Insha'Allah

After my failed attempts to take Jason hot air ballooning for his birthday I was struggling to come up with another brilliant idea. Then inspiration struck - what better present than two days rock climbing in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco?! Luckily for me there is a company who runs such trips, even renting out all the necessary gear, so from Marrakech we headed up into the mountains.

There are two major bus companies, Supratours and CTM, that have decent reputations and a host of local companies which are considered more variable. We choose to go with Supratours for the added comfort and reliability, given it was supposed to be a 7.5 hour bus trip. The bus was indeed comfortable with functioning air conditioning and seemed fine until 3.5 hours out of Marrakech, when we stopped. There appeared to be some problem getting the bus into gear, and the attempt at maintenance involved a rock picked up from the side of the road. Unsurprisingly bashing the engine didn't fix it and we were told (or the Arabic speakers were told) that another bus would come from Marrakech. There was a mass exodus and people started stopping every passing vehicle and getting in. One of the only English speaking passengers said that this was for the people who were only going to the next town , those of us going further had to wait. However, when another bus passed by heading to Tinehir we waved it down and went the rest of the way in a much less comfortable local bus. This turned out to be a good move as we made it to Tinehir by 6pm, the second Supratours bus didn't get there until 9pm!

Our slight concern was how we were now going to meet Jay, our rock climbing guide. We were two hours late, not on the bus he expected and without a phone. We needn't have worried. Before we had managed to put our bags down Jay appeared and we were off to the Todra Gorge.

I feel like there is so much to say about our time there, all of it good. The climbing, the people, the food. Oh, the tajines!! Jay was originally from America and had set up the climbing business with a friend. Together with his wife and kids, he had moved to Morocco three years ago and thrown himself whole heartedly into the culture. He seemed just as passionate about Morocco as he is about rock climbing, so we got to learn about both.

One of the interesting things we learnt about was the phrase Insha'Allah, which roughly translates to "if god wills it.". This is apparently used in every conceivable situation and means neither yes nor no.

Would you like to come over for dinner? "Insha'Allah."
So you'll be here at 10am to fix the plumbing? "Insha'Allah."
Can we have breakfast at 8am tomorrow? "Insha'Allah."

Since learning this phrase we hear it everywhere, both appended to English phrases said to us (see you later, Insha'Allah) or in overheard conversations in Arabic.

We also got to meet his family who were staying at the Auberge. Jason being handcuffed by 5 year old "officer Lydia" whilst she kept up her patrol in fits of giggles just added to the whole experience!

As for outdoor rock climbing, I am hooked! First order of business when we get back is to get a guide to outdoor climbing near Sydney. Laundry can happen after that. Jay also gave us an introduction to lead climbing, or "climbing on the sharp edge", and doing a full course is now on the agenda.

The only problem with going rock climbing, when we hadn't planned to go, was that we didn't have our own rock climbing shoes. For anyone who has been climbing you will know that the shoes are uncomfortable, and if ill-fitting down right painful. Despite having a range of sizes to choose from by the end of the first day my feet were in agony and I could no longer put any weight on my toes. On day two I tried again, but the pain was unbearable. So I decided to climb in my sandals instead. Whilst not ideal it seemed a reasonable idea until Jay said "Did one of you loose an inner sole?"

Two steps back was the actual sole of my shoe, the glue having apparently melted in the heat and separated the layers. I wasn't going to give up on climbing that easily, so with one and a half sandals I started climbing. Rockclimbing shoes, who needs those? I certainly had to work a bit harder on foot placement, but I was back to having fun!

All too soon it was time for us to leave and go to Fes. That was supposed to be a 9 hour journey, but guess what, the bus broke down! Marrakech felt like Morocco. Bus travel feels like Africa. We have taken two bus journeys so far. We have had two buses break down so far. We have another long bus journey to take us to Casablanca for our flight to London. We should make it, Insha'Allah.