The Imperial city and the Trogladites

Life on the streets of Fez

Beautiful tile work, Fez

An interesting study of pain and humiliation

The Troglodites (cave dwellers) busy sewing and watching telly

My cave dwelling host and nice guy Hassan

Hassan Is a guy I met on couch surfing a free hospitality site that alouws poeple to meet up, or stay as a guest in theire home. Alternativley you can host poeple and show them your home town. Hassan hosted me and shared a little of his life.

He lives in a village called Bihilal which is 30 odd kilometers south of Fez. Hassan his brother, two sisters and mother share a four room house. One room I think is the mothers which I never saw. Then there’s the kitchen the living room which doubled as a bedroom for me Hassan and his siblings and is in the picture above. There was another bare room off of the main living space which puzzling to me was unused everyone bunking up in the same room.
The house itself was built several hundred years ago I will check when, when the moors were driven out of Andalusia Spain. It is carved out of the rock and extended to include a two tier outside roof terrace.

If you’re reading this Hassan thanks again for your kindness and patience in helping me with computer related problems.I will write more about this when I get a chance. Promise.

Coulered plates and hustle and bustle, Fez

Morocco

The tanneries, Fez


A child and man, Fez

Chefchoun

I’ve been in Morocco for five days now. It’s a completely different world to its close neighbour Spain, a more chaotic and mysterious world. Full of colourful markets and street stalls. Every street is alive with all walks of life. Where bakers are baking, carpenters carving, where people are making things and battering in ways unchanged for centuries. It is truly amazing and exhausting just taking in the many visual treats and fascinating glimpses that wait around every corner.

From Ceuta I headed inland into the Rif mountains home of the indigenous Berber people. Stopping in the city of Tetouan with its amazing ancient medina (market), I then headed on to Chefchoun a beautiful old town high in the Rif Mountains. Where I met an interesting Italian aid worker who was working nearby and her visiting mother, and a local Kif (an Arabic word coming from the word for pleasure that is used to describe marijuana a mainstay of the local economy) grower amongst others.

I’m now in the imperial city of Fez one of the most intact ancient cities of the Muslim world, where I’ve already met lots of interesting people. I’ll talk about this when I next get a chance.

Chefchauon from the Kasba

Europe to Africa

On the road somewhere in Spain

Oranges and dragons - the Casa de los Dragones, Cueta

I need to find out more about religious clothing in Spanish culture as I find this kinda scary

The cathedral Ceuta

Well Ive made it to Africa!

From Nantes I got a train to what I thought was a town on route to the Alantic coast and northern Spain. From here I planned to hitch hike to Africa. Well the town in question, Lamote, has several brothers and sisters around the place. Despite showing the girl at the ticket office a map Id drawn with my route and making it clear where I wanted to go she picked, at random, one of the Lomotes from the computer screen. The wrong one.

Opus Dais church in the Spanish Pyrenees. I don’t know much about Opus Dais bit I will find out more

Lucky for me I went to a Lamote on the way to the Pyrenees where I got a lift from Rico who was picking his son up from his mother who lives on an island of the coast north of Bordeaux. He was driving with his son to his home in the Pyrenees near the Spanish border. Perfect! But it got so much better.

My mate the Rasta beanie chilling out at Rico’s in the Pyrenees

He quickly offered me to stay at his place with his playful son of three, his girlfriend, a big gentle dog and a little kitten. They were really nice and told me about their lives working on the ski slopes in winter.

I was sad to leave but I’d still a long way to go to get to Africa. Fortunately I quickly got a lift over the high snowy pass into Spain and then had another quick wait before getting the best hitch of my life so far.

I got picked up by a French guy who was on a month long holiday from his job as a fireman in Brittany. And he was travelling to Morocco!! Yes all the way across Spain. After ten minutes waiting I’d got me a lift to Africa! Amazing I felt on top of the world. Surely it can’t stay this good for much longer?

A beautiful man-made lake in the Spanish Pyrenees

The Story So Far

St Nicolas Nantes


Chateau Des Ducs De Bretagne


Cathedrale Saint Pierre

Well I'm in Nantes now and things are going OK but could be better.

My first mission objective was to contact and interview some asylum seekers in or around Calais. To this end I failed miserably I gave myself know where near enough time and didn’t research or prepare adequately. So I have learnt some important lessons in what is proving to be a steep learning curve.

I did manage to interview a lady who works for Secours Catholique, a charity that helps with asylum seekers and other causes. I also interviewed a barman from Calais who spoke good English and was happy to talk about the problem.

Other than this I traipsed around pointlessly with a bad cold that I still have and generally felt out of my depth. Unfortunately I can’t seem to get the footage of my camcorder. So I am of to Nantes city centre, where I am currently, to take some photographs to put on the blog.
More later.

Planing For The Big Trip

Its taken a good six weeks of solid preparation to get everything ready.

This is all the stuff Ive gotta take and carry for months in the hot sun. I try to travel light but this is all essential stuff like my camcorder, camera, cables, lens cleaning kit, first aid, ect.

These are my business cards I designed and hope to give to people as I travel in the hope of gaining support for my project, the One Man Travel Plan.

This is my ingenious camcorder bag made from a water proof umbrela case.
Theres a see thruogh plastic bit so you can see what your doing.

This is a security measure. Its a length of chain from a hardware store with key rings runing along it to adjust its length. At the end is a climing clip thing to tether it to my trousers so as to keep it safe. Thats the theory anyway.

This is a seccret compartment for my camcorder that I am working on.

One Man Travel Plan

One Man Travel Plan

I would love to see someone make a travel documentary without the aid of, a big budget, film crew and logistical support. Can anyone with enough determination do it? Can anyone independently document every aspect of an epic journey from planning to editing? I think they can, which is why I have a one man travel plan.

I have decided to travel through Europe to North Africa and the vast Sahara desert. Then on through west Africa via the fabled city of Timbuktu to the steamy jungles of the Congo basin. Maybe further.

Why West Africa? Well to me and I'm sure most people this is a mysterious region that isn't documented other than when there is a war or catastrophe. The path less trodden is always appealing to those who are curious.

I would also like to look at the nature of journeys. As I will be on what I am sure will be a life changing journey I am aware that other people are undertaking far more serious and pressing journeys than mine.

There are those in Calais who are displaced by war and have traveled from as far as Afghanistan and risked every thing on an unimaginably difficult journey. There are others who have traveled against all the odds across the Sahara to reach a better life in Spain and Europe only to drown in the treacherous straits of Gibraltar. From Tuareg tribes, who due to climate change are leaving the desert for the city, to migrant workers and expats, I hope to meet people on very different journeys to mine and see what they have to say.

Previuos Travels

My first taste of adventure came when I was 16 and bought a European inter rail pass. I went on a mad month long romp round Europe with my mate Tom. It was the most fun I had ever had and set the seen for many travels to come.

Since my first youthful foray I have traveled every summer through most of Europe and to Morocco and India.

At the age of twenty I wanted a big adventure and to do it alone so I took an English teaching course with the aim of traveling overland on the trans Siberian to Japan to teach.

I never made it to Japan but I did reach China and teach English for six weeks in a small Chinese town. The most memorable part of my time there was going to small rural schools to teach classrooms of up to 60 children! Who were always very polite, singing songs to me when I arrived and making me feel welcome. I feel very lucky to have had such an amazing experience.

After leaving China I traveled on to South East Asia as far as Sumatra. After seven months thousands of miles and two continents I Finally became home sick ( and skint ) and flew back.




A herd of hairy Bactrian camels by a frozen stream in the deepest of wildernesses in Mongolia.






Around 12 or more school kids hang on precariously to a small but sturdy motor rickshaw in a chaotic Indian street.





A cow on the tracks! surely that's not safe.





Beautiful scenery around Youngshow the town in China that I taught in.






This is me at the golden temple of Amritsar the spiritual center of the Sikh religion. A beautiful
place where they feed thousands of hungry people for free every day!




This is a picture of me riding a yak. Yes a yak! Its freezing which is why I am hiding inside my coat. The lady on the left has no gloves and her jacket is undone. Mongolians are seriously hardy people.

Very excitable kids in China.