The Moorish influence on the architecture of Seville is incredible. Even the giant Gothic Cathedral relies heavily on the original mosque on the site for one of its wings. When I go to post photos from this city, I often have to pause and figure out whether they were taken in Spain or Morocco.
I’m on my way back to Marrakech for a quick two night stop before attending meetings in London. We’re making a return to the beautiful Palais Sebban so I thought it was fitting to post a photo of the riad. This trip I’ll be taking some friends on the same amazing food tour we went on last time as well as making a quick morning trip to go camel trekking in the foothills of the Atlas mountains. It involves two hours on the back of a camel, which should be interesting. I’ve wanted to do a multi-day trip through the desert by camel for a while now. This will be a good test of my willingness to spend extended periods of time on top of a camel.
The Victoria Falls are incredible. My friends and I were inspired to plan our recent trip to Africa, which included Cape Town, Zambia and Rwanda by a viral e-mail we received showing pictures of people swimming in the Devil’s Pool at the top of the falls. In order to do this we needed to visit during the low water season. The benefit of going in this season extends beyond swimming in the Devil’s pool. As a result of the low water we were able to walk across the top of the falls – providing multiple photo opportunities. That being said I do feel a need to return at high water to get the full experience of the Mosi-oa-Tunya (the native name for the falls meaning “the smoke that thunders”).
The below picture was taken on my second visit to the falls and left me with a huge adrenaline rush. I’m not a big fan of heights, and certainly not the 108 meter drop I was facing here. Still I decided that I needed to lower myself down onto this outcropping of rock to photograph this portion of the falls, which I believe is called the angel falls. Once reaching the ledge I stayed seated, gradually edging closer and closer to the edge, sliding my camera, and tripod ahead of me. The most nerve racking part was taking my lens cap off, I had already dropped a lens cap at the top of the falls on my first visit. It rolled within a foot of the edge – a very tense moment for me. I would not have been allowed this leeway with the spot I was in here. In hindsight, I really should have taken off all my loose bits and secured them before moving out to the edge.
In the middle of the picture you can see the area called the boiling pot. I’ll be posting another picture of this area in the near future. It’s from just below this point in the river where rafting trips start, on the category 5 rapids of the middle Zambezi.
