Trufflepig Travel (2024)

05/06/2024

Adding to our newest destination on offer (Nepal) a prattle from on the Kingdom of Mustang up and live in our bio.

05/06/2024

New country on our website worthy of a gander! Link in bio for a deeper dive into Nepal. 📷

06/05/2024

Ritual and prayer in upper Mustang. is on research which coincided with the Tenchi festival, an abbreviation of the word “Tempa Chirim” which means “Prayer for world peace”

04/05/2024

Postcard from on research in Nepal: “In a few very bumpy turns in the road up from Pokhara, languages and religions shift, landscape morphs, weather patterns evolve, and then you are in a wee corner of the geopolitical map of Nepal called Mustang, aka the kingdom of Lo; but you have entered a larger cultural region that stretches across Tibet and Xinjiang all the way to Mongolia.”

30/03/2024

Newsletter up and live, get you a copy! Link in bio.

08/07/2021

Our France trip planner Michael Eloy on the go from the Tour de France 🇫🇷 “Watching Le Tour de France from the side of the road is always fun. You get to meet a lot of funny, interesting, and often extravagant people. You are guaranteed to enjoy the friendly family atmosphere and see the pro riders go past you at the speed of light.
If you get the chance to watch a Tour de France mountain stage, this experience gets to another level. The logistics needs some well thought planning and creativity as most roads leading to the road climbed by the champions can be shut days ahead of the stage. You often find yourself driving tiny and unknown countryside roads or even tracks leading, if you are lucky, as close as possible to the roads the pro cyclists will soon climb.
If you get there a few days before the race (some spectators park their car or van on the side of the road many days prior to the race, making sure to secure THE right spot to see and cheer their idols real close.
This week, I had the privilege to live the tour de France for a few days and watch one of the most exciting stages from the side of Mont Ventoux in Provence.
Today, the legs are tired from all the walking, standing, running and cycling, my head is sore from the strong sun (and possibly the beer drank with my Belgium, Czech and English temporary neighbours) But today also, the memory (not just the one from my camera) is filled with smiles, happiness, friendliness from spectators and extreme efforts, painful looks from the pro cyclists. I tried to catch all these with my camera.

02/06/2021

Sand, sand, sand and more sand. The “ergs” of the Sahara desert (careful, Morocco’s desert is technically not the Sahara which is a bit further south in Algeria but what’s a hundred km anyway) can be described as “seas of sand”. Being here, in this deafening silence produces strong and sometimes unfamiliar emotions. It’s no wonder that the three main monotheistic faiths all emerged from the desert. In Islam, sand is considered pure, so much so that in absence of water, Muslims can perform their ablutions with sand before prayers.

Our road trip through the south of Morocco draws to a close, and now it is time to tilt towards home and think of the future of travel on the horizon.

This trip has covered almost 5,000km, and passed through mountains, empty river beds, abandoned villages, casbahs, coast and desert. It was not meant to showcase the obvious highlights of the country, but to give a peek at what gems are there when you’re willing to look.

We’ve met fishermen, farmers, Berbers who guard empty synagogues which once belonged to the country’s Jewish population, farmers toiling the fields to harvest their wheat, herders tending their flocks, and even a team of archeologists who ventured here during Covid to digitally map some of the regions fortified granaries in an attempt to preserve a threatened patrimony from disappearing.

But for me, it is the desert in Morocco that always gets the final word.
As is always promised when one agrees to veer off the well worn tourist path in Morocco, this trip has illuminated and inspired, given me pause for reflection and renewed my enthusiasm for that eventual day, hopefully soon, that you’ll come to pay us a visit and see a bit of the country that gives back so much more than what you put in. Thank you friends, for following along.

01/06/2021

We’re camped in the desert dunes, and the other day we were offered the chance to go and visit a nomad in his tent.

I was initially resistant to the idea, thinking that this was put-on for tourists, but went along. And realized I couldn’t have been more wrong.

We visited Ali in his simple camp, where bottles of water had been assembled and a jumble of supplies stacked inside a crude thatched structure protected by a rock wall where Ali and his wife lived.

“I’m sorry we couldn’t receive you properly,” he said as we ducked our heads inside, explaining that he’d have had fresh goat’s milk to serve along with amazingly flavored dates, if it weren’t for his wife who milks their goats was in the nearby village of M’hamid to receive her coronavirus vaccine. Ali proceeded to build a fire with his gathered wood and prepared tea.

I was fascinated and drawn to this man approaching the age of 70, who had spent his entire life tending his herds in one of Morocco’s harshest environments.

“Things aren’t what they were before. Before the borders. Now, many of the nomads are in Laayoune (Western Sahara) because fences are going up and landowners don’t want us here. It wasn’t as it was before, now the land belongs to someone and they don’t want herders on their property. We used to cross over with our goats and camp in Algeria, it wasn’t even a problem.”

Ali told us he had seven children, all grown up, the youngest, a daughter, he had just married off a few months ago. I asked if any of them wanted to continue the nomad life. “It’s different now. They want to live in cities. You couldn’t pay me to leave my herds here in the desert.”

I thought I was in for a “tourist” experience but rather I, had stepped, even if momentarily, into the completely foreign life of someone’s life of another.

I was humbled by Ali’s resilience and outlook, his positive spirit. Humbled by someone who apparently had so little but understood so much about life.

31/05/2021

Our Morocco road trip takes a detour via the moon.

We’re in far flung part of the country, where the explorer and Christian mystic Charles de Foucauld spent time discovering the Cherifian kingdom and writing about it later in his 19th century work, « Reconnaissance au Maroc ». A fascinating story worth reading about.

As planners we spend an inordinate amount of time researching in the destinations we plan trips in. Morocco is no different. But there’s no one hosting us on this adventure, shuttling us around ticking off a list of approved destinations and hotels. My research starts from scratch and draws off a number of sources, all meant to discover great itinerary ideas or revisit old ones to see what’s changed.

It takes me down some strange rabbit holes sometimes. To dig doesn’t always turn up hidden gems, there’s occasionally a destination that comes up short, or hotel stays that aren’t worth writing about. Hard beds, no booze, lousy showers and an army of mosquitos to make your night miserable, followed by shrugged shoulders from indifferent staff.

Yet despite that, sometimes the muck we wade through yields some amazing moments, such as a night spent under a full moon on this otherworldly landscape. The right travel moments can turn some of the disappointments into funny anecdotes and great travel stories.

30/05/2021

The road becomes addictive after a while.

It’s been a wonderful trip so far, despite intensifying heat and long drives. Most rewarding has been meeting new faces, and seeing a few familiar ones, such as Lahcen here. I was so glad to see his kind face again, a feeling of reassurance after a year of loss and uncertainty.

27/05/2021

I was pleasantly surprised by Tafraout, a strongly Berber village nestled between towering mountain ranges and blessed with a variety of rocky landscapes. A Belgian painter by the name of Jean Vérame put Tafraout on the map in 1984 when he first stained with several tons of paint a group of enormous boulders various pastel colors. The rocks have recently been repainted, although given the success of the Majorelle Gardens in Marrakech someone decided they were into something there and have redone the rocks in very Majorelle looking colors.

I was also amazed to find that wild boar and gazelle still inhabit this area and can be frequently sighted driving through dirt tracks among the painted rocks. Driving through this environment I was reminded of the Kopjes of the Tanazian Serengeti, and thinking what a great Moroccan Safari this area would make, if only there were still Berber lions sunning themselves on the rocks.

27/05/2021

Moroccan “babouche” (slippers) are well known and few people who’ve visited Morocco don’t have at least one pair of these off-smelling mules sitting in the closet. I’ve got five pairs myself.

I’ve noticed something different about the babouche in Tafraout in Morocco’s Anti-Atlas region. One, practically everyone is wearing them. Two, the babouche are color coded (red for women, yellow for men) and three, feature a lip to protect the ankle making them perfect for walking the surrounding hills (normal babouche you just kind of learn to shuffle in and they slip off easily).

Wednesday is souk day here in Tafraout so I took my camera along to capture some local market color, but couldn’t resist picking up a pair of Tafrouiti babouche myself.

A couple years ago, Balenciaga caused a scandal in Morocco when they advertised their “Moroccan inspired slippers”for 500€. My yellow Tafraout walking babouche set me back the cost of a latte at Starbucks but I have no doubt I’m well ahead of the next fashion craze (scroll for last photo).

24/05/2021

Our newsletter this month is themed around space and unchartered territories (visit the link in Bio to check the stories out).

I did not contribute anything to this month’s newsletter, but I’ve been finding myself grappling with the notion of space on this road-trip through Morocco. Not outer space, but empty space. Vast quarters of nothingness. Morocco’s expansive tracts of uninhabited, otherworldly environments can be tedious and still induce a sense of cosmic vertigo. I do believe anyone keen to colonize Mars would do well to first spend a few months surviving in the harsh but alluring environment of Morocco’s outback.

Then, just when you think there’s “nothing” here, via tracks suitable only with a 4 x 4 we’ve come across rock carvings that are at least four thousand years old, made by the first nomadic inhabitants of this region, accounting for a fauna that recalls a time when this ever expanding desert was abundant in animal life.

One feels the weight of space and the passage of time in similar measure when exploring the back country of Morocco’s south.

23/05/2021

Tourism literature regularly describes southern Morocco as the « land of a thousand kasbahs » and similar « 1,001 Nights » style imagery. But the south for me is something else. It’s pastoral. Almost biblical even (see my previous post). It’s a history of warring Berber tribes, dramatic landscapes, agricultural societies, and their Agadirs.

« Fortified Granaries » is the translation, and one cannot pass through the Anti-Atlas of Morocco without making the effort to visit a few of some of the finer examples of this vernacular architecture born of a siege mentality.

Agadirs are a feature in many Berber villages, built for individual families to store grain and valuables in good harvest years and protect the bounty from thieves or ransacking enemies in surrounding villages. These were not only places for storage but also forts within which to take shelter when marauding armies invaded.

Many Agadirs have passed now into ruin but some have been restored with private grants underlying the significant cultural and architectural patrimony these structures represent.

Information on them isn’t always easy to come by, but thanks to being able to read Arabic we chanced en route south upon the Agadir of Imchguilguin, restored recently and featuring a fascinating mosque that non-Muslims can enter, extremely rare for Morocco.

21/05/2021

I want to tell you a story I came across as I’ve been traveling the south of Morocco, and it’s about a lemon. It’s actually about much more than that, but the details are a bit much for an Instagram post. So head over to The Sounder (you can follow the link in our Bio to our website) and read about my search for an orchard and a tradition as old as the Bible.

19/05/2021

Researching Morocco for me is much more than a basic equation of hotel + activity. It’s about getting under the skin of the destination. And often times that means ditching the map, keeping your eyes on the road, and seeing what might not be immediately apparent.

We’ve driven around the foothills of the High Atlas just north of Taroudant, and chanced on a wonderfully locally run “gîte d’etape" for lunch with amazing views over the mountains and a palm grove village. Making our way back, a crudely written sign barely noticeable from the road, indicating a « potter’s village ».

Pulling off the side of the road we walked up the dirt track to a mud brick village populated by potters such as Aziz pictured here. He kindly showed us his kilns, his cavernous atelier, and a demonstration of how he sifts the local sands to mix with water creating a clay which is then hand thrown and turned with his feet to create bowls, jars, jugs and any number of ceramics, later fired in a crude kiln heated by dung, and collected wood. Nothing in any of this process has changed in two thousand years.

Aziz learned from his father who learned from his father. I was humbled by this humble scene, his kindness, and willingness to demonstrate his craft without expecting a sale.

At one stage his mother emerged from their home just above the kilns. « I need to get going, the village is attending a wedding this afternoon. » moments not found other than by chance and curiosity to dig beneath the surface.

17/05/2021

The road trip through southern Morocco continues. Yes we have goats here, and they like to climb trees. The region is laden with Argan forests dotting the grasslands and wheat fields. We’ve come across many Nomad tents now pitched not far off the road, at higher altitudes north of their winter encampments in the desert, settling in for summer.

Travel on these smaller two lane roads is stop and go as goat and sheep flocks often take right of way.

I’ve seen some criticism of how goats in Argan trees is a gimmick for the tourists. The goatherds often position themselves in areas where tourists stop to take pictures, and collect tips (Especially around Essaouira). Some have argued that the goatherds are even tying the legs of the goats to the tree branches to keep them still for photos.but I can assure you the goats get up into these trees on their own without any encouragement or force.

We’ve come across no tourists now for a week, so goats and goat herders are going about their normal business in this unique Moroccan transhumance.

14/05/2021

checking in. Sidi Ifni was a fishing colony held by Spain’s Franco government, right up until 1969 when it was handed back to the Moroccan kingdom which itself had only shed the yolk of colonialism from France 13 years prior.

I’m drawn to enigmatic places like Sidi Ifni, that challenge the notion that just because you don’t see anything immediately happening, they can easily be written off. The town has a decay and an aura of abandonment, marked by the closed Spanish consulate, Spanish cinema, and various art-deco buildings grouped around what was once in recent memory named “Plaza de España” replete with a garden square and Spanish tiles that would not be out of place in Andalusia.

The region was strategic in importance for Morocco’s claims over the Western Sahara (also under Spanish control and disputed to this day), while the local population are largely from the Ait Baamrane, a collective of Arab and Berber tribes known in Morocco for their pride and fierceness in battle. They resisted Spanish colonization and it could be argued it was the efforts of their women who joined in battle, forcing the hand of the Spanish to concede to withdrawal.

When Madonna decided to celebrate her 60th in Morocco, she dressed in the traditional horned headgear of the female members of the Ait Baamrane, the “Amazonians of Morocco”.

13/05/2021

Today was the start of the new lunar month of Shawwal signifying the end of Ramadan fasting in a celebration called Eid Al-Fitr, a national holiday in Morocco. A good day to take it easy and find a spot of beach to relax in.

We stopped in at the beach of Legzira pictured here, with no one other than a small handful of families enjoying their picnic lunches beachside, children sporting new clothes (as is custom for Eid), playing in the waves and dancing under one of the more imposing arches along this lonely stretch of coast.

These enormous (see the folks underneath the arch for the perspective), wind and wave carved arches are Mother Nature’s way of reminding us the Earth is in a constant state of transformation, on a timeline that puts the problems of humans in true perspective.

12/05/2021

Hello friends. This is , and from today I’m taking over our instagram feed for a short spell.

Morocco conjures up many an exotic image, but for me Morocco is home. I’m on the road to travel the deep south of the country, and I’ll be sharing highlights of this trip with you.

Essaouira on Morocco’s Atlantic coast is the starting point for this journey. Essaouira’s past is rich, multi-layered, and a mirror of Morocco’s history as a crucible of cultures and influences. The Carthaginians visited, Rome harvested the dyes that colored the purple togas of Senators of Rome here, and the Portuguese defended this stretch of coast with their fort and called the town Mogador as it was known up until independence. It had at one point, a large and relatively prosperous Jewish population.

Today it’s known as one of Morocco’s popular boho chic seaside resorts. As we are emerging at various speeds from the pandemic, tourism has yet to return. Work has been underway, giving the town a facelift and preparing for an eventual return of travel.

15/04/2021

Spring is springing in France, the grass is greening, the bees have woken up, and our wheels are spinning again. April has morning frosts which feel like February and afternoon sunshine which feels like June. We may be restricted to 10km rides from home, but there’s still a very welcome sense of freedom in the air. There are few corners of France we haven’t explored on our bikes. If you’re feeling cooped up and dreaming of the whir of wheels, the buzz of cicadas and the wind on your face, call us and let’s get planning.

23/03/2021

Our France planner extraordinaire Michael Eloy has just embarked on a new research trip, this time heading off on his trusty bicycle to explore the island of Corsica. This comes just as Michael has been named a specialist for France. He sends us some photos from the road and writes:
“Planning ahead of the actual trip is very important in order to find the best route according to what I am looking for. And as always in such trips, those routes are far from being obvious, easy and direct, especially when Corsica is the destination.

My Covid test cleared, bike fully loaded, this is the real start of my 3 week riding trip around the Beauty Island (l’île de beauté) as Corsica is nicknamed in France.”

Keep checking back as we post more updates from Michael on our Instagram stories.

18/03/2021

Deapite the Pigs still being stuck at our home base we haven’t stopped to plot and plan. Nothing helps that process like a map. Google earth has its place, but there’s nothing quite like the tactile feedback of a physical map (especially if it’s old) or as our own so eloquently puts it: ‘I like maps, I like how they help me understand large swaths of land that I am unable to see with my eyes and feel with my senses. I can picture a planet whole, reduced to a handful of parts for sure, but a picture is formed that helps in understanding. Looking at them is a particular magical skill humans get to do, visualization, spacial awareness and projection, predicting distances through alchemy, it is in some ways archaic and in some ways god-like. Yesterday I was handed this map from a relative that shows a part of England 1940 in preparations for war. It has been passed down through the years and is now in my trust to gander, like a window into a time long ago. I heard map sales are up this past year, and there is no wonder as to why.’

10/03/2021

Our France planner Michael, not one to idle away while we await the return of open borders and travel, writes from Provence: “Crossing the French Alps on a bike doesn’t have to feel like the Tour de France. It’s possible to do it in a less vigorous way, cycling on well connected bike lanes, crossing beautiful landscapes such as the vineyards of Chignin in Savoie (producing mostly white wine from the unknown Jacquère grape). A visit of medieval Chambéry will give your legs a rest and an opportunity to discover the rich culture, history and gastronomy of one of my favorite regions in France.
With a bit of luck and a well planned journey, you can either climb a steep mountain often rode by Tour de France cyclists or use a flat and straight tunnel saving you a few thousand calories and two hours of steep climbing.

Can you guess which way Michael went?
📸: Michael Eloy

08/03/2021

Oualidia sits on a natural lagoon with tide pools drawing and emptying the waters of the Atlantic. The area is rich in aquatic life and Morocco’s famed oysters have been farmed here since before independence. Locals such as the fisherman pictured can often be seen diving in the waters (that can reach 4m of profundity at high tide) to gather fish, clams, octopus and spider crab from the frigid waters. Oualidia is also an important stopover on the feathered superhighway that is the transcontinental bird migration across Africa. is an exclusive boutique eco-lodge that presides over the natural lagoon and the daily spectacle of foraging humans and birds. Our Morocco planner writes about Oualidia and it’s fabulous lagoon in The Sounder piece “Where’s Oualidia”, link in our bio.
📸:

05/03/2021

With a name for a travel company like Trufflepig it stands to reason we’re a big fan of the tubers, and in particular “tuber magnatum” the fabled white truffle of the Piedmont region of northern Italy. Truffles are on our minds as today is the US release of “The Truffle Hunters” a wonderful documentary on a disappearing way of life that is sure to shine a spotlight on this region. Our Italy planner Meredith writes on the Sounder: “one can only assume that the nutty crunch of hazelnut in dark fondant, or the pungency of white truffles shaved over a perfectly poached egg, constitutes a baptism of sorts, washed down by a glass of Barolo.” Keep an eye out for The Truffle Hunters from and follow the link in our Bio for more meditations on one of our favorite Italian regions in Meredith’s piece: “In The Name of Nebbiolo”
📸:

26/02/2021

In this dead-of-winter travel standstill we’re thinking of how there’s more than one way to move around.

Once you get into the heart of Varanasi’s frenetic old town, cars are not allowed and your choice of travel becomes on foot, by rickshaw or by cycle tuk-tuk. The old town is a mad, colorful kaleidoscope of sights, sounds and smells. A frenzied joy and a constant whirlwind of movement that sucks you in.
📸:
India

22/02/2021

On her last pre-pandemic trip across the pond, our planner Claudia went on a ski safari in the Dolomites and ended up staying at a place called . Sitting at an altitude of 6,500ft, this family run alpine charmer is accesible by ski, foot or snowmobile during winter months. Picking the later, you and your gear embark on a short ride in a snowmobile drawn sleigh. A memorable way to finish a perfect day on the slopes!
📸: Claudia Schwenger

12/02/2021

From our very own : “Enter the year of the Ox. A castrated bull that knows how to beat the burden of hard labor without complaint. Seems apropos in these times, no? Let’s celebrate a new cycle of the moon, that waxing orb that pulls at us and our oceans and makes them all rise. Let us celebrate this turning of a tide that will leave its high water mark for generations, a shifting of gears from a pandemic winter to an earthly spring full of birth, growth, hope, heat, saplings, glands and love. And let us celebrate beasts of burden, the Oxen (and the pig).”

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