Marrakesh and beyond

Firstly, sorry about the photos, I've got loads of videos but I just can't upload them.

After visiting a few rather disappointing coastal town, we decided to head inland to Marrakesh (I am still confused as to any connection with the Beatles or was that just Rishikesh?). It's a beautiful city when the sun is low in the sky - the deep reddy purple tones of the Altas mountains in the backgroud is reflected in the deep red render they use on most of the buildings.

We found a great campsite with a lovely pool which the kids loved. It was quite tempting to just hang around the pool and avoid the hustle and bustle. We forced ourselves and it was worth it. The souk (market) goes on forever - talk about shopping legs - we were desparate to just sit down but there's nothing but tiny shops as far as the eye can see and around every corner. Ah at last we came out into the main square by which time it was dark. The place was absolutely buzzing; foodstalls, snake-charmers, terrible magicians, sooth-sayers (a praying mantis has just landed on the side on my computer screen and is alternately waving his front legs at me.)

To all those that we promised we wouldn't cross the Altas mountains -sorry. We decided the only sensible route from Marrakesh south was to take theTis-n-Test pass over the High Altas, reaching a height of 2 km. Poor little Pinky Ponk got a bit hot towards the top but she did it. We camped right at the top of the pass - fantastic views all round. Couldn't help singing 'I'm on top of the world' at the slightest provocation.

We decided we would avoid Agadir as Mick kept bursting into 'Agadoo Doo Doo' every time it was mentioned and so became teinted in our minds. This meant that from here on we would be leaving civilisation and heading into wild west frontier territory but we were in for some surprises.

The good thing about getting away from civilisation is that you also get away from the millions of plastic bags that cover almost every inch of Moroccan countryside. Even in the middle of nowhere, you know when a village is within 5 km because of the plastic. Roll on peak oil!