#LIKEACHALLENGE 

After spending a whole week driving inland, I couldn't wait to head west towards the ocean. Initially the plan involved a nearly 800km / 10 hour drive south to Tarfaya after Marrakesh, but two days of the rally got eaten up by the Mount Toubkal climb... In hindsight, I should have given myself 12 days altogether (including the climb) to be able to visit Tarfaya... but hey, it's one of the first challenges and I will definitely work on logistics a bit more next time! Essaour

The drive from Aroumd to Marrakesh after climbing Mount Toubkal was the shortest one I had on this rally, but it felt like forever. I was unbelievably tired, desperately in need of a shower (I didn’t wash for 2 nights running) and hungry (a massive KFC bucket sorted that out). Just so you know, the smiling photo above was taken AFTER I had a 12 hour sleep :) Source: Google Maps I spent my only ‘day off’ exploring the dazzling Marrakesh. Wow, what a city! It’s impossible to

A lot of you have been asking about my Mount Toubkal climbing challenge: how hard it was, current weather conditions at the summit, how did I prepare, costs etc I'm still on the road this week and I'll be writing more once I'm back in London, but here's a quick Q&A: How long did it take? Two days which involve walking from Imlil (or in my case from Aroumd) to the refugee at 3200m. It's a 9km walk which took me just under 5 hours (let's say 4 hours if you don't count the teas

Day 4 was a drive from Ouarzazate to Imlil in prep for the Mount Toubkal climb. Just over 240km but the winding mountain tracks (add roadworks to that) made it into a solid 6 hour trek. I never actually feel it takes that long as I'm constantly distracted by the amazing views on route: Nearly looks like LA ;) Ah, the roadworks which stopped the whole traffic for a good hour.. If you look closely there's a digger 'hanging' on the side of the mountain at a 45 degree ang

Day 5 & 6 of the Morocco rally were dedicated to climbing Toubkal, the highest peak in the Atlas Mountains and North Africa. I was in the middle of nowhere for the last two days with no reception whatsoever, so forgive me the slight delay with posting updates to the site. I'll make up for that tomorrow while I'll pamper myself in Marrakesh and do some sightseeing around this amazing city. Firstly, I am soooo knackered. I still can't actually believe I climbed all the way up

Reached Ouarzazate about an hour ago. Here's a few photos from today's drive through the Atlas and the Todgha Gorges: limestone river...

As promised, updated post on day 2. Good night sleep in Fes even though I still have to get used to the singing/praying that starts at dawn… This charming hotel, Riad dar Guennoon, is located in the very centre of the city. Hard to find at first among the maze of alleyways, but one of the local lads helped us out. And of course he wanted to get paid for his kindness, which is essentially one of the ways they make money from tourism! I only got a couple of hours to walk

I’ll write more in the morning as I need to get some sleep, but long story short... We were supposed to get from Fez to Agoudal today, roughly 350km and 7hours drive. Unfortunately, part of the 'road' we took through the Atlas mountains simply doesn’t exist anymore, washed away by the river. So we had to turn around 5 hours into the drive.. which meant 2 hours back up the same road to find a hotel in one of the towns. Anyway, we came across this lovely place, Riad Mimouna ne

I’ve got a bit more wi-fi at my current hotel, even though it’s not the hotel in Agoudal that was planned.. more on that story in the next post. Currently sitting in the reception of hotel Riad Mimouna near Midlet (*update as of 2210: they've now closed the reception so outside :) Coming back to day one as yesterday was a disaster zone for internet connection (mind you, I got a 4G dongle for my laptop today, but don’t think it’s working either round here). Anyway, some prom