Roseville College in Morocco - Team B @ 13 Dec

Copy of Email sent on the 13th December:

Surprise! We found internet in the middle of nowhere!
 
So much to fill you in on, but so little time. You will definitely get the whole story before the end of the trip, but for now will have to be patient with little bits and pieces.
 
Special mentions:
 
Flea: She has been the sick-looker-after-er. One night in particular she was up all night with Maddie (24 thing - dont worry - shes all good now, but the next day too she was the mum of the group looking after the sickies.
 
Emily - impressing all of us with her dance moves and cool jumps at all times.
 
Emma - entertaining all of us with her hilarious grandma impersonations
 
Laura - entertaining all of us with her hilarious Kiera Knightley impersonations and botox face
 
Hannah - finding us Hotel Barcelona in Chefchaouen
 
Steph - keeping a close watch on each of us to make sure we are culturally aware when taking photos
 
Eliza - keeping us entertained with her crazy photos where she tries to get in as many double chins as possible
 
Maddie -  being a super-trooper even when sick. She makes sure we are all on time, have water etc
 
Holly W - somehow turning on a tap in a hotel and then not being able to get it off. It all turned out well in the end.
 
Holly C - being very creative at finding places to pee on trek
 
Kat - being ever cheerful
 
Scarlett - getting stuck right into our game of Sahara Ball (imagine softball with plastic bats on sand dunes in the desert)
 
Lizzy - entertaining us all with her guitar as she sings Incy Wincy Berber and Hot Chicken Tajine (Hot Cross Buns)
 
Shaz-kebab - hair braider to avoid further head lice incidents (will explain all later)
 
Michael - remaining ever calm in this crazy group
 
Anyway, we last left you on our last night in Fes. One thing we should mention is that Flea has organised a birthday for everyone on this trip. (By the way, Mrs Lewington, please note that Steph would like a Mac computer for Christmas to assist with her studies in Years 11 and 12 and a fresh razor for grooming when home.) Back to the birthdays - everyone has a day assigned to be their birthday, and Flea has done a great job of getting cakes organised to celebrate.
 
Fes was an easy place to get a cake with Boulangeries everywhere, but unfortunately on this occasion we got the cake that was half frozen and possibly 10 years old. You win some and lose some.
 
Cake seemed like such a trivial issue when we set off for the desert. This was possibly the biggest highlight thus far on the trip. We sat on a bus for 8 hours, stopping in an awesome hotel in the middle of nowhere for lunch. There were traditional fountains, mosaics and food, with a musician playing traditional music as he swung a tassle around on his hat. As the afternoon faded away, sand dunes could be seen off in the distance and we transferred to 4WDs.
 
Keeping in mind that we were only going about 20kms/hr as we crossed the desert dunes, our drivers did donuts and other crazy things to make the ride even more fun. There were times when the cars resembled the Holden Precision Drivers as they crossed in front of each other to get to our destination. Enquiries later revealed that this is a driving technique used so that the cars dont get caught up in the dust storm left behind by the car in front.
 
All too soon we arrived at our camp which was situated at the foot of Erg Chebbi, the largest sand dune in Morocco. We should admit that we were all a little disappointed as we had arrived too late for camel rides and nobody could tell us if we would get a chance the next day. However, the tents deserve a special mention. We all thought that being out in the desert, living a "berber" lifestyle would mean us all sleeping in one tent, woven from camel hair, sleeping out in the semi-open. But, what we were greeted with instead was one enormous tent between two people, with a cute little lamp in the centre for light. Oh, and there were beds. Real beds! We love this sort of camping.
 
Dinner was a delicious cous-cous and then we played cards and sat out under the stars and talked. For people who've never been away from a city before, or even better, in the middle of nowhere such as the Sahara, we highly recommend it. There were clusters everywhere. It was like something out of a movie. Posters of the milky way looked like they'd been strung up above us, but we realised it was the real thing as we saw shooting stars flying by and the stars shift place as the night went on. Cute little toilet tents were set up, and even a shower. We have not been uncomfortable on this trip!
 
Most of us slept well, snuggled into our sleeping bags, then were woken by Flea to expolore the dunes at sunrise. We trudged out of bed into the cold morning, and ran off to see the red glow rise above the dunes, experimenting with cool photos effects as we got silhouette shots in all crazy positions, including us spelling out Roseville. Hopefully it will make the cover of the next Rose, but we'll see.
 
Aside from crazy photos, we went sand surfing (sliding down the sand), sand diving (running to the edge of a dune and then jumping off for a free fall before being caught by the sand on the lower part of the dune and sliding down) and just staring in awe at the natural wonder all around us. It was truly breath-taking.
 
After the sun was up, the three Ems (Em Sena, Em Rodger and Shaz-kebab) set off to climb Erg-Chebbi. When they were about 30 metres from the top, they were told they had to turn around and come down to make it to the camp on time for the camel ride. So disappointing!
 
Running back to camp, we ate our breakfast of berber bread and laughing cow before setting off to ride camels off into the sand dunes. Squeals of delight could be heard everywhere as the camels jolted up onto all fours and then we were off, berber turbans tied by Flea on all of us. None of us realised that we were going on a two hour safari into the middle of nowhere, lost in the deep Sahara. The photos are wonderful but the experience even greater. We saw incredible patterns formed by the wind, and palm trees rising up out of the sand as though plonked there for effect. It was brilliant.
 
All too soon it was time to leave, so we set off in the 4WDs again, and made our way back to our bus to board it for Todra Gorge. Again, nothing could prepare us.
 
Moving from desert to mountains, the scenery gave us much to look at as we would our way through villages crowded with locals going about their daily activities and then arrived in the Gorge. We drove in between two massive expanses of rocks, and were completely surprised when we stopped in the middle and were told to get out. A brief creek crossing (with all our luggage) took us to our hotel for the night - right in the middle of the gorge! The roof was open, meaning we could look straight up and the sheer cliffs and try to take in the magnitude.
 
Our teachers/leader got a little out of control with excitement and twirled until they were out of control. For those of us who witnessed it, it seemed as though perhaps Antips and the school weren't quite aware of what they'd hired for this expedition. However, our confidence in them was reassured before the night was over.
 
Dinner was another delicious spread, and then it was time for a disco - Moroccan style. We went to the hotel bar (they sell coke - it's a Muslim country, and we were the only people in the hotel) and had a dance off. Em Sena won hands down. The hotel staff joined in and taught us some very interesting dance moves that we'll probably leave with us here and not take back to Australia. Everything was perfect. Perhaps we spoke too soon.
 
We had Maddie come down with a violent tummy bug, which so far the rest of us have escaped. This is where Flea stepped in and became nurse/mum for the night. We had a case of head lice (no names mentioned but we're all good now) so Shaz-kebab dealt with that. It seems that Drowning the head in conditioner then combing with a nit-comb (thanks for putting that in Mrs Whittaker) works super-effectively when KP24 doesn't exist.
 
We left early the next morning and created a bus load of travel sickness as we travelled to Marrakesh through the High and Middle Atlas Mountains. The roads were crazy, wait for the photos, and next time we've decided we'll all take motor bikes to have some fun along the way.
 
Marrakesh was a great stop before the trek. Our hotel had a pool which our teachers (but not leader) ran to and jumped into fully clothed on arrival and we were treated to comfy beds before the trek. Oh, another interesting story - dinner (turned out to be delicious) got off to a slow start. The hotel was providing it for us and told us it was at 7pm sharp. At 7.50, the first course came out and we all dived into our "chicken" salad. Within one second, the teachers/leader hurried out of the room with a sense of urgency while we all tried to work out why the "chicken" tasted to different. Shaz-kebab is allergic to tuna, and upon contact with her mouth, her tongue started swelling. Don't worry, it all turned out just fine with prednisone given in a huge dose really quickly so the epi-pen wasn't even needed. Close call, but we're checking our "chicken" more thoroughly now.
 
Leaving Marrakesh, we stopped in at Hotel Afriqua to book our final nights' stay and then set off for our trek.
 
The first day was all up hill. We went through tiny villages and crossed creeks. It was spectacular scenery. We stayed in a village home with 5 in each room, all of us right next door to each other, and played cards, danced and sung songs.
 
Day 2 was equally spectacular, but you'll have to wait to see the photos. We basicallty went up and down and all around, stopping for lunch looking at Jebel Toubkal (4167m high) before arriving at an even more comfortable homestay last night.
 
Today was uphill, then down down down and down. It really has been  wonderful trek.
 
Tonight we're in a swanky traditional hotel (what kind of trek is this??????) and are setting off for the big climb tomorrow.
 
Gotta go now because internet is closing. Will write again soon.
 
Love to all,
 
Team B. (B stands for brilliant today)