It’s a Long Haul to Marrakech

Whichever way you go to Marrakech from Australia, it’s a long haul. I chose to go via London as the return flights do not require multiple layovers and it’s a bit simpler.

When I left Mebourne Airport for Perth on Friday, the airport was quite calm and not many people were around. For whatever reason, there weren’t many planes either. Perhaps that was just as well as the airport is being extensively renovated. Most of the shops are closed and it feels as if you are walking though a series of tunnels with all the construction hoarding along the way to the gates.

The first sector of my trip was to Perth, from where I will caught the QF9 non stop flight to London. There were strong winds at high altiotudes and the Captain was constatnlty searching for an altitude with smooth air. I don’t tthink that these storm cells over the Great Australian Bite were any help either

The flight from Perth to London took 17 hours and 40 minutes. It’s one of gthe longest commercial airline flights in the world. Because of the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, the flight makes a diversion slightly south after reaching Abu Dhabi and this makes it even a litle further.

Dinner on the flight was served a couple of hours after leaving Perth but by that time, I was so tired that I had lost most of my interest in food. The beef dish option that I chose was disappointing in that it was dry and tough.

I had a Business Class fare and was very grateful for the ‘lie flat’ bed. With the help of a Melatonin pill I slept for around eight hours. I woke with about six hours left to run when we were flying over the Middle East. Alexandria, near Cairo was well lit  and quite spectacular It’s street lights were very bright and photogenic. This city was once on the Qantas’ Flying Kangaroo Route when passengers travelled by flying boat and stayed overnight in hotels.  There was no need for lie flat beds on planes in those days.

I could see other cities out of the window but I have no ideas where they were.

The rest of our flight to London was uneventful and we landed about ten minutes ahead of schedule (4.55 am). I had factored in about five hours of connection time to make my final leg  – a three and a half hour British Airways flight to Marakech – but I really didn’t much time at all.

On arrival at Heathrowe, our plane stopped at a far end gate of Terminal 3 and I had a walk of almost a kilometre all the way along the building to the Customs Hall. It took me less that two minutes to go through the electronic passport / immigration chack and only about ten minutes for my bag to appear. I had nothing to declare so I walked straight through the Green Channel door and didn’t see one customs officer anywhere.

My transfer to Terminal 5 was by underground train – a normal London Subway line. They ran every few minutes, so getting from one termianl to another was super simple. I took advantage of BA’s lounge as a place to sit and relax for the four hours until my flight for Marrakech left. While allowing five hours for connect time, I really only needed one hour. Everything is now done electronically – passport check, airport transfer and baggage checkin which also give you a boarding pass.

My flight to Marrakech was on time and unventful apart from many of the food trays falling out of the trolley as it was being pushed out of the gallery. The crew seemed to recover from this disaster rather well and continued along with the meal service.

The land around Marrakech looks dry and arid apart from a few irrigated patches of land that  could possibly have been orange groves.

Marakech immigration is notoriously slow but today I passed through in about an hour. There were hundreds people in a ‘snake line’ that snaked along the entire width of the airport about eight times. All 30 immigration gates were manned and that added to the efficiency.

One I collected my bag, I exited the building via a security x-ray for my bags and found a large semi circle of drivers waiting for their passengers. I soon found Mustafa and he drove me as close as he could to my Riad (guest house) in the Medina (old town). From there, the owner of the Riad (Hamouda) walked me to the place where I will be staying for the next three mights. I’m gald that he was there to help as the route to the Riad was along a maze of narrow lanes with shops, motor cycles and donkeys. I would never have found it on my own.

The Riad Dar Aydur is a typical Riad with a central courtyard and roof terrace. It has five rooms and I was very happy to see my room after 32 hours of travel.  A shower was very welcome and then it was time for an early dinner before i crashed for the night.