorable experience for our art group. Abdul, the English speaking family chief, is an accomplished artist in his own right and involved his family, including the kids, in Ev’s demo class.
Meanwhile, we non-painters, minus Megan and George (under the weather), set off with Ahmed our guide for a tour of Fès – the royal palace, the Jewish quarter and a pottery, where many of us contributed to the Moroccan economy.
Tonight we are heading to a French restaurant for dinner after a relaxing afternoon on the top terrace of the Riad Fès.
Since the wifi here is so quick, I’m taking the opportunity to update the more recent posts covering Day Four onwards to Fès, populating the posts with some pics. Check them out if you’d like.
A long day which ended well with our arrival in fabulous Fès and the even more fabulous Riad Fès – a 5-star hotel on the edge of the medina with tons of wow factor.
The day began early for the drive to Agadir airport and our 10am flight to Casablanca. The luggage followed by road, but heavy rain delayed their journey with the result that we arrived in Fès before the bags.
From Casablanca airport we drove on the motorway to Rabat, Morocco’s capital, and lunch of fish by the surf beach – a change from a diet of tagines. Sadly Restaurant de la Plage did not deliver the quality food we’d enjoyed there last year. Pretty tough fish but a reasonable salad.
Heavy rain slowed our onward journey to Fès but fortunately it had cleared somewhat on our arrival so we were able to view the vast medina, Africa’s largest, from a lookout above the city.
The day ended with a group dinner in Riad Fès’s dining room that more than compensated for the disappointing lunch. And we were not seated at a dreaded long table but at smaller group tables, making service and conversation far easier.
Farewelling our drivers and Imane at Agadir Airport.
Riad Fès
Fès medina
Today was supposed to involve painting by a waterfall, a picnic lunch in an old medrasa and a visit to a granary (agadir) as well as stops along the way between Tata and Igherm to view, photograph and paint the unusual mountains of the Anti-Atlas.
But alas sleepless nights for 14 of us and very queasy tummies called for a late checkout from Foum Zguid and a straight through drive to Taroudant — our last stop on this leg of the tour.
No painting but we did call in to see the waterfall (more of a cascade) which was no longer crystal clear thanks to recent rains so would not have been very picturesque to paint anyway.
Lunch, thanks to Imane, was a pinic in a riad Walid (one of our drivers) found in Tata. The scenery after lunch was just awesome. Hopefully I can post a pic or two later.
Closer to Taroudant we saw the goats in the branches of the argan trees that look as if they are cardboard cutouts popped in the branches to amuse the tourists.
Everyone loved the two riads last night (Wednesday, Oct 12). Needless to say, it was early to bed for most of us.
A day where things did not go according to plan — at least later in the day.
Sunrise, for those who dragged themselves out from under their warm duvets, was quite a sight over the dunes. The starry sky in the middle of the night (I got up at 3am) was also a sight to behold, although we agreed the Southern Hemisphere sky is better.
Breakfast in the big Berber tent was plentiful, but as we were to learn later, perhaps not prepared to the same hygienic levels of cleanliness as we’ve been used to so far on the trip.
A three hour+ journey to Foum Zguid through the desert via a nomad camp (just amazing — our lead driver, Mustapha, grew up as a nomad, so was able to explain the camp) and a hillside scattered with million year old fossils of sea creatures.
Lunch at Bab Rimal, which is more of a resort than a riad, with a huge swimming pool and individual villas for accommodation. However, they need to do something about the smell in many of the bathrooms, which was quite overpowering.
The plan for the afternoon was for a dip in the pool, a painting demo from Ev, followed by individual painting in the gardens of the hotel, with its dramatic hills front and back, and date palm groves.
But by late afternoon whatever it was that was in our breakfast had worked its evil, striking down 14 of the 22 of us! A very bad night for many. A doctor was called and medication prescribed, which helped a little.
Pam and I were among those who escaped, so I don’t know what it was that we didn’t eat that the others did at breakfast or whether it was that we were served by someone who had washed their hands.
To top things off, when the reduced group sat at our allocated table on the terrace for pre-dinner drinks, an irate very large Frenchman marched over, mistakenly believing we were at his table. Pointing to a room inside he was yelling “you – go in” then followed a string of abuse in French which said something about a lack of education among the English (mistaking us for British) and then ending with the classic line “like Brexit, get out!” We didn’t budge!
A very unfortunate end to what began as a wonderful desert experience.
As this day’s report is being posted today (Thursday), I’m pleased to report that we’re all pretty much recovered after a decent sleep in Taroudant.
Hooray – finally got a pic to load. It’s of sunrise in the Sahara on Tuesday morning. More to come later.
Finally back online!! Of course no wifi in the Sahara (on Monday), but we thought we would be able to connect last night (Tuesday, Oct 11) at the Bab Rimal resort outside Foum Zguid.
No luck. The whole town was without connection to the outside world. Not even the telephone. Wonderful in a way, but frustrating for this amateur blogger!
Last night had bigger problems than that! Wait for Tuesday’s post (Day Seven).
Back to Monday. Everyone was thrilled with the two riads in Zagora: Vila Zagora and Dar Sofian. In the early morning our painters were all taken to a nearby hilltop (a hair-raising journey over gravely roads made even more exciting when one 4WD fell into a ditch).
From there they had a panoramic view of the date groves, oases, mountains, sand, mud-brick houses and even the sparkling water in our riad’s pool. Perfect for painting. Pam did two!
Us lazy non-painting folks sat over breakfast while being plied with goodies by Moha, the most attentive (and witty) major-domo we have encountered in a country of excessively helpful people (all males – we’ve remarked on this in Spain and Portugal too — ¿dónde están las chicas? — maybe in Fès and Casablanca).
We joined everyone on the mountain to ooh-and-aha about the view and the amazing half-built hotel (???) before heading to Tamegroute to view a pottery and an ancient Koranic school with manuscripts dating to the 12th century. Very, very hot there and we welcomed the shady shop (can you ever go through an historic anything without exiting through a shop?) where we all of course added extra kgs to our luggage.
Now the real adventure began. Onwards to H’mid, on the very edge of the Sahara, where we dined in a bit too much heat in the gardens of a bizarre hotel complex in the middle of no-where. Food was a bit suss (see tomorrow’s post — big clue there!) but all very pleasant before we left the tarmac and headed to the sand for a swerving and swaying two hour drive to our campsite, about 20km from the Algerian border.
Our tents were amazing – complete with en suite facilities and huge beds with fluffy (albeit a bit sandy) duvets. A group of us opted for the 30 minute camel ride, while others explored the sand dunes.
Dinner under the stars for us all after the desert isunset.
OK, well you will just have to imagine all this because although this exquisite riad in Taroudant has quick wifi, it’s not powerful enough to upload any of my wonderful (says me) photos.
So, more to come later when the uploads are stronger (maybe in Fès, to where we fly tomorrow – Thursday).
A lazy 10am departure from our Tamedaght riads this morning, after some time for painting, for the drive through the Drâa Valley to Zagora.
Our chariots (aka Japanese camels or more accurately, Toyota 4WDs) were driven by somewhat subdued chauffeurs this morning after their boisterous evening with Berber mates.
All good fun – such nice guys and like so many Moroccans we have met so far, never without a smile. I love the way they say “thank you” and “welcome” with their hand across their heart.
Morocco is a very seductive country. It doesn’t take long to come under its spell. It’s peaceful and safe. Unfortunately many foreigners regard Morocco, theoretically part of the Maghreb, as being in the same boat as some of its North African and Middle Eastern neighbours.
Not only are the people lovely, the scenery in this part of the country is just stunning. We wound our way through mountains, along river beds, through mud-brick (pisé) villages, and alongside part of the 200 km long Drâa Valley date palm grove (56 different varieties). We bought a box of delicious dates – 50 of them for €2!
Our first pit stop was only a few kilometres away on a mountaintop to get a view across the oasis to the World Heritage Aït Benhaddou. Then on the Ouarzazate to extract some dirhams from the ATM.
Lunch today in Agdz was a bit of a disaster as the restaurant we’d booked didn’t seem to have any staff or be interested in our group of 24 customers. The drivers took over the kitchen and prepared salads and sandwiches but it still took two hours instead of the planned one.
There was an up-close-and-personal moment with a camel as we exited the car park. Not everyone has seen a dromedary accept a bottle of water, tip it up, swallow the lot and then drop the empty plastic bottle in the bin!
Two separate riads again tonight. Most of the painters are down the road in Dar Sofian, while us non-painters and partners are enjoying Michelle and Moha’s hospitality at Vila Zagora.
Off to the Sahara Desert tomorrow. Can’t wait.
Still can’t upload pics! Humph!! Doubt we’ll have much luck in the desert either, so next post may have to wait till Tuesday from the delightfully named Foum Zguid.