We arrived in Morocco about 10 days ago now. We are having a ball. Trents parents flew in from Ireland to meet us and , as usual, Trent pulled off a surprise for us and none other than his brother Justin was already in Fez waiting for us. So now we have myslef, Trent, Jeanette, Macca, Justin and Aunty Mary all travelling around Morocco together having a ball. Our first few days were spent in the old town of Fez. One of the largest cities in Morocco it has its old town, or medina, which is where all the tourist hustle and bustle happens. We have been coaxed into many carpet stores and , although Mary came close, we have not managed to buy one yet. The food here in Morocco is awesome. Cous cous, tagines with tender meat and plenty of veg and fresh fruit and salads. From Fez we arranged a private van for the 6 of us to travel down do the desert town of Merzouga. The temperatures here were around 48deg in the day and not much less in the night. Oddly enough the hotels here in Morocco dont have fans, instead they have heating, so our first night in the hotel in the desert was painful. The shower water was almost boiling yet soaking my towel and sleeping naked with that over me allowed me to get a few hours sleep. The next day we rode for an hour or so to our berber tent in the midst of all the dunes of the Sahara Desert. That night we slept under the stars which was much more pleasent although a little sandy. Another couple of hours on the camel the next day proved a little rough on the bum but I managed and then we set out on the road again in our private van to Dades Gorge.

Morocco is basically one big desert but amazingly so it has many oasis which allow for the farming of fruit and veg. Dades gorge is one of many beautiful gorges in Morocco. Imagine the Grqand Canyon but on a smaller scale and with lush green grass, trees and palm trees and a fresh water creek running through the bottom and that is Dades Gorge. Being the adventurers we are all of us except Macca took a hike up one side of the Gorge for the spectacular view at the top. Once at the top we thought we would take a different way home and followed a dried creek bed which we thought would lead us right back to our hotel. Boy were we wrong. About an hour along the creek bed and after many obstacles we had to about face as we reached a 10 metre drop. Fortunately all the other rocks and obstacles we jumped down on the way we managed to climb back up with the help of the boys. Then we had to decide whether to head back the way we came which is what i would have done or to take another punt on a different route home. Might i add that at this stage we only had a quater of a bottle of water between the 5 of us left and it was about 40 deg. Well the boys definately werent going to give in and take the same route home so off we went up another hill and down again before reaching another cliff this time dropping about 100mt straight down. After anohter hour or so we managed to get down to the bottom of the gorge and found a beautiful little stream of cold water to bathe in before hitting the highway for another 2 kms walk home. Our expedition was awesome but in hindsight a little dangerous but we escaped unscathed after 6 hours and were welcomed back at our hotel with a shower of rain.