Casablanca - Explore with Encounters Travel

No one expected it to be anything out of the ordinary; it was one of hundreds of Hollywood movies released in 1943. But its characters, dialogue and music became iconic, and Casablanca grew to be the black-&-white classic, often ranking near the top of all those ‘greatest’ lists. Cinema supercharged the thought of the city of Casablanca so glamorously, it makes today’s statistics like — ‘it’s Morocco’s largest city’ and ‘it’s industrious with the world’s largest artificial port’ — comparatively dull.

No wonder tourists rush to Rick’s Café at 248 Rue Sour Jdid. This upmarket restaurant is a recreation of Humphrey Bogart’s movie nightclub. It’s set within the walls of the Old Medina (City) that borders the Atlantic Ocean. The menu is excellent, though expensive, and offers choices fresh from the Atlantic, including Swordfish Steak and American Crab Louis. Then there are the cocktails — so great here, of all the gin-joints in the world.

After the earthquake of 1755, the Sultan of Morocco rebuilt the Portuguese colony city of ad-Dār al-Bayḍā. Over a century later it was renamed ‘Casa Blanca’ (‘White House’) by the Spanish who were ‘protecting’ Moroccan coasts and ports. The French occupied Casablanca in 1907, and had the rest of inland Morocco ‘protected’ by 1912. Nationalist uproar finally pushed the country to independence in 1956.

Casablanca is very laidback, and the locals are sincere and friendly. The city’s King Hassan II Mosque is the largest in Morocco and the 2nd largest in the world (after the Grand Mosque in Mecca). French designed with Moorish influences, it was built on reclaimed land — almost half of it is over the Atlantic — and part of its expanse of flooring is ocean-viewing glass. The Mosque was built between 1986 and 1993. Its granite, plaster, marble and wood were sourced in Morocco, with the exception of its Italian granite columns and glass chandeliers. Moroccan artisans produced the Mosque’s beautiful mosaics, stone and marble floors and columns, plaster mouldings and carved wooden ceilings.

Casablanca is vibrant and trendy with a happening nightlife. In and around the traditional Old Medina-walls are souqs (markets) selling shoes, clothing, pottery, locally-made leather goods, hookah pipes and an array of nuts, dates, herbs and spices, and fruit — including the delicious little jujube (red date). Vegetables are abundant, so are dead or alive chickens, other fine meats and delicious Moroccan cakes and sweets.

North African arts and crafts are best sourced in the Habbous District. Foodies should definitely walk through Central Market to take in the atmosphere and consider buying something local. Its stallholders love negotiating, so get the hang of some Arabic ‘marketing’ words to prevent paying over the odds!  F. Kabbaj is well worth a visit, where among other delicacies you can sample the local foie gras. And near El Maarif, enjoy a coffee at Sky 28 — the views are as glamorous as Casablanca.

Check out or Morocco Tours here http://www.encounterstravel.com/morocco.html or email tours@encounterstravel.com.

Wadi Rum - Jordan

If ever there was an ‘Am I Still on Planet Earth?’ sort of a desert, it’s Wadi Rum. Mention Jordan to 20-to-30-something adventurers, and many will tell you that the country begins and ends right here. Trekkers enjoy its challenging climbs and easier scrambles, and its routes through red hills, ridges and canyons. All of Wadi Rum’s sandstone and granite valley-bottoms are 900 to 1,000 metres above sea-level, and its Moon-like landscape also doubled for Mars in the movie, Red Planet. Famously, much of David Lean’s epic, Lawrence of Arabia, was filmed here.

‘Wadi’ is Arabic for ‘valley’, and this is the largest valley in the Kingdom of Jordan. ‘Rum’ means ‘high’ and ‘elevated’. It’s a high valley that is forever linked to the British officer who supported Arab rebels against the Ottoman Turks (1916-18), Captain T.E. Lawrence ‘of Arabia.’ He based his Army HQ here, and named an amazing rock-formation ‘The Seven Pillars of Wisdom’. But, looking wiser and tall enough for serious climbers, Jabal (Mount) Rum is the highest in the region at 1,734 metres above sea-level.

Hire a camel and follow in the hoof-steps of Lawrence, and get the flavour of the Arabian Desert he lived for. You can explore hidden caves and canyons, and discover 3,000-year-old rock inscriptions of humans and antelopes. Trek up sandstone, or ride over rolling dunes in a 4×4. You’ll appreciate that for all its sand, this is a very diverse wilderness of rare plants and animals. The grey wolf, Blandford’s fox, the sand cat and the ibex all roam the region. Wadi Rum is also ideal for bird-watching — there are 110 recorded species.

If you’d like a bird’s-eye view, hot air balloons are roped for lift-off. You’ll wonder how you ever lived without deserts as you ride an Arab horse over hot sand, or hike into heat-haze with life-saving water bottles. Apart from learning to be wise about water and sun-protection, travellers have gained a lot from the Zalabia Bedouin. At Sunset Camp, 12 km from the village of Rum at the crossroads of White, Red and Black Deserts (but they’re mostly red), there’s a circular communal tent. It’s the perfect place to talk to friendly tribesmen about their passion for eco-adventure.

Over sweet mint tea or cardamom-flavoured coffee, Humeitat and Mzanah Bedouin tribesmen love to talk about their local traditions. While many of them have moved into concrete block-houses, some still live in goat-skin tents. Raising goats, sheep and camels in the desert, these men wear traditional dress and observe centuries-old customs — including their womenfolk being barred from social activities. Later, around the campfire, you and fellow travellers can share a meal under the stars. And then there’s the music — perhaps a Rum rebaba solo by a Bedouin musician.

For out tours to Jordan visit http://www.encounterstravel.com/jordan.html or email tours@encounterstravel.com.

Amazon Rainforest

Every adventurer dreams of a truly intrepid travel experience; foraging through dense rain forests, coming face-to-face with indigenous tribes, and living with the clear and present danger of horrible exotic creatures that lurk in the undergrowth. If this is your idea of excitement — perhaps toned down a little with the protection of an experienced guide at hand — then an ultimate Peruvian Amazon adventure will thrill you to the core.

Covering more than 7 million square km of South America, the Amazon basin is one of the largest and most impressive river systems in the world, and is lined on either side by deep wild jungle. Because of its enormity, the variety of Amazon tours, trips and journeys that you can experience along its mighty stretch are numerous — from trekking beneath forest canopy and canoeing along its steamy shore, to dozing in a hammock as you chug upriver.

In the Republic of Peru, many travel experiences will take you off river and into dense jungle with a local specialist. He or she will have an extensive knowledge of Amazonian food, medicine and local flora and fauna. A 5-day tour to the Tambopata Research Centre will see you canoeing to search for giant river otters, turtles, hoatzin and wading birds.

The Tambopata Research Centre is a comfortable 18-bedroom lodge situated by one of the world’s largest macaw clay-licks on the uninhabited frontier of the Tambopata National Reserve and the Bahuaja-Sonene National Park. A founding venture of Rainforest Expeditions, the Research Centre was established to contribute towards the protection of the region’s magnificent bird species, and is engaged in long-term research projects to ensure their survival. The Research Centre’s location is unrivalled in its access to pristine Amazonian forests. Having no neighbours whatsoever, it is so far from human populations that you’ll overnight in Refugio Amazonas before arriving here.

Peru’s wonderful Ocelot Trail is a 2 km hike, which will give you that genuine rainforest experience. Making you feel so small, the Amazon Rainforest is 200 to 300 years old and shelters mammals such as the saddleback tamarin, squirrel monkey, brown capuchin monkey and collared peccary. The birdlife nearby in the U-shaped oxbow lake is also remarkable, with high chances of watching varieties of woodpecker, parakeet, ibis, chachalaca and oropendola.

The Amazon River is vast, and everything about it seems to be never-ending. Its bird, insect and animal life won’t turn up on-demand, but something amazing is always happening, and minute-by-minute, your Encounters Travel experience will become more rewarding.

Ask our team about tours to Peru. Email tours@encounterstravel.com.

Manyara flamingoes - Tanzania wildlife

It helps to remember that Tanzania’s name is two old African states spliced together. Back in the ‘60s, Tanganyika and Zanzibar united to form the ‘United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar’. Later in 1964 they trimmed it down to the handier, ‘United Republic of Tanzania’. Rising from the republic’s Maasai landscape to lure climbers, snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro is Africa’s highest mountain, and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area protects its dead volcano-crater.

Tanzania’s massive Serengeti National Park is a continuation of Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve. Between July and October every year, nearly two million wild animals leave these southern Serengeti plains and charge 2,897 km to the Maasai Mara. This ‘Great Migration’ involves 1.3 million wildebeest, 97,000 topi, 18,000 eland, 200,000 zebra and 500,000 Thomson’s gazelle. It’s a never-ending vicious circle of a route for these animals — all desperate for grassy grazing lands and wet water-holes. And every year an estimated 250,000 wildebeest don’t make it as they fall prey to lion and hyena. Then, during November and March, the herds charge all the way back here again to calve.

One of the most naturally diverse country’s; Tanzania provides ideal habitats for elephant, antelope, lion, cheetah and leopard, and 1,500 species of bird. Lake Manyara lies in the shadow of the Great Rift Valley, whose burnt red escarpment-walls loom 600 metres over the eastern horizon. With waterfalls spilling down cliffs nearby and some hot springs bubbling, Lake Manyara sometimes gets blurred with heat-haze. But this environment and microclimate attracts birdlife like crazy, and its banks, shore and wider terrain support numerous animal species.

A wonderful travel experience for anyone interested in wildlife, Lake Manyara National Park also protects 300 species of migratory birds and is keenly appreciated for bird watching. Fish-eating species, such as pelicans, storks, cormorants and Egyptian geese live, swim and feed here. Flocks of flamingo tint the waters’ surface hazy pink as they arrive to feed during migration. Rare long-crested eagles and grey-headed kingfishers make regular appearances; and in-season, giant flocks of red-billed quelea hover like insect swarms.

Lake Manyara National Park must be accessed by road; through Mto wa Mbu — a market village with a mix of converging tribes. If you’re visiting for game-viewing, the best period is from July to October. But if your passion is birdlife, book your trip during Kenya’s rainy-seasons. The short rains are from November to December when it becomes hot and humid; the long rains are from March to June. This long rainy-season is best for all things watery — from bird-watching to canoeing.

Check out our Tanzania Tours here http://www.encounterstravel.com/tanzania.html or email tours@encounterstravel.com for more information.

Jerusalem - Holy Land Journey with Encounters Travel

Known in the 4,000 year-old City of Jerusalem as ‘Haram Esh-Sharif’ and ‘Western Wall’, your guide will explain all this stonework — the remains of the original Fort Antonia. The early Roman fortress was named after General Marcus Antonius of Antony-and-Cleopatra fame. Forty years after King Herod Antipater crucified Jesus, Fort Antonia was used to house the Roman 10th Legion. In 273 AD the soldiers were ordered out of Jerusalem.

At the Western Wall, remember that it is Jerusalem’s oldest preserved building fragment since Jesus of Nazareth lived here. For ages, people have argued about the origins and history of these holy places. That’s why the Western Wall (Hakotel Hama’aravi) is believed by some to be what is left of the outer walls of King Herod the Great’s long-ago destroyed Temple Mount. It was the Christians of the 1660s who christened it the ‘Wailing Wall’.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is within the city walls of Old Jerusalem. Fire has licked and regularly destroyed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre over the ages. In 1808 the dome of the rotunda imploded spectacularly, its disappearance caused the equally spectacular Ottoman Baroque restoration work of 1810. Improvements never stop at the Church, but its appearance hasn’t really changed since 1854. Today’s 1870s dome was restored between 1994 and 1997 — renovations that have hammered and sawn away since 1959.

No crusading Knight’s 12th-century ‘armed pilgrimage’ was considered complete until he had knelt down to pray at the Holy Sepulchre. This was because in 1149, all traces of Jesus Christ’s execution, entombment and resurrection were placed together under one roof. Following structural improvements in 1555, management of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre alternated between Franciscans and Orthodox. After many discussions and arguments, they were given permanently shared control in 1853.

This land of Golgotha — of the Hill of Calvary — where Jesus was crucified, entombed in a sepulchre and then rose again, was worshiped as holy. But in 135 AD, seething with anti-Christian rage, Roman Emperor Hadrian blotted this landscape with a temple to Venus and her Greek equivalent, Aphrodite. He also dumped his province’s ‘Judaea’ name, re-branding it as ‘Syria Palaestina’. Then, around 325 AD, 1st Emperor Constantine fully supported his mother’s ambition to destroy Hadrian’s tasteless temple. And over its foundations a basilica was built to honour the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.

Visit Jerusalem on the Holy Land Journey Tour with Encounters Travel

http://www.encounterstravel.com/israel/holy_land_journey_tour.html

Special offer departing 12 February 2011 from £800 per person.

Explore Petra with Encounters Travel

Moses raised his staff high towards the hot dry cliff-face, smashed it hard against the rock. Water glinted, dribbled, seeped, spurted and streamed down — a real shower. According to Arab tradition, this refreshing Biblical scene happened here in around 1350 BC. The Arab name for the narrow valley at that leads to Petra is The Wadi Musa — ‘Wadi of Moses’.

Built in the 6th century BC as a capitol for the Nabataeans, Petra is your reward for a horse or camel-ride through the Siq, a narrow corridor of cliffs. Circle around more rose red rocks and you’ll arrive at the amphitheatre, the museum and — 800 steps up a mountain — the unmissable monastery. This is Petra’s largest monument, and dates from the 1st century BC. It is dedicated to Obodas I and, according to inscriptions, it is believed to be the meeting place of the god Obodas.

Petra means rock, and it is a city of immense historical importance in this, the Jordanian governorate of Ma’an. Sandstone and granite rock-cut architecture and water conduits are the Wow!-factors here. Established as the capital city of the Nabataeans, Petra is a wonderful symbol of Jordan and also its number 1 tourist draw. Lying on the slope of Mount Hor, Petra is a basin among mountains that are the eastern flank of Wadi Arabah — the mighty valley that runs from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba.

Petra was unheard of in the West until 1812, when it was ‘discovered’ by Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt. In recent decades Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade has included images of Petra’s Al Khazneh Treasury. It is actually just a massive a frontage, an incredible 40m-high tomb hacked out of mountain in the 1st century BC, probably by Near-Eastern Hellenistic architects. It was appropriately listed as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in 2007, and was chosen as one of ‘the 40 places you have to see before you die’ by the BBC.

Offer for our Jordan tours can be found on our special offers page here: http://www.encounterstravel.com/specialoffers.php

Jordan Encounters for just £695 per person departing on 18 December and 25 December 2011.

Email tours@encounterstravel.com or call 0800 088 6002.

Egypt Tours with Encounters Travel

Cairo is Africa’s city of 15 million — they don’t come with more residents on the entire continent. It is hot, hot-headed and frenetic with bustle, bazaars and traffic chaos. Our trip itinerary includes the experience of Coptic Cairo. You will visit The Hanging Church — built into the masonry of the Roman water-gate, before moving on to Saints Sergius-the Bacchus Church. Also known as Abu Serga, this 4th century-AD Coptic Church is believed to stand on the spot where Joseph, Mary and the infant Jesus rested after their journey into Egypt.

Cairo’s Egyptian Museum exhibits King Tutankhamun’s fabulously famous Gold Mask. Moulded to hide his facial bandaging, it is 11kg of solid-gold and clearly represents dynasties that buried their treasure and artefacts with their corpses. A reminder that to ancient Egyptians, ‘you can’t take it with you’ was pleasantly unthinkable!

The world’s largest pyramids rise from the lands of Egypt, China and Mexico. Unknown to most until the 1940s, China’s great pyramids are about 91.44 metres high; as for Mexico, its Teotihuacán falls short of 58 metres. Famous for millennia, Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest of the three in the Giza Necropolis, and is 146.5 metres tall. Usefully, ancient Egyptians were also ambitious enough to invent the first calendar, making it easier to estimate when Giza’s pyramids were constructed. We know that The Great Pyramid took approximately 20 years to build, was completed in about 2560 BC, and that it stood, the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years — the longest period ever held for such a record.

The pyramids at Giza blot out so much sky and are so wonderfully ancient, that it is difficult to think of the land on which their foundations were dug before the first pyramid stood finished. 100 years before Giza’s pyramid shapes were first drawn up; this desert plateau lay flat and featureless, waiting for its townspeople’s grandchildren to think of how great all this would look with pyramids!

Early inspiration for Giza’s pyramids came from ancient prehistoric graves and tombs, and crucially, from Egypt’s very first pyramid at Saqqara. Completed in 2648 BC, it was ‘stepped’ at an angle and honoured King Netjerikhet Djoser. Egypt’s first two ‘true’ non-‘stepped’ pyramids appeared in Meidum, both enormous, and built by order of King Sneferu between 2589 and 2566 BC. Sneferu’s son and heir, Khufu, became a well-known constructor of pyramids. So much so that on completion, The Great Pyramid of Giza was chosen to be his funeral monument.

But why did ancient Egyptians need to build monuments to their dead on such a huge scale? How much of all this was showing off with stonework — an over-confident desire to construct something highly intimidating? Intimidation frightens and suppresses both the enemy and the local populous. Barbaric ways of achieving this included displaying severed heads or hung corpses. Everyone could smell and witness them grimly rotting over the months.

Pyramids could frighten and deter too, exclude the masses with their in-built dynastic, religious or astronomical association — many believe they were associated to all three. What’s certain is that during the construction of the pyramids at Giza, and over the years until their completion, they transfixed; they were built to transfix with unworldly mystery and ‘impossible’ architectural and engineering accomplishment.

Look at our early booking offer for our Nubian Adventure Tour here:

http://www.encounterstravel.com/specialoffers.php

Prices from £360 per person.

Email tours@encounterstravel.com.

Iconic Russia Tour with Encounters Travel

For those wanting guaranteed snow this Christmas, Encounters Travel (www.encounterstravel.com / 0800 088 6002) is offering a saving of £200 off their eight-day Iconic Russia tour, departing 24 December. Available for a reduced rate of £749 per person, the price includes return airport transfers in Russia, accommodation in three-star hotels, plus an overnight train journey on a mixed board basis. The tour offers the perfect introduction to this vast country, beginning in historic St Petersburg before travelling through the 10^th century town of Veliky Novgorod on the way to discover the world famous landmarks of the capital, Moscow.

Famous for its freezing temperatures, dramatic history, hearty food and of course vodka, highlights of this all-encompassing eight-day trip include a full day exploring the former Russian capital of St Petersburg with a visit to the infamous Yusupov Palace, before travelling to the magnificent Pavlovsk Palace followed by the old Russian city of Veliky Novgorod. Next, the tour takes to the rails with an overnight train journey to Moscow followed by a tour of the nearby religious site of Sergiev Posad, which is the spiritual centre of the Russian Orthodox Church. Home to a museum rich with Russian history, the group has the whole day to explore before returning to Moscow. More information is available on the tour here: http://www.encounterstravel.com/russia/iconic_russia_tour.html?action=Itinerary

Contact Encounters Travel to book your place. Email tours@encounterstravel.com.