DAY 2 : On Our Way to The Mountains

After a 3 and a half hour plane journey from London Gatwick Airport, we find ourselves in the city of Marrakech. The temperature is a comfortable 25-26 degrees. Evenings dip to a chilling 17-19 degrees.

The local currency is the Morrocan Dirham (MAD) which is generally around 13 MAD to the GBP. Moneycorp at Gatwick was offering an outrageous rate of 10.21 MAD !! We managed to secure a much better rate of 12.95 MAD (over 20% better than Gatwick !!) at the exchange Bureau at Marrakech's Menara airport. The rate in the town centre was even better at 13.25 MAD.

 The city is split into 5 districts. Our basic hotel is in the district of Guilez in the 'new' Marrakech. Over the past 36 hours, we've just been walking around the city(warming up for the trek), soaking in the atmosphere of this vibrant city whilst seeping Morrocan Tea at busy roadside cafes and trying out the local food watching the locals and tourists alike go about their business. 

We returned back to the hotel late afternoon and packed up our Day Sacks and duffle bags with all our kit. We will be carrying our day sacks. The kit bags will be carried by mules halfway up to the mountain and then by porters from thereon. Our suitcases will be left behind in storage at the hotel.

We rendevouz'ed with our guide and the rest of the group in a local restaurant last night. There are 9 of us, Mohammed (the Exodus Guide) Vicky, Duncan (from Surrey), Jack (Norfolk), Ingver (Reyjavik, Iceland), Kavita & myself. The other two, John (North Devon) and Simon (Yorkshire) joined us later as their flight from Gatwick was delayed 90 mins.

At 13:30 today, we will all be huddled up in a minibus with our kit bags and head out into the mountains to Imlil, the village at the heart of the Atlas Mountains. We spent the morning stocking up on last minutes items such as batteries, dry snacks and a local SIM card for the iPad so I can continue blogging on the moun