Morocco here we come!

Monday 30 and Tuesday 31 December 2024

The morning was occupied with, the now all too usual, process of moving ones temporary abobe to another county, country or conteinent. Needless to say, many hours of the day passed in transient bordem.

It was interesting, however, once we took to the skies, to see the visual difference in the landscapes we were leaving and heading to.

The first item on our Intrepid 15-day Best of Morocco* agenda was to attend the group briefing at the Al Walid Hotel in Casablanca at 6pm. Despite a scheduled arrival of 2:40pm this proved harder than anticipated. 

*The itinerary for 2025 is slightly different to ours.

Meeting the Team

Delayed flights, glacial passport control and dense (in more ways than one according to our taxi’s horn) traffic meant we shot into the meeting at 6:15pm.

We met our guide, Hicham, and the six other travellers. Seven females, three teachers, five under 30, all easy-going and adventurous. This was going to be a good trip.

After a hasty check-in to our room, we all headed off to dinner to get to know each other.

Whistle stop: Rabat

The next morning, we headed across the road to catch the 9:25 train to Rabat.  This 60-minute journey took us east and through the gently undulating, drought worn countryside.

Rabat is the capital of Morocco, but still surprised me with it’s modernity, open space and cleanliness.

The other unexpected feature was the colour of the sky. My new phone camera is a little bit ‘insta’ but the skies really are a dazzling blue and mostly cloudless. After walking around the medina and riverfront for 2 hours, we reboarded the train for the 2 hour trip to Mekenes.

A typical meal

In the early evening we piled into two taxis and headed to the burbs to share a meal with a local family. An important part of Intrepid’s approach to sustainable tourism is to support locals, and this is one way this is done.  The meal cost $20 AUD each and we were able to communciate through Hicham with the family, especially the multi-generation women of the house. Both women had married young (14 and 18) and undertook very traditional roles in their families.

I didn’t take many photos (well one exactly) but the meal consisted of dates, soup, couscous, vegetables, chicken, cake and fruit.

We retraced our path to the hotel and eventually found ourselves in the rooftop bar/nightclub for a New Years Eve drink.

The Gin and Vodka mixed drinks we ordered set us back $10 each, so not really a cheap destination.  We stayed for a while, but the volume and the dense smoke drove me to bed and the younger travellers outside to walk around in the fresh air.

Back shortly after midnight, Olivia described their return to the bar to see costumed dancers and stilt walkers (I might get some photos later) but that they were again driven away by dense smoke.

And so we were to bed to see what the new year will bring ….