Happy Birthday Al

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Remembering Desley's wedding

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This is a great illustration of collective...

John Currin shared Yonatan Zunger's post with you.

Yonatan Zunger This is a great illustration of collective phenomena. If you look closely, each dot is just moving around in a regular circle; but because the different circles are out of phase with each other, when you back away you see waves steadily moving across the screen. It's a simple demonstration of how large-scale, collective phenomena can emerge from very simple small-scale behavior. Things like this happen all over the place: water waves and sound waves, for example, work in basically the same way, with... View or comment on John Currin's photo » Google+ makes sharing on the web more like sharing in real life. Learn more. Join Google+

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2013-06-27

15 photos in this album View or comment on John Currin's album » Google+ makes sharing on the web more like sharing in real life. Learn more. Join Google+

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We used to live near here and visited the...

We used to live near here and visited the store for groceries after getting father out of the Black Horse hotel Wakapuaka North Wakapuaka is one of the older settled areas of Nelson. It has much of current and historic interest. View or comment on Currin Family's post » Google+ makes sharing on the web more like sharing in real life. Learn more. Join Google+

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Some unusual Chinglish

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Currin Family

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All dressed up and nowhere to go

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Currin Family

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The Red Lion pub in Crick, Northampton, UK...

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Currin Family The Red Lion pub in Crick, Northampton, UK. previously owned by John Currin, a family ancestor  View or comment on Currin Family's photo » Google+ makes sharing on the web more like sharing in real life. Learn more. Join Google+

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The Red Lion Hotel in Crick, Northampton,...

The Red Lion Hotel in Crick, Northampton, UK once owned by John Currin a Grandfather from way back 3 photos in this album View or comment on John Currin's album » Google+ makes sharing on the web more like sharing in real life. Learn more. Join Google+

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The Red Lion pub in Crick, Northampton, UK...

The Red Lion pub in Crick, Northampton, UK. previously owned by John Currin, a family ancestor  View or comment on Currin Family's photo » Google+ makes sharing on the web more like sharing in real life. Learn more. Join Google+

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John tries to dance with his students

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PSY vs Ghostbusters - Gangnam Busters - Mashup...

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More from David, Lee and Co in Morocco

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More from David and family in Morocco

JUN

26

Casablanca here we are

Hi all

After a fantastic visit to Windsor, culminating in a visit to the castle and Savel Gardens in the great park, we are now in Morocco.
Windsor castle was first rate and is more of a village or small town within that castle walls. we had left it for our last day having spent the previous one in London, visiting the British Museum and the V and A Museum. We had intended to do more in London such as the natural History and science museums together with the Tait Modern, but in the end ran out of time.

A very smart Guard and Band at Windsor

St Georges "Chapel" is large enough to grace most larger cities as that city's cathedral, it is all rather splendid as are the gardens in the great park.

It is now time to move on from England and into the next phase of our journey and so it was with mixed emotions that we left Windsor and booked into our Hotel at Heathrow ready for an early start (5:30 book in) and off to Casablanca.

We arrived in Casablanca on Friday after a flight on budget airline Iberian via Madrid, arriving mid afternoon. After the cool of Britain the heat was of immediate notice although it was only 24 or so. After recovering our baggage from the conveyer down the other end of the airport from where we had been patiently waiting for nearly an hour we were whisked into the city by the shuttle bus and a cool drink got Mrs Currin and I feeling much more comfortable. Mrs Currin’s brother, Murray, and wife Jill arrived later that evening and it was nice to be amongst familiar faces again.

Murray and Jill Arrive Casablanca

Saturday morning and we were on the bus heading up the coast to the capital, Rabat, and then on to Fes via Maknes. In Rabat we visited the Royal Palace, but it is not open to the public so could only view the outside. The current king is the first to even disclose who his wife is and so she can attend functions etc. but they guard their privacy jealously.

Royal Palace Rabat

The drive onto Fes was interesting and by now we were up in the Middle Atlas Mountains so temperatures are still mild, not hot.

 We have two nights in Fes and the highlight has to be the Medina where amongst its 12,000 lanes and alleyways are some 8,000 stalls or shops selling every imaginable thing from camel’s heads to Leather jackets. A great deal of it is made right here in the Medina. Problem! If you go wandering off by yourself it is just as likely that you will not be seen for days as it really is a maze of alleys the like of which I have never before experienced. We had guides, but even so you had to stay alert. Everything is either carried in by the people or donkey as no vehicles are permitted (I did see the odd Scooter), Coca Cola are reputed to own 150 donkeys in Fes to get their produce in, and I guess their money out.

 

Transport, Fes Style

 Also in the Medina, which is the old walled original city centre, are the famous Fes Tanneries, smelly but nonetheless fascinating. This results in the usual flurry of handbag buying amongst the ladies. 

 

The array of stuff for sale is endless

As are the activities

 Evening had us dining in a Riad which is a traditional Berber home built around a courtyard. Berber people make no effort to enhance their homes exterior but more than make up for it on the inside. These places are quite breathtaking and a great night was had by all.
Next day we visited a village in the High Atlas Mountains where there  are some who still live in caves. The lady who we visited had lived in her present cave home for something over eighty years, her husband passed away a few years back aged 110, so can't be too bad for you.

 

Cave Home in Atlas Mountains

The road we now took from Fes to Erfoud goes over the High Atlas Mountains and then down again to an area on the outskirts of the Sahara. This road trip was simply breathtaking as in scenery and fascinating regarding what was going on around us. This area is sparsely populated and what people there are, are mainly Nomads. These people live a quite extraordinary life, moving from the Sahara at the end of winter to the cooler mountain ranges for summer. They live in family groups and have a flock of sheep and or goats and a couple of donkeys. The men shepherd their flocks by day and then coral them in a rock walled pen for the night. Once each week or two they will take a sheep into a town market where it will be sold to buy provisions. The women go off each day by donkey to get water and make quite a colourful sight. Their dwellings are very basic, stone affairs rooved with sheets of polythene. The government has tried to get them to send their children to free state boarding schools, but this has not been successful and so now they are employing teachers to travel around with them, living in tents and teaching as many of the children as they can. Morocco has placed education at the top of its priorities and the greatest slice of the budget is spent on it. Even so, only 30 % of women are formally educated. The greatest threat to the Nomads lifestyle is from the Leopards and Wolves which can kill their sheep and goats and this is their only source of income. Incidentally, the goats have two purposes, they provide milk and they act as guard dogs against these predators. An interesting lifestyle, probably better viewed from a tour bus. 

 

Nomad Camp

 This evening we were taken by Land Cruiser out into the Sahara, out where the big dunes are, this took around an hour and I think the drivers had been watching the Paris Dakar rally. We were soon spread across the dessert and bumping our way to our destination, some camels which would take us into the dunes for the sunset. Although I had seen better sunsets this was a truly remarkable experience and I would rate it as one of my most memorable.

 

Humphrey the Camel

Humphrey, my camel, was a bit of a rascal however and kept biting the one in front on the bum, this caused a bit of a ruckus and we had to change the order of things so that Humphrey followed someone that he got on ok with.

And so it was that harmony was restored

Although it was, by this time, 8:00 PM the temperature was still in the 30s and so climbing back up from sliding down dunes took its toll on some.

Part of the caravan, we bring Gold and Myrrh and Frankincense

Oh, and that sunset.

Back to the hotel in an Oasis and a damned good meal awaited, temperature still over 30 though.

Next day and more driving through dessert and mountain country and finally to Marrakesh, the Holy Grail of market towns complete with snake charmers and aggressive salesmen.

I know this is becoming a little disjointed, but it is hard to fit blog writing in between having adventures, but I shall try to get more done in the near future.

So its good bye from Spain, good luck and good health

David