Morocco Adventure

I had the most wonderful holiday in Morocco last month. I went on a Textile tour that was organised by Amazigh Cultural Tours Morocco. It was so well organised and we were taken to so many amazing places and stayed in the most gorgeous guesthouses.

Our special guest host was Gloria Loughman and she had designed an applique project of a Moroccan door for us to work on when we had some free time.

We started our holiday in Marrakesh and we had so much fun exploring the markets. It was so different to anywhere that I had been before, I kept thinking that I had wandered into a film set.

Here are some market photos that I took.

Fruit stand

Spices

Glassware

Shoes

Tagines

The Moroccan people do most of there cooking in Tagines, the food was usually meat and vegetables and it was always so tender.

It was such a culture shock to walk along the narrow streets keeping a look out for people riding on donkey carts or motorbikes. The motorbike is starting to replace donkeys in Morocco

As we were leaving Marrakesh we were taken to the Yves St Laurent Museum. Apparently, he used to live there. There was so much to see, we could've spent all day there.

YSL House

As well as a gorgeous bright blue house there was a magnificent garden with the most interesting display of Cactus plants. 

There was also plenty of YSL clothing on display.

YSL clothing

There was a lot of embroidery on all the clothes, it made me want to get back into doing embroidery again.

Next we stayed at a French style farmhouse in Ait Oumghar. It was very quiet and picturesque and so different to the noisy hustle and bustle of Marrakech. 

Everywhere we turned seemed to be a photo opportunity.

We visited a women's embroidery group where they showed us a couple of their specialist stitches and we were served a delicious afternoon tea. There was also some free time for us to start our Door project that was organised by Gloria Loughman.

The following morning we set off for the Sahara Desert and on the way we went to Ait Ben Haddou, a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is a walled village that was built in the 15th Century and there was a part that was from the 11th Century. 

Ait Ben Haddou

It is the backdrop for many films including Gladiator, Game of Thrones and Cleopatra. Apparently Morocco has a huge film industry.

Most of us climbed the many, many steps and got to the top where we had a good view of the area.

Here I am at the top, it was a hot day.

I happened to get a photo of this interesting gentleman outside one of the many doors.

We also stopped by a women's association where they showed us how they process the Argan nuts to make their famous Argan Oil. There was also a shop where we could buy some.

Argan Oil Shop

All of a sudden, we were in the Sahara Desert, a place I never thought I'd be. We were welcomed as usual with green tea and fancy biscuits.

Our welcome treat.

We stayed at so many lovely venues. They were Riads, that meant they used to be the home of rich people and have now been turned into guesthouses.

Our Sahara Guesthouse.

We settled into our rooms and then walked out onto the sand dunes to watch the sunset.

Sahara Sunset

The next morning we got up early and watched the sunrise.

Sunrise in the Sahara

It was like a dream come true and a truly wonderful experience.

On the other side of the pool was a covered outdoor area where we could do some more work on our doorway project. We were having such a great time.

We took the opportunity to have a photo with us all showing the silk scarves that we had dyed earlier with Rose Madder dye. The man on the left is Abdou, our wonderful guide who was having some fun with us.

Our silk scarves

We were only halfway through our holiday and so much more to come. I'll show some more photos in my next post.

Bye for now,

Linda