In May 2008 we spent two weeks in Morocco in North Africa. After 3 busy days sightseeing and dodging the mopeds and souvenir stall owners in Marrakesh - and relaxing on the tranquil roof of our wonderfull 14th century "Riad" in the old town - we trekked through the Atlas mountains for 7 days on a route known as the Toubkal Circuit. This starts at the Berber town of Imlil (1.5 hours drive from Marrakesh) and leads through several Berber villages, over two high (3000 meters plus) passes and past the largest Lake in the Atlas (Lac d'Ifni) to the "Refuge de Toubkal", a French built mountain hut used to access Jebel Toubkal - with 4167 meters the highest peak in the Atlas mountains. This we walked up (only about 2 hours from the hut) before finally returning to our starting point in Imlil.
After the trekking we had three days of relaxation, swimming and ice cream eating on the Atlantic Coast in the ancient town of Essaouira (goes back to the Phonecians!) before returning for a day to Marrakesh and flying home. Essaouria used to be a hippy hang out and prides itself of having been visited by Jimmy Hendrix himself. It now hosts a huge World Music festival every June and it is full of music and arty types all year round.
Here are our photographic impressions of the small part of this fascinating country that we had the pleasure to visit. I am sorry that I can't include music on P-base: everyone in Morocco is a singer - whether they are driving their donkey down a dusty track or working in the fields or doing the dishes or just walking to work: people were singing all the time - I've never been anywhere with so much song!