Travels with My Hat is a memoir of my adventures as a travel writer
in Africa, South Asia and the Arab world. Beautifully designed, it is lavishly illustrated with
photographs and maps and includes poignant correspondence with my mother who had never left Australia.
Travel Talks
Christine who lives in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, is available for public or private talks. Hear her adventures first-hand, see her photographs and discuss current and historical events with this inspiring solo traveller.
GREAT MOMENTS IN TRAVEL
When I would think, well this is what I've come for and the physical and psychological demands of the effort to get here, are now worth it...
MY MOROCCO
When I first set foot in Morocco as a young backpacker in the 1960s,
I was captivated by the ever changing desert and mountain scenery, its colourful peoples
and fascinating souqs. My book Collins Independent Travellers Guide to Morocco was published in 1990.
WORLD WATER DAY
Some 1.3 billion people in the world lack access to clean water. Women and children spend an estimated 200 million hours a day hauling water, often over great distances from the source. Here Somali refugees in the Horn of Africa, one of the driest places on earth.
When I first set foot in Morocco as a young backpacker in 1964, I was captivated by the ever changing desert and mountain scenery and the pageantry of traditional life. This amour fou has never entirely cooled and in a lifetime of travels, I still consider this rugged, individual, shoulder of north-west Africa — al-Maghrib al-Aqsa— to be one of the most exotic places on earth. Just a couple of hours drive inland from long Atlantic beaches is the hot, red bled dotted with dramatic, sun-baked ksour —fortified Berber villages — and a medieval world that long ago vanished from Europe: this was my imagined land of Aladdin and his magic lamp —in fact the sorcerer of the folktale was himself from the Maghreb …
This is my favourite photo of Morocco. It was early April, the High Atlas were still covered in snow and the plains outside Marrakech were carpeted in poppies.
I came upon this Blue Man searching for his camel. Would he mind my taking a picture? Not at all. It was south of Merzouga, on the edge of the Sahara
The river Ziz snakes round ancient kasbahs and lush oases in the Tafilalet, a magical region in the Deep South of Morocco.
Chechouen is a Rif Mountain town of extraordinary light and colour. Its tiled roof houses are a rustic fusion of Hispano-Moorish architecture.
Wish I knew the name of this pristine lake in the Middle Atlas. It was getting late and the road was bad so I took just one picture before heading back to civilisation.
I call this image the “Eye on the Street”. The window was in a house I passed while wandering about the ancient medina in Marrakech.
It is customary for shopkeepers in the souqs to display their wares outside, as well as in. Can’t you almost smell the tubs of spices and the baskets of potpourri?
Classic Moroccan food is an amalgam of Berber cooking and imperial food from the Abbasid courts of Baghdad. I had this delicious tajine for lunch.
Women traders in the market in Tafraoute, a town in the Anti-Atlas peopled by Ammeln Berbers who cultivate olives, dates and especially almonds.
What news are these elderly men exchanging in Marrakech? Two are engrossed in gossip, but the middle man has spotted my camera.
Many tourists overlook Casablanca but it as much part of the history of Morocco as Fez or Marrakech. A treasure-house of 1930’s architecture, it also has some of the best restaurants outside France.
Berber farmers still use an ancient device to measure water in this crumbling agadir near Tata, a region near the Algerian border untouched by tourism.
A rack of cotton scarves on sale in the oasis town of Zagora. The original blue is worn by nomads. Other colours are popular with tourists.
About Travels with My Hat
Australian photojournalist and author. Used London as a base for nearly forty years while freelancing in the Middle East, Arabian peninsular, Africa and South Asia. Have written and illustrated more than a dozen books and travel guides. Operates a well regarded religious images stock photo library: www.worldreligions.co.uk. Live in Leura in the Blue Mountains outside Sydney.
WOW what a great article about Morocco :)
feel free to visit my own blog where i share the best marrakech destinations…
cheers.
Thank you. I miss Morocco and wrote this piece with love.