After exactly 5,750km through the West-African lush rainforest with tons of rain, dry savannah, sandy beaches, crossing many rivers, small and wide, crossing the treacherous vast Sahara desert with all its facets and surfaces, conquering first the Anti-Atlas mountains and then the all dominant Atlas Mountains, countless of chaotic African cities, various types of beds, hotel rooms or camping spots, eaten at many different roadside eateries to very nice and delicious restaurants, defeating all kinds of road surfaces that West Africa had for us, freshly tarred to muddy bush track, we have arrived at the Turn-Around-Point of this expedition: Marrakech!

We got up with the muezzin’s call this morning to be in Marrakech on time. The famous main market square Jemma El Fna is open to cars only for a short period of time in the mornings and we certainly did not want to miss the opportunity to park the car in front of the landmark of the city, the minaret of the Koutoubia Mosque. At the entrance of the square two very good friends were awaiting us: Brahim and Peter. We parked Eeyore at the perfect spot and shot some nice pictures! The end of our northbound journey. We had arrived! What a relief, that after all what West-Africa had thrown at us, we made it without any major problem, but with tons of great memories!

After having had parked Eeyore securely, we went to my parents’ house in the medina. Along the way we saw the various damages to two mosques and other houses by the earthquake. They had already started rebuilding the two minarets of the damaged mosques, but the houses looked cleaned up somewhat and forgotten. My parents’ house had only suffered two little cracks in one wall. Fortunately!
A little later the whole group, including some of the youth from the Afous Rofous Kindergarten, all studying in tertiary education in Marrakech, as well as Brahim, Peter and us went to a nice restaurant for a true Moroccan breakfast.

Christoph still needed a few souvenirs and mementoes for his loved ones at home, so we went shopping tourist stuff on the square. What to choose and where to buy. Hard decisions! Although in the end, he had found nice gifts for home.
We returned to my parents’ house to relax and chat. Christoph strolled through the medina to take some more pictures of the medina. The last time he had been here, was about twenty years ago. A lot had changed.

Early afternoon Christoph and I picked up Eeyore from the garage and drove to the hotel, where I will be staying for the next two weeks. The street is notoriously bad with parking, so we illegally parked for a few minutes to unload the vehicle, before bringing it to the parking for the next two days.

We met for lunch in the cafe next to the hotel. It was delicious and we celebrated the arrival in Marrakech and Farewell of Christoph with a nice cold beer. Our first one since Senegal (the others were warm and not nice 😉 ).

A train ticket to the airport in Casablanca was quickly organised for Christoph. Thanks very much to Adil and Peter for your assistance! Late afternoon Christoph left in a taxi to the station in Marrakech! It was a bit emotional to see a good friend leave with whom you have shared the past 16 days, almost 24/7. We have had so many wonderful conversations in the car while driving, telling stories, sometimes very personal ones. We laughed an awful lot and discussed in length the differences between Swiss German and High German. For me, the most beautiful Swiss word of the trip was “Rundummeli”. Every time Christoph mentioned it, I had to crack up laughing. Here is the little anecdote of when and how it was discussed for the first time between us in the car: Christoph had noticed that many signs in Morocco had not only had the name written in Arabic and French but also in a different language. I explained, that this was the Berber language Tachelhit, that had been recognised as an official language of Morocco and was now written on more and more street signs and signs on buildings around the country. Christoph was researching the language a bit on his mobile phone and observed that it looked a bit like Amharic, with a “Rundummel” and a “Rundummeli”, the smaller version of the “Rundummel”. Once I heard these words for the first time, I cracked up laughing so hard that I had tears in my eyes. He explained the words to me and I immediately fell in love with “Rundummeli”. What a sweet word! What a perfectly descriptive word for a small circle.

Dear Christoph, thank you very much for your courage to embark on such an intense and epic expedition with me. We had not yet travelled together before, but found out quickly that we are, indeed, very similar and travel together well. Although our bed times differ a lot ;-). Thank you also for all the long hours of wonderful discussions, anecdotes, advises, lectures from the Internet and just entertainment while I tried to master the West African roads. I believe we complemented each other well. Our friendship has grown more than just to the next level. I had a blast these past two weeks and our Northbound trip will stay in my memory for a very long time! I wish you a happy return to Abidjan and lots of fun with your loved ones before they head off to their holidays.

In the next two weeks I will now spend some time with friends and family and will, therefore, not post a regular blog until we depart again at the beginning of November. There will be, however, some irregular updates in the meantime. Stay posted!