Back to business for Duke and Duchess of Sussex as they touch down in Morocco

With a star turn in New York and a celebrity-packed baby shower for the Duchess, and a series of visits to military and underprivileged children for the Duke, it has been quite the week in the Sussex household.

As they landed in Morocco last night, it was back to business as a team for a whirlwind tour, which will see them boost the profile of gender equality, try out their French and meet their royal family counterparts.

The Duchess, who will have “medical provision” at more than seven months pregnant, will get a henna tattoo and eat recipes from her cookbook, as the country uses the high profile of the Royal visit to bolster its credentials on the world stage.

The trip, which has been planned with relatively short notice, will see the couple received by the King of Morocco for an audience, as well as meeting privately with the 15-year-old Crown Prince Moulay Hassan at the royal residence.

The Moroccan royal family has a particularly colourful place in the hearts of the British royals, after a comically disastrous state visit by the Queen in 1980 christened the “tour from hell” which saw arrangements changed at a whim.

This time, the Duke and Duchess will be staying for three nights privately as guests of the king in a royal residence, with plans to meet members of the family still being finalised last night.

Arriving nearly two hours late after delays on their commercial flight, the Duke and Duchess were offered milk and dates a traditional welcome at 10pm local time before they retired for a private meeting with the Crown Prince.

The Duchess wore a Valentino dress, in the red colour of the Moroccan flag, as she and the Duke stepped off the plane to be welcomed by the British ambassador and a guard of honour made up of troops from the Auxiliary Forces.

The couple are travelling with an entourage of nine, including two assistant private secretaries, three communications officers, a digital officer and a hairdresser.

They will be without their most senior advisors, their private secretary and press secretary, who have nevertheless overseen the planning of the trip.

The Duke and Duchess will both try out their French as they meet secondary school children in Asni, in the Atlas mountains, before lapsing into English for more in depth discussion.

The Duchess, who speaks Spanish, has previously disclosed she has been practising the language, telling women at the Hubb Community Kitchen that she had been “trying to get better at my French over the last year”.

In a programme designed around some of her favourite causes, she and the Duke will also visit a cooking demonstration with Moroccan chef Dar Moha, where children will be served pancakes from a recipe in the Together cookbook.

Thomas Reilly, British ambassador to Morocco, said the trip would “showcase the vital roles that that girl’s education and youth empowerment are playing in shaping Modern Morocco”, adding that “in a fortunate stroke of serendipity, we have found that this story fits with interests close to Their Royal Highnesses hearts”.

Emphasising the growing recognition of women, he added: “There is much more to do in this arena.  But it is clear that attitudes are changing fast - as demonstrated by the influential role that women are increasingly playing in Modern Morocco’s sporting, social, political, commercial and cultural scenes.”

Other engagements will see the couple enjoy a traditional "rose water" greeting ceremony, and hearing songs from the countries rural mountainous region.

They will also spend time with three ponies at the Moroccan Royal Federation of Equestrian Sports, hearing about their work with disabled children.

It will be the first joint engagement for the couple since the Duke flew to the Arctic Circle, where he was greeted by photographs of his own wedding inside an igloo as he visited the military.

This week, he undertook solo engagements while the Duchess enjoyed a baby shower with friends at a five star hotel in New York, in a trip funded by Serena Williams and Amal Clooney.

A spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess said: “Their Royal Highnesses are very much looking forward to the visit and are grateful to their hosts and the British Embassy for arranging such an interesting programme. “They are particularly pleased that they will have the opportunity to meet so many young Moroccans over the next few days.”