{"id":1457,"date":"2012-01-30T20:34:09","date_gmt":"2012-01-30T20:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/?p=1457"},"modified":"2018-12-17T16:56:27","modified_gmt":"2018-12-17T16:56:27","slug":"in-midelt-and-a-monkey-ate-my-breakfast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/in-midelt-and-a-monkey-ate-my-breakfast\/","title":{"rendered":"In Midelt and an ape ate my breakfast!"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’re here, at the municipal motorhome campsite in Midelt: N32.67778 W4.73704<\/p>\n

Weather is sunny and warm in the sun but chilly out of it – you’ll see why on the pics below.<\/p>\n

When we woke up this morning it was rather chilly in Dave. The halogen heater had done it’s best and kept the chill off overnight, but it wasn’t enough to get me out from under the duvet, so J kindly put on the fan heater too. \u00a0A couple of minutes later – yes, you guessed it – we blew the fuse and everything went off. J nipped out and plugged us into another socket and we settled on just the fan heater.\u00a0Eventually I was tempted out and flip-flopped across the frost and snow to the showers. The water was piping hot, but the air all around was really cold, you’ve never seen someone get dressed so fast.<\/p>\n

We paid our 80Dh (about \u00a36.50) and set off in search of Barbary Apes in the cedar forest nearby. We drove along until it turned into a winter wonderland scene with ice and snow on the road. Luckily there were a group of lads nearby with horses and camels (like you do) so J nipped and asked the one who was donning his high visibility jacket (a sign of authority around here – 5Dh and he was VERY happy protecting our motorhome) where the apes were. \u00a0The were just up the road, so J nipped over the sheet ice on his bike to check it out. \u00a0Soon he was back (and his back was covered in mud) saying he’d seen an ape. So I grabbed the camera and off we went.<\/p>\n

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Dave in his winter wonderland<\/p><\/div>\n

About 300m further along the track there were little huts selling obligatory fossils, cakes (for the apes) and tourist trinkets, and just behind them there was an ape sat by a tree. \u00a0Then another one, and a rustle in the tree above us, several more. \u00a0 A few more people turned up and gave them some cakes which the apes carefully took out of the wrapper and peeled off the paper casing before devouring. \u00a0We wanted to feed them something to, but didn’t think cake was quite right. Then I remembered, I’d put a banana in the backpack for my breakfast. \u00a0We felt a bit bad stereotyping them with a banana, but they seemed to love it when J gave it to them.<\/p>\n

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Oi! That’s my breakfast<\/p><\/div>\n

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At least he looks like he’s enjoying it<\/p><\/div>\n

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Who got the short straw with a lemon?<\/p><\/div>\n

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What’s this white stuff?<\/p><\/div>\n

We hung around for a while and watched them fighting in the trees and sitting in the snow, before we wandered back to Dave. It was so nice to see them where they live and roaming free and later we spotted several more of them in the trees by the road as we drove along. \u00a0But before we could get back on the road, we had to get out of the winter wonderland we’d left Dave in. \u00a0A little push from the man in his high visibility vest (as we were blocking the road for other tourists to get in) and we were off into the Middle Atlas Mountains.<\/p>\n

We drove round a corner and were suddenly greeted with a vast expanse of snow – sunglasses on time. \u00a0Cars were pulled up by the side of the road as people played in the snow (although it looked like a few had pulled over to pray too – bad luck to have to pray in the snow at the side of the road, good job it’s only for 5 minutes). We passed a big hill where all the locals had headed with sledges and even a couple of people on skis. \u00a0It reminded me of home and how excited we all get when there’s a bit of snow. The difference being that here the roads were totally clear – probably thanks to the snow-plough we passed!<\/p>\n

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Just like Coronation Park in Eastwood when it snows.<\/p><\/div>\n

I managed a quick video of our surroundings as we didn’t think they’d look like this….<\/p>\n