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The journey has begun! The team met in London, and sorted
through all of our gear. Bags are quite heavy, but hopefully
they'll be OK at the airport. Spirits are high. The weather
here is good. We plan to have an early dinner at 6:00pm, then
go to sleep at 7:00pm. Wake-up call at 2:00am, and departure
at 3:00am. Next update will be from Jerez, tomorrow morning!
We landed this morning in Spain, in the city of Jerez. The
weather is beautiful — about 75 degrees (Fahrenheit),
with a clear blue sky. All is going just as we planned. Today,
we will take a 2-hour bus ride to Algecicas, where we will
catch the ferry to Tangier. All of our gear arrived safely
and on time, and the team's spirits are high. More later from
Tangier!
What a great day! We spent the day in Marrakesh, walking and
touring the streets of Medina, a beautiful, old part of town
where our hotel is located.
The streets here are very narrow - only about 2 feet wide!
The weather here is beautiful - about 80 degrees Fahrenheit,
sunny, with snow in the mountains. We visited the Gardens
of Meroujelle and took in the culture of the area, including
street performers, the Mosque, and delicious food! Tomorrow,
we will visit the coastal town Essaouira and take in some
surfing!
Today, we will visit the coastal town Essaouira, on the Atlantic
Ocean. With 6 miles of sandy beach, we will take in some swimming
and perhaps surfing.We traveled here on a local bus, which
was an interesting experience! One of the passengers fell
ill, and then the windshield of the bus shattered! Fortunately,
we were all in the back of the bus, so we were all safe. We
will return to Marrakesh tonight, and tomorrow, will head
14,000 feet up into the mountains!
Today, we had a rather treacherous hike to the hut. The hut
is about 3,270 meters in altitude, and unfortunately, the
mules could not make it all the way to the top, so we had
to haul 60-70 pound bags to the hut. This was very tiring,
and it took us about 6 hours, when normally, it takes only
4 hours. However, we did arrive safely, and the weather is
beautiful, though very cold - well below zero. Tomorrow, we
plan to do some skiing, and the next day we will go to the
highest point in Northern Africa.
Today, we climbed Jebel Toubkal, the highest mountain in North
Africa at 13,900 feet. It was a long ascent, with our skis,
but we all made it safe to the summit. Then, we descended
3,000 vertical feet to the hut at 10,900. Team spirits are
high, and we are enjoying skiing in this beautiful setting.
It is very, very windy, but overall, everything is going well.
We have a few more days of skiing before we return to Marrakesh.
We woke up under some snow and blowing wind. Quite a difference
from the day before. We got ready and spent 5 more hours climbing
a smaller mountain in the same valley. The goal was to do
some additional skiing, and we did just that. At times, the
wind reached 50 miles per hour. We left the hut at 3:00 in
the afternoon and descended to Imlil where we arrived at 6:00
in the evening.
The cab driver came to pick us up and brought us back to Marrakesh,
where we picked up some of our gear and we continued to cross
the Atlas Mountains one more time and ended up in this little
town called Ait Benhadou. This town is famous for its kasbah...
a unique site, and a popular spot for many films, including
Gladiator. We had dinner with one of the two remaining families
living in the kasbah. We had a great meal and we enjoyed some
Moroccan music until late at night.
Today, we had a bit of trouble finding transportation out
of Ait Bennhadou. Finally, we arranged a Land Rover that took
us north to the Toudhra Gorge, an impressive canyon, similar
to Eldorado Springs, but twice as large. We then continued
with the same driver towards the Algeria-Morocco border, where
we arrived at our hotel at the edge of the Sahara at 9:00
in the evening, overlooking the sand dunes. Tomorrow, with
a caravan of 6 camels, we will go even further into the desert
and will spend the night there. The temperature is good with
mostly sunny, warm weather. This is truly an amazing place,
and we are excited to go deep into the desert.
Today, we saw the desert in front of our eyes. We could not
believe how beautiful it was. We arranged 6 camels and a touraeg
guide and we started trekking in the desert. It was 12:00
in the afternoon and very hot. We crossed the sand for several
hours. Finally, after few hours and several miles, we reached
a small oasis, where the guide had pitched some tents. We
had brought the skis with us and tested them on some small
dunes. They seemed to work great. We then had a big feast
with half sheep on a spit and a big fire to warm the cold
night. We passed the night with a great dinner and conversation
on the terrace enjoying the summer breeze. We played the guitar
and the drums with some Moroccan guides and went to bed late.
We arrived at night to a hotel on the very edge of the dunes
with a terrace overlooking the dunes. On Wednesday, we woke
up at 6:00 to see the sunrise. At sunrise, the full extent
of the dunes was revealed. They are truly enormous even if
they are just a very small part of the Sahara. In front of
us was the biggest dune of the region - an impressive 600
feet! We started off into the dunes around noon on a camel
train traveling first into their interior and then along their
length guided by a young bedouin guide who walked on foot.
The dunes are truly amazing in their silence of which we fully
enjoyed. There were also some small animals and plants. After
several hours on the camels, we arrived at the base of one
of the tallest dune mountains that was over 600 feet tall.
Some of us tackled the great dune head-on after a break for
lunch. Upon reaching the top, we were rewarded with an amazing
view of the full area of the dunes - the valleys either side,
the mountains to the west and south, and the hills of Algeria
to the East. After fully absorbing the view, we enjoyed skiing
and running down the dune and had 2 memorable descents with
Arthur on telemarks, Massimo on a snowboard, and Pietro on
skis. The dune was so tall that those who reached the bottom
first, appeared to be not much larger than ants. We took the
camels back to the auberge and we are now in Erfoud, waiting
for the bus that will take us to Fez overnight. We should
arrive there tomorrow morning.
We arrived in Fez this morning at 5:15 A.M., following a 9-hour
bus ride (during most of which we slept!) from Erfoud. Upon
arrival, we checked into our hotel - the Riad - a beautiful
private guest house. We spent all day today exploring the
city of Fez. Fez is famous for its leather work. We also spent
some time in Medina, an old part of town with narrow streets
and lots of street vendors. We will stay in Fez tonight, and
tomorrow, we will travel to the mountain region of Rif.
Today, we traveled to Cheouan, a small town in the Rif Mountain
with long ties to Spain and Andalusian customs. We enjoyed
small excursions throughout day in the old medina, exploring
the sacred fountain and the surrounding mountains. The town
is at 3,000 feet and has a great climate. The Mediterranean
Sea is only 30 miles away, and can be seen on a clear day.
We did some last minute shopping, bartering a few objects
that we brought with us.
On Saturday, we caught an early taxi and traveled to the town
of Tangier to catch our ferry back to Spain. Unfortunately,
we got there just as our ferry was pulling away… we
could almost touch the boat leaving! We thought that it was
not a big problem, as the schedule said that there was 1 ferry
every hour. This, however, was not the case. We waited for
2 hours until the ferry finally arrived. It turned out that
it had some mechanical problems and we waited an additional
5 hours. When it finally left, we had no extra time to make
our flight out of Jerez. We arrived in Algecicas at 8:00pm.
Massimo called a long distance uncle that he had never met
and took off with him. Michael, Peter and Pietro took a local
bus from Algecicas to Malaga and arrived in Malaga at midnight.
Luckily, we found a clean hostel next to the bus station.
A late dinner at 2:00 in the morning, and then after 4 hours
of sleep, we took a taxi to the airport where we booked a
ticket to London. Michael and Pietro arrived in London at
1:00pm on Sunday. Peter arrived with a later flight at 4:00pm.
Massimo arrived in Italy at 5:00pm. The adventure was over,
with all team members arriving safely at their houses.
Thanks again to all the sponsors and supporters that have
helped us with this great trip. Check back soon for a full
recap and more pictures!
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