Morocco 2011
Entered Sat 8th Jan
This time we went from Algeciras to the
new port about 40km from Tangier. The crossing was fine and you did
some of the customs formalities with a cheery chappie on the boat
which made it a lot quicker when we disembarked, also they seemed to
have kept out all the rabble from the new port so you only have the
officials to contend with and not a load of touts all trying to be
your “helper” and tell you what office to go to for document
stamping. You come straight out of the new port onto the coastal
motorway so it’s very convenient for heading south asap.
There is always some confusion on
paying roads about what class “Blendy” van comes into: in UK he’s
classed as a car as he has windows (so not a delivery van) in France
he’s classed at the higher rate as he’s over 2metres tall
(hightest!- we only uses one section of French motorway as it’s so
expensive) in Spain we’re back to being on the cheapest car rate
and last year in Morocco they couldn’t decide what we were and we
were sometime charged Class 1 as a car and sometimes class 2. This
time we went all the way to Marrakesh in 2 days on the motorway so it
was relevant what class we were. After the first 3 toll stations had
charged us as class 1 we decided that must be right and when the chap
at the next toll booth tried to charge class 2, I politely pointed
out that we’d been class one up till then so he relented, at the
next booth they actually asked me what class we were so naturally I
said one. Also I don’t know the French for “you tell me mate”!
It was great to be back bargaining in Morocco! It was also great to
have sunshine right from the start, the last 2 years it has been very
wet in the North as we’ve driven down.
From Marrakesh we crossed the Tizi
n’Tichka pass over the Atlas mountains to Ouarzazate, where we
remembered a laundry from our last visit 2 years ago so stopped one
night to get a couple of loads of washing done. Last year’s
correspondents may remember that washing machines and laundries are
not easy to find on our travels and we try to avoid the dreaded HAND
WASHING at all costs. Ouarzazate also has the advantage of a good
“bun “shop for stocking up on traditional “petit four” cakes
so a good town all round! We only stopped the one night though as we
were keen to get on to Zagora and one of our favourite campsites
where we can finally relax and stop driving.
Wed 12th Jan-Today, Wed, was
a souk day so we have stocked up on all our fresh fruit and veg to
last us till the next one on Sun. I love that souk, it’s absolutely
enormous serving a huge area as Zagora is the only proper town for
miles and the last before you start hitting the Sahara proper. Apart
from the fresh stuff that we buy it’s fascinating to look at all
the other stuff for sale. Today, Mark (“gadget Goodwin”) wanted
to go round the “electronics” section, not to purchase anything
but because he can’t believe the broken up old bits of technology
they have for sale, old cassettes, CD players, radios, mobile phones
and computer stuff I don’t recognise. All this is on display on
boxes, make shift tables or even just a bit of tarpaulin on the
ground. It is so dry and dusty here, especially in the market with so
many people walking about kicking up dust, that we can’t believe
any of this electrical stuff will ever work again! Perhaps it’s
that worldwide man thing that they just like to have stuff to
endlessly tinker with!!
Sat 22nd Jan
We have now been at Zagora for 11 days,
I don’t know where it goes, we don’t seem to have done much but
that was the idea really. At first it was a bit hectic on the site as
they had 2 French tour groups for 2 nights one after the other. Some
of their vans were absolutely enormous, the size of coaches, it seems
ridiculous for 2 people to be driving round in these monsters and it
must cost a fortune in diesel. I still don’t know what they have
all that space for. As usual because they had a 2 day stop here they
all set about doing their washing, by hand. Wouldn’t you think that
if you drive round in a van costing £130,000 that;
a) One could afford, and have room to
store, enough clothes to last you for a month’s holiday. (that’s
how long most organised tours last)
b) One would have an on board washing
machine!
Anyway the groups went and the only
disturbance we were left with was the French people parked behind us
and their irritating dog “Appy”. Actually that’s not fair the
dog never made a sound, it was the woman forever calling in her high
pitched voice, “Appy, Appy, viens avec maman” (come with
mummy!!!!) They hardly managed to speak to us but I kept hearing the
woman’s voice and then realising she was talking to Appy.
Ironically we later found out from the friendly French/German couple
on site that the dogs name was actually HAPPY but “mummy”
obviously couldn’t pronounce her H’s or speak English!. Anyway
after another day they too left so all is tranquil on site.
We did get an hours great entertainment
as they packed up to leave, so some compensation for 4 days of “Appy,
Appy”. They had brought a little smart car with them in a double
wheeled trailer (Fortunately they often when off in trips in the car
and so we got a break from “Appy, Appy” every 5 mins). “Appy’s
Daddy started to drive the car up the ramp but then realised that
he’d left the hatch back up so had to reverse down and shut it,
then he tried again and “Mummy” realised the wing mirrors hadn’t
been folded in so back down we came and did that. On the third
attempt there was much screeching of “Appy Appy” as the dog was
running about excitedly and in danger of getting run over. Finally
“Daddy parked the car at the top of the quite steep ramp and got
out as apparently you have to winch the car the last bit actually
into the trailer. Having watched the procedure so far this is
probably a good idea to stop people driving up too fast and running
into the front of the trailer. Anyway the car is at the top of the
steep ramp, presumably only held in place by the hand brake until
they can fit the winch on, meanwhile Appy positions himself at the
bottom of the ramp just right to be squashed if the car rolls back.
After the performance so far we were just imagining such a disaster.
(Like in Fish called Wanda when the piano falls on the old ladies
dog!) Luckily for Appy the car is winched in with no problems but
then for some reason they open the hatch back and “mummy” is fed
in until just her legs are sticking out and waving about. God knows
what she was doing but it was hilarious to watch! Finally they left
and the remaining half dozen campers could all get on with relaxing
in peace and quiet!
Thur 27th Jan
We’ve had an interesting and slightly
more active second week in Zagora. Apart from our normal Wed and Sun
trips to the souk for shopping we did a bit of exploring on the bikes
down some roads we hadn’t been down before. One day we found signs
to “Restaurant Chez Ali, avec jardin” It’s so dry and dusty
here at the moment that the promise of a garden was very tempting so
we went in for lunch. The lunch was nice, interesting starters, I had
a cooked salad, tomatoes, green peppers, carrots, onions cooked with
tasty herbs and spices and served with the usual bread and olives and
Mark had something similar but uncooked with fresh chopped coriander.
Then of course, Tajine and for desert there was a good choice so we
had Moroccan pastries and coffee and avoided the almost inevitable
sliced orange sprinkled with cinnamon. Very refreshing and tasty the
first few times but after 4 trips here we are slightly tired of it!
However the best bit was just sitting in the luxuriant garden, fruit
trees, hibiscus and other flowering shrubs and Bougainvilleas
dividing up little paved sections each with 2 or 3 pretty mosaic
tables for dinning, you would never know from outside the walls that
it could be so lush inside, shows what a bit of irrigation and
shelter can do. They even had a Peacock which startled me at first by
giving a blood curdling scream. I thought something was being
murdered in the kitchen even though we’d ordered vegetable Tajine!
Next day we got chatting to the waiter
in the French owned café that we sometimes have coffee in and he
told us about an art exhibition that some local young artists
(himself included) had put on in another café in the town. We
decided to check it out and were rewarded by a very interesting
couple of hours. The chap who had the most pictures on display spoke
good English and gave us a tour and explanation of the work on show,
mostly abstract pictures with Arabic calligraphy of poetry and
expressing the young man’s wish for more communication and
understanding between people and nations. (I am paraphrasing somewhat
here but you get the idea) He had also created interesting textures
by incorporating bits of recycled corrugated cardboard, old sacking
and other “rubbish” saying people throw too much away: if he came
to the uk he would be horrified. After chatting with him and his
friends for a while they invited us to sit down and have tea ie stay
for a longer chat. There were 4 young chaps all very interesting, 2
were fellow artists one of whom was studying “props” at college
in Ouarzazate film capital of Morocco and the 4th friend
was a teacher in a primary school 10km from Zagora. They were all
home as it was a school holiday. When it transpired that artist no 1
(Amar)had studied philosophy at university we were not surprised and
shared the joke with his friends that that’s why he talked so much
and they couldn’t always get a word in, of course they did have to
contend with me as well!! It’s just really nice when you find
people who speak good enough English to have a proper involved
conversation with. It was well after lunchtime when we finally left
with much handshaking and mutual good wishes all round.
Tuesday we went in search of Dinosaurs!
The chaps had mentioned that the art association they belonged to had
done a sculpture project last year and made these dinosaurs in a
small local park as art and as entertainment for local kids. You
wouldn’t think you could miss three 15ft dinosaurs but we have
driven past this park at least 4 times, but in our defence it is set
down from the main road and they are a bit hidden by trees. When we
went into the park there was a gang 6 or 7 little boys hanging around
and of course looking at us to see what we were about. I’d seem one
of them climbing on a dinosaur as we approached so I indicated that
I’d like to take a photo of them all climbing on it. Well you know
little boys (and some bigger ones!) they all had to show off and
climb as high as possible. I took the photo quickly and called them
all over to look at it before someone got too high and fell off
trying to outdo his mates. They seemed happy with this and not one
even asked for a Bon Bon or Stylo!
[For anyone who wants to look at the
art work or the dinosaur project they have a website
www.aapzagora.c.la with
pictures if you click on gallery at the top. Also anyone who knows
any art associations in uk could put them in touch as they are
looking for international contacts for exchange of ideas and
communication]
On our final night in Zagora Mark
managed to get the Brighton football commentary on the internet so he
listened to that while I went and had a Backgammon lesson from the
English/French woman parked behind us for the last couple of days.
Not sure how to describe her as she left England at age 8 when her
parents moved to Singapore then in her early 20’s when her parents
moved to Australia she moved to France for some reason! Anyway I’m
now genned up on the basics of Backgammon so that’s taken over from
Canasta as the evening entertainment when we’re not reading or
chatting. (Although last night we had a “TV” night and watched 3
episodes of Shaun the Sheep that Mark had recorded onto the computer-
we are experiencing a wide variety of culture!!)
After 15 days in Zagora we moved about
150km North West to Agdz. It’s the 3rd time we have been
to the pleasant campsite there which is next to a family Kasbah. We
once again took the tour with the French wife of one of the family.
She remembered us but thought it was earlier this year she had seen
us; actually it was 2 years ago as we missed this site last year but
it certainly didn’t seem that long to us either. (How time flies
and other clichés!!) Next time we could probably do the tour
ourselves but we are interested to see how the restoration, which the
family are doing in conjunction with a German university, is coming
on. We noticed lots of patches on one outer wall which were
apparently where the students had been trying to get the right
consistency of mud plaster for inside and outside walls. I think our
stone walls at home are thick but the Kasbah walls are made of mud
blocks half a metre wide and 1 metre long, they must weigh a ton. I
wonder how they get them up 3 storeys; sheer man power I suppose?
We only planned a couple of nights but
ended up staying 4 as we had pleasant company, some more Brits
travelling with an Australia couple they had met on the ferry over
and also an interesting youngish (30?)Australian couple who were
touring Europe by bike and, like a lot of the campervaners, decided
it’s better to come to Morocco in the winter as even southern Spain
and Portugal are not really warm (or perhaps more to the point, dry
enough). It was fascinating seeing what they could pack onto their
bikes, of course they have special light weight gear and travel light
but I still wouldn’t want to be cycling with 4 loaded panniers.
We did our usual walk through the
Palmerie to the river. It is flowing ok at the moment from snow in
the High Atlas so the Palmerie was a hive of activity as everyone
prepared their little plots amongst the date palms, for cultivation,
lots of Donkeys loaded with panniers of manure and people busy
diverting water along irrigation channels into their plots. Part of
the Kasbah tour is round their “fields” and it’s fascinating to
see what cultivation can be achieved in this dry climate, when you
have the know how. At the moment they are growing clover in some
places and cutting it every 2 weeks for animal feed. You certainly
appreciate a flowing river if you live here!
We also took advantage of several
visits to our favourite bakery in Morocco which is down a little ally
off Agdz’s main street. We always stop if passing through even if
not staying at the site here. The bread is baked on the premises so
usually still warm. On the way down to Zagora we got one of their
huge round flat loaves then had to drive for an hour with the
tortuous smell of fresh bread filling the van before we could justify
stopping for lunch. Strangely there seemed to be bits missing from
the edge, I told Mark, who had been driving, I couldn’t explain it,
maybe they had large mice in the bakery!
Moving on from Agdz we decided to take
it slowly and break the journey to Tafroute with a nights “wild”
camping as we remembered the drive being very scenic from when we did
it on our first trip 4 years ago. We also remembered the awful
campsite at Tata which is about half way but we couldn’t face it
again, just a concrete walled compound, no view, chock a block with
cheapskate French camper vans (It was a really cheap site) and rather
dilapidated facilities, even by Moroccan standards. Instead we had a
nice night on our own just off the main road under some trees. The
drive was as good as we thought passing through several areas of
completely different rocks and hills, some green tinged, some showing
all the lines of the “strata” or whatever you call the different
geological layers. I always think of it as seeing the hills bones as
there is hardly any flesh/soil covering them. Further on there were
some great hills with swirls on them like the coloured sand in
glasses you get from the seaside.
At one point in the usual seemingly dry
and barren landscape we became aware that there was a riverbed which
had water running parallel to the road. It was cutting deeper into
the surrounding rock and at one point we parked and walked over to
see how deep the “gorge” was. It was about 20ft, and as we stood
there admiring the river we were amazed by the sight of 4 ducks
flying over us, beautiful orange, black and white, against the vivid
blue sky, then landing on a sandbank in the river. I’m sure this
river doesn’t flow all year so I wonder where they came from. After
consulting the bird book I think they were Ruddy Shellducks (no Malc
I’m not “swearing so nicely” as you say, that’s their name)
Not surprisingly we soon came to an area where palm trees were
growing and people are able to cultivate under them so there was a
small town, Tissint, which at the moment had a cascade, admittedly
only falling about 6 foot but in all this dryness it was impressive.
The landscape for about 5 miles beyond the town was very strange, the
sandy rock having had big gouges carved into it, presumably by the
occasional storm and water running off the hills.
6th Feb
We’ve now been at Tafraoute for a
week enjoying some good walks over the rocky hills and some cycle
rides round them! The first day I rode my bike here I had a problem
with the back wheel and found that the tyre wall was worn and bulging
and could split at any time. Next day we took the bike into town to a
bike shop we found. I thought no one was there then a little wizened
chap appeared from the back. He rummaged around and found an
appropriate tyre and inner tube. We then asked if it could be fitted
and the back tyre swapped with the front as I wanted the better
quality tyre on the back. I thought we’ll have to wait for some
young chap to turn up as this must be granddad left in charge, but
no. It was like someone switched him on. He started stripping off his
Jellaba (floor length type coat with a hood) the equivalent of
rolling up his sleeves and sprang into action turning my bike upside
down, even though it was nearly as big as him! We indicated we’d
come back later and he said 20 mins. We were about half an hour
having had coffee and bun (good way to fill the time!) and it was all
done and ready on our return. We knew the tyre cost 50Dhr (Less than
£5) and he only charged an extra 30Dhr for fitting.
Next day with newly repaired bike we
cycled out to see the “Blue Rocks”, I have mentioned these in
past years. In 1984/5 some Belgian artist painted a random selection
of huge boulders in a valley about 5 miles from Tafraoute. The first
year we saw them they were badly faded and not very impressive but
last year they were just starting to repaint them so we wondered how
they looked now. Well the “Blue Rocks” are now Pink and Green as
well as Blue!
Although the days are sunny, the nights
here are always quite cold as Tafraoute is about 1000metres above sea
level, the temperature plummets as soon as the sun sets but it seems
to be particularly cold at the moment. One morning we woke to see
frost outside and we had ICE on the inside of our front windscreen
behind the insulating screen we put up at night. I guess condensation
got between the window and the screen. We are nice and cosy in bed
but we have had the heating on every morning before we get up.
Luckily Mark thought to have the switch positioned so you can turn it
on whilst still in bed!
17th Feb
We’ve now had nearly a week at a
newish campsite on an organic farm that we discovered last year. This
year it’s a lot busier, lots of people like us coming back and of
course more people discovering it. We only just got onto the main
site as there are only about 25 pitches. The French owner came round
on our second night and recognised us from last year and asked if
everything was ok. I commented that he was doing well and busy and he
said “Yes but still quiet” I didn’t mean to be rude but I must
have made a face as I had just spent the afternoon being distracted
from my reading by the 2 French couples behind us yacking continually
for 3 hours over lunch, that’s when they weren’t interrupted by
their dog barking, which in turn started our neighbours dog off.
Anyway he said if we wanted to we could go off to the top edge of the
farm near some olive trees so the next morning we did. It’s very
nice and peaceful and handy for walks in the small rocky hills at the
back where we are again going tortoise spotting. So far we have found
7 including a little baby one that was SOOO cute, I wanted to keep
him as a pet (a nice quiet pet!) but knew he’d be better off left
alone, after he’d been photographed of course!
20th Feb
Still on the organic farm, it’s been
a hectic few days as suddenly there are lots of Brits here and we
keep stopping for chats when we are passing the main site or bump
into them out walking. The first people we met are particularly nice,
2 couples originally from Burnley but now one couple live in France
and they just meet up in the winter in Morocco. You can arrange to
have meals here in the owner’s garden or in Bedouin tents in the
orange groves so I thought I would see if any of the other English
speaking campers were interested. I rounded up 11, 9 Brits and 2
Dutch for lunch so it was quite worthwhile for the campsite and I
think we got a good price although of course some people thought it
was too much when I told them and moaned when they found out it was
cous cous, having initially not expressed any particular preferences.
Anyway it was a good meal and a nice social occasion, everyone got on
well and had interesting travel experiences to tell so all were happy
in the end and thanked me for organising it. Stress!
A couple of days later we invited the 4
“Burnley’s” ,who were on the main site, up for afternoon coffee
at our van in the olive tree meadow about 15 mins walk away. They
arrived bearing a homemade cake made by Barbara, very welcome, and we
had a nice chat sitting in the sun. The tortoise spotting competition
is getting hot, Mark is on 4 and me on 3 but Barbara and Kev (The
couple who live in France) are also on a joint score of 7. We can’t
let them win, they only found out there were tortoise here because we
told them! Fortunately we saw 3 the next day and they failed to
score! then they left so we are the champions, and Mark and I saw 5
each so a happy tie!
Finally after 11 days we left the farm
and went back to the hustle and bustle of the real world, driving to
Agadir, a busy road after we had only seen the old tractor or jeep on
the farm. We stopped at Marjane (The Tescos of Morocco) for our first
lot of supermarket shopping since leaving Spain. We are not normally
over fond of supermarkets but it was such a novelty we somehow
managed to spend over 2 hours going round looking at everything and
only about 20mins of that was in the alcohol department! Then to
recover we had a tuna Panini in the supermarket café, it seemed
quite exotic, without a tagine dish in sight!
We spent 2 nights at a site recommended
to us on the coast north of Agadir which was really nice. A very
small fishing village with a few cafes mainly frequented by surfers,
local and tourist, who come for the apparently great waves in the 2
bays either side of the village. We would have stayed longer but
unfortunately, like the farm, there was no signal for the internet
and apart from wanting to get news on the political events in North
Africa, we had to skype phone Marks mum on her birthday and get the
Brighton football commentary on Sat!
26th Feb
Back at Essaouria campsite, we drove in
and saw a Dutch couple who we met at the beginning of this trip. When
we went over to speak to them we found they had made friends with a
Swedish family we spent time with 2 years ago so we all had a nice
reunion. The Swedish parents looked exactly the same but of course
their children had grown now six and a half and 4 years old. Since we
last saw them the boy, Alvin has learnt English just from listening
to his parents on their 2 month winter trips to Morocco (no one
speaks Swedish so they are always speaking English to the other
campers) and even 4 year old Malvina understands most of what you say
and can say simple things. Mark was her hero for 5 mins as he managed
to glue the pink flower back on her hair band. Although quite a tom
boy at the moment and keeping up with her brother in tree climbing,
she is into pink in a big way!
Unfortunately it has been extremely
windy in Essaouria, normally we enjoy the half hour walk along the
sea front to the town but it was no fun being sand blasted by gale
force winds. The Swedish family left for home and next day as it was
still forecast to be windy we decided to go inland for a few days. We
went to a nice country site, only about 10 miles from the coast so
still quite windy but at least no sand to get whipped up and make it
worse. It is also one of the rare places with a washing machine so we
have been able to catch up on the washing. We are doing quite well so
far this trip, only had to hand wash one lot of smalls to keep us
going between laundries and washing machines!
Sunday 6th March
Back in Essaouria wind down to a light
breeze so no excuse to put off the riding any longer. Having fallen
off cantering on the beach here last year I was rather nervous about
this but felt it was something I had to overcome. Anyway I had an
hour ride today back on Prince (it wasn’t his fault I fell off!)
but only walked and trotted on the beach but at least I have done
some riding in the great outdoors. After we went for lunch at a beach
side restaurant to celebrate/relax!!! and had a nice pizza, very
Moroccan.
Mon 14th March
After a long days drive we reached
Zebra camping at Cascades D’Ouzoud, a lovely site run by a Dutch
couple that we discovered last year. It is just up a small hill from
the village and the top of the famous cascades (Waterfall to you and
me) and has great views of the hills all around. Since last year they
have completed a marvellous new shower and toilet block. The
beautifully tiled hot showers are brill, hooks to hang clothes, shelf
for shampoo, soap etc, good pressure and about 6ft square so plenty
of room to manoeuvre! Outside the showers are double sinks, Also with
hot water, set in a blue glass worktop with a large mirror at the
back AND a vase of silk/dried flowers and all immaculately clean. You
could be in a 5 star hotel, for a Moroccan campsite it’s amazing!
Caught up with Paul and Renate over
coffee then meal on our last night
Cascades, coffee and bun and view,
good exercise for Gill& also Bike ride 2 mile down then back up
road. Cascades very brown for a day after the rain.
Left after 2 days rain, Light snow
in Azilal then clear till we entered Azrou. Unfortunately half hour
after dark and it was still snowing. Planned to go to Cherry Orchard
site but there was a queue of traffic going that way and we thought
we better just get in somewhere so went into “Disneyland” new
site. Glad of a haven on the night but not very impressed next
morning, pitches not level, could only find one squat loo (and that
had no paper basket or water to flush)stupid paying system in office
up hill not at the super fancy entrance! But the lady workers
sheltering in the bosses office were friendly and nice and
volunteered to be photographed when I said I hadn’t met many
Moroccan ladies.
FEZ Met Karl and Helga (from 2
years ago in Tafrout and Taroudant) coming out of Marjane so joined
them at Camping International and had a jolly evening in their van.
Won’t go to that camping again though 110Dh (with compulsory
electric) but old fashioned basic facilities and grumpy reception.
Volubilis Found site in book
after we went 5 miles from Moullay Idris, not “about 4km” as our
camping book says. Pleasant site, being updated nice welcome and mint
tea next morning so we decided to stay a second night. Volubilis as
good as we remembered but weather better this time.
Final night in Asilah parking (40DH-
sure it was 20 last time but things changed a bit round parking area)
Lunch in café next to medina wall, very pleasant.
