Month: February 2023

My new best friend wanted us to stay!

Plan was a stress-free drive to Anima which should take just over 3 hours. Plenty of time to relax etc.

Hmmm – speeding fine of just over £10. I was cross with myself as I had been warned and had been really careful, but one mistake …

Interestingly when dropping the car off and talking to the young lad, he was shocked at how large the fine was.

Anyway, then made a (to me, not unreasonable) assumption that airport would be signposted from the motorway. Moral – don’t assume. Then wasn’t a motorway turning for about 25 miles which was a bit frustrating.

Old phone with Moroccan sim wasn’t getting a signal which made navigation hard. Waited too long to spend the £6 a day to use my own phone, and when we did it was perfect.

Meanwhile had estimated amount of fuel needed before we set off as had to return car nearly empty. A 50+ mile detour didn’t help.

Then checked on flight delays about 3 hours before heading to the airport – it showed up as leaving an hour early. More panic. (Of course it didn’t!)

Flight home brilliant – walked through the door an hour after scheduled landing time. A good end.

Flight home from Marrakech in the evening, so needed something to do in the afternoon. Fortunately we had been told about Jardiniere Anima, about 40 minutes from the airport. Spectacular!

As lovely as 3 years ago, just before lockdown. But it is a bit early in the year – days are lovely but nights are perishing.

Favourite restaurant from 3 years ago (identical menu)

Kermit (the dog)

A couple of “firsts” as we arrived in Essouira:

1. I’ve never seen an instruction in a holiday home to “check under your car for tortoises before setting off”; and

2. Never been prevented from entering like this:

And another amazing place to stay for the last few days. Yes, it is huge – would easily accommodate 8.

I really like Taroudant. It’s a bit scruffy and apparently is described as a mini Marrakech although that’s pushing it a bit but it does have a souk. But the atmosphere felt really gentle. Everyone seemed to be busy, especially first thing in the morning, but there was no hassle either to me or indeed to each other. The children looked really cheerful on their way to school (a lot of dads taking them) and all the food outlets doing good business. I did get lost, though – it is a bit confusing.

Pictures are all of the less scruffy end of town!

And then Zahia suggested a mountain drive with picnic. Reckon we got to between 4 and 5000 feet, so high for us but not for the High Atlas.

Bit of a (very) slow descent trying to pass at least 10 of these …

And a lovely little interjection from our correspondent in Denmark

Gorgeous hotel, hard to find, and not really designed for (their very short) winter.

But Zahia was a delightful host, and in particular a mine of information and suggestions. So Wednesday was Claudio Bravo. It was his house but has been turned into a hotel/gallery. And she especially asked them to ensure lunch was served outside which was a real treat.

Poor WiFi in Taroudant so much catching up to do. But in the meantime some spectacular experiences on consecutive days:

1. Lunch

2.Picnic

3. Dinner

Not much to report as moved on to Taroudant

So goodbye to Marrakech with a last evening in the Clock restaurant. It’s been hard work but fun!

And we might think we can cope with minor crises, but we’re not great at it.

Called the car hire as requested before collecting but no reply. Bit of mild concern but taxi driver took us anyway and helped us find it. Phew – door locks don’t work and we had to pay the car park fee (40p) but we’re off. Got lost getting out of Marrakech but eventually had a full tank of diesel and an empty motorway for 100 miles.

Got to Taroudant and got hopelessly lost. Couldn’t coordinate the paper map and satnav for over an hour. On the phone to the hotel trying to (unsuccessfully) explain where we were when our knight in shining armour took the phone off me, said something in French and motioned us to follow him on his clapped out motorbike for about 5 minutes and delivered us to the front door.

Happy ending!