In search of some winter sun and wanting to visit somewhere new, we plumbed for Morocco and some North-West African sun. We’d done well with the weather the year before in the Canary Islands on La Palma, and Morocco is at similar latitudes.

Rather than stay in a big hotel, we found a beautiful little Raid in Marrakech that fitted the budget. A bonus was that it was inside the Medina – the old city – and only a 10 minute walk from the centre of activity, the Jemaa El Fna square.

We had also booked a few day trips out and one overnighter in the dessert, but had to miss out on that one as we were the only two who’d signed up for it. Nevertheless, the other trips out from Marrakech provided good days and when we weren’t on them, we took our paints to some of the sights around the old city.