Dude Meister Blogs: The Morocco Trip: Part 2

Let's get part 2 under way of this African adventure with day 3 of the trip:

Day 3 started pleasantly with the realisation of the hotel's wi-fi, resulting in about half an hour of web surfing via iPod Touch. After updating Facebook and what not, it was a pancake breakfast and onto the coach to ascend higher into the mountains, passing various structures such as these.

And Mexican-style wastelands, that went on for miles and miles.

Loads more after the jump!

Time for a souvenir stop-off, along with this nifty rock structure that made for some good photos. As for souvenirs, I ended up paying around £35 for two snow globes and two rock-carved paper weights. First attempt at haggling; failed...

Here's a semi-decent photo, used in place of a rather incredible one, which was deleted by the blue topped mug in the middle there. Seems no one ever taught him to smile and he didn't appreciate the thought of a picture of him looking slightly stupid being published on the internet. Of course, he then took it upon his rude and impolite self to root through my stuff, delete the image (after being specifically asked not to) and then lie to my face. What followed, he was not quite expecting, as I exploded in a fiery ball of rage toward him. After putting things straight (Rather like Mal to Jayne in the episode "Ariel", for any Firefly fans out there) we're cool now, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to name and shame. So here's an ode to the Judas-esque, Alex Harvey. Okay, I think my rant is over. Continue.

The rock made for some perfect "Planking" opportunities.

Descension: POV style.

This hill marking basically reads, "Bugger off you Algerians, this is Morocco!". Hmm, subtle...

Some beautiful landscapes followed...

As we neared our next hotel, located inside the Todra Gorge, we passed some Gorge dwellers and their animals, as they lounged and washed in the dirty stream: Disease-1 Hygiene-0

Ah, and here was the pleasantly located "Hotel les Roches", our residence for the next 18 hours. But it wasn't all plain sialing, as it took a team sized effort to get all the suitcases hauled from the bus, across the rickety little stream bridges (below) and up the rocks to the actual hotel.

And that was what led on to the hotel's back. Nothing but rock.

As it was up in the gorge, the entire hotel was powered by a small generator; one that wasn't ready for 30 odd new guests who seemed to be a little too fond of electricity. Power cuts were inevitable, but the cold showers? An unexpected "delight"...

No rest for the wicked, as it was straight out after a tagine lunch for a walk of the gorge.

Our gorge guide, nicknamed Jesus, wasn't afraid to show off his impressive stone skipping skills.

Plank-cross: POV style.

Yep, it's a toad.

More-rock-oh?

Long road ahead.

Resevoir dogs, anyone?

The more adventurous of us veered away from the road we followed and more into the gorge itself. However, this was cut short when we needed to turn around and a lot of water blocked our way. So "Jesus" and another of our guides, Hassan, hauled us up this drop, arm by arm.