Elizabeth Ward

A very early start, ready for 7am in the main square with no breakfast and minimal items due to the bed bug fear. We then did not leave Marrakesh until 8 am and was traumatised by a man in suit climbing on top of Fran and shouting at the girls that made us late. Transferred to another van for an hour and a half nap until our first stop for coffee and Madeline’s. Then more queasy bus rides to another women’s cooperative which is basically the Moroccan version of Avon probably owned by Richard Branson.
Carried on the winding bus journey through the high atlas to Ait Ben Haddou- the film place of gladiator, the mummy, Indiana Jones 3 and Lawrence of Arabia. We then were bullied into spending €8 each on pinkish scarfs which later turned out to be exactly the same colour as my face.
We then stopped for lunch of pasta soup and crap margarita pizza. They then charged us extra drinks which we were told were included and then charged us for service while pretended not to speak English even though he spoke it earlier. Chaos.
We then carried on in our bus for 2 more hours before stopping for ice cream. Then we carried on again to get water and were taught to count to 5 in Arabic.
We then arrived at our camels. We rode for an hour to our campsite in the almost Sahara desert. Lilah has to go on the smallest camel and my camel was called Wayeed.
We arrived at our desert camp and inspected for bed bugs. We socialised with our new German friends and had some Moroccan tea. We were asked if being vegetarian was a choice or prescribed by a doctor. We ate barley soup and chicken tagine- just soup for lilah, the small camel will be grateful. Our guide notified us that the door to our tent had been left open by our own Fran, I bravely battled the wind and the sand and the stray dogs to close the door before all ours beds were covered in sand. We then listened to some Berber music and lilah played the bongos. We had a fire in the desert and tried to sing we will rock you in Berber. We finally came to bed to find everything covered in sand and tried to brush our teeth outside but was surrounded by the stray dogs and their puppies. We are currently lying in bed too hot, covered in sand, suncream, sweat and deet because in the commotion we invited some mosquitos into our tent.Read more