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Giving a baby tortoise a free-range home in Marrakech thanks to SPANA charity
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In traditional shopping areas, they sell baby tortoises openly. My wife asked around and no one claimed it, so she took it to the hotel room! I was a little shocked and luckily, she did not tell the reception. It was given water and, on the way, back to the hotel I bought it a lettuce which was 4-5x bigger than it! Most of the time it was not moving – sleeping which I believe is normal.
There was only one thought in my head - visit SPANA, an English charity with eight branches in Morocco, based 5kms+ away. Marrakech being a city, does not have suitable places to leave it out and outside of Marrakech is rather arid. Giving it to the men selling them is not an ethical idea. The day before (5th) we visited the excellent Jarjeer Mule & Donkey Refuge outside of Marrakech which focuses on mules, donkeys & horses.
Albania
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- Category: Travel Reviews
Mention Albania to most people and the responses are negative: corruption, poverty, crime, illegal immigrants trying to enter England and a past extreme communist dictatorship. Few people you meet who are non-Albanians would have ever been there or are thinking of it for their next holiday. The only item non-Albanians will remember is the name of the late dictator, Enver Hoxha, surname pronounced something like Hoja.
Being that I love odd places, especially ex-communist, this was right up my street. Montenegro I could see from research did not have too much to see so this came after Montenegro. London to Podgorica, explore Montenegro, explore Albania, drive back to Podgorica and fly out. Flights are a lot cheaper from neighbouring countries instead of flying to Albania from London. The hire car was a Fiat 500XL from Podgorica airport.
In 2011, Top Gear filmed in Albania. Of course, the episode was stereotypical and outrageous. One item of truth is Mercedes are very common there.
Before I fly, I spend many hours researching what to do and use maps to plan each day. Sources include: Trip Advisor, official tourism website, Atlas Obscura and other blogs. A full European Garmin satnav comes with me since it does not need a phone signal. I do not always book hotels and just do that on the afternoon depending on where the next large town is. Most of the trips are solo since most friends are too chicken to go to such places.
Montenegro
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Montenegro is a pint-sized country which some people have barely heard of, have trouble finding on a map or can tell you little about it. This partly included me. My knowledge of the place was basic apart from knowing where to find it on a map and knowing it was in Yugoslavia. Being a small place, I did Montenegro first for four days then spent a week in Albania.
Warning: Albania is not for the faint hearted! If you are scared of driving abroad do not go, there. The drivers are the worst I have seen in Europe and possibly even worse than Tunisian drivers. On top of this the road conditions are worse than in third world Asia! More about my trip to Albania another time.
In 3.5 days, I finished off all the major sites of the country and I research well. Others may take five days since I drive long days and walk quickly. Montenegro is beautiful with a wide variety of things to see. It seemed like a Yugoslavian version of Spain with prickly pear cactuses and locally made olive oil.
Montenegro seems to think it is in the EU like Macedonia. The Euro is the main currency and the EU flag is dotted around. Driving conditions and road quality was decent – a lot better than bordering Albania. English was spoken and the people were nice, and not scammy. It is fairly priced also. The people seemed more Western in mentality than those of the ex-USSR.
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