Ok … three blogs in 4 days is a bit much 🤣 but AlPal was bored on the train so you have a detailed blog of the train journey …which he started to write after changing seats 6 times because he could not keep still and we had the whole carriage to ourselves 😂:

Hang on a minute Amanda, I did invite you into the dirty old bathroom onboard for some hanky lanky to which she declined……so it’s her fault. …….Did we say traumatic border crossing … what traumatic border crossing ? 😂😢 apart from a few queue jumpers who got into a minor dispute whilst waiting for passport stamping formalities, it was all very quick and painless with little hassle from the locals. A quick request to the local policeman for directions to La gare and we hopped in a cab for €1.10 !! Arrived at the train station at 7.40 am and booked 2 first class tickets to Fes for €13 each and would take 5 1/2 hours. There was a train on the platform and we were told it was going to Fes , so happy days. However when I booked 2 tickets with the staff, somewhere in my French translation I understood it wasn’t for Fes and the next available was some 5 hours later so sat down on the bench to wait…..2 minutes later another staff member came and asked why we weren’t boarding…..the train to Fez …🙄 so on we hopped and sat down in a very well kept clean car……this pic is not that Al Pal is happy it’s because all the doors were locked and we couldn’t get on.😂bloody hell I wish I’d paid more attention during my French classes back in Belfast 40 odd years ago. Clearly I know enough French to get me into trouble 🤣🤣 and just enough to get me back out again. No food or beverage car on this little beauty, surely there’s an opening here for some enterprising young soul with a thermos flask and a bag full of fresh sangers !!!!. The terrain along the journey was pretty baron and didn’t look as though it offered much in the way of nutrients for agriculture. I guess H2O is in pretty short supply here. There were a few olive groves and little else. We passed some snow covered mountains in the distance and assume they were the High Atlas range. Occasionally we passed the odd shepherd with a herd of 30 or 40 mangy looking sheep…….there didn’t look like a decent Sunday roast for 6 on any of them 😳 I reckon a half decent lamb chop might even be a push. No wonder there is so much mint used in the tea here, they sure as hell won’t need it for the mint sauce on Sunday roasts 😢 So far there’s been very few cars or trucks in sight. Pinot would have stuck out like the proverbial dogs bollocks out here.Sadly where there are signs of habitation the discarded plastic bags and bottles are strewn everywhere. No such thing as Brisbane garbage collection every week in these parts.😫😫 just after this was taken a group of children ( bloody dozens of them) appeared from no where … the train door was open and as quick as lightning a young boy jumped on the train which was chugging along slowly and made a bee line for Our bag which was sitting minding its own business in the luggage rack behind us , as quick as he jumped on, he jumped off again .. empty handed, maybe just for the thrill of it….As we approach Fes it gets greener and busier, the donkeys are more common now carrying men around with their goods. Lots more farms, trees and people getting about now………civilisation again…..altogether much prettier…….jeez I’d love a nice hot cheese and onion pie right now 🤔 wheres that bloody enterprising young soul when you need him ?????ok we are just pulling into the station and the journey took us 7 hours not 5 .

I’d coaxed Amanda into going on the Transiberian railway back to Aus later this year and she reluctantly agreed bless her as it takes about 8 or 9 DAYS……..no feckin way am I doing that, I was bored senseless on this little 7 hour jobby…..I think Amanda set me up with this trip somehow.

I don’t think I’ll get bored here in Fes so normal service will resume and our blog will revert to once a week or so 👏👏👏
Ok t
famished 😘

Love to all