Adventures in Europe: Paris, France and home . . .

Yesterday I woke up in the middle of the night and realized my chicken and couscous had made me really sick.  But, I had a flight to catch, so a bit tired and stomach-aching, I caught a bus from Jemaa El Fna to the Marrekech airport.

There I queued to check-in for my flight, but then literally ran out of line to find a potted tree to throw up in.  Eventually I got checked in, through security and onto my Transavia flight to Paris, hoping my sickness was behind me.

Unfortunately my food poisoning symptoms continued through the flight.  At some point, I was desperate to get to a toilet to throw up, but a beverage service cart blocked my way, and I ended up throwing up in the aisle.  I felt awful, because the flight was entirely full and needless to say this was not pleasant to experience.  I was amazed how kind and helpful and understanding people were.  

I arrived in Paris badly dehydrated, cold, and with very little clean/dry clothing (not only had I thrown up on myself such that I had to change everything, but most of the clothes I had washed the day before had not dried overnight, so were still considerably damp).

There was a real screw up at passport control, the likes of which I have never experienced.  Literally we all had to wait in a hallway for over an hour before the officials showed up, then, of course, had to wait in a horrendous line to get through.  One man announced loudly, sarcastically "Bienvenue a France!" 

I bought some water on the other side, then caught the shuttle to Denfert Rochereau.  I was only in Paris overnight, but I had hoped to be able to see a site or two and enjoy the afternoon and evening.  The combination of being sick, the passport control delay, and a cold drizzle all made me reconsider, and instead, I caught a cab at Denfert Rochereau and went straight to my accommodation, the Arty Hostel.

Thankfully I could do laundry here, and I literally napped between wash and dry cycles.  I ventured out once to a grocery store to get some food, but could barely eat any of it.  Mostly I just kept drinking water, sleeping, and using the toilet.  Fortunately I was done throwing up, at least.

The next morning I cabbed back to Denfert Rochereau, feeling marginally better--hydrated and well rested, at least--and then shuttled to Orly.  I was sad to have not had a chance to see more of Paris--at least I could have asked the cabbie to drive by the Eiffel Tower, or something, but I was also just happy to get out of there with some good sleep and clean, dry clothes.

At Orly I caught my Icelandair flight back to Edmonton.

Adventures in Africa: Marrakech, Morocco

Today is my final full day in Morocco, and I am travelling from Dakhla to Marrekech via Casablanca.

I had a bit of a crazy time in the morning, because Phil had told me to just drive myself to the airport and leave the keys under the car mat.  But, the car was parked in the driveway such that there was no way I was going to get out without another vehicle being moved, especially in the dark and especially with my manual driving skills.  I didn't want to wake anyone at that hour, so I simply walked myself to the airport, which actually worked out just fine.  First time walking was my method of airport transfer!

My flight landed in Casablanca around 9:00.

Unfortunately I ended up in a passport control line I apparently did not have to be in, and therefore missed my train by ten minutes.  I literally got to the station in time to watch it pull away.  This was tremendously disappointing, because it meant waiting two hours, and getting to Marrekech two hours later than I planned.

I took the next train into Casa and went to a cafe for lunch and coffee while waiting for the train to Marrekech.  Just before 13:00 I caught the train, arriving in Marrakech around 16:30.

The United Nations' "22nd Conference of the Parties (COP 22) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the 12th Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 12), and the 1st Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA 1)" is in Marrakech right now, which is certainly turning the city into a happening sort of place.

I found a cab and took it to Jeeme El Fna, the famous square just outside of Marrakech's medina.

I managed to find my riad, but it took awhile, and I realized the Marrakech medina is as labyrinthine as Fes's.  My room is on the ground floor, just off the courtyard.

My time in Marrakech is limited to today, so I was eager to get out, but I also was desperate to get some laundry done.  The young man who had checked me in took  me up to the roof and showed me the facilities to do my laundry by hand.  He sent me down the street for some soap, then helped me run a bucket full of water and get my clothes soaking.  He was tremendously helpful, and my clothes were clean and on the line to dry in no time.

I hurried out now and went deeper into the medina.  Again I was lost quickly, but there was nowhere in particular I needed to go, so this was not a problem.  I found a little barbershop and popped in for a shave.  The barber was pouring himself some tea, and offered me a glass, so we drank mint tea for a few minutes before my shave commenced.

Back out in the alley, I found a postcard and made my way back to Jeema El Fna and the post office.  I had to go around to a side entrance because there was a large protest out front.  Like I said, COP 22 was clearly having a major impact on the city.

Having mailed my postcard, I wanted dinner.  First, I got a glass of Jeem El Fna's famous freshly-squeezed orange juice.  It was every bit as special and delicious as I had heard, and I was tempted to have another glass.  But now I was running low on cash and I decided I better save my remaining coins for food.

I was eager to eat some couscous, because had yet to do so in Morocco.  I found a booth serving chicken and couscous and sat down at one of the long wooden tables.

My couscous was good, and the experience even better, because I could watch all the happenings in the square while eating.  

Once I finished my meal I wandered into a bakery for a pastry, and now, more or less cleaned out of cash and getting quite tired, turned in to my riad.

Adventures in Africa: the Sahara Desert

My sleep in the tent at Dakhla Spirit Camp was lovely, and I woke after sunrise.  The camp was quiet as I walked down to the beach.

Since my rental car was not going to allow me to visit the desert as I wanted to, I had arranged with the camp to hire a driver and 4x4.  I had originally been quoted €150 for the day, but that was lowered to €140 when I demurred.  Then, the woman at the camp found a couple of French girls who wanted to visit a specific site, and they were willing to pay €25 each to go there, so I was down to €90.  It is still a lot of money, but it was an easy decision for me.

The driver--named Wally (or at least that's how I would spell it)--came around 10:00 and we headed out, eastward first, and then south, towards the Mauritanian border.

Wally lives in Dakhla with his family, but he is ethnically Sahrawi, and as soon as we left the peninsula he put on a head covering.  I was shy about asking to photograph him, so I did it surreptitiously.

He speaks French well, a little English, apparently Spanish (Western Sahara was once a Spanish colony), and presumably Arabic and at least one Berber dialect.  He also feels resentful to Moroccans, or at least Moroccan military/law enforcement, but this only came out in snatches, and he was quite friendly and deferential to the Moroccan soldiers we encountered (the Moroccan military presence in Western Sahara is such that I believe Moroccan soldiers outnumber the civilian population). 

Our first stop was impromptu--at a well to visit a camel herder and his herds on their way to water.

Then, our first scheduled destination.  To get here, we left the main highway about fifty or sixty kilometres south of where we had joined it, and drove on a narrow paved road for several kilometres, before leaving it to follow a piste many more kilometres east.  In one place the driver pointed out to me that the piste split into six different directions, and in other spots it was not even obvious to me that we were following a piste at all.  For most of this time there were literally no signs of humanity around us except for 4x4 tracks.  I took a video to try to get a sense of this desolation.

Our destination was an ancient lake.  There is almost no water left now, but quite a bit of vegetation, and our guide said a "million years" ago there was five centimetres of water.

This is obviously an incredible place to find in the Sahara!

There were about five or six small pools, most filled with fish.  Moreover, these fish apparently love dead human feet skin.

It was one of the more other-worldly places I have ever been.  

I was fascinated by all the salt on the ground (huge crystals in some places) . . .

. . . as well as by how clear the water in the pools was.

From here we went back west, following a different piste, and once again ran into a herd of camels.

Our driver was able to make some sort of call that attracted this large male right up to the car window.

We continued west, right to the Atlantic ocean, to a beach called Puerto Rico.

The beach had two signs of civilization--ruins of an old Spanish lighthouse, and a tiny Moroccan military outpost (maybe big enough for two or three soldiers).  One of the French girls was innocently taking pictures of the beach when Wally freaked out and told her to stop because of the military post.  He had warned us previously to not photograph military personnel and installations, but I was surprised how stressed he got about her inadvertently catching the post in her pictures.

Once we were clear on the "no photos of the military," we were able to enjoy the beach and ocean.

We were only here about fifteen minutes, but I changed into swimming trunks inside the ruined lighthouse and jumped into the ocean for a little swim.

The water was wonderful, and very refreshing since it was now 34 degrees outside.

From Puerto Rico Beach we started back north towards Dakhla along the highway, turning off on the west side of the lagoon (more or less directly across from Dakhla Spirit Camp).  We covered some pretty fascinating terrain here, and stopped a couple of times, including to watch a pat of flamingos from so far away I could not get a picture.

Eventually we got to a spot known as the White Dune.

Why there is a massive dune of white sand here I have no idea.  It is the only dune within many kilometres, and by far the largest dune we saw all day. 

I ran to the top of the dune and I was totally out of breath once I reached the top because moving up through the sand was similar to running through deep snow.

You can see in the picture below the difference in colour between the White Dune's sand and the rest of the sand in the desert.

Another aspect that made the White Dune interesting is that it is not in the middle of the desert, but rather on the edge of the lagoon.  In fact, at high tide, I think the lagoon might actually be right at the base of the south edge of the dune.

Tide was clearly going out while we were there, but may have been at close to its lowest.  I enjoyed walked barefoot on the damp sand, wading through occasional tide pools and so on.

We also could see crabs moving along in bunches, and they would quickly find holes in the sand to hide in when we got close.  I actually never got a good look at the crabs, because they were so quick to find a hiding spot.

Daklha Spirit Camp (where accommodations include all meals) had arranged a picnic lunch to be packed for us, so we ate that at the White Dune.  Then, after lunch, we went to our final spot, a place called (at least on Google) "Thermal Source of Asnaa."  There is an underground sulphur spring here (apparently 750 metres underground), and for a few dirham you can lay/stand on a mat and have this guy blast you with the sulphur water.  The water comes out with the force of a fire hydrant, and it is in fact a remarkably wonderful experience.  I felt very clean and relaxed afterwards, and our guide told us that the locals come here all the time after hard days of work.

After this it was now almost 16:00, and we were only about ten minutes down the highway from Dakhla Spirit.

At Dakhla Spirit I picked up my rental car and drove myself into Dakhla, where I am going to spend my last night at Dar Rio Oro.  This time I have a different room, but one just as large and stylish as the one I was in two days ago.

This is my view from the back window:

I ended my night in Dakhla with a walk and dinner along the lagoon.