Day 9: Auberge Yasmina Camp to Marrakech 

This morning we were up at 4.15am for a 5.00am departure for our drive back to Marrakech. We stopped for a bathroom break after two hours and then for a coffee stop another hour and a half later. A quick stop by the ATLAS movie studios for a photo of the gate. Then on to another bathroom stop and 1.5 hours to lunch. Shoey our driver even had the bus washed for us at the bathroom stop. Lunch was tagine (75 MAD) and we ate in the mountains. Then we continued down toward Marrakech and about an hour and a half from the city we blew another airbag (3 on the same tyre for the trip now). As I write it is 16:48 and we are limping the bus to the mechanic to have the airbag repaired.

So, the dramas with the bus were resolved and we made it to the hotel by 6.30pm. We had an hour to get changed and shower before jumping back on the bus and heading back into the Medina. We walked around with Abdul and took in the sights. He showed us a great rooftop to take free photos over the Medina. He also walked us through the maze of corridors in search of the leather markets we’d seen on our first day, but sadly when we got there, the hall was closed.

We agreed as a group to meet at the bus at 10:15pm then we returned to the hotel for wood fired pizzas and drinks. By midnight my roomate and I were back in our shared bed (from our very first night together as we weirdly had the same room allocated!) and setting our alarms for 3am for her 3.30am departure to the airport. 

Tips:

Tipping your guide and driver. For me, if my guide is fantastic, I work on at least $5AUD a day and convert this to the local currency. In instances where people were dissatisfied with the service, the easiest way to approach is to request an envelope from the hotel and ‘gift’ the tips to the guide in a lump from the group. In our case in Morocco, Abdul and Shoey were fantastic so I was more than happy to personally hand over my tip and thank them for their care and efforts throughout the trip.

Accommodation: Bluesea Le Printemps