Walking on the wild side – Emlil Valley, Morocco

November 2012

I have just arrived in Marrakech, seen my old friend Redoine and caught up on news. He now has a small travel agency, off the Fna Jamal Place, and before I know it I am booked on a day trip to the Emlil Valley the following day! Whoa!!

I am to join two Dutch young ladies. Bright and early – but not too much – we are picked up by a small mini-bus and our driver starts making his way out of the city, in no time we are on a clear flat road driving towards the Atlas Mountains.  I have been here before but this time we take a turn left and go to a different valley.
The landscape changes as soon as we turn to a narrower road which starts climbing along the mountains.  On the right the high rocks and on the left the valley with the river, at first a dry bed with no water.  

 

The dry river bed

Mud houses blend in the landscape

The local ‘highway maintenance men’ are making repairs and are taking off debris and other stuff (bicycle, etc.) from the river bed in preparation for the rains.  

Highway maintenance river men

Emlil River valley

Stop and start on the road as there are lots of cars, carts and animals coming the opposite ways and huge holes and cracks on the road surface.  Alongside the road are also locals selling small wares or fruit & veg and also families on a day out, as it is Sunday after all.

The opposite side of the river bed has a hilly / mountainous landscape with perched up houses.  These are the typical homes made of mud and dirt in brown / red colour.  Outside the homes is hanging the washing on makeshift lines and small allotments are being tended.  Date trees nearby provide shade as well as fruits that will be soon sold.

Snow on the Atlas

Finally we arrive to our destination (Taourirt); here we are meeting a local guide – a young man (mid-20s/early 30) who is asking us how long we want to walk.  We opt for 3-4 hours long walk and we soon start off.
As we start our slow climb from the village, we meet locals all dressed up going down the way to the village.  They are dressed in their Sunday’s best.  Strange like everywhere is the same.... As we climb on the left is the old local mosque which is now abandoned as it made way to a more modern and larger one to accommodate the growing population.

As we continue to climb, the path becomes narrower and all around us we see orchards full of apples and walnuts trees.  While we climb the temperatures become a little cooler making climbing easier.  Our path goes through small villages / hamlets and homes. 

Old fashion ceilings

Apple and walnut orchards in the valley

Local children and chickens are sharing the path with us, up and down rickety steps, with the occasional grandma accompanied by young grandchildren.

I don’t know how long we climbed, I walk regularly but mainly flats – as I live in Hertfordshire there are not many mountains – and therefore I was feeling a little out of breath.  As I was the older in the group, very graciously the other two ladies in my party waited for me together with our guide.  After a while our guide suggested a stop.  By then we had reached a small group of houses and also arrived to our guide brother’s house which he also shared.  Inside the house we met his sister in law and his 6 years nephew.  

Roof cover

The house was small and inviting.  As you climbed a few steps to the main door, on the right was a small and dark room - the kitchen.  Inside the lady of the house was sitting on the floor kneading flour and water, the room was fairly empty and had a small oven that looked almost like a toy, where later she would bake the bread. 
Outside the kitchen - at the end of a passageway - was a living room, before it - on the left a curtained window (a bedroom?) - and on the right a balcony with a view of the valley we had been climbing up to then.  

The view was fantastic and it provided also an insight on local village life as we could see into people’s courtyards.  Trees, recycled containers containing geraniums and other flowering plants and herbs mixed with large dusty disks to receive television channels. 

View from the terrace

View from the terrace

We were offered the traditional mint tea and in a little while warm bread just baked accompanied with walnuts from one of the trees growing outside. Never bread, walnuts and tea had been more tasteful and satiating!

Inside our guide's home

Mint tea, local walnuts and freshly baked bread

 

6 year old enjoying playing games on an i-phone

In due course we resumed our walk, which was getting through paths that were becoming narrower by the step and were running deeper in the orchards. At the certain point we saw a large group of men working on a steep ravine. Apparently they were extending the ground to create a car park for the village. Imagine a long steep slope at the side of a road and men hanging on the slope and trying to put perches to create a platform sturdy and secure enough to hold vehicles. Hard to imagine even by having seen it with my eyes!

Building a car park

Let's build a car park!

Our walk continued and we got to a wider road like path snaking around the orchards now below us. We crossed with the occasional rambler / walker – usually from the West – walking their way through almost invisible cross country paths and making to towards the Atlas. Brave. 

The sun playing peeka-boo

Breathtaking views

Cultivation in the valley

Caught in the rain....and rainbow

 

Our walk came to an end exactly 3-4 hours after starting it in the same village where we started – reaching it from a different part that we had started – and near to a restaurant perched on a hill and with the most charming terrace with a gorgeous breathtaking view down below overlooking more valleys and orchards. 

Back in Taourirt

Spectacular views from restaurant's terrace

Omlette Moraccan style

Good traditional food concluded our visit before rejoining our mini-bus and returning to Marrakech later in the afternoon. Well worth it!

Leaving for Marrakech on our mini-bus

Valentine’s Day - history and ideas for presents

Valentine’s Day is a day internationally recognised in most countries, especially in the West.

Also know as Saint Valentine’s Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, it is celebrated on 14th February mainly in the West (calendar set by the Western Christian Church) or on 6th July / 30th July in the East (calendar set by the Eastern Christian Churches).  When we were in Japan, I was pretty sure we celebrated it on 14th February together with the Japanese all over! You learn something new every day!

No matter which day it is celebrated, Valentine’s Day is now universally associated with Love, Romanticism and Affection.  However, things were a little different when they started up in Roman times.

Before it became a huge commercial enterprise with flowers at overinflated prices and other gifts donated all over… Valentinus, a roman Christian Gnostic theologian was imprisoned by the Romans for performing weddings for soldiers (who were not allowed to marry).  While in prison – legend has it – that he healed the daughter of his jailer and when sentenced to death his last written words to the young lady were: “from your Valentine’ before his death on 14th February 269!”.  Valentinus was considered a martyr and was eventually given sainthood.

In Roman times the celebration of Valentine’s Day did not have any romantic connotation.

Fast forward a bit and in the Middle Ages, XIV century, when the poet Geoffrey Chaucer started the romantic side of the celebration and the tradition of courtly love started to flourish; Chaucer wrote a poem to celebrate the 1st anniversary of the engagement of Kind Richard II of England and Anne of Bohemia (both 15 year old!) with the poem ‘Parlement of Foules’ in 1382 where he mentions “love birds”:

For this was on seynt Volantynys day Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make.

["For this was on Saint Valentine's Day, when every bird come there to choose his mate"]
(Information obtained from Wikipedia)

By the XV century Valentine’s day had developed into an occasion where lovers gave each other presents to express their love: flowers, confectionery and - greeting cards (that became known as ‘valentines’) – These started to get produced mechanically in great quantities from the XIX century and became recognised as presents fit to declare love to a loved one.  Cupid’s figurines, heart shaped items and even doves are nowadays the most popular images to show love on Valentine’s cards.

The practice of sending a Valentine’s card by post became more popular when in the XX century it became cheaper to buy a stamp, making sending Valentine cards more popular.  The practice of mailing Valentine cards made it easier to send anonymous cards and some began to appear with ‘racy’ verses in the then prudish Victorian’s times.

From the middle of the XX century exchanging cards developed into also giving gifts such as roses and chocolates, packed in heart-shaped boxes and wrapped in red paper.  In the 1980’s the Diamond industry pushed for jewellery to be given to loved ones and in the XXI century - with the advent of the internet – e-valentine cards have become very popular, with more than 15 million being sent every year.

The perception given all around it so make us think Valentine’s Day is a day to be celebrated only if you are part of a couple.  However, years ago an American friend taught me to celebrate the day not only with your ‘romantic loved one’ and to extend the celebration to the rest of your family including your children and close friends.  It certainly puts a different and more social spin on celebrating the day when you do not have that ‘romantic person’ in your life and to make it a day to be positive rather than moping around!  

At Crafts of the World Online we stick with tradition – heart shaped objects – and also by thinking out of the box and offering different ideas for presents to buy your loved ones – being that a lover, a friend or family member - like candles and friendship’s bracelets, all at very affordable prices.  We have a whole section dedicated to Valentine Day, take a look!

At the end of the day, it is the thought that counts and who gave / sent it to us.  Well, that’s my feeling anyway!

Happy Valentine’s Day to you all!

January - Time to make homemade orange marmalade...

Where I set up to show you in a video how to make your own homemade orange marmalade. 
January is the perfect month to find in store or at the market Seville oranges which are the best for making proper homemade orange marmalade.

The marmalade lasts for a long time (even years). I make it for my own use and occasionally I am so good and give it as present to friends at Christmas.

Walking the Hadrian Way / Hadrian Wall Trail - Tranche 1 / Day 3 - Corbridge - Cholleford / Chester Fort

The following morning I decided – after taking advice from the locals – that I could walk the 15-20 minutes to Port Gate. Also decided to make it more scenic by following part of a local walk (Milkway Lane) and then finishing by walking along the A68 – which unfortunately has a verge that is not for walking.  Local knowledge didn’t seem to be accurate as it took me 1.5hr to reach Port Gate, even accounting for the slow pace once I reached the A68, this was definitively more than a 15-20 minutes' walk and it was closer to 3 miles! Be warned! If I were to do it again, I would follow the local walk through small lanes and footpath back to the wall and then retrace my steps to Port Gate walking along the Wall’s path. Much safer and pleasant.

From Port Gate I picked up Hadrian Wall Path was again faced with climbs up and down the stone walls that divided the fields. These were more like ‘deer styles’ whereby you climb steps over the top of the wall and then you soon climb back down.

Three miles on (some of which in a pine wood) and I reached Oswald’s tea place. Along the route it was saying that it is closed on Mondays, fortunately being a BH Monday it was open!! Stopped for a restoring pot of tea and biscuits (they had lots of appetising things) and when I started walking again with a better spring in my step!

Three and a bit more miles and I was to reach Chollerford and Chester Fort (the end of my day's walking before returning to Newcastle (NC) for my train home).

3rd day

Towards Chollerford the signposted route went different from my guide book. I got directed first on a small narrow pretty lane, but then I was sent onto a main road and basically end up walking all the way to Chester Fort along the main road. If I’d known I would have taken the shorter and more direct route along the ‘military road’ and at least I would have saved myself time and miles. As you get to Chollerford Bridge you get the option to take a detour to see where the old roman Chester Bridge was. As I was tired I didn’t go to see it. Might do it when returning for the next tranche of 3 days walking. Certainly the actual bridge and the site are very pretty and worth seeing.

I had planned to eat at the café at Chester Fort. It turned out to be on the roundabout not connected with Chester Fort National Trust site, so decided to catch my AD122 bus to Hexham, get the train connection to NC and have a combined lunch/dinner in NC at a pizzeria I had seen when sightseeing in NC on the Saturday.

The place is called the Herb Garden and it was open at 4.30pm when I got there! Yeahhh! And what a good decision it was… see pictures and comments on Trip Advisor.  I think my 2^nd trance of walking will end up in exactly the same place before catching my train back home!!!