M O R O C C O

In the winter of 2003, Ray and I set out again, this time without Will. We rented a little French car and drove cross-country through
the cities, mountains, deserts and along the Atlantic coast of Morocco. These are only some of the better pictures.


Volubilis, a Roman settlement from the days when North Africa was a part of the Empire. The site is just north
of Moulay-Idriss. That is indeed a bird's nest (maybe of a stork?) atop that pillar.



An ancient wall at Volubilis overlooking green fields. Though it was early January, Morocco was as green as could be...
at least in the northern, coastal parts of the country.



A mosaic on the floor of a pool, also at Volubilis. I'm not sure what myth is depicted here. It seems to be a man,
accompanied by Cupid, discovering two lovers in bed.



Yours truly at Volubilis.



Inside the medina of Fez. This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip.



Koranic scripture adorns this pillar.



One way into the famous Fez tanneries. Those are stinking animal hides pilled up around those buildings.



The tanners at work. You can see hides hanging up to dry on the buildings. Those wells are filled with mixtures of
foul chemicals, most of them completely natural substances that have been used for centuries in tanning...
urine, for instance. One reason the place smelled so bad.



Lunch stop in Fez.



The happiest day of my life was finding these Barbary apes in the cedar forests around Azrou. We fed them some bread we had
stashed in the car from Fez.



This is how you pass bread to a monkey.



A jolly Ray, recorded for posterity's sake, on the road to Erfoud.



A desert kasbah we passed during the same drive. Yes, that's what a kasbah is.



And this would be what you call an oasis. By now we'd certainly left green coast and the cedar forests
of the Middle Atlas behind us.



See those dunes in the distance? That's where we're going. Amazed that our car had made it this far on the sandy pistes, we stopped to take pictures
and marvel at our fortune. Clearly, we had no idea what we were yet in for.



Ksar Sania, our little auberge in Merzouga. They organized our 3-day desert trek for us.



I snapped this from atop a camel during the first leg of our desert trek. Classic, isn't it?


Lunch in the dune field on the first day of our trek. Our guide Hamid took the picture.



After lunch we climbed the nearest dune. It was enormous. Took us maybe twenty-five minutes to get to
the top. It was much quicker coming down.



The dunes change color through the day, as the light shifts. This shot was taken in the late afternoon.



Once we made the evening's camp, Ray and I climbed dunes again. He took this shot of me...



...and I took this shot of him. We were awed and exhilarated and trying not to look like it.



The first evening's camp. These tents are left up during the cool season for anyone who needs to use them.



Not dead, just chillin'.



The next day, we left the dune field to get a bit closer to the Algerian border. The terrain became
flat and rocky. Here's me and Hamid under the tent during lunch.



Ray took this one on the third day, during our final lunch stop. That looks like Bobka, who was initially my
camel but later took over the baggage. Bobka was strong and trustworthy, but he had an independent
streak to him. We were told he'd once run off and joined a group of wild camels, returning months later
as if nothing had happened.



That's Ray's camel, Malekki.



Hamid must have taken this shot shortly before the end of the trek. That's Bobka in front, then Malekki, then our
replacement camel. About a half hour into the first day of the trek, we lost control of one of our camels, who
had been acting strange from the beginning, and Hamid decided to cut him loose. Some men from Ksar Sania
brought this dark one, who was very good-natured and obedient.



Unshowered and unshaven for three days running, our hair and clothes full of sand and
sweat, naturally the first thing we did when we got back was take pictures of ourselves.



Then we fought over the shower.



The next morning before we left Merzouga, we stopped by Hamid's house to meet his mother, have tea, and bid farewell. Just
before leaving we took this group shot.



Ait Ben Haddou, a famous medieval kasbah we stopped to explore on the way to Marrakech.



Close-up of Ait Ben Haddou.



Go back to the first picture of Ait Ben Haddou. See that stone ruin on the very top of the hill? That's what I'm standing before here.



The way to Marrakech took us along some perilous mountain roads unlike anything I've ever seen in either the Appalachians or the
Rockies. We stopped to take exciting portraits of each other. Notice I look sweet and innocent before the ravine...



...while Ray decides to look like Terminator IV.



The famous Kutubiya mosque in Marrakech. This is another one of my favorite shots.



I had the second best day of my life playing with the monkeys in the Djemaa El Fna square. Some guys tried to
make me pay 200 dirhams (that's twenty bucks) for holding these two - notice the chains around the monkeys' necks -
but that was not going to happen.



Entrance to the tombs of the Saadian dynasty (1554-1660), in Marrakech. Actually,
the main doorway into the tombs is behind me; I just liked the shot of the bicycle
beneath the grass canopy.



And that is a couple of sheep stuffed in the back of a station wagon. I took this
leaning out the window of our Peugeot on the way to Essaouira.



A seagull's view of the fortifications of Essaouira, a charming coastal town on
the Atlantic, and our last major stop. The colors white and blue are predominant
in the town.



We splurged on one nice hotel during our trip, a bed and breakfast in Essaouria run by a British ex-pat. We had
no idea what it would be like until we arrived to find that we had a whole finely-decorated floor to ourselves, complete
with kitchen and dining area. We even had a fireplace. (All this for only thirty-five dollars a night.) This is a shot of
me writing in my journal in the dining room, basking in the warm glow of the fire. Before me is a glass of homemade
mint tea, which we made a passable version of from gunpowder green and fresh mint, bought at an outdoor market in
the hours after dinner.



A dark alley in Essaouira. This picture was probably taken the next night.



Me off the fortified shore of Essaouira. I'd probably just finished a lunch of fresh grilled sardines and coca-cola.