Saturday 28 October 2017

We have found paradise and it’s in the atlas.  Or rather the Atlas.  An hour from Marrakech in the foothills of the spectacular High Atlas Mountains, we are ensconced in the most glorious Kasbah.

After yesterday wine incident we may never drink decent wine again (until we get home at least) but perhaps wine is an unnecessary accoutrement in paradise.  Yes, clearly I am delusional. That will pass.

Today we relax.  It couldn’t have come at a better time.  Holidaying is exhausting stuff, and its just R&R left on the itinerary now.  After breakfast we walk around the beautiful grounds

Chat with the birds

 

And the love birds

Talk to another old duck

And soak in the views.

We visit the compound where the in house animals are kept.  Typically, I discard the sign on the gate warning me to take care when visiting the animals and barge straight in.  The camel on my right reaches for a taste of my shoulder, two billy goats with huge horns race to see who can get to me first and I shriek “Cherrie” who unbolts the gate (from the outside – she is far more considered  than I) and I run through.  She slams it in billy’s face

Perhaps long distance views of goats are better

Really, do views get better than this?

More pool work, even a lap or two.  Such hardship

We meet Jean and Herman for drinks as planned, and it soon becomes apparent that Herman knows everything and is especially keen on his own voice. Not even I can get a word in edgewise. Hard to believe I know. Cherrie is sitting closer to Jean and manages a conversation with her but I am stuck with Herman. As we rise, an hour later, to go to dinner (we had pre booked a table for two on the rooftop terrace again) Herman decides that he still has much to say and it should be said at a table for four. We suffer through an insufferable two hours, during which the only people to speak are Herman and Jean. It’s second marriage for both. She is as rich as Croesus and only sold the roller a couple of years ago because someone scratched it. I admit to a sense of great relief when dinner was finally over.  I know a great deal more about Herman than I care to and frankly I don’t wish to know a skerrick more.  Note to our mutual friend please keep this to yourself and I apologise if I offend

Tomorrow after breakfast we depart these glorious mountains bound for the sea. More hardship.