Morocco in moving images

(I wrote this post on 6th July, three days into the group tour I am currently travelling with...)…

Since leaving Tangier days ago, and joining my “Gecko’s back roads of Morocco” tour group, I feel like I’ve been watching some bizarre movie of Morocco in 3-D… The past four days have gone by in a bit of a blur, and at many times it has seemed that I am just a spectator; not really involved in the experience.  It’s not quite what I had in mind for experiencing this amazing country, and there are probably a host of reasons why

• Our itinerary is a bit of a whirlwind – necessitated by just 9 days to see and do the ‘highlights’ of Morocco (cities and sights, countryside and desert adventures, souks and shopping).  On some days, it feels like we are being shunted along from one destination to the next: ‘explanation – five minutes for photos – now time to move on’.  I've discussed this with others in the tour group, and we are all feeling a bit the same; in-part it is the itinerary, in part the way the guides operate.
• Our tour guides are very protective of us (I guess they are responsible for us after all).  While lovely, this has the slightly irritating result of taking us to the ‘good’ Western restaurants to eat, cautioning us against visiting the medina on our own, and advising about all the possible rip-offs when shopping (I know it’s reality that I will get ripped off, but spending time chatting and ‘negotiating’ with the shopkeepers is part of the experience).
• And, the most unfortunate reason, is that my stomach has decided that it’s had about enough of experiencing Morocco… and the rest of the body is very much in support (I’ve had multiple instances where curling up in bed has seemed far more appealing than experiencing any more ‘culture’).  Unfortunately, although I was the first in the group to be hit, ‘Morocco-belly’ in its varying manifestations is spreading throughout our tour group.  (Much like my trekking group in Nepal), our group has very quickly become familiar with each other’s bodily reactions to this country…)

Despite all this, there are enough highs to still make this country memorable for positive reasons.  And although some aspects of the group tour thing are frustrating, it is nice to ‘hand over’ responsibility for all the decision making and just go where I am lead… and having a group to share the (highs and lows) is also fantastic.