Colourful, playful and chic, the Majorelle Garden in Marrakech’s Ville Nouvelle was one of my favourite places in the city. Created by the French painter Jacques Majorelle in the 1920s on a barren plot of land, he later built a house, where he lived for the next 20-odd years. In 1947, Majorelle opened the mesmerising Art Deco-style garden to the public, but after he sold it in the 1950s, it fell into decline. The garden was revived in the 1980s when it was bought by the legendary French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, who lovingly restored it with his partner…

We only had a day and a half in Marrakech, which wasn’t anywhere near enough time to see the city’s sights. So we spent most of our time exploring the medina, along with a brief foray to the Ville Nouvelle to see the extraordinary Jardin Majorelle and the Yves Saint Laurent Museum. Dating back to the 1070s, Marrakech’s medina was founded by the Almoravid dynasty and in 1985, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Here’s a brief guide to the places we visited in the historic medina… Koutoubia Mosque The most iconic building in Marrakech is also, at 230ft,…

One of the things I was really keen to do while I was in Morocco was to go hiking in the Atlas mountains, which is how I ended up exploring Todra Gorge. The spectacular limestone ravine lies in the eastern part of the High Atlas mountains, not far from the city of Tinghir. We started our hike just after 8am, when we met our guide for the day, Mohammed, at the bottom of the gorge, near a large abandoned building (above). We set off up the narrow mountain path, which was rocky underfoot, but easy enough to follow. The first…

There isn’t much to see in the southeastern Moroccan city of Tinghir, but it makes an ideal base from which to explore the eastern parts of the High Atlas mountains. Located in the Drâa-Tafilalet valley, the city’s close to the spectacular Todra Gorge, where we planned to spend a day hiking. We had a long drive ahead of us to reach Tinghir, so we stopped at a couple of interesting spots along the way to help break up the journey: the Jorf Khettaras and a palm grove by the Todra River. After saying goodbye to the sand dunes of Erg…

Enormous mounds of soft, ethereal, rusty red sand rising from the ground as far as the eye can see – welcome to Erg Chebbi. As far as travel moments go, few are as memorable as watching the sun go down from the top of a huge sand dune in this ridiculously photogenic part of Morocco. Affectionately known as the Baby Sahara, I spent a fun, unforgettable night glamping under the stars at the foot of these extraordinary dunes. We caught our first glimpse of the dunes as we approached the desert town of Merzouga in the southeast of Morocco. I…

Thanks to its bustling maze of a medina, traditional craftsmanship and stunning architecture, Fes offers a fascinating glimpse into Morocco’s long history and rich culture. The oldest of Morocco’s four Imperial cities, Fes was founded in the 8th century, when successive kings established settlements on either side of the River Fes. In the 11th century, the Almoravids merged the two into one and it became the Imperial capital in 1250 under the Merenid dynasty. The city kept its capital status until the 17th century, when Moulay Ismail moved the capital to nearby Meknes. The city then fell into decline until…

In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the Imperial city of Meknes must have been a dazzling, showstopping affair. Founded by the Almoravid dynasty in the 11th century, in 1672 the city was chosen by Moulay Ismail, one of Morocco’s great kings, as his new capital. He set about building an enormous palace complex surrounded by thick walls, in the hope of creating Morocco’s answer to Versailles. In 1755, the city was damaged by the Lisbon earthquake and Moulay Ismail’s grandson, Mohammed III, decided to move the capital to Marrakech. Today the city is home to more than half…

Towering above the Atlantic Ocean on the Casablanca shore lies Hassan II Mosque, one of the biggest and most beautiful mosques in Africa, and the first stop on my tour of Morocco. The enormous mosque was commissioned by King Hassan II, and built between 1986 and 1993 to a design by the French architect Michel Pinseau. I started my visit in the mosque’s colossal courtyard, which can hold up to 80,000 people. I’d arrived at the mosque first thing in the morning, so I spent some time looking around the courtyard while I waited for it to open, admiring the…

As with my other posts from elsewhere in Botswana, I had a handful of photos that I couldn’t fit into my post about the Moremi Game Reserve’s Xakanaxa region. So for my final post from Botswana, I’ve pulled together a selection of some of my other favourite photos from the area. An elephant A giraffe A marabou stork Herd of buffalo A red-billed hornbill A waterbuck An eagle A lion A hooded vulture

Our final destination in Botswana was the Xakanaxa region in Moremi Game Reserve, where we spent two nights wild camping. On our first full day in the area, we were up once again at 6am and out of the camp by 6.50am for an early morning game drive. It wasn’t long before we spotted our first signs of wildlife – two lion brothers in the grass. We watched on in awe as the pair came together, played briefly, then went their separate ways. Not long afterwards, we spotted an enormous flock of birds in a pool of water in the…