Hello, this is Jackie, Pete wanted me to finish off but he has done such a good job there isn’t a lot to say but I can add my perspective from the driving seat of the LandRover! It is strange to think we are on our way home, however we did miss our flight connection in Casablanca due to fog delay so we are still here for another 3 hours and then we go to Heathrow instead of Gatwick, only a minor bump in the road really in comparison. I am sure London will be miserable and cold, and that is just me not the weather.

Morocco has been an amazing adventure, I have never been to an Arabic country and I did not know what to expect, but I read a lot of travel books, studied the guide book and tried to get as much insight as possible, and as it turned out I had high expectations and Morocco delivered. There is good and bad everywhere, some places we were treated with the utmost kindness, friendliness and respect and other times we felt a bit hassled and as if we were arm twisted into parting with our money. Sometimes the countryside was harsh and starkly beautiful, barren and empty. Other times it was lush and tropical. Fez was an mostly  insane, young modern city, yet still retains the medieval medina, the more remote towns felt traditional and unchanged.

As it turned out I ended up doing most of the driving with Mark an enforced passenger. The paved roads were very good and most drivers patient and polite. There are more pedestrians and cyclists than we are used to and at night a lack of lights, but generally the driving was very leisurely and enjoyable. One vista after another would open up, the terrain constantly changing and so much to see. The camber on the road was steep and the land rover well loaded so it didn’t like turning to the left, so I cut most of those corners where I could and that made it a more comfortable ride. Obviously the off- roading was more exciting, I was at home with the rocky trails but the sand was a challenge. I was trying to balance keeping up speed, not bumping Mark’s shoulder and route finding. As you saw I failed at one point and got stuck in the river bed, but that actually added a good talking point to the adventure, the locals were so amazing that it was fixed so efficiently that no harm was done.

Anyway, thanks to you all for following the blog, hope you enjoyed the trip as much as we did, and see some of you soon,

Jackie