Monday 18th August - Trekking through Kif in the Rif Mountains

Early breakfast at 6.30am and then away in the truck, headed up to the Rif Mountains for an hour or so. Stopped at a tiny village and our guide, Mohammad, led us into the Marujuana filled mountains, an area of Morocco where they grow, sell and use a lot of pot, legally. Smoking pot starts young and is a way of life here. We pass acres and acres of it growing. Also olive groves, plum trees, and fig trees which Mohammad clambers up like a monkey and choosing only the purplyist and ripest of figs, selects one for each of us to try. So yummy!!

After three hours walking, we arrived at the most glorious river - so clear you could see right to the bottom. It was an emerald green colour and surrounded on either bank with pink rhodedendrun blossoms... it was such an amazing sight I just wished I could bottle and take it home, but I had to be content with just photos. Some of the girls (including me) stopped for a long swim and sunbathe on the rocks while the rest carried on up to the waterfall where it was a lot colder for swimming.

Starving after our swim, we hiked back for a truck camp lunch of bread, spam, tomatoes and cucumbers. Back at camp we all dragged our stretchers into the opening in the middle of the tents and catught up on our diaries for the afternoon. I did some much needed hand-washing, only losing one sock down the drain in the process. Had a faily decent shower, though cold.

Pack seems to get in complete disarray every day, despite my best efforts to keep it sorted out. My new favourite pass-time is now re-organising it. This then confuses me as to where I have put everything and creates the perfect challange for the morning when I play the 'in which bag is my clean underwear?' game. This has been the replacement for Discovery Channel every evening. Instead, I now 'discover' all the things in my pack that I should not have brought with me, the stupidist items being one pair of stilletto heels, with the Giant Mosquito Net following as a close second. Have yet to see a single mossie in Europe and obviously that story the guy in the camping shop in Covent Garden spun me about there being swarms of mossies coming up from Africa and migrating to Europe was a load of shit!