Morocco

2000

In the fall of 2000, Donette took a semester off from teaching so that a number of climbing trips could be taken. One trip within this timeframe was to Spain, Gibraltar and Morocco. The pair flew into Madrid and rode a train south to the Mediterranean. They took a ferry across to Morocco and then another train to Marrakech, which required a midnight wait on a train platform in Casablanca. Exhausted, the pair hugged each other, only to be scolded by a local, who didn’t appreciate the PDA, as harmless as it might have been.

After soaking in the ambiance of Marrakech, they hiked Jebel Toubakal, the highest peak in North Africa (13, 671 feet), before going to the Todra Gorge to climb. Visits were also made to the Sahara and the wonderful medieval city of Fez. Todd’s dad, as a member of the US Army Air Force, had been in French Morocco right after World War II and remembered seeing French Foreign Legion troops coming into town from a patrol in the desert.

After Morocco, Donette and Todd linked up with British friends and climbed in the south of Spain.