Matala

Having finished typing our blog, Abby and I were free to explore the region a bit further. We began with a visit to the Red Beach. According to Theo, Natasa's father, it was even better than Matala beach. And indeed, apart from the nude swimmers, the water was clearer and the view was interesting. But getting there wasn't so easy. We had to climb over a rocky hill that proved quite steep and slippery and then descends towards the beach. By the time we reached the sand, we were hot and sweaty so we rushed into the waves and just floated on our back until sunset.

Tangier - Meknes

I don't think I took any pictures in Tangier. We didn't spend much time there, we had a walk along the beach, up to the ferry gates and considered hiring a horse for a quick run in the sand but we gave up on the idea, it had been too long since
I had done it and I wasn't quite sure if I still knew how while Abby, who had never tried, was a bit worried about having her first experience on a fierce Arab horse. So we just remained faithful to our Transalp.

After all, we were back with a mission: finding a job in Morocco, we had to get serious.

That evening, I had a chat on Facebook with Philippe, a dear friend of ours who lives in Paris when he's not busy painting or taking care of his eco-lodge in a tea plantation in Sri-Lanka. He told us that he was searching for a three hectares olive
grove near Volubilis so as to open another eco-lodge there and, since his Moroccan associate couldn't find anything decent, he asked if we could check it out for him. That sounded pretty interesting so we agreed to take a look around.

Melilla

Everything looked very quiet in Melilla on that Sunday. Suddenly, unlike in Morocco, the streets were almost empty. Our dumb Garmin GPS took us through the smallest alleys of the city, eventually leading us to some narrow stairs which we were suppose to fly down I guess. We eventually made it to a gloomy looking hotel which Abby checked out. Fortunately, it was closed. We carried on riding and turning in some empty streets and finally stumbled upon two better looking hotels in a deserted avenue.

20th February 2011 - Revolution in Zagora

Typical, I just wrote that everything was calm in Morocco and then the very next day, it blew up.
That day, Abby and me were walking through Zagora main street, on our way to pay another visit to our friend Larsin, his wife Fatima and the kids. We did spot a rather larger gathering than the previous Wednesday. There must have been about two
hundred people in the street, chanting slogans but we just passed them by, not caring much.

After picking up our bike from Abdul's "Yamaha" garage, Abby and I went to a remote place in the desert yesterday, called Aoussert, about 270km away from Dakhla. The ride was just amazing again. It had been raining there not so long ago so in some parts, the desert had changed to green. There were some mountains and each of them looked as if made of different minerals, some looked rocky and sandy, some looked white as clay, some offered a black surface shining under the sun, it felt weird, slightly scary. Some mounts had been eroded to the rope but their hearts being harder than the rest, it formed like a head, popping up from the eroded rest. In one case, from a distance, it looked just like the Sphinx in Giza.