Allans trip to Morocco and Sth America

*Drove from the desert to the Todra gorge.

• The Todra Gorge is Moroccos equivelant to the US' Grand Canyon.
• Slept on the roof of the hotel under the stars.

*Drove into the fringe of the desert - met our camels and camel guides.

• One of the camels went a bit crazy and bucked one of the girls off of it.
• Treked into the desert on camel. Raced up to the top of a sand dune to watch the sunset (check out the photos).
• Campsite was awesome, had a traditional meal, had a bit of sing song with the camel guides and then camped under the stars.
• Woke up at 5:30 to see the sunrise over the desert.

*Fantastic scenery - one of my better road trip experiences.

• Arrived in Meski - an oasis with a a natural spring.
• Explored the ruins of an abandoned nearby town. Apparently they packed up and left after the town would get cut off whenever it there was a flood.
• Knocked some dates out of the palm tress and ate a few. One of the locals saw me, came over and tried to sell me some dates - I thought whats the point of selling them when a can get them for free!

* This city is unreal. Fes is believed to be the largest carfree urban area in the world. Fes is classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

• Alley way after alley way. The main form of transport through the thousands of alleyways is by donkey. These donkeys are loaded up and are the equivelant of transport trucks where we come from. These donkeys with all their gear just fit through the alley ways. When the bloke behind the donkey yells out àttention`you know to jump into a shop or you will get trampled by a donkey.
• Went to a carpet store, a Medicine man, a tannery (where they dye the leather - check out the photo) and a pottery. The artisans are very skillful and great to watch. Learnt the Moroccan equivelant of calling someone a stingy Jew , it is a you are a ´berber´ (the original inhabitants of morocco before the arabs arrived).
• One of the boys, Jack, was accosted by a dagger salesman. The bloke left his shop and followed jack up the alleyway trying his best to get him to buy something - when he realised he wouldnt get a sale he said `the next time I see you it will be with god´. One thing about ramadan - the locals cant eat until night fall so some of them get a little hungry and aggresive throughout the day - but rarely towards the locals - over the course of the trip I saw 3 -4 fights between the locals - i felt like giving them a mars bar a saying chill out dude!
• Went into the main town for a 5 course dinner and entertainment at a Moroccon restaurant - was very nice.
• The birth of taxi grand prix! This would have to be a highlight of my trip. Whilst coming back from the restaurant to the camp site - all 26 of us jumped into taxis. I was with Jack (19) and Les the writer (circa 50) - the taxi drivers and the general driving in this place is chaotic like most backward Countries - but we decided to spice it up a little by offerring him an extra 10 Dirhams if he got back to the campsite first. There were a couple of close calls expecially an overtaking manouvere that put us in 2nd place but could easily have ended with us hitting the oncoming truck.The taxi driver loved us as we yelled out taxi grand prix´´ and called him Schumacher. At the campsite he offerred me a drive in his taxi and some hash - i decided to call it a night.

* Stopped off for a coffee along the way, loads of donkeys etc and young local boys who took an interest in the girls on our bus. One of the young boys took his ring from his finger and proposed to one of the girls on our group.

• Stopped off at the ruins of the Ancient City of Volubilis - an ancient roman city dating back to the period 0 - 300 AD. Was mostly destroyed in the Lisbon earth quake cicra 1757. Rediscovered in the late 1800s by two passing diplomats. Very modern for its a age - one of the first things I noticed was an underground drainage system complete with man hole lids.
• Arrived at the campsite in Fes, nice camp site with a pool.