Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2, 1/100 sec, ISO2000 “Kitty kitty” Cedar Park, 2017
こんばんは。How’s it going?
Well, today it was “back to work” for me. Surprisingly, I only had about 250 emails to go through, although my work queue jumped to 25 new requests. 😨 It’s a challenge being the sole graphic designer in the company, but it’s good work, and pretty fun. And I get to manage a lot of contract work too. Good stuff!
Anyways, I’ve fallen behind on my daily posts due to our two-week vacation, however, I have the photos for each day processed, and outlines written for each day. So, I’ll post them to the corresponding date so it will keep my postaday effort going. 🙂
Today, please enjoy the photo of our two cats, who were happy to see us when we came home! 😻
Today we left Marrakech by train and headed up to the capital of Morocco, Rabat. After checking into Riad Meftaha, we had an early dinner at Dar Naji.
It’s Ramadan, so only a few places were open before sundown, but Dar Naji was ready for us non-Muslim tourists with a special fixed menu of salad, bread, tagine (beef or chicken) fresh fruit, and of course mint tea. All delicious!
After the sun went down, the restaurant filled with locals ending their daily fasts, and it was like a party atmosphere!
The kids wanted to just relax the rest of the night back at the Riad (and enjoy the Wi-Fi) but Mariko and I strolled around the empty Medina. It was eerily quiet, but really cool. I took plenty of photos! 😀
We finished our evening with a coffee and cake at La Couronne Doree before heading back to the Riad.
Hello! Today started with a 4:50 AM wake up bang on the side of our tent. The sun comes up early here in Morocco and the Berber camp hosts wanted us to see the desert sunrise.
I knew the short climb in the sand was deceptively strenuous so I warned Mariko and she decided to pass on the workout. Of course Koa wanted to just sleep so he stayed behind as well. But I am glad that Bay and I were able to enjoy it together. It was a cool sight!
After a camel trek back to the van and another long ride back to Marrakech, we checked into our next place, Riad Jnane Mogador. It is right next to the square, but pretty small and inexpensive. They also offer a hammam, which is a traditional bath with body scrub. It was so refreshing!
Next was a bit of shopping which was nice because the street the Riad is located on has good prices (many fixed) and the shop keepers were friendlier as compared to the ones in the souks.
We then enjoyed dinner on a rooftop terrace at Naranj before retiring for the night. What a long, but fun, day!
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/6.4, 1/210 sec, ISO200 “Back in the Saddle” Zagora, 2017
こんばんは. How’s it going?
Today was a loooong day. We woke up extra early to eat a 6 AM breakfast (thanks Gilles!) and then met our tour bus for our desert excursion.
I had done a bit of research on the one-day trips with camel ride 🐫 so I knew that we were in for a long drive. We started at around 8 AM and arrived at camp at about 7 PM. But during that time, we did stop for lunch and a tour of a pretty cool area where they filmed such movies as Lawrence of Arabia and Gladiator.
But the highlight of the excursion was the camel ride to the Berber camp where we would stay. Riding camels isn’t difficult, but can be uncomfortable, especially towards the end of the journey. It was really fun, though, and sitting so high up and traveling with 14 other people in a mini caravan was pretty dang great. Mariko even wore her newly bought headscarf!
It only seemed like we traveled for 15 minutes, but after an hour in the saddle, we arrived at the camp. It was set up with tents surrounding an open area with carpets, pillows, and low tables. After getting settled into out tents, we relaxed outside and enjoyed mint tea and nuts.
I took the opportunity to run up a nearby sand dune to take a photo of the waning sunset. Just climbing such a small dune was tiring! I was huffing and puffing. 😓
Later on we all gathered in a large dining tent for a traditional meal of Moroccan salad, turkey Tagine, and fresh melon. It was delicious but the heat in the tent was stifling. I wish we could have eaten outside instead.
