I’m preparing for the onslaught of sensory overload

I have never been to Morocco. But I have been to southern Spain and Turkey and my expectation of Morocco is a combination of the two. Loud, bright colours, interesting smells, fabulous food, busy streets and markets, centuries of history and great architecture. Oh yeah, and great ceramics/tiles. I’m not sure what to expect from the people so that will be fun to exeprience. And then there is the desert element, so I guess add in an expectation of it to be somewhat like being in the Namib or Kalahari Desert. In any case I’m sure it will have it’s own personality and I look forward to the inevitable surprises and culture shock.

As with other predominantly Muslim countries/regions where we’ve traveled, we want to be respectful and so packing for travel in a region that routinely hits mid-30s to 40s during the day, and where modesty adds to the complexity, is a challenge. And always it’s the shoes! I’m determined to only take a carry-on size suitcase (21L), and we are asked to take soft sided so that presents it’s challenges with 30 days of travel. I’ve packed and unpacked a couple of times and each time whittled down the extra things I had hoped to squeeze in. So if you see me wearing the same thing day after day in the pics, be assured I am laundering them in between.

The write up on the 15 day tour lists the following as some of the highlights:

• Enjoy a traditional lunch at a local women’s co-op
• Watch storytellers and acrobats at Djemaa el Fna Square in Marrakech
• Learn about Moroccan cuisine with a cooking class in a traditional Berber house
• Traverse the Sahara Desert by 4X4 (i.e. the back of a pick up) and overnight in a Bedouin camp

As with previous G Adventure trips, I’m sure the interaction with local families and businesses will be some of the highlights. So far we think there are only 10 in our group, so that will be a nice tight group to help make logistics easy.

We leave this evening and head to Frankfurt where we have a long layover tomorrow, and depart in the evening Frankfurt time to head to Casablanca. We have a couple of nights in Casablanca booked before we join the tour, to allow us to catch up on lost sleep and adjust to the new time.

So, off we go on another adventure!