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Shadows of camels in the Sahara.

Marrakech, Morocco

Since coming back from my amazing trip to Marrakech in Morocco, I’ve wanted to share some of the amazing moments I had and have only now been able to sit down and type it out!

Marrakech is located in Morocco which is at the North West tip of Africa (highlighted in yellow in the image below); it’s a beautiful place and mixes African, French and Arabian cultures to create a country rich with culture, food, music and art.

Fortunately, as it is located in Africa, the weather is lovely and warm. Travelling in December, as I did, the days were a high of approximately 21 degrees Celsius, however the nights sometimes dropped to 5 degrees Celsius (which was really quite cold). Despite the chilling nights, I had an amazing time and welcomed the sunshine which unfortunately we don’t get enough of in England!

Best Parts of Marrakech

Eating all the exotic food: I love trying new food from different parts of the world and Marrakech didn’t disappoint! I loved the fresh fruit and vegetables, the local dishes such as Tagines and all the oranges!

Sahara: This was one of the best trips I have ever made. We travelled for three days all over Morocco, visiting ancient sites, mountains, gorges, valleys and….the Sahara! Travelling for an hour on camel back into the Sahara was very painful but seeing the beautiful sand dunes, feeling rays of sunshine hitting your skin and enjoying the company of others from around the world was all worth it! At night, we sat on top of the highest sand dune, gazing into the sky to see the thousands of stars that looked like a city in space. It was truly amazing!

Photography

Recently, I purchased a DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) camera that enables you to change lenses and have more control of all the parts that make up a photograph. It’s been a big learning curve and I’ve been reading lots of books to teach myself to use the camera properly! My trip to Marrakech was a perfect opportunity to try out my newly learnt skills and the following are some of my favourite snaps!

Riad balcony in Marrakech.
A Riad is a type of hotel that is popular in Morocco. It consists of a building with a central courtyard with 6 to 8 rooms surrounding the open space.

Fresh orange juice is famous to Morocco, with orange trees growing practically everywhere, you can buy freshly squeezed orange juice at market stalls. This was by far, the best orange juice I have ever had!

That’s right, I ate snails! Moroccans are proud of their French history and therefore you often find French cuisine – in this case snails. It didn’t taste that bad and was actually rather delicious!

I love to spot patterns when taking photographs, I noticed this cactus centre…it’s rather beautiful and amazing when you find perfect patterns in nature!

Heading into the Sahara was definitely my favourite part of the whole trip – even more so when I got to experience the spectacular beauty of the desert – in this case the beautiful colours of the sun setting over the horizon.

This was a moment I shall never forget – a sky full of stars, not like any I have seen before (we don’t get to experience it in London because of light pollution). The only light was the moon, which in this picture lit the sand dunes enough to capture the moment on camera….WOW!

The camel used to travel into the Sahara desert, he was lovely!

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my trip and looking at some of the photos! I’d really appreciate any evaluations of my blog and photos, so post below stating what you think!

From a writing perspective:

• Did I include good VCOP (Vocabulary, Connectives, Openers and Punctuation)?
• Is there anything I could include to make my writing better?
• What did you learn about Morocco?

Photos:

• Which photo do you like best? Why?
• Which photo do you like least? Why?

Thanks for reading!

Miss Khatri.