To the far northern west of Africa we go...

The final adventure of 2012... With no expectations and with nothing booked apart from the first 2 nights and the last 3 nights... Pia and I were ready to embark on our trip to Morocco where we aim to travel overland with a ferry ride included through Spain and finishing in Lisbon, Portugal. We rendevouzed at Dubai Marina Mall where we caught the Etihad bus to Abu Dhabi - too easy. Once at the airport we breezed through immigration and found time to fit in a cuppa tea. The last thing I expected to hear was 'Hello Miss Hughes' ...low and behold there was one of our colleagues students - you can run but you can't hide. Before the plane had even taken off I was unconscious in need of catching up on some serious Zzzzz's. at least 7 of the 8 hour flight I spent dreaming. Pia managed to watch close to 3 movies and get up to date on the most popular commercials of 2012. As we landed in Casablanca we were greeted by fresh winter air, thankfully not as cold as we expected. Luckily we quickly made it through immigration, collected our backpacks and purchased our train tickets to the centre of town. An hour later we were sitting in a red 'petit' taxi with a midget arguing on how much to pay for our ride. With neither of us budging and no sign of the meter coming on we decided on a much more reasonable price. Soon we were @ Hotel Central fist pumping the owner talking Arabic, French and English. I can see why it has been the most popular hotel 3 years running. As we wandered up the windy staircase our thoughts were on getting a goodnight rest, ready to explore Casablanca and come up with an exit strategy to Marrakech.