Day 1: Here goes....

The advantage of flying with British Airways!

As the plane takes off from Gatwick Airport on a cloudy but fairly pleasant morning, I realise the enormity of what Mart and I have chosen to do - spend three months of our lives as inhabitants of Morocco, a country we have visited many times on holiday (or on 'business trips' as Mart likes to call them), but to actually live there? What will life be like on a day-to-day basis? What will our house really be like to live in? Will we have good internet access - not only for Mart's work but also (and more importantly) for my leisure (a gal needs her Facebook after all)? Thousands of questions meandering through my mind but no answers can be given at this point in time...just wait and see...and I'll have to settle for that. A few glasses of wine on the plane and I'll be fine!

4.30pm

We make our way through the Arrivals Hall, pushing two wobbly trolleys laden with heavy cases, hand luggage and laptops - this is a long trip we reassure ourselves, so there's no problem with having eight items of luggage!! I'm sure Carrie Bradshaw et al from Sex and The City had just as much luggage when they arrived at this very same airport! Our friend, Adil, meets us with our hire car, a two-month-old Dacia Sandero - 'Only the best for Mr Martin' he smiles. Oh...and the luggage...err...okay, I'll have the two laptops in the front with me (I say laptops but I really mean the two laptops + five magazines + four books + various leads for all manner of technologies + sweets + fan + numerous other items I've stowed away discretely in the laptop cases, hoping they won't be noticed!) Then we'll tie the two larger cases in the boot with string and somehow shove the two smaller cases on the back seat...and the hand luggage, well those two cases will just have to obscure the back window. Why did I not think of how we are going to get from A to B before deciding we needed so much stuff?! Oh well, c'est la vie...and off we go...en route to Tahannaout and our new life, our Moroccan flag, kindly left attached to the car window for us by Adil, waving in the gentle breeze in support of tonight's match...Morocco v Tanzania. Moroccans love their football!

5.30pm
Leaving the dusty city behind, we head for the mountains. They are so clear in this light, rising majestically beyond the fields ahead of us, layer upon layer of peaks hitting their heads on the clouds - the High Atlas mountains, conquered once by Mart as a mere lad of eighteen years - now he will return to live in their foothills and remember his youthful adventures.

6.15pm
We turn off the main road onto the dusty, stony track that leads to our new temporary home. As we bounce along over bumpy uneven land, my heart skips a beat as I anticipate our first glimpse of the large gate that will mark the entry to the unknown. It's there...right ahead of us...but now there's a donkey in the way...and he won't budge! Mart beeps the horn frantically - but it's as if the donkey's saying 'You'll have to wait till I've finished chewing these leaves...patience, dear people'. Even the donkeys have this 'manyana' attitude! At last he ambles to the side and we can just about squeeze past. I can see we're going to like it here.

Suddenly Saïd appears as if out of nowhere. Saïd is the 'guardien' of the house, a young local man who ensures the place is secure and tends the garden. He will be our 'guru' for the first few days until we find our feet. I'm sure he will be a Godsend to us. We've arrived; the gates open in front of us as if by magic and here stands our home for the next three months...Wow...So excited now, can't wait to unpack and let the adventures begin - or rather, continue.......

At the gates of our new home