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Before we launched into the most exciting part of our Moroccan adventure, camping in the Sahara, we journeyed to a town called Midelt and spent a night at a hotel built to resemble a Kasbah or Moroccan fort. En route to Midelt we stopped for a picnic lunch at a rest stop surprisingly similar to what you might find in New Zealand - trees, a stream, and grass complete with grazing dairy cows! As two of the last members of the tour group not to have succumbed to the local bacteria, Dale and I enjoyed the serenity. For those of the group searching out a quiet place to relieve themselves, I imagine the stop was less restful.
Our second stop was in a town known as the Switzerland of Morocco. Not only was the town green, tidy and home to an impressive looking private school, but apparently there is skiing here in winter. Snow sports were not something I had previously associated with Morocco.
The closer we got to Midelt, the more the scenery resembled what I had expected to find in Morocco. Houses built from clay bricks in rectangular shapes, women dressed from head to toe in black, dry and dusty landscapes. Although the valleys were still green - this being an area where apples are grown - the high ground with its dramatic rock formations and gravelly slopes, was very much desert.
After a two hour walk exploring rural Midelt and admiring the magnificent vistas, we returned to our Kasbah for a much needed shower, and dinner. Dale and I went down to the hotel restaurant early for a Moroccan beer - called something like "speziale" - and were also provided with complementary almonds, peanuts and, somewhat randomly, a plate of bite sized cakes and slices. The beer tasted surprisingly similar to Heinekin.
Dinner was a three course set menu, which of course began with the usual bread and olives. First course was vegetable soup. The consistency of the soup was quite thin and it was a pale green colour - so not particularly appetising in its appearance. Upon tasting it, the only vegetable flavour I could discern was courgette, although there appeared to be flecks of carrot in it as well. Dale seemed to enjoy his ( or maybe he had just worked up an appetite) because he polished his soup off with about three pieces of bread in record time.
The next course was fish (a little concerning since we were in a desert) with chips and cooked vegetables. The fish were individually wrapped in tinfoil, with faces and tails still attached. They appeared to be river fish, at least I convinced myself that they looked enough like trout to risk it, and were served with a lemon wedge. Simple and delicate, the fish made a refreshing change from the hearty soups and tagines we have been eating. Dessert was an apple tart - apples being the region's specialty- with cardboard-like pastry. Overall, not quite the culinary experience I have been hoping for, but could have been worse.
(The fish must have been fresh as we suffered no ill effects!)
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