|
The following was sent to my email list whilst in Tafroute:
Hope this email finds you all well!?
Thought it was about time I sent out another email update of some kind, mainly because I feel a bit frustrated at not having sorted out the website
yet - I have to complete the filming side of things at the moment though, as
I can't do that when I'm not in Morocco and the website side of things will
be a lot easier when I'm in Europe on a broadband connection.
Anyway, I'm currently in Tafroute (yes, Morocco) which is on the edge of the
desert up in the mountains. It's a nice place, what would best be described
as a rock amphitheatre - a lovely valley of small villages where they mostly grow almonds surrounded by huge mountains of rock. At 1200 metres
it's a bit nippy at night, but lovely and sunny in the daytime. (It's been 3
months since I've had any rain!)
Its one of those places which has a nice relaxed feel to it, so a good place
to stop, do some washing, check over the landy and most importantly for the
local men at least, catch up on the African Nations Football Cup - it's Africa's premier football event, this time held in Tunisia, and Morocco have
qualified and today beat Nigeria in their first game. Huge shouts of delight
in the tea shop where I watched it, and a few just plain shouts from me
directed at the local carpet sellers who are a really pesky lot here.
The footy is fast paced, attacking and it's great to see the players with the freedom to express themselves, unlike European football which is so rigid at times - if a player wants to shoot from the narrowest of angles with his back to the goal from 75 metres, then they do! Very occasionally it goes in and it is a sight well worth the 4 dirhams I pay for my pot of mint tea.
So that has been my routine for the last few days - explore the local area
during the day, filming sometimes, other times reading in the hammock near
the painted rocks or slowly, very slowly, sorting out the website. Then as it gets dark, I head to the local café, order my pot of brew and watch the drama unfold.
Afterwards I have to unfold my neck as the best seats are always taken when
I get there and I always end up with the seat right under the telly, so my
neck gets pretty stiff after 90 minutes - and every day so far it has been
next to the smelly bloke who works in the butchers. I guess he has come
straight from work and he has no mates either.
Not that I am giving off a charming odour myself - I'm free camping almost
all of the time now, and its been 11 days since my last shower and my sandals/feet combination are really starting to pong!
I mostly wash the essentials every couple of days from a collapsible bucket
I have with a few litres of water that I heat up. It does the trick, but a bit like you can only get clothes so clean by hand washing them, it's nice to get in under a steaming hot shower every so often.
On a more personal note, it has been great to get away down here and roam
about in the desert. I'm feeling more relaxed about life, which is easier when it's sunny everyday, and it's slowly getting me back into the travel frame of mind. I'm again starting to look at life as something other than the dreaded commute/computer screen/commute 5 days a week thing that we are nurtured and caressed into accepting as being normal.
Sadly I didn't leave with much spare dosh, and since I have been down here
the UK has been busy eating up what I had. All sorts of rubbish has eaten
into it - my last couple of mobile phone bills, accountancy fee's to shut my
business down, new starter motor couriered to Spain and the need for more ND
filters for the cameras have all taken their toll.
So by the time I cross back to Spain and drive northwards I will be broke. Not a penny to my name.
And I don't really give a bollocks today. The weather is sunny and it's costing me 50p at most to live.
But as nice as that mindset is, it's not going to get me to Mongolia, or even out of Morocco if I'm not careful.
So I'm writing some emails to land rover magazine editors to see if they will pay me a few sheckles for some of my pictures and amusing stories (I'm
saving them for the website, or mostly waiting for them to happen...).
I've also got 3 video ideas on the go at once. One is basically me bumming
around in Morocco, what it's like driving around, a few of the experiences I
have, a few of the people I meet and places I went to, what is was like
being here during Ramadan, what is Ramadan, what sort of food I/they eat,
how to cook a Tanjine, a little about the political side of things etc etc. A travel documentary if you like, but without the nice tourist brochure gloss that so many of them suffer from (though they don't suffer from having a team of one to do audio, video, presenting, research, editing etc!).
The second is purely for you desert driving 4x4 idiots. I thought I would
drive and film most of the big or beautiful desert pistes (unsealed tracks)
as people who are coming down to drive about might like to have a look at
what they are getting themselves into beforehand, or a few sad bustards
might like to live past glories. And the third is just filming every overland vehicle
I come across so that somebody wanting to travel overland in a vehicle could buy it and on one dvd get ideas and advice from loads of different people.
Bit of a niche market the last two to say the least, but I'm hoping to make a few sheckles whilst learn how to cut my teeth in the editing room so to
speak.The only trouble is that if I make any money from that lot it will be a
while before it trickles in, and it's very uncertain if any of it will, and I need to organise (very expensive) visas for Ukraine, Russia and Mongolia in March and as ever spend a few quid on my stallion to ensure trustworthy travel. (throw hands up in the air at the injustice of it all ;-)
So a bit of a dilemma on the financial side of things. Basically decided to
proceed as planned, adopting my native "she'll be right mate!"
attitude and hoping something crops up to allow it to happen. Kicking
something in the guts too early denies the ability of something brilliant to
happen ;-)
We shall see.
|
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)