30 March 2020

Morocco with Passion Paragliding

29 Feb-20 March 2020
Moroccan lunch at Lalla Takerkoust
While C.J. and I were on the Colombia "safari" with Passion Paragliding, we heard a lot about the PP trips to Morocco. We sent in our deposit in August and were elated to hear that Chris and Patricia were also signing up. We were opting to do two weeks with PP and would meet Chris and Patricia for the second week and spend some time with them in Marrakech after the paragliding. We also planned for two nights in Marrakech prior to joining Toby; that would help diminish the effects of jet lag as well as make sure that our wings arrived in time for the flying.

28 Feb, Fri – Spent the day getting ready to go to Morocco.

C.J.'s scrapbook post card
29 Feb, Leap Day – As a final prep for the journey, I made copies of the credit cards, etc. that I am taking on the trip. [replaced ink cartridges: cyan, yellow and sm black] I found a pile of Euro coins in the desk drawer so I’m taking a dozen 1-Euro coins with me along with the 60 Euros or so of paper money. Alexa said that Euros are accepted in Marrakech. Randy and Dianna were right on time at 1300 and we were at SEA by 1345. Check in (at Air France, not Delta) went smoothly and all three checked bags were free (they would have also taken our rollaboards for free). Our seats on the B-777 were right over the wing so there were no views as we flew over northern Canada, Greenland, Ireland and England, Arrival at Paris/CDG was a little early and we had no trouble getting from Hall K to Hall L by the automated shuttle train. Since we were early by now, we had a longer wait than I expected (We were only supposed to have 1hr15 at CDG). And then our plane must not have been quite ready so there was more delay. It was 
Nut and dried fruit stand in the souks
mostly cloudy (raining as we left CDG) on our flight which passed over Spain and Portugal. We had a view in Morocco of the Atlantic coastline as we got closer to Marrakech. Passport control was a bit slow and we were at the end of the line for some reason. While on the plane we had to fill out an affidavit that asked if we had been exposed to Coronavirus or had been in China; we turned that in at passport control. All our bags were waiting for us on the carousel and we exited (after going to the wrong end of the building first) passing our bags through a scanner. C.J. spotted an ATM and I took out 1000 dirhams (about 110 USD). Outside the entrance we found our driver with a Bel Oranger sign and he led us to a short bus/large van and then drove us into the city. Once we were inside the old city walls, the streets got narrow and twisty. We parked and waited – not sure what we were waiting for, and we didn’t see any sign of the Riad le Bel Oranger [Later, a map showed that we were waiting in the Place Riad Laarous]. Eventually an old Berber (?) man with a push cart showed up and loaded our gear up. We followed him for quite a ways through busy, but narrow lanes lined with shops. Then we turned down an even narrower lane and made several more turns until reaching an unpretentious entrance with tiny sign indicating Le Bel Oranger, 48 Derb El Ferrane. Once we were inside and greeted by our host,
Tea in the courtyard
Assiss, we saw the typical courtyard with a small pool and surrounding rooms with maybe 21 international guests. We were served tea and we filled out the usual paperwork. Assiss had a tourist map for us as well as a hand-drawn one that roughly showed how to get through the souks to the Jemaa El Fna. Since it was only around 1700 and dinner at the riad would not be until 2000, we decided to see if we could find our way to the main square…and back. Google Maps did not seem particularly helpful and we needed to stay alert to the turns we were making. I think we missed only one and quickly backtracked. The way was narrow, crowded with tourists and locals, and with wall-to-wall shops selling just about everything from raw meat to many varieties of souvenirs. We eventually reached the Jemaa el-Fna which was a large square pretty much filled with
Courtyard of Riad leBel Oranger
 carts/wagons from which people sold fruit, drinks and other stuff. There were also other places where mostly local people were gathered around watching or listening to something [One group was watching robed women dance to the accompaniment of drums and bells.] After a quick wander around and deciding not to try a different route to return, we retraced our steps to the riad (a little challenging in the alleys at the end near le Bel Oranger; I had to actually look up the street number to be sure we were in the right place.) We were back around 1930 and we had our menu du jour at 2000 – chicken tagine with lemons, Moroccan salad and oranges with cinnamon, all very good. I was absolutely ready for bed by 2100 and would have slept through the night if I didn’t have to get up several times.
2 Mar, Mon – I got up round 0700, took a shower in the open shower stall (at least washed my hair) and went downstairs to write in this journal. C.J. hadn’t slept well, and when she woke up and found me gone, she went looking for me. She found me downstairs and joined me for breakfast about 0800. We were served hot milk for making hot chocolate, pancakes, a muffin, yogurt, a wedge of a coffee cake, a couple of packets of soft cheese and a basket of the local round bread. We went back upstairs to finish my journal and make a plan for the day. Plan? We don’t need no plan to wander the souks! I don’t think we got going before 1100 and then we headed along the same route we took the day before leading to the main square. But this time we took some of the side “streets. One took us into the dyers souk, another took us in as far as Souk Soumarrine (?) where we turned back to return to the path we knew. [Google Maps was only “sort of” useful as the GPS did not acquire well in the covered and narrow lanes.] Next we turned left (east) on Traverse Des Ksour (maybe) (with mostly normal day-to-day clothing) to Souk Smarine (alternate spelling?) again and followed that south to Jemaa El Fna. There were lots of people selling stuff on the pavement and wandering
Fruit juice stands in Jemaa el Fna
 around with leather belts, t-shirts, sunglasses and such. We saw numerous snake charmers and henna-tattoo artists, as well as the brightly dressed water sellers. None of these interesting sights are going to be in our photo albums since we were warned against taking pictures of people without permission. One thing we did not find was a bench to rest on and we didn’t feel like walking all the way down to La Koutoubia, the famous minaret, tallest in the city at 230ft. We settled on going to Cafe Argana for ice cream or something. We got a smoothie and a milkshake; unfortunately C.J.’s order got mixed up and she got a plain vanilla instead of the strawberry-pineapple she ordered. We had a good view from the 3rd floor terrace over the square and off to the Koutoubia. After looking at some stuff in the guidebook, we thought we’d try to find the spice souk.
We returned to Souk Smarine and branched to the right where we thought a passage might take us 
A metal shop in the souk
to an open square called Rahba Kedima. The square had lots of spices and C.J. even bought some – a spice mix used in tajines (100d for 100g). That was more than we wanted but the salesman was very practiced in his spiel. There were cages of turtles and geckos (?), snails in tubs, and tubs of “black salt”, the leftover stuff from olive processing. When we asked what it was, we got another sales pitch for crystal mint and saffron. It was hard to get away without buying something. We took a different route back to Souk Smarine and then backtracked to our main route again through the normal-clothing souk. We got back to our riad around 1500 and napped until 1730 (I’ve got cold symptoms; I hope it’s only a cold.) By 1830 we were heading back into the souks to find a place to eat. Our riad host recommended one place but it looked like a party place with live music so we went to our own choice Le Table de la Medina which was just around the corner and next to a mosque. [Actually that description fits much of the medina; there are a lot of mosques. Some even have a sign posted saying “non-Moslems interdit” or something to that effect.] We climbed
Dinner at Table de la Medina
a steep, narrow stairway to the 3rd floor terrace where we had a great view of the roof of the mosque and, in the middle distance, a large minaret, rectangular, like La Koutoubia. While we were eating, the sun set and we could clearly hear the call to prayer. [And, on the way home, we could see into an open mosque door as men washed their feet and lined up for prayers.] We decided to share a Medina salad which had the same tomatoes and cucumber as on the previous night, but also hummus (“hous mous”?), eggplant (aubergine), couscous, and lettuce. We had a platter of chicken on skewers and cooked vegetables after our waiter said that the beef was kind of tough. We had a half liter of fizzy water and an orange juice with cinnamon (blad jus au canelle). We walked home in the fading light and arranged for a ride to the airport at 1130. Later we got an email from Toby to everyone on the trip saying to meet him just outside the airport entrance/arrival exit.


3 Mar, Tue – The usual cry of the muezzin woke me around 0625 but it remained dark until quite late so I went back to sleep. We had breakfast downstairs in the atrium. [Assiss had told us that they often

View from roof of Riad
served breakfast on the roof, but it was too cold now.] This morning there were some kind of square fried many-layered “pastries” along with the same items as the day before. We spent most of the morning getting packed up and then I went down to check out and pay our bill. Only the hotel stay could be charged (BofA Travel) and then I needed 54€ for the dinners and airport shuttles. Luckily I had the 60 euros that I had brought from home (otherwise, I don’t know where the nearest ATM was; we had seen none during our wandering in the souks). The taxi picked us up right at the back door. It was a smaller van so it could fit through the narrow lanes and sharp corners. Traffic was a snarl near the souks where pedestrians and donkey carts mixed with scooters, cars and trucks, but was no problem once we hit the main streets. We got dropped off at about the same place we got picked up and I went down to the arrivals exit and found a pilot right away and followed him to a shady area
where other pilots were waiting. Toby and Yuki were inside at the ATM and I didn’t see them for a while. C.J. had waited with our gear in the parking lot so we didn’t have to wheel it down and back up the ramp. Toby and Mourad, the local PG guide, met us up there and we loaded our stuff into a big shuttle bus; then we went back down to Arrivals and waited for everyone to arrive. By about 1330 everyone was present, and we headed south for the Atlas Mountains, well, at least a ridge in front of the mountains. It was only about an hour even with two stops for gas before we arrived at the LZ/Gite Chez Ahmed where we would be staying for most of the trip [unless the weather dictated that we should go to the coast (5 hrs) or another site (1 hr)]. The gite was somewhat of a surprise as it was definitely unlike most of the other places we had stayed

Chez Ahmed dining area
with Passion Paragliding. C.J. and I got a tiny room to ourselves with the shared bathroom, three stalls and three showers) around the corner of the courtyard. Other folks were three to a room, but the rooms were bigger. We really missed having any chests or wardrobe to store our stuff; we are living out of our suitcases. We had a tajine for lunch in the courtyard and then took a look at the LZ. Later we drove to the start of the 4x4 road to the launch and we all walked up. I had a really hard time, and at the top I had to fight to keep my lunch from reappearing. The launch was a large area mostly covered with coarse concrete and some gravel areas. It faces NW at about 1350 m; the LZ is at 850m. The wind was too crossed from the NE to make it a good idea to do our first flights; anyway, we had not carried our wings up. Toby gave us a briefing before we walked back down. Dinner was at 2000 and I think we had white bean soup, sausage patties, skewers of meat, and, of course, large flat bread rounds. Orange slices with cinnamon for dessert.


G taking a break between flights
Our rental 4x4 with a load of wings
Aguergour launch building with cafe
4 Mar, Wed – Up around 0730 for breakfast we expected at 0800 but it wasn’t until a half hour later that we got hardboiled eggs, flat bread, the same square, fried, layered “pastry” (maybe we can call them square tortillas), bean soup, mango juice, mascarpone cheese (?) and jam. Milk, coffee and tea, but no hot chocolate was on offer. We went up to launch around 0930 or later (the old and infirm got to ride up in the 4x4 that carried the wings on the roof). Conditions were OTB (over the back) so we had quite a long wait. There were lots of other pilots, many from France (a French group is staying in our gite). There was a good-sized building on launch with an open courtyard and a café serving drinks and snacks, and a Moroccan toilet in a dark room. Nearby was a sheepfold with lots of attentive dogs. Eventually conditions improved and I launched somewhere in the middle of our group, I was glad to run into some thermals and do some climbing as most people had had “top to bottoms” (13 min). After getting packed up in the heat I got a ride back up and flew again. This time I was able to get as far west as the striking ruins of some
"The Castle", ruins above a cliff
structure built above a cliff. Even though there were more thermals, I had only an 18 min flight mostly because I was avoiding the unorganized gaggles. After landing close to another pilot in our group, I packed up into my cinch sack and took a break to wash my hair during the day while it was warm in the open rest room. Waiting for a ride, we could see C.J. sky-ed out (over 1600 m) above the LZ. Then a bunch of us got a ride up to the base of the 4x4 track where we had lunch at Gite Aznag; another tajine, this time veggies with eggs. After lunch we got a ride up with Toby and around 1700 I launched in stronger wind and ridge soared to the NE, about 800m to where the ridge made a 90-degrees turn to the SE. I got to over 1500m and made several trips back and forth along the ridge. On the way out to the LZ, I noticed that there really was a ruined kasbah, or strongpoint, near a gite, Kasbah Igdalen. [The walls and ruins look really old but since they appear to be made of rammed earth and straw, they may just deteriorate quickly.] I landed after working some thermal lift out in the flat valley (37min). C.J. had two flights and had decided that was enough after her long, and somewhat turbulent, flight. She took a shower without any heated water and then napped until I got back. I washed my hair again and then rinsed out some underwear and socks and hung them up on the roof clothesline. Hopefully the winds and heat will dry them quickly before the sun sets. Dinner was chicken and French fries, uh, chips, served in a tajine, salad, and little muffins for dessert. C.J. had gotten another of the thick, fleece blankets and put it folded under her side of the bed to make the very hard mattress less uncomfortable.

5 Mar, Thu – Breakfast at 0830, same hardboiled eggs and bread, and an unpalatable soup. Toby said that the weather was not looking good locally starting Friday so we might go to the coast leaving at 0600 on Friday. We drove up to the gate at 1030 and we got the second trip in the 4x4. No real rush to launch anyway although it was coming in a bit more west, so crossed somewhat from the left. Cirrus started to cover the sky from the west. Nevertheless, people began soaring early and I got ready to go, launched and went right and had no trouble staying up and getting above the ridge all the way out to the point where the ridge turns SE. Later I went out toward the village below and to the right of

Aguergour launch from the air
launch and found a thermal there and climbed up. After messing about on the ridge I went left and stayed above the villages and then went out over the flats. There were thermals here and there, even over the LZ (54min). I did not hurry to pack up so there was quite a wait until our 4x4 came down to take us to the top. Meanwhile, we had lunch which was a sandwich of what looked like the leftovers from the previous days’ meals. C.J. and I shared one of the flatbread sandwiches. When we got back to the top, the wind was strong and we waited a long time until it mellowed; perhaps, too long, as I had to do a forward launch and then I didn’t find any lift at all to the right which left me too low to get anything under the gliders which were soaring over the villages. There were occasional very weak thermals on
Dinner on a tajine platter
the way to the LZ but nothing workable (11min). C.J. who launched a second time from a spot below the main launch, launched before me and landed after. I got a shower, well, I washed my hair and sluiced off the sweat, But I had not brought any soap in the shower because I didn’t expect to get any hot water. At dinner (a huge pile of veggies and couscous with chicken on tajine platters) Toby told us that we would be packing the vans to go to the coast (Eagle’s Nest/Nigel’s at 0600 the next morning. C.J. and I spent about an hour taking everything out of our suitcases and then loaded them back up with our sleeping bags and clothing for one to three days.

6 Mar, Fri – Up at 0530 and out at 0600 to load the van in the dark and cold (but not as cold as we had feared). We got going not too long after 0615 and stopped in the town next to the lake (Lalla Takerkoust, “the barrage”) to pick up a second 4x4. The next stop was about an hour and a half up the
Making bread in Amizmiz
road at a small city/big town (probably Amizmiz) where we had breakfast local style, i.e., with communal plates and no individual ones – no silverware either; we ate the omelets using pieces of flatbread. There was also bread and “tortillas” with saucers of honey and jam. It was an interesting experience. [The toilet was up the stairs and it was a Moroccan squatter, first we’ve encountered.] We took the motorway through the cold fog of the mountains (about 1000m ASL) and stopped at a rest area for a bathroom break. C.J. and I got a Magnum bar which was a nice treat. The next stop was in Tiznit, a larger city with a new wall built only 100 yrs. ago, according to Toby. We walked around the markets (souks) for a half hour. They were much less intense than the Marrakech souks and were more like markets. It must have been close to 1400 when we reached Le Nid d’Aigle (actually, Nigel’s which is just north of The Eagle's Nest)). Wind was strong and we took time to eat the lunch sandwiches that Mourad had picked up in Tiznit. The wind dropped down and I was able to launch and got some great lift as I went south to the near end of the cliffs. When I turned around and started heading back, there was very little lift and I had to resort to finding bits of thermal lift. I managed
Souk in Tiznit
about 15 min before I had to land in the official LZ, 300 m below (17 min). Chris came down to pick me and since it was just me, I didn’t even put my gear in my cinch sack. Back on launch the wind had come back up even stronger so I waited for a while. Eventually I launched again and got right up
along the ridge to the right, trying to avoid the crowds to the left. The ridge only goes 200 meters to the right and I managed to cross one gap but didn’t find much in the next section. I continued working the righthand ridge for a while and then flew out part way along the 800 meters of the ridge to the left. Flying was full of lots of up and down and didn’t really feel exactly like ridge lift, especially this close to the coast. Later I spotted C.J. out quite a way heading for the larger LZ so I joined her for landing. Wind was strong and I landed short and then had to work on not getting dragged through the bushes (48 min). We put our wings in their cinch sacks and walked out to the road where we got a ride up with our local instructor, Mourad. No one was flying at all when we got back up, but Toby was predicting that it would get flyable for everyone before too long. C.J. decided to pack up but I waited and, when conditions looked good, I launched again and found it much more
G launching at Nigel's
pleasant. I went to the end of the left side of the ridge, then came back and tried a top landing, but I was too high (and I didn’t want to look desperate). The next time I flew low across the front of the launch, and the third time I came in low enough and had a neat touchdown right where I wanted to land (20 min?). [Earlier, Dee (Dj Best) was kiting a mini-wing designed just for kiting and she got plucked from launch and flew down with the wing oscillating wildly. She landed safely in the big LZ.] Once the sun had set, we headed south on the coastal road about 30 min to Mirleft where we stayed at the Itrane Guest House which had actual working hot water showers, soft beds and closets. Before dinner I had an episode of SVT in our room. I laid down and rubbed my neck when straining and relaxing did not seem to work. Dinner was served at 2100 on the roof on the third floor – first a salad assortment, then several fish casseroles served on tajine platters. We had a fruit cup for dessert.

7 Mar, Sat – C.J. and I got up around 0800 and went for a walk a couple of blocks into town. There was a new mosque under construction but otherwise the place looked quite rundown. Many of the side streets were unpaved, and it was too early for many shops to be open. A steady stream of people were heading on foot to what we guessed might be the equivalent of Sunday school (Madrassah?). We had breakfast on the rooftop at 0900 – bread, both flat and baguette, butter (!), jam, sweetened peanut butter, raw honey and cold crepes with fruit slices, oh, and olives. Toby thought that conditions on the coast would be light but that it would not be flyable in the Atlas. We would overnight in Mirleft and possibly not return to Aguergour until Monday night. We left Mirleft at 1100. Conditions were lighter on launch at Nigel’s, but people started launching pretty soon. I took off and worked lift to the left occasionally getting above the cliffs but mostly having to work the slopes for thermals (mostly in the large creases). When I sunk out, there was not much wind and I landed in the large LZ (28 min). Back at the launch, we had “Passion Sandwiches”, salad and sardines or tuna served in half of a flat bread. There were also oranges (or maybe tangerines), bananas, and cookies for dessert. Conditions looked to be improving and we flew again around 1400. This time I got all the way down to the south and a bit over the ruins at the end of the cliffs before heading back. A flush cycle put me on the ground after a bunch of scratching in weak thermals (30 min). I was tired after that and laid on the cool pavement in the shade for a while. Around 1730 or so Toby organized a L-over-D contest for those who wanted to try flying straight out toward the beach, about a mile. Surprisingly, most pilots made it all the way and turned south for a bit farther along a high dune. The rest of us packed up and drove down in the van. We ended up at Green Wave (?), a small resort on the beach where we had some drinks (a blended fruit juice and a beer for us: 80d) before driving back to Mirleft. We got there with barely enough time to get ready for dinner call which was at 2000. However, we could have taken time for a shower since serving did not begin until 2215 or so. We had separate salads of various veggies and a little pasta, then each of us received a charcoal-grilled whole fish. Then there was a platter of three larger fish and a tajine platter of potatoes and other roasted veggies. There was a fruit cup for dessert. Toby actually had some cold beers, so I had one with dinner. Weather report is still not completely good for Aguergour although people flew there today. It’s supposed to be good there on Sunday but not on Monday. The plan so far is to stay at the coast. There are some other sites that we might get to.
8 Mar, Sun – Up at 0800 for 0900 breakfast – same baguettes with thin peanut butter, jam, honey, butter, orange juice, sweet tea (coffee and hot milk – but no chocolate). This morning there were also the ubiquitous fried, square tortilla-like thingy. The plan is to leave for a flying site at 1130 and to spend the night back in Mirleft. Conditions were not supposed to be good at Eagle’s Nest but the coast near Aglou faces various directions so there are multiple launch directions. We saw no activity as we drove past Eagle’s Nest and it was about 20 km farther to Aglou and Aglou Plage along the coast highway. We stopped in Aglou Plage to hang out while waiting for the winds to come around. C.J. and I walked along the “corniche”, what would have been a boardwalk in a US seaside town. There were lots of families, some with kids on scooters and pedal cars, and a few electrics. We shared an ice cream bar and took some pics. Around 1300 we loaded up again and drove north onto a dirt road and left the bus. It was a couple of kms to the flying area and we went beyond the first areas (which might have been training slopes). The cliff was about 35m high and had rooms carved into it (or they were remains of old coastal defenses); there were even rooms for rent and a café. We waited and waited for soarable conditions and it wasn’t until near five o’clock that people, maybe locals, started to probe the air. Meanwhile I had walked down the sandy trail to the beach and discovered a large, dead sea turtle. Mourad brought back sandwiches for lunch with fries/chips, and I bought a Coke at the café. When our group started to get ready I did, too but I was unenthusiastic at the thought of so many people trying to fly in light conditions in such a narrow lift band on a rocky cliff. Nevertheless, I got my wing out and tried to kite to the edge. Looks like I need more kiting practice. Eventually, I reached the edge and leaped into the air just barely avoiding catching my harness on a wooden railing. I made a short run to the N, then South and back north a longer distance to where the cliff began to curve away from the rapidly dwindling wind. I managed a top landing and found Chris W. and Neal already on the ground nearby (05? min). I packed up in a not-too-deep sandy area and walked back along the cliff top to where the rest of the group was also getting packed up. We got shuttled back to the bus through the sand and drove back to Mirleft arriving around 2000. We had another good dinner, this time platters of meat casserole and chicken casserole preceded by plates of dates and a sweet, then a bowl of soup with lentils and chickpeas. Dessert was a 3-layer fruit custard. C.J. had not flown but had done some kiting and was just as tired as I. She also seems to have some kind of bug and took an Immodium. She has a headache and may have a fever. I’m still sneezing and have a runny nose. We leave Monday at 0900 after breakfast at 0800, destination is unsure at the moment except that we will be returning to Aguergour for the night. The first group leaves on Tuesday and Chris and Patricia arrive. We are planning to do some cleaning of clothes and maybe change rooms.

9 Mar, Mon - Up at 0700 for a warm shower. Breakfast on the roof. We got packed up and took a walk around the town to a street with artisan shops. We looked for a Monday market that Duncan said was just setting up but we couldn’t find it. We left around 1100 (maybe) and went to Eagle’s Nest where conditions were forecast to be light and getting better (maybe). The wind was very crossed from the SW and no one was flying. We waited and waited, had lunch (Passion sandwiches) and waited some more. Finally, the wind direction came around a little and Toby sent Yuki off to probe the air. She stayed up and finally toplanded at the auberge (le Nid d”Aigle) TO. Once a few more folks stayed up I launched. I was able to get above the cliffs down to the south but not climb up high or stay above the cliffs. After a quarter of an hour, I went to the right of launch a short distance then came back above launch. I took a couple of passes and managed to topland to a round of applause (20 min). That was enough although many people continued to launch and we didn’t get going back to Aguergour until after 1730. C.J. had not been feeling great and had decided not to fly although she may have felt some regrets after so many people flew (and we stayed so late). We stopped in Tiznit to get gas and buy snacks (Magnums and tonic) and again at a rest area (chips). We got back to Chez Ahmed in time for dinner at midnight. Too cold for a late-night shower with flaky hot water, we just went to bed. I woke up a little chilly and threw a sleeping bag over me. By the next time I had awakened, the slippery sleeping bag had ended up on the floor. No problem; I no longer felt cold.

10 Mar, Tue – Breakfast at 0900 with square “pancakes”. It's the end of the first week and most folks are heading to the airport but there is a sizable number who are staying and will fly with Toby and Chris W. today. C.J. and I moved out of our tiny room into the much larger room (and with a window) that Jim and Maggie had used. The only problem is the stream of ants across the windowsill. C.J. and I had to wait for the second 4x4 shuttle from the gite but I was in no rush anyway. Once on launch, the wind was somewhat strong so I went down to the little niche in the slope and launched there. [C.J. had used that takeoff a couple of times previously.] Soaring was good and I went back and forth several times before heading out toward the lake. I didn’t go far beyond the usual LZ before turning back and landing (40 min). The folks from our group who were on the ground got sandwiches from the gite and, when C.J. landed, I shared mine with her. We had just finished lunch when the new group arrived with Chris and Patricia. Also arriving were Danny (Dag) and Nicki, pilots from Sweden whom we had met in South Africa. [The pilots who are staying are Simon, David, Kevin, Tim and Dee (Dj).] The new folks had lunch, then a briefing, then we headed up around 1700 (needed to wait at the gate for a shuttle). Conditions were again strong and I launched below again. C.J. decided not to fly, as did Patricia. The sky was filled with wings but the lift band was reasonably wide. After a half hour of ridge soaring I flew out to work the light thermals. I remembered my camera and pulled it out for some photos of the launch and the villages. I flew out to the bend in the road where the hills start before turning back to the LZ and landing (52min). Dinner was soup and then large fish (sardine?) balls, no veggies, no salad. We had the little muffins for dessert. And sweet tea, as usual.

11 Mar, Wed – Breakfast at 0900, headed up the hill at 1015. Conditions became soarable by 1100 and I launched (not first, at all). I tried going right but there wasn’t much lift so I went left in pretty sinky air. I ran into a few light thermals to keep me in the air and then caught a good one that drifted me back over the village with the cliff ruins. After I got back up over launch height, I pushed out front and found lift in the flats. I passed the LZ and went more than 3 km farther toward the lake. At one point I was thermalling with Chris A and climbing slowly. I got impatient and headed off toward the lake again. When I looked back Chris appeared to be much higher (later he said that he had broken through the inversion and climbing was easier after that). I reached 1640 m but others got above 2000 m. Since I hadn’t gotten high enough to make the lake on a glide, I returned to the LZ and landed (41 min). After a while some of us (not C.J. because she had not landed while flying for 1hr 15m) got a ride to the gate and then we hung out at Gite Aznag until it was time for lunch (sometime after 1415), a good salad and a tajine with tiny meatballs, then the oranges and tea. The wind had picked up while we were eating and we didn’t go up to launch right away but eventually all of us got up there although many walked. After another long wait for most of us (although Danni and Simon flew earlier), most pilots launched – not me or C.J., Patricia, Dj, and one other less-experienced pilot. The wind speed never dropped and after sunset, one pilot, Dana (say “donna”), was still stuck in the air and required coaching to get down using speedbar and “big ears”. He landed across the road from Chez Ahmed in the large field and in the dark, but safely. C.J., Patricia and Dj had walked down to the gate and didn’t get a ride down until another car could be sent up for them (Dj was able to snag a seat in the first car.) We had dinner as soon as everyone was down, a vegetable tajine with chicken and couscous, orange slices and tea. I used the 20-dirham recharge vouchers to add a week’s worth of data to our phones. [Call 555, enter “1”, then enter the multi-digit scratch-off number with “*3”. After a pause, a message is received indicating success.]

12 Mar, Thu – I got up around 0800. Patricia told me that Chris had been emailing with his family and heard that the US will be banning all flights from Europe starting tomorrow. Possibly for up to a month. Since our flight from Morocco goes through Amsterdam, we may be affected. I’ve seen nothing official yet, but we do not have an internet connection except through our phones. I haven’t received any emails since yesterday so I’m not sure whether I’m even connected by phone. Another of our pilots said the news he had was that Europeans were not being allowed to fly into the US but US citizens could fly home. At least we don’t have to worry until our departure date of the 23rd. [Famous last words!] Breakfast was only the square “pancake” with fresh cheese and jam, and OJ. No eggs or flatbread. [C.J. later complained to Toby about the lack of food or variety at breakfast.] We went up the hill at 1015 and I flew around noon. It wasn’t soarable on the ridge but I managed to find a thermal or two on the way to the LZ. I circled with C.J. and with Chris A and gained some altitude but not enough to go anywhere (26 min). We went back up to launch again and found conditions changing – there was virga over the High Atlas and moving toward us. The sky was mostly obscured by clouds and it was definitely cooler. Mourad brought the sandwiches up and we had lunch on launch. Later Chris W. and Toby said it was safe to do a fly-down to the LZ. C.J. and I one other pilot decided to ride down (C.J. and I had just repacked our wings and didn’t feel like a sledder would be worthwhile). Back at the gite, Chris White put on a reserve parachute seminar with Tim deploying his new square. Later he repacked it – not much different than a round PDA. We had dinner relatively early around 1945 – a good salad, soup, bread, and many skewers of grilled meat, sausages and patties. There were slices of something like biscotti for dessert, also plates of little cookies something like animal crackers. And tea. C.J. and I bought a bottle of wine to share with Chris and Patricia. We stayed talking to Colin and David until about 2130.

13 Mar, Fri – A better breakfast this morning with hardboiled eggs and soup as well as fresh flatbread, cheese and jam. We went up at our usual early 1015 but I didn’t launch until it looked soarable sometime after noon. It was indeed soarable out front and in the flats, but I had launched with a knot in my right brake line so I had to go out and land (16 min). When I landed the wing overflew me and got all tangled up.  I got a ride right back up and launched again after having to sort out the lines by disconnecting the risers. This time I got to thermal over the villages and out some distance past the LZ (33 min). I got low enough at one point that I could see the ostriches in the next compound over to the NW. My landing was fine, but this time, though, I put my wing and harness in the cinch sack instead of just stuffing it in the back of the car. Conditions seemed too strong to launch so I rested for a while. It wasn’t until after 1800 that I launched again. By now C.J. had toplanded and taken a ride down to the gite for a shower and rest. I made a few passes on the ridge and then headed out when I saw that Dj had stayed on the ridge too long, gotten much below the cut-off point and had to follow a canyon out to the flats. She landed just short of the big powerlines and had to walk maybe a km along a wadi to get to the paved road. I flew toward the lake and with thermal lift got to over 1500m but that didn’t last and I had to turn around short of my farthest point a few days ago. I landed to the NW in the LZ (54 min). A shower was much appreciated. Unusually, today, we had big Cu buildup over the High Atlas and some clouds overran our ridge. Dinner at 2000 consisted of cooked veggies, chicken and chips, and a fruit cup (plus flatbread and tea, of course).

14 Mar, Sat – there was some kind of official government visit to the area and flying was off for probably most of the day. Toby laid on a trip to Asni, a village with a Saturday market about forty minutes away toward the High Atlas. We left a bit before 1000 and drove up through Aguergour and continued over a 1340m pass and down into a valley. The market was large and crowded, and definitely not a tourist market (although we did see a couple of small tour groups). There were lots of stalls with veggies and fruit, electronics and hardware, butcher shops with flayed cow heads and decapitated sheep heads, clothing, cookies and candy, and baskets. We walked around with Chris, Patricia and Job. We didn’t buy anything but there were several silver bracelet salesmen who were hard of hearing when told, “No, thanks”. We stopped at a café and had a drink while resting, then went back to the bus (about 1230) where Mourad had lunch sandwiches and chips for us. We sat on the sidewalk in the shade of a wall to eat while crowds of students walked past of – must have been some kind of Saturday classes maybe at the mosque. We drove back over the pass and got back to Chez Ahmed where we could see that there was quite a cloud buildup over the launch ridge. When Tony and Chris W got back they recommended against going flying and said that there was even a chance that there would be rain in the evening. Meanwhile there was much discussion about the cancellation or pending cancellation of airline flights from Morocco to Europe. Not to mention the closing of airports in much of Europe outside the UK. At the moment there is a chance we will be stuck here for two or three weeks. If so, should we stay with Toby out away from the city, or go to our AirBnb that we reserved (must cancel by the 15th to get our deposit back less the service charge)? Since Toby may not have a new group arriving (on Fri, not Tues when we are finished), we’ll probably continue with our present plan to stay at the AirBnB in Marrakech. There were a few drops of rain, and some thunder, but nothing even close to a storm. We got back a little late for dinner but there was plenty of food left – a beef and vegetable tajine, bread, tangerines and tea.

15 Mar, Sun – It was windy overnight, enough that we had to pad the rough door with some dirty socks so the bars and locks didn’t rattle too badly. It was also pretty chilly, although our room stayed pretty warm; the two-foot thick walls may have something to do with that. Breakfast was a little earlier but I couldn’t see any reason for that because there was low cloud and fog obscuring the launch ridge. And did I mention that it was colder than usual? (May get a chance to wear my windpants and/or long underwear). C.J. canceled our reservation with AirBnb in Marrakech (no service charge). We’re going to stay in Aguergour for now. We’re figuring that if we want to go back to Marrakech, there will be plenty of riads to choose from. We didn’t go up to the gate until after 1230 and then we hung out at the Gite Aznag with tea for a while. By then it had cleared enough that those who wanted to could launch from just above the gate. Surprisingly the flights were not sledders and there was some thermalling, the wind was too light for the lift to be orographic. C.J. and I plus several others did not fly. We had the lunch that was brought up – meat and cooked onions and stuff in a flatbread, and a paper roll of fries. Then we drove down. A half hour later we all went up again this time to the top which was now out of the clouds. Only a very few did not fly. There was just enough wind to do a reverse inflation but C.J. had better luck with a forward. We found thermal lift over the ruins above the cliff and elsewhere. I landed with Nicki (15 min). Toby said that there was cumulus build up all around us but hidden by the low clouds so we could not go back up again to fly. I caught a glimpse of the sun once after we got back, but otherwise, it was solidly overcast. C.J., Chris and Patricia took a walk through the nearby village. We stopped to buy cookies and Patricia bought some nuts at the next shop. We walked past the Mosque and came out on the road to launch near the place we called Home Depot since it looked like it had building material for sale. After dinner – salad, meatballs and peas, tea and cookies – C.J. and I registered our Morocco trip with the State Department Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP). That allows us to be contacted by the embassy in Casablanca if necessary. So far the rumor is that the Marrakech airport is going to be closed down on Monday. We have no idea how we are going to get home in a week from now. Hopefully we will hear something from Delta before then.

16 Mar, Sun – Still quite cool and cloudy (in fact, later in the morning we had some light rain. I’m wearing long underwear!). We got an acknowledgement that our STEP enrollment had been verifies. We also got an email from the consulate General in Casablanca confirming that all Morocco airports had been closed and asking us to send them contact info if we were in the group of people who were more susceptible to COVID-19. I looked at my MedJet Assist app and there was some additional fine print saying that we could forget any evacuation help if we were in a banned country (like all of Europe) or if the State Dept had declared a country level 3 or 4. Not sure what that means for Morocco. Toby had a little meeting – no flying today, well, probably. But Mourad would take us on a walk through the villages (when it stopped raining). Otherwise we can stay on at the gite and have full guide services for half the usual rate. It sounds like the next group is not/cannot show up for the third week which should begin on Friday the 20th. Most of the Brits are expecting that there will be “repatriation flights” to get them home starting on the 19th. We four Americans haven’t heard of anything like that. Maybe if Morocco opens the airports, we can get our scheduled flight…or some flight anyway. Chris and Patricia’s flight goes through London so they may be in better shape than we are (All Europeans but Brits and Irish are banned from flying to the US, and our flight home leaves from Amsterdam). Since we were not going to fly (strong NE winds, low cloudbase), Mourad took us for a walk through his village (almost the same route that we took the night before) and up through another one to reach the paved road one switchback above. When we got back to the gite, we had a short rest before loading up the van and driving to Lalla Takerkoust, “the barrage”, for lunch at a café terrace. We each had a big plate of mostly tomato salad, then bread, skewers of beef, and grilled ground meat with tomato and onion slices. While waiting for our food to be ready we walked around the shopping area and bought a couple of large envelopes of Nesquik so I could make hot chocolate with heated milk at breakfast. After lunch C.J. and I walked up and over the bridge to where we could see the dam. Back at our gite, Toby told us that the cafe we had just eaten at was closing right after serving us… and all the other restaurants and cafes in Morocco (just like in Washington State, we heard). [So if we had gone to Marrakech, we wouldn’t have had any place to eat.] A few people from our group went to the airport this morning and at least two of them (Danny and Nicki) caught a flight out. We heard that Sebastian, who is from BC, had not gotten a flight. Maybe we will see him back here. [Yes, he was back at least for the night.] I took a nap from 16-1700 and then the weather looked to have improved for flying with some blue holes and sunshine. We headed up (except for Kevin who had packed his wing for travel) and found a big black cloud behind and to the west, but otherwise launchable conditions. We had to take off to the north in quite a crosswind, but most got off with little trouble. C.J., Patricia and Dj did not launch. I found a little thermal lift over the power lines at Gite Aznag but it only extended my flight (11 min). I packed up my wing on the roof which is nice and clean, if not too big. C.J. thought we should use the hammam (like a heated room with hot and cold water taps) but Toby said dinner was imminent – chicken and vegetables with couscous again. Near the end of the meal Chris got a notice that their flight was canceled. And it was only this morning that they had an email saying the that their flight was on as scheduled.  After dinner we used the hammam to get cleaned up. It’s been too chilly for a comfortable shower, especially when the showers are erratic about supplying hot water. Chris and Patricia decided to pack up and go to the airport in the morning and try to get a flight out at least as far as London.

17 Mar, Tue, St. Patrick’s Day and last official day of the PP tour – I couldn’t get any hot milk to make hot chocolate with the Nesquik so we had our usual hot, sweet tea with hot hardboiled eggs, bean soup, bread, farmer’s cheese, and jam. Chris and Patricia left at 0900 with several other group members. I didn’t know whether to wish them luck or hope that they’d be back. It was cold and I dressed in long underwear and multiple layers. The light down jacket was necessary out in the courtyard where I am typing this at a low table sitting on a stool. We are considering packing up most of our stuff in case we feel like we have to get out of here before they close the airports in Morocco on Thursday. I sent our contact info to ACSCasablanca.state.gov and got back an automatic reply and another reply that actually had some info.  A bunch of the guys walked up from the gite without their wings and we drove up an hour later with Dj and the gliders. It was cold on launch and colder in the air. I took off and went right and got a pretty close view of a red fox with a long bushy tail on the rocky slope below the ridgetop. Then I came back and did figure-eight turns on a bump sticking out from the ridge and gained a little; next I pushed out front to the places where thermals are usually found. Nothing there, so I ended up with a short flight (15 min). After a while, we all went up to Gite Aznag for a good lunch of salad, tajine with eggs, tea and orange slices. Then we went up for a mid-day flight which I found to be too turbulent to be fun and I soon landed (13 min). We went up one more time around 1630 and I launched about 1745, got right up over launch and then headed out over the villages – again no lift until I got quite far out. Then I found one that got me to 1450m and attracted a few others. I took my elevation gain and headed toward the lake but never found another good climb on my push into the wind. I turned back and landed at the LZ with another pilot (28 min). C.J. had strong conditions on launch and could not get off; she rode down with Mourad. Reports from people at the airport say that Chris and Patricia got a flight to London-Gatwick. Dj heard that her flight to London on Sunday has been canceled. We haven’t heard anything substantive from Delta/AF/KLM about our flight on Monday 23 Mar. After dinner we decided to try to get a flight out of Marrakech the next day when Chris W. and Dj have to go to the airport anyway. We got everything packed up by 2315.

18 Mar, Wed – After a different breakfast of an omelet, red juice, bread, cheese and jam. We got sorted out and drove into the city with Dj and Mourad. Another taxi carried Emily, the dog, Max, and Chris W. We got our stuff through the entry security scan and then were confronted by not just one line but several. We tried the British Airways queue but they were only taking BA ticketed passengers. We ended up in a very slow-moving line at Air France. By 1700 the line had stopped and there was an announcement (in French) that all seats were filled but there might be some no-shows on the 19th. We didn’t see any signs of a KLM ticket counter (or Transavia) which is what our flight is on; no sign of Delta at all. Toby was having some kind of first aid-required emergency back at Aguergour but came to pick us up at 1900. [Later we found out that the waiter at the Gite who had lost his father not too long ago had tried committing suicide by taking rat poison. He survived but was not in good shape.] C.J. and I tried finding a flight to London on Expedia.com and were surprised to find a flight that had seats available. We booked it ($580 for two) and felt much more confident about getting out of Morocco before the shutdown at 2359 on Thurs. We made up our bed again and did not bother getting the sleeping bags unpacked.

19 Mar, Thu, First Day of Spring, Last day before Moroccan air space was to be closed – We had an early breakfast at 0700 and headed into Marrakech at 0745 with Dj and Toby. We got there before 0900 so Dee could get her place in line which was determined by a list she was put on the previous day. We got into a British Airways queue and patiently waited and slowly advanced until we got to the counter and received our boarding passes and dropped off our checked bags (extra fee required). Since it was early and our flight was not until 1535, we went to the Arrivals area and had lunch at Le Table du Marche’. It was in a courtyard exposed to the outside air and it was pretty chilly but we enjoyed our two kinds of quiche, a Caesar salad and a quite good chocolate coated black forest cake. At some point we used Expedia again to book a ticket from London to Seattle going through SFO. We then moved on to the boarding gate which got changed. Everyone got on the plane, and there were still a few seats unoccupied. We were late taking off partly because workers were still loading the luggage. A big surprise was the weather - it was actually raining lightly in Marrakech. We arrived at Heathrow late, too, and went through an ePassport gate (as quick as our Global Entry usually is), picked up our bags and walked out through the “nothing to declare” customs door. We may have missed some directions about how to get from Terminal 5 to Terminal 2, but we managed to get the free ride on the Heathrow Express train to near Terminal 2. Once there we went to the Departures area and used the kiosk to check in with our passports. Then we found out where the United Lounge was and headed there to hang out until our flight the next morning. Unfortunately, that lounge was only open from 0500 to 1400 (What good is that?!)(possibly the lounges were all closed because of the Coronavirus situation) We eventually settled down in some not-very-comfortable chairs prepared to spend the night rather than pay for a hotel and taxi, etc. When I went back to the kiosk to see if I could get it to print out our luggage tags, I found out that our flight to SFO had been cancelled. Fortunately United had several other flights on Friday to Seattle. We were still in the game! Patricia contacted us by What’s App and volunteered to pick us up at the airport to minimize the chance of infecting other people who had not been travelling with us. C.J. slept for a while then got her sleeping bag out and slept several hours. I couldn’t get comfortable in the chairs or on the cold, stone floor, so I didn’t get much sleep.
   
20 Mar, Fri - Around 0600 we packed up and went upstairs to the Departure area and checked in (the luggage tag machines were in a different part of the room) and dropped our bags off (I think we may have had to pay for the third bag, $100). After that we went through Security and wandered around the concourse until we settled on the World Tree restaurant for some breakfast. We had an “avo smoothie bowl” with granola and chia seeds, a mixed fruit juice, hot chocolate and a yogurt bowl with coconut and fresh berries. Then we wrote in our journals until the gate was announced around 0850. We got to load in Group 2 so there was hardly a wait at all before we were on board. We had a long flight with assigned seats in the center three seats, but there was no one in the two seats next to the window so we moved there. We had a lunch (chicken or pasta) with wine once we were in the air and we had some views of England and then over Ireland we could see the Dingle Peninsula before we headed out across the Atlantic. I watched part one of The Hobbit using the captions – much better than trying to understand the conversation of the dwarves, et al. Near the end of the flight we had melted cheese and ham (the first pork we’ve had in a long time) on a roll. Somehow, we missed the crossing of the Hudson River and I didn’t recognize anything until we passed over the NY Thruway where it bends at Suffern, and the Garden State Parkway intersects it. Soon we could see the approach to NY and the NYC skyline with the new One World Tower, built on the site of World Trade Center. We had to go through Immigration in EWR and there was no Global Entry, but the wait was minimal. We had to fill out a customs form and a new one for the Coronavirus. On the way to the line someone took our temperature with an infrared thermometer. Once we picked up our bags, we piled them on a $6.00 cart (Great to be back in the US!) and wheeled them out of customs. There was a transfer station for bags right outside, but our flight was leaving from another terminal so we had to “follow the black line” painted on the floor which involved a walk through the depths of EWR, taking a lift up to the next floor, catching a train, taking another lift back down and then going to a bag drop. Glad we weren’t in a rush. C.J. sat at a desk at our gate, plugged in her phone and got a call from Patricia. I went off to find a milkshake but ended up with a mocha frappe from a food court shop. C.J tried to get an interesting fruit drink from Starbucks but there were too many people ordering special drinks. We boarded in Group 2 again and this time we had a group of three seats to ourselves. In fact, there were few people on the flight and we probably could have had two sets of seats. We reached Seattle around 2020 local time (we had missed the “spring ahead” of Daylight Savings Time while in Morocco). Chris and Patricia picked us up as soon as we got our luggage from the carousel onto a free cart that I had snagged from the sidewalk outside. We were home in 45 minutes, and it wasn’t much later that we crawled into our own warmed bed for a good long sleep.

21 Mar, Sat – A hot shower felt really good after the long stay in the rural gite in Morocco. By the time I got up C.J. had sorted out the laundry and started the first load. It was a nice sunny day so she hung out the washed clothes. I made some pancakes for breakfast with the sour milk that had been in the freezer. It took a lot of cycles through the microwave to get it thawed. Later I went out to the post office to get our held mail; there was a big box of it and much of the weight was in cruise catalogs. I also stopped at QFC and got some onions, milk and garlic and a tub of hummus. In the afternoon I rode my bike over to Safeway and got some grapes, sharp cheddar, and bananas. It was interesting that no one in North Bend was wearing a mask; I took mine off before I left the PO. We had soup for dinner and went to bed early.

Since we returned home we've been "sheltering in place", self-isolating" or self-quarantined". whichever term you prefer. When we started, we were expecting only a two-week period of staying home, but as the Coronavirus pandemic has spread, we may be in for a much longer quarantine. Except for one trip out for groceries and mail, we haven't been anywhere until ten days after we got home. Then we were out of fresh food and I went to the local grocery store (QFC) during the 0700-0800 senior access time slot.