Day 79, 21 September 2012, Bab to Bab and Back Again - We made an early start by local standards - out the door by 9 am. It is Friday (the Islamic equivalent of Sunday) and much quieter on the streets. There was parading last evening to honour the King and everyone seemed very subdued today. Using a map (a very small one, so as not to attract too many offers of assistance), we took off from the Bab Boujiloud area where we are staying heading via tourist circu...

Day 77, 19 September 2012, Fez, Morocco - After the most diabolical night of non-sleep on a very hard, smelly mattress on the floor of a picturesque loft (with no way to walk around the edges and only a teensy spiral staircase for access to the ground level and bathroom), a foolish staff member who can't spot a crippled, angry volcano when she sees one asked how we slept. And so she was told. And then so was the night manager (you should have said something... ...

Day 76, 18 September 2012, Essaouira to Fez, Morocco - It is one of the oddities of travel, for me at least (though not James), that if our plane/train/bus or hand cart is leaving prior to noon, I never sleep the night before. Thus when the alarm went off in the dead of night (4.55 am) I was all over it like a fat kid on a cupcake, given I was already wide awake. The porters of Essaouira are a cheerful bunch at the cracking hour of 5.30 am - I think the fellow ...