USA the west coast

We made to USA, hooray, hooray,

After we were frisked when we arrived in Chicago, then missed our flight because of delays in the air before Chicago,we discovered that our flight was cancelled along with many others because of bad weather in the southern states. Tension mounted as we sat and waited to find if we would get a seat on the next flight or we would be stranded in Chicago without our luggage for the night. With over a hundred people on the wait list, Chris was relieved when our names were called, BUT WHERE'S DREW. "Yes, Mrs Dunlop you can board now but if your husband isn't here you will have to go without him", said the flight attendant.
After a few moments panic, Drew shows up with some Mcdonalds fries and a thick shake, which almost cost him his life, but as fate would have it, we made the flight and didn't feel too sorry for the 100 passengers left behind and stranded at the airport.

Finally, we made it to LA after about 28 hours travelling from Madrid, and then started to organise ourselves for the U.S leg of the travelling Dilburies adventures.

Finding a campervan took about 4 days, but eventually, we discovered EL Van, a '94 GMC Vandura, a small camper, with all the luxuries of home, except trivial items like a stove, a table, a loo or a shower. Obviously, these minor inconveniences would present no problem during the next 6 months, so the deal was done. El Van (or Ellie as Chris likes to call him, even his/(her) sex is in question) was duly driven to San Diego by way of a beautiful state park at San Clemente. In San Diego we made the mistake of stopping at a red light and after some 10-15 seconds at this intersection we were joined, rather abruptly (I'd guess at about 20 MPH) by a fellow motorist in her sedan, whereby she caused some slight modifications to the appearance and general health of El Van. You will, I hope, be pleased to know that, we, the occupants of El Van did not suffer from the same or any other form of modification to our health.

Undaunted, we proceeded to spend a few days in San Diego, visiting the wonderful San Diego zoo, 2 panel beaters and Tijuana. The highlights were, as you'd expect, the zoo and our walk over the border into Tijuana (the 1.5 hour queue to get back across into USA aside).

From San Diego we returned to LA and the same motel where we stayed for our 1st 5 night in US, and no it was not just because of the free champagne during happy hour from 4-6 pm. (Don't tell them but that's really 2 hours).

During our time in LA we did some of the tourist things like drive along Sunset Blvd, visit Venice Beach, Muscle Beach (where of course, we really looked just like everyone else), Santa Monica and the pier. One thing that really impressed us was the friendliness and the politeness of all the locals we met. Even the motorists are polite.In a suburban street, if you look like you're going to step onto the pavement (that's bitumen for all you Aussies) they slow down and even stop to wave you across the road.

We had afew obstacles to overcome in registering the van. These were overcome by using the L.A. backpackers address as our home address (with the cooperation of the front desk staff) and a few non disclosures i.e. where we were travelling to and the fact that we were not intending to get Calafornian licences which they were very keen for us to obtain. So off north we travelled, after purchasing the necessary items to be ultra coumfortable, eg. chairs,a table, a gas stove, pots, crockery, you get the idea.

We drove up the west coast until we turned to go to San Fransisco. The scenery was spectacular, as expected, but Drew nearly had heart failure when I was driving. I don't know why, I did not hit anything. We stayed in scenic State parks and loved the freedom of the journey. Mothers day was a highlight as we spent the lunch hours at Pier 39 eating a superb lunch and watching the seals, then off to Napa Valley.

The wineries, scenery and parks we stayed at were fun. Two days in both Napa and Sonoma Valleys were not enough but you cannot spend all your time walking in nature reserves and sampling wines - well we could, but we had places to go and people to see.

We drove back to the coast and through redwood country, camping at the state parks and walking through the forrests until we were put off by the ranger telling us that a wild cat had attacked a man recently and there were signs up to that affect so we packed up and headed north, over the boarder to Oregon where the beaches are even more spectacular that California and the forrests and rivers bigger - wow -
We ventured inland to see Crator Lake, and we were very lucky to see it in clear, sunny weather .
On the way back to the coast we went through waterfall country with more, beautiful, big rivers and forrests.

Over the border to Washington State.

Photos of Morocco

Some of the views while trekking in the High Atlas mountains were quite beautiful.

And some of the villages were lovely too.

Talk about a job with a view

The contrasting colours of the green pastures,

the grey any red hills and the blue sky was awesome.

Marty, Chris, Kekulu, Drew and Allison at dawn overlooking a large Kasbah in the Dades valley.

A view from the same Kasbah!

Just another Kasbah. Ho hum.

At the start of our all day trek in the high Atlas Drew met and sang French songs

with some local village s. I think they just wanted him to give them some money.

That dot up on the mountainside is a local village woman collecting some sort of grass or herbs.

Chris shows off her amazing sense of balance and adventure crossing a raging river.

Allison looks on patiently.

Steve, our intrepid (no, sorry Imaginative) tour leader and some of the group enjoying a view of the Mid atlas ranges from the ruins of another (you guessed it) kasbah.

Just someof the s on the tour.

It was pretty tough for Drew being the only male except for Steve, our leader.

Dancing with some Berber women.

Chris and Kekulu during another trek

Here they are again.

the berbery apes

the home to 400 horses owned by the king in about 1500 AD

all the gang

Morroco

We arrived at Casablanca airport in the afternoon (how civilized) and took the cheapest way to get to the hotel, train (bugger just missed it and the next one arrived 100 slow minutes later) ,then mini cab to the hotel. A lesson to the wise. We were told to negotiate everything - wrong - you pay on the meter which would have been half the cost of what we paid. So much for the cheapest possible transport to the hotel. Casa is a big commercial city, nothing like in mums favorite movie but the mosque is enormous, yes we went and saw another bloody mosque! The next day we travelled by train 2nd class to Meknes 4 hours in the train 1.5 standing squashed together in the isle, but we had fun getting to know the other 6 people on the tour all English speaking - hooray! That night we walked 1 hour to our dinner at the old imperial city - yum.

In Meknes we roamed the old city, exploring the grannery (every old city must have one of those. How else could one eat), a Muslim training centre for the olden days, and of course the suk (bazaar) where we had lunch. We were warned not to eat the salads in this area as we would have about a 50% chance of getting very sick for about 4 days. We ate cooked meat! Then another train trip 2nd class to Fes. This time we sat down. Oh I forgot to tell you that Drew and I got hopelessly lost walking back to the hotel before the train trip. As we were nearly out of time to get back before the train left we hailed a cab which took us 7k out of our way, Drew saying the hotel name over and over again. When we got back everyone was waiting for us and to our dismay we got into the cab around the corner from the hotel - very frustrating!

Fes was great. Alot of history and a day with a guide to get us through all the alleys, each specialising in different things, eg. jewelry (goodie). Another dinner 1 hours walk from our hotel. What is it with our guide, always marching us so far for our tucker? I must admit it was yummy so I forgive him.

The next day we travelled by bus to Midelt, which is in the mid Atlas mountains. The scenery is spectacular and the drive comfortable. Mid afternoon we went on a small? hike 3.2 hours and back for dinner and dancing - yes dancing ,Burber belly dancing. Drew had a ball and I must admit I enjoyed myself as well.

We are now getting higher into the mountain range. Stopped at Todra Gorge for a walk and then stayed at Dades Valley. In this valley are 1000 Kasbahs and to walk a small section of the valley was fantastic, Kasbahs and greenery everywhere. The villagers use the valley to grow food for everyone who cannot afford to pay for it. There we went for a half day walk of the gorge - beautiful, beautiful. Before we get into the high Atlas mountains we spend a night at Ait Benaddou where there are many Kasbahs. Many movies were made around here, eg. Gladiator and Lawrence of Arabia.

The nest two days were spent in Imlil, a village in the High Atlas mountains where the Berber people have always lived. There we went on a days hiking about 14ks of up and down, slippery donkey tracks. When it was over Terry, another woman on our tour and I went into the village and had a traditional humum (steam room wash by Berber women ) My muscles were aching before I went in but much better when I left. They then invited us to have tea and walnuts in their home - a mud hut two storey - animals underneath and a T.V.. That was a memorable experience and I flopped into bed early exhausted.

Off to the coast next to the tourist town of Essouaira where we walked on the beach and purchased jewelry (at last) then to Marrakech. This city, like Casablanca was a bit of a disappointment but only because Meknes, Fes, the atlas mountains and Essouaira were so very, very wonderful. The highlight of Marrakech was definitely the atmosphere at the huge market (souq) In there you will see Berber musicians, snake charmers, witch doctors and an assortment of food stalls. Yes, I know, I am always talking about the food.

The tour ended there but Drew and I took a train to Rabat. The capital city was memorable for the Chellah, an archeological site of old Roman ruins and Muslim tombs. With beautiful scenery and gardens it was well worth the visit.

In Casablanca we had another experience - we were walking around the city when we decided to head to the waterfront. As it was a bit far we were looking for a taxi when 2 guys driving an old truck stopped next to us at a traffic light and when we said hi and started to chat they offered us a lift. We jumped in and headed for the beach but then decided that we would have a few beers with them down at the waterfront. By this time Chris is getting very nervous. Anyway we stopped at a bottle shop for a couple and before we new it we had a dozen stubbies and a small bottle of Scotch. With Chris starting to getting a little scared we headed for the beach. The guys started drinking very quickly and we thought we better leave them to it. Although they asked us to come back for dinner we thought we might escape instead and left them to it.

With another long walk had great two days there before we headed back to Casa where we took a long walk down to the beach, past enormous Mumslim cemeteries (in prime beachfront real estate) and on to Ricks cafe. Although itr was closed and isn't the one used in the movie Casablance it was still worth the long long walk to see it.

The next day it was on the plane again to fly back to Madrid and onto U.S.A. What a great adventure we had!