This is a fun read while we wait impatiently:

It takes a special kind of idiot to attempt to travel overland to Morocco from the north of England with barely $100 in their pocket.
In the summer of 1995, I was that idiot.

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/t...cco/index.html

Fun read. Thank you.

Lovely and (ditto Sassafras) fun piece. Reminds me of being 20 and my first overseas trip to Ireland and the UK all alone Though I wasn’t THAT naive, I did have a camera and cash stolen from me my first day in Dublin!

What a nice light-hearted look back at the highlights and lowlights of his first trip abroad.

One time somebody tried to steal the tent off our roof rack but must have been interrupted and wound up leaving us an adding machine on top of our car. We ended our evening with a very pleasant visit to the police station to turn it in.

Good story, but I had to overlook his disdain for Moby-Dick.

Edward, thx for this. The author writes well. Surprised though, that he did not mention the terrible mass flood that killed many that same month when he was in Imlil. Dozens of tourists apparently lost their lives, and many many more locals.
FWIW, it seems that the same Toubkal mountain area is rocker/traveler Robert Plant's fave spot on earth. Hilarious story about when he and fellow musician Geddy Lee once chanced across each other at the local mountain lodge.
I am done. The best trip

Never heard about the flood. My son led a group of young Moroccans up Toubkal a few years ago as a Peace Corps volunteer. They made it.

This made my day.
I was never this cavalier, even though I love to travel and married someone who loves to travel.
My oldest, rather straight-laced daughter, however, has a lovely paradoxical combination of daredevil and "this is going on my permanent record" attitude that still confounds us. She once went to Morocco "for the weekend" because the flights were cheap. Of course the cheap flight was actually a combo of five flights, most of which were delayed or cancelled, but to her it was worth it. Barry Neild and she would have been a match made in her idea of heaven.
Thank goodness she never met him

Author Barrie's approach with this lookback is a breath of fresh air. Sometimes, travel writers can get a bit too precious or serious, about such topics. Glad to see that he chose to occupy the opposite, more self-effacing end of the writing spectrum, the polar opposite to the overly-earnest traveler-than-thou posture.

I am done. The suffering for one's travel