More tales from Brad

Hi all,

The intrepid adventurer, surfer and all round Aussie
stupid guy is back in Taghazout after his 3 city
whirlwind tour of southern Morocco. I can't say that
it was my most ever pleasant travel experience ever
but it was interesting .
After leaving Essaouria we made our way to Marrakesh a
place of noise, smells and mad alleys full of rug and
lamp dealers, snake charmers, beggars, story tellers
and acrobats. Unfortunately though my strep throat had
got the better of me and on our second night there I
was again feverish, crying for mummy and unable to eat
anything. Strike out my previous joy at being able to
self proscribe antibiotics. Anyway off to the hospital
it was for me and there we waited and waited till I
had the good sense to realize I was at a hospital for
locals and just as likely to have my arm removed by
accident in the ensuing language confusion as have my
throat seen to. Pulling out the trusty lonely planet
guide we found a pay as you go clinique, a luxury out
of bounds to most Morrocons. Once there I was seen to
immediately and got me had a nice injection in the
butt. The
doctor was mighty offended when I asked him if the
needle was "new". Us westerners and our paranoia hey
;) I also had a new proscription for antibiotics, some
paracetamol and a packet of small torpedos which,
after some consideration, were obviously not to be
taken orally.

This cocktail of therapies seemed to do the trick and
I was somewhat better the next day. We then boarded a
bus for Ourzarzat, the Hollywood of Morocco.
Apparently it is the location of many big budget
movies wanting that authentic desert look. Indeed
there were many film sets scattered around but we went
to visit a friend of Hanane's. It is hard to write a
description of the people but it is always more of an
honour to meet people and see how they live than to
just see buildings, eat in restraunts and be a
complete tourist. I have some photo's of the place on
my camera and will put some on the web when I get
back. The place was very poor but very beautiful. It
is very similar to the Australian outback to those who
have seen that but always ringed with towering snow
capped mountains on every horizon.

The journey back to Taghazout was 7 hours or so but
though long the scenary was spectacular. It was like
seeing the movie Mad Max for real. Desert and then
small outposts of humanity scraping together some kind
of living out of what seemed like nothing.

Today I bought a copy of the Guardian and sat back in
a green park in Agadir. It's been a tiring week and
I'm all up for relaxing at the moment. Hopefully in a
few days I'll have strength back and get back out in
the surf.

Until then working people.

Cia

B