Morocco begins...

The sea is always such a shock when you fly, suddenly there’s a massive line through the landscape and a sold grey-blue surface like burred steel. Flew over the Isle of Wight and the Channel Islands – the sea was rough around their Cornish-like coast. I could see the straight, sleek line of the French coast running away South-East. Another sizeable island with a scalloped north coast and a hot-fat fried pancake south coast, then an expanse of water dusted with white peaks like eraser rubbings. Next we crossed the Brest Peninsular of France, past a bay with a couple of hundred boats all moored in neat curving lines, mirroring the mainland. Over Spain, opaque cloud like a snow drift ended abruptly over the Pyrenees, some cloud pouring down the side of the mountains. I saw long lakes carved between mountains, sandy beige tracks webbing over ridges like contour lines. One lake resembled a woman’s figure with a full skirt and cinched waist, triangular arms and distorted head. Remote roads zig-zagged and chicaned across the moleskin brown countryside giving some hills a terraced appearance. Wind farms added to the relief of deeply veined rock then the ground became red. I saw what looked like a deep rift snaking out of a lake and running to meet another deep valley like a geographical t-juntion. The water came more clearly into view as it wound west and towards our flight path. At an oxbow curve there was a bridge and dam spanning the river. I saw a motorway junction like a treble clef. The land soon began to break up as the river dramatically expanded and peninsulars of land splayed out into the water in soft rounded shapes like the fronds of a fern. The ground gave the impression of rusty brown and sandy mottling like a tie-dyed cloth, then suddenly the southern Portugese coastline came into view and I began to get very excited at seeing the coastline of a new continent. Africa!

So began my journal of Morocco but now I have to do some college work so it will just have to wait!