Monday 12th November

Louise rose at 07:00 and did our washing. There then followed a couple of frustrating hours culminating in us missing the 10:50 train. As we wandered through Mohammedia before catching the train, we stumbled upon an open air market with stalls selling all sorts of fruit, vegetables, fish and livestock. One customers ordered a chicken, which was then pulled from its cage, despatched with a quick twist of its neck, and cleaned in  the street. Seemed quite normal to me, and a far cry from the hidden, sanitised way we do things in the UK.

When we finally got going it was 12:22. John found us a seat in a first class compartment, even though we only had second class tickets. Nobody bothered us. Our patience was tried still further when the train stopped repeatedly, apparently because the king of Morocco was travelling. A Moroccan citizen travelling with us, a lovely old gent who spoke excellent English as well as Arabic and French, told us we could be held up for hours. In the end we were only delayed by an hour and reached Marrakech around 17:00. We faced a similar trip back in just 4 hours time.

A short taxi ride, costing 80 Dirhams (about £5.60) for 5 of us, saw us to the medina. The snake charmers greeted us first. John took some photos and Susie made Ross jump - snakes are not his favourite creatures, evidently.

Then the fun really started. We allowed ourselves to get lost in the alleyways and souks. The merchants shouted and laughed with us and I had great fun talking rubbish back at them. I tried to explain to one lady hawking a carved wooden elephant that our cabin was too small for it, and that its trunk would stick in my back. She carried on regardless.
Kids sent sparkling lights into the night sky, horses and carriages trotted past and mad scooter riders weaved their way through the throng at surprising speed.

There were so many beautiful things We could have bought, but we had no room in our luggage for the flights home.

The whole affair was intoxicating, dreamlike. It felt happy and safe with one small exception. On asking for directions bck to the main square, Ross spotted that one chap had given us wrong directions. As Louise bartered hard for a scarf, another chap came out of the side street we'd been told to go down, pointed at Louise and I, now temporarily alone and shouted 'You die, you die, scum'.

We quickly caught up with the others and made our way back to the square. We ate together. Calamare, fries, kebabs, olives, breads with a variety of dips, all for less than a fiver each.

I wished we could have stayed longer. It was everything I'd hoped for and I loved the place. The taxi back to the station was 50 Dirhams, when we found out that the £7 we'd paid to get to Marrakech was a single fair, not a return. We paid about £9 for a first class ticket back and then another short taxi ride saw us back on Chelone just before 02:00.

I hope I get a chance to go back soon.

The marina at Mohammedia was small but functional. Based in a fishing port, there were limited showers, excellent wifi, and it was around 20 minutes to walk to the town, with bakers, supermarkets, an outdoor market and station. Formalities were quick and easy, passports were stamped and returned quickly and security was fine. The pontoons were small for a 38ft vessel, but shelter was good and there was over 2m depth at low water. There was a vhf radio in the complex, set to listen on channel 11, but I never saw anyone use it, and we tried calling on the way in, to no avail. The seawater quality in the marina was very poor, and we washed our hands after handling our lines.

(Louise) Entering the medina at Marakech was an overwhelming bombardment of your senses. Bright, vibrant colours, music, smells, all as Martin has said above. The stalls were like treasure chests bursting full of clothing, sandals, leather goods, jewelery, metalware, I could go on and on. The bartering is good fun and completely expected from the traders, I found a beautiful cashmere scarf that the seller wanted 250 dirhams for (£17.50), being ruthless I got it for 50 (£3.50). I wish that worked back in the UK!

We had all decided beforehand to stick together as a group. It was so easy to lose sight of each other though as the crowds, bicycles, motorbikes and barrows rushed by. I felt safe and my apprehension is probably based on fear of the unknown.

We didn't want food in Mohammedia before we left, we both wanted to experience as much of Marrakech as we could, including the food. The first thing was delicious fresh doughnuts smothered in sugar about 3 times the size of the ones back home but only 14p. Next we saw a type of fried flatbread being cooked. About 8" square you could have it filled with cheese or honey, then it gets rolled up. It was quite tasty and again very cheap. The taxi ride from the station to the medina had taken about 20 minutes and the last train left at 21:00, so we agreed to get the return taxi by about 8:15pm.
We wandered around the main square for a little longer until we were tempted into a kebab-style place where we had calamari, fries, bread andolives with dips. It was a lovely meal to have together and again very cheap.
If you ever get a chance to visit it is an experience not to be missed