Off To The Sahara

We have decided to head to the edge of the Sahara for some relaxing under the stars. Plan is to take a camel trek into the desert and camp overnight, but will have to see how the bum is feeling after the overnight bus trip.
We are now in Meknes after a few great days looking around Fes and Meknes. Fes is madness personified. with an endless labyrinth of alleyways and souqs in the medina. We spent a couple days simple wandering around looking at (not allowed to go in) the beautiful mosques and markets. If we weren't nomads for the next year there was loads of really interesting things to buy. Yesterday morning we got the chance to see the tanneries, which were amazing. They bring in the various types of leather and soak in a lime dye to remove the fur, then they soak in pits of colour dye. Each dye is made with all natural plants and is stunningly colourful. The most expensive is saffron dye, which is bright yellow. We had been wondering why men had been walking around in bright yellow leather slippers, STATUS SYMBOL, they are the most expensive ones. Meknes is much more low key then Fes, but still has some interesting things to see. The pick being a muslim mausoleum with incredible mosaic tiling and carvings.

First Days

We have well and truly begun now. First day was extremely hectic but we managed to get from London to Tetuoan without any major incident. However we have no plans to ever return to Tetuoan as we were told today that it is known locally as the robbers capital. Would of been useful if that little nugget of info was included in the guide book. Anyway we then caught a bus to Chefchauoan a lovely mountain town in the Rif Mountains and managed to chill and get our bearings. We are now in Fes after an eventful bus trip. About an hour out of Fes the bus ran out of fuel, now you think a bus company would be fairly astute at this sort of thing, but we sat around for about an hour while petrol was procured from the closest village. Fes seems a really cool place and we are looking forward to exploring the medina and kasbah over the next couple of days. On the food front I have just had pastilla, which contains pigeon meat, lemon flavoured eggs, rice and pastry. Leighanne is loving the tagines and the couscous (not as good as yours though Pete).

Leighannes first posting

Mine is only a quick one; mainly because this keyboard is arabic and it is taken a while to figure out.
Just wanted to keep my promise with my postings and this is just to say that we had our first celebrity spot; maybe a c list one but still one. Sophie Anderton was on our flight to Malaga and she spent most of the time snogging the face off this greasy bloke. Oh and I have spent the last couple of days without diet coke but luckily managed to find a can in Fes; whoo hoo.