Morocco!

I've been back over a week but I've finally found the time to share some of my experiences and photos from my holiday to the Atlas mountains in Morocco. We were only there for a few days but it was amazing! Sometimes this can still be in the rainy season but we couldn't have asked for better weather and the scenery of being up in the mountains was breathtaking!

We stayed in Richard Branson's hotel Kasbah Tamadot which was stunning! We were staying in one of the 'tents' which were the most luxurious tents I've ever seen. We had a balcony with the most amazing view and a private hot tub as well as the 3 main pools. The whole place was so beautifully decorated.

On our first full day we went on a hike up one of the mountains just opposite our hotel. There was no one else around except a couple of locals with their sheep and the higher we got, the more serene it felt. One of the most incredible things was that we could be standing in the intense heat surrounded by greenery and basically see deserts in one direction while the snowy mountains where people were skiing was only half an hour drive behind us.

The next day we went into Marrakech. We visited a palace and an old Jewish university and then just spent the afternoon wondering around the markets and taking in the atmosphere. While it was an amazing place, we were all happy to go back to the calm of the mountains.

On our last day we decided to go off exploring on our own. From our balcony we could see a river and then another mountain with a village on it so we decided to try and get up there. It was instantly clear we weren't meant to because there was no path and there was obviously frequent rock fall. Once we climbed/fell down we waded through the river and met some locals with their sheep who, despite their lack of English, showed us a way up to the village. We met a woman up there (also with very little English) who brought us into her home, introduced us to her family and made us tea. It was a very special experience! 

I hope everyone had a really lovely Easter and it's not too bad going back to school/college/work! 

x x x

Day of Hiking

Where is my life going??! It's 3 days until the Easter holiday and then I'll have 1 (very short) term before I've finished my first year at music college. Crazy!

Anyway... today I went on a hike with my friend Aaron. We both come from Winchester and used to do a lot of walks around there together but obviously it's been a lot harder now we're in London. Today we both finished college at midday so we decided to get the train out of London and try a new walk. I have really been missing the countryside recently!

We got the train to Box Hill and did the Box Hill circular in the North Downs. The website warned it was 'strenuous' and it was not lying! It's about an 11 mile walk and we've done longer so we thought we'd be fine but it was ridiculously hilly. We would go up a long steep hill then wind back down it and then back up again and wow do my legs hurt! But hey, Monday is leg day after all! I used runtastic to track our walk and I did 28,000 steps, burned 970 calories and walked for about 5 hours- not a bad day of exercise.

It was such a pretty walk and the views were incredible (the photos really don't do it justice!) It was getting dark by the time we got to the final view point so didn't properly get to see what I can imagine is a really beautiful view. We are definitely going to do it again maybe with more people and go earlier in the morning so we can take it slower, stop at a pub for lunch and reach the final viewpoint in full daylight.

It's been such a long time since I posted (again) where I've been so busy and not really had anything interesting to post about but I am on holiday for the next 3 weeks so more will be coming I am sure! I am off to Morocco at the weekend which I am super excited about. I will do a blog post when I am back with lots of photos and I am sure some great adventures but be sure to keep up to date with my instagram (@schmegg_) where I will be posting lots of photos throughout the trip.

I hope everyone has a fab week x x x