Morocco - October 2010

Morocco is a coastal country found in North Africa; it has a huge cultural background and was the perfect setting for this year’s geography field trip. When people think of Morocco they usually draw a blank, which is exactly the point of the geography trips: to broaden horizons and fill in the blanks.

On the 21^st October, fourteen intrepid explorers as well as Mr Davies and Ms Robin set off for Africa. On our arrival at Gatwick airport, we met our guide for the week; ex-armed forces with years of experience in multiple fields: Dave. Three and a half hours later and a few notes about who knows more in geography between Colin and Mr Davies, we passed through customs and regrouped before finding our two local guides who showed us to the Riad Moulay Said, our hotel. After unpacking we headed into town. We were jumping all over the streets to avoid the mass of scooters and soon arrived at our guide’s restaurant of choice for some delicious tagine and kebabs. After dinner we changed our money and hit the town. This included many chicken dinner stalls that competed for our custom by shouting out various catchphrases; ranging from Catherine Tate’s “am I bovvered”, to “winner winner chicken dinner”, we even received rounds of applause from some stalls. We then headed back to the hotel for our first night’s sleep ready for our long trip tomorrow.

The following morning we got up early and congregated in the dining area; an open roof terrace with ornately designed patterns surrounding us in stone. After a hearty breakfast we packed up and hopped on the minibuses for the four hour journey to the coast. We were dropped off on a cliff top and we walked down through a small town of fishermen onto the beach, where we first encountered ‘Rabies’: the groups adopted dog. We began to play some beach American Football led by Sam while we waited for our camels. As they walked through the pitch, we began giving them names such as Mrs Chamakh, Bobble and Philip Marshall. We then headed to our campsite, and after a quick demo from Aziz (our local guide leader) and Dave, we started setting up our tents. We relaxed until dinner. The dining room consisted of a huge tent within which we sat in a square. We passed the time with various puzzling games supplied by Mr. Davies. Then we were served a delicious Moroccan vegetable soup followed by some meat and vegetables and endless bread. Afterwards we took up stargazing before retiring to our tents.

Day 3 of the trip saw us being woken by the sunrise and hastily packing up our tents. We had breakfast of porridge and bread with various jams and spreads. We started walking and this was to be the first bay/headland combo of many to come; to the teachers this was excellent geography to the boys it was the start of a long day. After 6 ½ hours of walking, we reached our intended campsite, but it was too windy for the camels so we had another half hour of walking before reaching our destination. At this point we would have happily abseiled down a cliff face just to get there. After resting, we had our first ride on the camels; it was a fantastic experience. We then headed to dinner which was filled with poor jokes. Afterwards we went on a beach walk on which Colin described to us his versions of the constellations and Ant became a rhino.

On day 4, we had only three hours of walking in the coastal desert. We soon came to a site with lush green grass coming out of the desert sourced by a small river flowing to the sea. We all sat down in a huge tent belonging to a local family and played some cards while sampling some unique Moroccan tea. When the camels arrived, we set up our tents and headed to the beach. We played golf, a series of vortex games and some manly team sports. There was a group of us who then found some small waterfalls which were just perfect for showering in. After dinner it was straight to bed.

On day 5, we woke up to the over-whelming smell coming from Leo who hadn’t changed his clothes in 3 days! After this rude awakening, we started our trek for the day along the beach which allowed us to teach Aziz golf. Eventually we reached the school which had been our goal for the day. We attempted to converse in English but instead ended up playing cricket with them which was great fun. We gave the children some gifts and headed to our next campsite. After a short rest at the campsite we departed to catch a bus into Essaouira, a large fishing town on the coast. However we ended up waiting 2 hours for the bus due to it unknowingly to us breaking down further along the road. Thankfully for us, a passing taxi driver called up his friends and they took us all into town. In town we all went off to haggle in the markets where we discovered that Stephan was the worst out of all of us, paying more than the owner wanted for the item. We returned to camp later with our tents already put up, allowing us to relax even more that night.

Day 6 had arrived and with it we said our final farewells to the porters and guides who had been good for a laugh throughout the trip. We then had a long ride back to Marrakech in which everyone slept and dreamt of the shower waiting for them back at the hotel. After freshening up we went into town and had a competition to buy a variety of items in categories including sport, musical instruments and camels. The 4^th form group won, thanks to their matching fezzes and traditional Moroccan shirts making them the most fashionable tourists in the country. Later that night we all sat down for dinner in a local restaurant. This gave us a stunning view of the marketplace. In addition we had a little awards ceremony with prizes for things such as best aim for a blind person and more normal awards for being a gentleman. Afterwards we hit the town in search of the cheapest fezzes where we were bombarded once again with more catchphrases. Eventually we went back to the hotel, knowing that the trip was coming to an end but that we had all enjoyed ourselves.

The final day was here. We woke up early to get to our flight in time. Luckily there was no hassle or fuss and it was smooth flying all the way home. After touching down back in England, we all showed our gratitude to the teachers before saying our final goodbyes and going our separate ways.

Huge thanks must go to Mr Davies and Ms Robin for coming on the trip, organising the whole thing and making it so enjoyable. Without them the trip wouldn’t have been what it was and we’re grateful that they were able to put up with us for a whole week. Once again many thanks from the whole Moroccan gang.

Cameron and Max Thorp