Reset search
Hello 40Hello 40
SatelliteEdit route

Hello 40

December 2019
A 18-day adventure by Nadine Read more
  • 30footprints
  • 4countries
  • 18days
  • 163photos
  • 17videos
  • 19.0kkilometers
  • 16.9kkilometers
Follow Calendar Share Bucket list
Date ascending
  • TravelerHello 40
    Day 7

    Freezing in Fés

    December 17, 2019 in Morocco ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    Google Fés and you will see people walking along the Medina in the sun. That is the picture that was in my mind that was quickly being erased as we fell asleep Monday night to pounding rain and wind rattling the windows. It would blow over right? Yes. Yes it would. Positive thinking.

    No. No it did not.

    It was not even a sprinkle it was a bloody down pour. We got off the bus to see the door of the royal palace...just the door and the Jewish quarter. It was the worst 30 minutes of everyone on the tour. With cold wet feet we all got back on the bus to go to the top of a hill to view the Medina. As you can see from the video it was awful.

    But we paid money for this and Wednesday we are off to a new place so we sucked it up and continued to the the Medina tour. Which was semi covered and we got to go into shops. We needed a tour guide for the Medina because it is full of windy narrow streets with no street signs. And no google map street view to help.

    Stop 1 - ceramics shop - new found respect for ceramics and the hand painting the people do. Also just being able to make pottery is amazing. I wanted it all but just got a new tea cup with silver on it. Nothing fancy.

    Stop 2 - Fés tannery - this place is famous (google it!) for its leather and how they colour it. Obviously I had to buy a bright pink leather purse. Which I bartered down and was happy with the price. Also I helping a man feed his family. (Shhhh don’t tell my leather guy in Bali).

    Stop 3 - scarf shop - they showed us how they weave the scarves and then pushed their wares onto us. Luckily Ty and I are scarf people (sorry, Ty wears pashminas). I was able to get a suitable price for 4 of them but the man was not giving in to my low balling price for the silkworm scarf. Sadly I walked away from the camel scarf. Still have regrets. 😢

    Lunch was in restaurant that had remarkable ceramic tiles, which after seeing how they were made gave all of us more appreciation for the craftsmanship. We had another 4 course feast where salad is not salad. Still loving lamb tangine and mint teas so that is good as I think there are a lot in my future.

    We returned to the hotel at 3 where we at napped, read, and warmed up. Yes, it is that cold. I went to dinner in my wool aritzia blanket scarf! Like we said in London “you know it is cold when the Canadians are”. Here I was worried about having enough cool clothes to wear. Haha. Fack.

    Tomorrow we have a 6:30am start so we can make it to the Sahara to ride a camel to watch a sunset. You know just a regular day. Haha    Read more

  • TravelerHello 40
    Day 8

    Snow in Africa?

    December 18, 2019 in Morocco ⋅ ⛅ 1 °C

    The one thing I enjoy about travel is that it opens you to things you may not have thought of. Like snow blockades that may prevent getting to the Sahara desert to ride a camel. If you ever wondered “does it snow in Africa?” The answer is YES, yes it does. I guess they do know it is Christmas after all.

    We are currently hunkered down in a mountain village waiting for blockade to open up.    Read more

  • TravelerHello 40
    Day 8

    The Longest Drive

    December 18, 2019 in Morocco ⋅ ☀️ 11 °C

    We always knew that December 18 was going to be a shit travel day. The estimated drive time was 10-11 hours and we left Fés at 6:30am. We were to have a nice lunch stop along the way. The end of the journey was a sunset camel ride at the hotel.

    Well it is December and it can snow on the Atlas Mountains. (Who knew?) The day before they shut down the roads over the mountain range because of heavy snowfall. We left at 6:30 hoping the roads would be open by the time we got there. They were not. 2 roads both closed. We got coffee and got in the line. The wait was not too bad. I watched the last 30 minutes of Bridgette Jones and we were off slowly after that. It was slow moving as traffic was backed up and there were no double lanes. We were doing well until another closure.

    At one point we were 2 hours behind schedule, which is usually not a big deal. However we were schedule to watch the sunset on camels so we had a window.

    With limited stops, eating lunch quickly, everyone holding their bladder and a crazy driver we made it! There were a few moments on the windy roads where I thought we may die but obviously we did not.

    The drive was pretty spectacular. We went from snowy mountain town, to what looked liked the drive from Vegas to Phoenix, to parts that had shale rock, to super flat and desert like, to lakes and rivers and valley and trees. It was pretty cool to see so much in what is really not that long of a distance.

    The coolest scenery of the day was driving to the edge of the desert. The dunes do not look real. Like a painting. As of right now they are the highlight of the trip.    Read more

  • TravelerHello 40
    11
    Day 8

    Hump Day

    December 18, 2019 in Morocco ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    I will not lie. I was not 100% into riding a camel. That changed when I saw the desert. I just wanted to run into it. I also did not realize the camels are tied together. I had visions of being on a wild camel that would run me away from the pack. That did not happen.

    The ride itself was not very long but pretty darn cool. The sunset was amazing.    Read more

  • TravelerHello 40
    1
    Day 8

    Desert at Night

    December 18, 2019 in Morocco ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    I received these pictures from one of the members in our tour group. They are too good not to share. He captured our starry view perfectly.

  • TravelerHello 40
    1
    Day 9

    Relaxation and a Gorge

    December 19, 2019 in Morocco ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    Thursday was relaxing as we ditched going on the 4x4 tour. I honestly thought it was off roading dune buggy stuff that I am not interested in. What the tour actually was, was getting into a Jeep Grand Cheroke and visiting small villages.

    By the time I figured that out I had my heart set on drinking coffee and enjoying the view. Walked the dunes, saw a baby lamb and some camels. Okay they were not in the dunes but in a pen, probably to slaughter. Mmmm lamb.

    Anyways the tour. Yeah that started again at 11:30! Back on the bus to see a gorge! Woot! Woot!

    The gorge was a spectacular piece of rock. The water comes from a spring which is interesting as we are in a valley in the desert.

    As always the scenery of this country in beautiful.    Read more

  • TravelerHello 40
    Day 10

    Go shorty, it’s your birthday

    December 20, 2019 in Morocco ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    I woke up in...okay I can’t remember where we spent the night. Early morning starts and long hours on a bus really fuck with one’s bearings.

    Todra Gorge! Yes, we left Todra on our way to ben ait haddou. A small village that has become famous since the filming of Lawrence of Arabia in the 60’s and was the filming location for Gladiator and for some Game of Thrones scenes.

    On our way to Ben Ait Haddou we stopped for our daily morning nous nous fix. Nous Nous is a Moroccan coffee very similar to a cafe latte. I purchased 2 for 20 MAD and gave the the man 100 MAD (yes I feel like a baller here) he gave me back 30 MAD. I looked at him funny and was like how much was the coffee. He was like 20 but you have me a 50 and he held up a 50. I was like no I did not, I gave you 100. It went like this for a bit but I was standing my ground for what is the equivalent of $7 CAD. It was all about principle. Do not rip me off Mr. Local Man. In the end he gave me my correct change. Ty said it was funny to watch as the guy was not expecting push back.

    After another delight lunch we made it to Ben Ait Haddou which is a UNESCO site because it still has buildings made in the old way. (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aït_Benhaddou). It also has a lot of kasbahs. Which after seeing a kasbah up close I am not too sure why The Clash chose to sing about.

    After a bit of a lie down (Ty gave me his cold for my birthday, asshole) we took a tangine cooking demonstration where we made our own chicken tangines. It was fun and they are pretty simple to make. Now I just need to figure out how to get a clay cooking dish home.

    The surprise of the night was the cake they brought out. Which looked like it was made from scratch and was. Turns out the purchased cake from the town we stopped for lunch got smooshed on the final spot. Not shocking as the roads were winding. Since our guide Khalid wanted to give me a presentable cake he got the staff at the hotel to make one. It was chocolate. Everyone knows how I feel about chocolate cake but what can I do? It was an unnecessary kind gesture so I said nothing and I ate my cake.

    All in all a pretty good memorable birthday. A cake, a cold and I did not get ripped off.    Read more

  • TravelerHello 40
    1
    Day 11

    No pictures please

    December 21, 2019 in Morocco ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Today was our last day in Morocco. We crossed the Atlas Mountains to Marrakech. A small city of 2 million people, super clean, modern and French.

    After some free time we went on our last tour of a palace in the mendina and a tour of the market. The palace like all others was impressive with the mosaic ceramics details and plaster carvings. The details are just wow.

    The square of the Medina is a tourist trap. Cheap crap and people trying to make a buck. You look at someone and they will start selling you something. They have snake charmers and caged money. If you take a picture of them they will ask for money. If you take picture or merchants they will ask for money.

    Mr. Lee is our group member from Korea. His English is so/so and he kinda does want he wants. Mr. Lee gives 0 fucks. He also likes to take pictures and videos. We found out half way through the trip that he has a YouTube channel. The night before we realized that he was not paying attention about the merchants and snake charmers. We were all worried about having to save Mr. Lee in the market that he heard the “no picture” lecture from all of us. Thankfully he did listen and fighting off snake charmers is not something we had to do.

    After the tour the guide gave us free time till dinner. We walked around a bit (without hassle). It probably helped that there was 6 of us and 5 were male. Then we went for ice cream. As one does in a Muslim country where it is hard to get a beer.

    Our last supper was spent at a hotel restaurant where they served beer (yippee) and lamb shank. Omg the lamb here is so good. Then in was good byes to the group and time for Ty and I to get ready for the next adventure.    Read more

  • TravelerHello 40
    Day 12

    You are too early

    December 22, 2019 in Morocco ⋅ 🌙 9 °C

    The flight to Paris was 8:00am. Our guide said we should be at the airport for 6:00am so the car would come for us at 5:00am. This meant a brutal 4:15am start time. But we did it. Ty was so excited for Paris that he was ready by 4:40am!

    The drive to the airport took 15 minutes, getting us up to the check in desk 5:20am. Where we were told we were took early to check in. 🤦🏻‍♀️    Read more

  • TravelerHello 40
    Day 12

    Going deaf in Paris

    December 22, 2019 in France ⋅ 🌧 9 °C

    We landed in Paris on time and since there was only about 35 people on the place we got through customs pretty quickly. Lynds found us right away and we got a cab. Ty was impressive speaking fluent French to the driver. Of from what I could hear. Due to a head cold my ears were clogged and I could not hear very well or monitor the volume of my voice. It was horrible.

    Our flat was not ready but we were able to drop our bags off and we went for a delight pizza lunch, with lots of wine. After we went back to the flat, had more wine and got ready to explore our area.

    First night was exploring La Marias. We found cute shops and books stores and ended the night at another great Italian restaurant. Italian food is great here.    Read more

  • 2024© FindPenguins
  • Home
  • About us
  • Blog
  • Group Tracking
  • Press
  • Terms
  • Privacy Policy & Cookies
  • Support
  • Legal notice
  • English