Tafraoute

Cactus and mountain thyme growing together

Tafraoute

An old village now in ruins and deserted

Tafraoute

The road at the bottom of the canyon winding between the palm trees

Tafraoute

General scenery

Argan Fruit

These are 2 photos of a fruit we picked from an Argan Tree, on John's hand to give some idea of size. The first one is the fruit and the other one is with the flesh removed to show the 'nut' from which the oil is obtained.

31 March Tafraoute

What a day. An entirely different Moroccan experience. A million miles away from souks and seaside resorts. We took a southward road from Tafraoute higher into the mountains. The highest point we reached was 1668 metres as we climbed up and up one side of a canyon. It was spectacular. After about 40 kilometres the road divided and we took the right hand option and descended the either side into a canyon down to about 1200 metres. We drove along a winding road flanked on either side by massive palm trees. We passed some small villages and also some larger ones. In most cases the buildings were again grand, ornate and well maintained, often with irrigated orchards within the boundary walls.
When we reached the end of the canyon and the end of the palm trees we came across what appeared to be a good road which was not shown on our map, so we decided to explore. After continuing for some 20 kilometres and not really finding anything we turned round. On that road we did pass through a very large connurbation of similar large and well maintained houses. On the return trip a crowd of children were obviously finishing school and there must have been at least 40 of them, aged between about 8 and 12, so it is a thriving community. They were all very friendly and waved to us as we passed. We cannot fathom out what the occupations of these people can be.
We returned to the beginning point of our detour and decided to risk a loop road returning to Tafraoute on what we knew was classed as a 'piste' or track. It turned out to be very much of a track and stretched our Dacia Logan to it's limits as John gently eased it between and over rocks and small streams. I was relieved when after about 25 kilometres we were on a good surface again.
It's been a very good day. The scenery in Morocco is not disappointing. We saw gorges, canyons, spectacular rock formations. As the rocks were bare the structure was apparent and in some places the strata was absolutely vertical. We have another trip planned for tomorrow, this time in the opposite direction, to some mountain villages. We are enjoying Tafraoute and at the moment plan to stay here for another 2 nights.

Tafraoute

The Argan Tree

Tiznit to Tafraoute

Scenery from the road

30 March Tafraoute

Sea level last night, over 1,000 metres tonight.  We left Essaouira promptly this morning, 08.15, and took the coast road down to Agadir.  From our first arrival in the very strong winds, Essaouira has grown upon us.  Today the weather was sunny with whispy clouds and there were already people on the beach by 07.30, walking and playing football.  It is a nice friendly place and we agreed that if we had not got travel plans we could easily settle in there for a week or so of winter sun.  The hotel was good, the staff very friendly and although quite large it never seemed crowded or rushed.

Driving down to Agadir the coast line was stunning, it is supposed to be a surfing destination but the waves didn't look very big and we didn't see any surfers, maybe it isn't the right season.  However the sea was a beautiful colour and the waves rolled over what looked like shallow beaches.  As the road wound around bays and inlets there were rocky promontories, it all looked very attractive and until we reached the ourskirts of Agadir there was very little serious development.

Getting through Agadir was a bit of a nightmare, there was a lot of traffic and we made a couple of mistakes and had to retrace our footsteps.  This was mainly due to the fact that we were headed for Tiznit and it was very late coming up on the signposts.  We decided to take the Tiznit approach to Tafraoute as that road was supposed to be particularly scenic, however the main road down from Agadir to Tiznit was very built up with a lot of slow moving lorries so it was a bit of a frustrating journey.

However once we turned inland at Tiznit everything changed very dramatically, from being nose to tail down the Agadir-Tiznit stretch, after Tiznit we drove for long periods of time without seeing any other cars at all.   At first the scenery was rocky desert, with occasional maquis type shrubs and cacti.  About 20 km from Tiznit we began to climb steadily and more trees appeared, at first in what were obviously dry or underground river beds and then a little more generally as we reached into the Anti-Atlas mountains.  At the high point we were about 1,400 metres, for anyone who might have stayed with us in Greece, that's higher than Mount Okhi.  Although still stark and bare in places the landscape became greener and with larger numbers of trees, especially eucalyptus.

Finally, after 7 hours and about 400 kms, we reached Tafraoute.  We drove around a bit and picked a hotel called Le Rochet Peint, which was a bit out of the centre and looked rather nice, a bit 'oldy'.  It turned out to be one from the Rough Guide which used to be called Riad Tafraoute and has had a bit of a freshen up, without changing the character.  The rooms are still quite quaint with wonderful carved wooden doors from Mali and our sink has been beaten out of a single sheet of brass.  There is a rather plastic cafe on the ground floor, which may or may not be a recent addition and rather spoils it and the general appearance from the outside.  We have a small but adequate, clean and comfortable en-suite room for 300 dirhams a night (about 13 dirham to the £, so that is roughly £25), AND there is a wifi connection in the entrance foyer and the cafe.  This is the third hotel we have stayed in, all around the same price and in each case there has been a free wifi connection available.  A quick walk round suggested that Tafaoute is a nice mountain village/small town.  We saw lots of shops, cafes, restaurants and a small Souk.  We know that there are at least 3 camp sites here and the area attracts a lot of older, retired people who come in the Spring in campervans, mostly the French.  We had been amazed at the number of campervans on the road, we even saw one or two British ones.  There also seems to be quite a few 'serious' hikers and climbers.  Evidently the granite rock is good for clmbers and some quite specialist climbs are marked.  We went back to the hotel to put warm clothes on before going out to get a meal, it is cool, as we would expect at this altitude at the end of March.

We found a small cafe and had some nice food, harira (Moroccan bean soup), tomato and a onion salad, a tajine which we would call shakshouka (from Egypt), but here is just described as Kofta with Egg, oranges with cinnamon and mint tea. As we walked back to the hotel we were struck by the clear sky and the abundance and brightness of the stars, it was such a cold clear night and at this altitude there is little light pollution, the planets were particularly bright.  So we are glad our room is not too big and rather snug.  The wind has dropped completely and it is very quiet, although there are at least 2 mosques within shouting distance so it won't be so quiet at 05.00 in the morning.

Things of note today:<br>
There is an awful lot of development and building work going on. We had seen some evidence in Essaouira but put this down to the fact that it is probably an expanding sea side tourist resort. Here in Tafraoute it looks as if the size of the town is set to double. Almost all the way here the road has been recently improved and resurfaced. We saw large residential building complexes nearing completion.<br>
Once outside large urban areas practically all the housing seemed to be of a high quality and well maintained. There must be substantial rural poverty here, but it was not apparent from the roads we used. In the mountain villages there were several large impressive houses, small mansions by our standards, often in large enclosed plots of land where irrigation had produced orchards in otherwise arid surroundings. We don't know where this money has come from. Is Argan Oil dramatically overpriced? Returning diaspora? Or? ?<br>
Hoodies have a whole new meaning here. A form of dress, mostly by men, is a long cloak like garment (it's called something like djellaba, but I'm not sure of the spelling), with a pixie type hood which they frequently wear up covering most of their face to provide protection from wind and /or sun.  There is a resemblance to Middle Age monks.

Essaouira

From the ramparts

Essaouira

Fishing boats in the harbour

Essaouira

The narrow streets of the Medina

Essaouira

The wide windswept beach

Essaouira

Wednesday 28 March
We picked up the hire car, a very nice brand new Dacia Logan.  It was bigger than I had expected for a bottom of the range option,  4 doors, a very roomy boot and quite smart.  We arrived in Essaouira about 13.00.  Last night we had been discussing our forthcoming trip to Essaouira with the young man who appeared to be in charge at the Road El Az.  He said that a friend of his had an apartment in Essaouira which we could rent for 300 dh a night.  It seemed like a bargain price and doing a bit of self-catering was an attractive idea, so we agreed to take it.  He arranged for his friend to meet us at a petrol station just outside the town.  This all went as planned, however the apartment turned out to be a rather dingy and depressing affair in what seemed to be a very run down part of the town.  Plugs were hanging out of walls, cupboard doors were hanging off their hinges and it was all a bit Yuck.  We weren't sure what we would find in Essaouira as it is a holiday resort, but we left the car there and strolled around the town.  We saw a hotel which looked really out of our price range but were surprised to learn that it was 500 dh a night, so we decided to take a room there.  We phoned up, cancelled the apartment booking, collected our things and moved into the hotel.  It's big with three floors, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of people staying here.
We had heard that the Atlantic coast can be very windy, it's a hotspot for surfers.  Well it certainly lived up to that when we arrived, it was quite like the North Norfolk coast on a bad day.  It wasn't really cold, but completely overcast and threatening rain.  The sea was pounding on the beach, sand was blowing across the road and there were intermittent squally showers.  We spent the rest of the day wandering around the Medina and the souks, obviously a much smaller area than in Marrakesh, but the same sort of things.  The fish stalls at the port looked inviting but it would have meant huddling together under a canopy to get out of the wind.  We settled for a restaurant in the Medina which was serving fish.  John has 'Crevettes', a shrimp but the size of our prawns, I had some absolutely delicious grilled sardines.  They have been dressed in a slightly piquant sauce rather than doused in oil as I often used to get them in Greek restaurants.  We were also pleasantly surprised to find that we could order a bottle of wine, it wasn't mentioned on the displayed menu board in the street.
The journey here was interesting.  John didn't have any problems either driving in or getting out of Marrakesh.  We had head that driving here was very hazardous, but the traffic was more disciplined than in most places in Egypt, and quite a lot of major cities in Europe.  The biggest hazard was the number of taxis which could stop abruptly.
Marrakesh seemed to stretch into poorer suberbs as we drew away.  The landscape was flat and mostly barren all the way to the coast.  At times irrigation was present and we saw large orchards of orange trees.  There were also lots of olives and trees which we identified as Argan.   I learnt just before we came away that Argan oil has become the latest 'very best must-have cure for all ills'.  Traditionally the kernals or nuts from the fruit of the tree were harvested by allowing goats to climb the trees and eat the fruit, then retrieving the nuts from their droppings.  Although we saw a couple of photo opportunity trees with goats in them by the roadside, I suspect that that most of them are harvested commercially now.We saw several Argan processing plants offering direct sales.  It's one thing I might get to take home.  Interestingly we also saw several working camels, laden mostly with animal fodder.
Essaouira was once just a small fishing port, although not a prime package holiday destination the effects of tourism are obvious and abundant.  There are numerous spas and 'boutique, hotels as well as the general commercialisation.  There are more street beggars than we saw in Marrakesh, but fewer touts and less hassling on the streets.  Having recently experienced Egypt, where a dramatic decline in tourism due to the civil unrest has resulted in a desperate attempt to get an income from the few tourists, the hassling here in inconsequential and having little effect on us.  We had heard that the people here could be aggressive and were not friendly to tourists, but we haven't experienced any of that so far.  A polite but friendly 'no thank you' was usually sufficient.  We stick with our usual travel philosophy, that we are ? guests in someone else's country (? because we were'nt invited, we came because we invited ourselves) and therefore we behave in an appropriate way and part of that is respecting that they need to make a living.

Thursday 29 March
We both had a really good nights sleep, even with the window open we didn't hear the 05.00 call to prayer.  The sound of waves pounding on the beach and the noise of seagulls circling ahead was the only sound to keep us awake.  It's a nice hotel, peeping through open doors our room is one of the smaller ones at the back of the building.  We didn't see a lot of point in paying extra for a front room with a sea view and a balcony when we arrived yesterday as with the howling winds driving straight in we probably wouldn't have been able to get the doors open.  I think if you were staying here for any period of time they would be very nice.  At the back our room is very quiet, and on the top floor we have easy access to a terrace looking out over the sea where we sat for a while this evening, soaking up the last of a bleary sun which has just managed to creep through the clouds off and on today.
After a substantial breakfast we set out for a walk along the beach, it must have been low tide, there was a vast stretch of beautiful hard sand and just a few breakers.  The wind was steady, but not so strong that it was uncomfortable walking into it, it had dropped significantly overnight.  When we started our walk there were very few people around, but on the trip back we had been joined by several people taking a constitutional.  The bay is very nice, it must change depending on wind and tides.  It is clean and has a great sense of space.
Next we walked the short distance from the hotel into the Medina, taking a detour through the town outside the ramparts to check out the place where a nice young man in the restaurant where we had eaten last night had told us that alcohol could be bought.  We found it quite easily and sure enough it was stocked up with many different wines and lots of beer.  We decided to call back later with the car and collect a couple of bottles and a few cans to take with us on the next stage of our trip.  Essaouira seemed much nicer today, when the wind had dropped and there were glimpses of sunshine.  That goes for everywhere, I think again about the North Norfolk coast, it can be the most miserable and desolate place on earth and the most stunningly beautiful.  We revised the ramparts in comfort, where yesterday we had battled with the elements.  We strolled liesurely through the souks.  I did some half-hearted negotiating over the price of a couple of very nice leather bags.  I was quite honest with the shop-keepers and told them that I couldn't make my mind up whether I really wanted or not.  I showed them the lovely bag which I use all the time, a present from Toby and Jax when we were all together in Athens many years ago, and said that ideally I would like one just a little bit bigger, maybe big enough to take a spare pair of flipflops or a decent sized book.  I didn't get one in the end,, I thought that if I got a bigger one just for the odd occasion when I needed the extra space I might stop using my old favourite so much.  Anyway, now that I have the tablet, the kindle and my smart phone I don,t need to carry a net book, a thick paperback, a camera, a PDA and a telephone.  There is just the spare pair of flipflops......
We had a good late lunch in the mid afternoon in a very nice square of cafe restaurants in a tucked away area of the Medina.  It was sheltered, out of the wind and a bit of a suntrap so we enjoyed sitting outside.  We are bulking up on fresh produce before we hit the desert trail, and particularly fsh, so John had yet more shrimps and I had even more sardines.  We are probably being very pessamistic, but based on other rural areas in Africa we might be restricted to stringy goat or even stringy-er chicken.  They could turn out to be very nice when cooked slowly in a tagine.  There was a sready stream of beggars and itinerate performers passing through as we ate and we gave some small change to most of them, except a couple of 'musicians', who made an apalling noise.  OK, we not great on middle eastern music but they made no pretence at melody at all, just scraping a noise from some sort or stringed instrument.
We walked back to the hotel, collected the car and stocked up with water and snacks as well as the wine and beer, ready for the journey tomorrow.  It's Friday, the day of prayer, and we will be away from the main urban areas so we are not sure what to expect.  We have spent some time considering our options and we intend to head off south east, hopefully by passing Agadir, and see how far we can comfortably get towards a small town in the Anti-Atlas mountains called Tafroute, which sounds picturesque, different and interesting.  We'll have to see how far we get, there seem to be ne or two places on the way where we should be able to pick up some accommodation for the night.
The hotel has a wifi connection in the foyer so I should be able to get up to date with postings.

Lunch

Fish (no chips) Moroccan style.

Jewish quarter

One of the street I was able to get a photo of. They were so dark.

Bahia Palace

Just a few of the photos. They don't of course do anything towards showing how wonderful it actually was.

Palace El Baadia

Just a small part of the ruins above ground level.

The tombs of Saadiens

These photos were all taken at the tombs

Another day in Marrakesh

It's very hot, we didn't expect it to be as hot as this.  It gets to around 34C in the early afternoon, then the last 2 days it has become steadily hazier and more overcast and then it rains in the evening.  It's 14.45 and we've come back to the riad for a bit of a rest and to get out of the heat for a couple of hours, after a busy but interesting morning.
Most of yesterday was spent in and around the Medina souks. It was OK but once I got over the myriad of lanes, twisting and turning it became much of a muchness.  As I wasn't into buying anything, we have another 28 days of travel ahead of us so there is no way I am accumulating any more baggage, we are back in Marrakesh for at least a whole day at the end of the trip so any shopping I decide to do from here can be done then, just browsing soon let it's appeal.
Today we decided to take a look at 1 or 2 sites of interest.  First we went to the Sadian tombs, not giving much historical information here, anyone who is interested can look it up.  Suffice to say that they date back to 1557 and remained hidden until they were 'discovered' in 1917 by a French arial survey.  They were a good introduction to some stunning architecture, and well worth a visit in their own right.
The next visit was to the El Badi Palace, also built in the 16th century but now an extensive ruin undergoing restoration.  These Sultans certainly knew how to build on a grand scale, it was massive, quite a lot still unexcavated.
The final visit, and the most magnificent was the Bahia Palace, built around the turn of the 20th century.  I didn't think I would ever see anything which would impress me more than Topkapi in Istanbul, now I am not so sure.  I would have to revisit Topkapi to make an assessment.  The tiling at Bahia was not so intriguing and colorful, but the architecture was breath taking.  The carvings and the stucco were so intricate and delicate, but most of all it was the carved and painted ceilings which amazed me.
Our meanderings took us in and out of the old Jewish quarter, a myriad of high sided alley ways,  small 'dukas', often little more than a hole in the wall, selling every essential.  On the way back we stopped at a street stall and bought a bag of freshly fried small fish (quite bony but very tasty) and shrimps, with fried Aubergine and a spicy sauce.
I'll try and put some photos up on this site later and for anyone who is interested maybe the rest will go on Google+ when I get back.

Thoughts on Morocco so far (really it's only Marrakesh). These are to a great extent in comparison to Egypt as the only other North African/Muslim country we have spent time in.
Less edgy and anxious than Egypt.
No where near as many touts or hassle as in Egypt.  Not only are there far less but they are no where near as persistent and aggressive.
Easy going, friendly people, obviously on the lookout for tips and contributions from 'wealthy' tourists.  We might not see ourselves as being wealthy, but in comparison we certainly are, we have the money to take a months holiday there just for starters.
Cleaner, less pollution (by comparison to other large African cities).
I have seen more veiled women during the day and maybe half a dozen with their faces completely covered, but they are in the minority, they seems to be a great deal more freedom here.  I'll be interested to see how it will be when we get away from cosmopolitan Marrakesh.
We leave here tomorrow.  We have decided to head off for the coast first, so we are going to Essaouira, maybe for a couple of nights, before heading south and then east.  If it remains as hot as this we may stay away from the desert roads in favour of the mountains.

Riad El Azure

That's our room. You can just see it through the tree.

John in the Riad courtyard

Another 05.00 start.

This morning straight after breakfast we started out to explore the souks.  It is much hotter here than we expected, but we are only at 500 metres, we assume it will bet cooler as soon as we are at higher altitudes.  The souks were heaving with tourists, we joined them and meandered up and down, and up and down, and round and round.  There are so many, all selling similar things.
We stopped for a coffee (for John) and a mint tea (for me) at a cafe off the Djemaa Fna, which had a rooftop terrace.

We went to the Ben Youssef Medersa, a koranic school with some amazing architecture. After a couple of hours rest with our feet up, in the cool of the Road, we will be off again to see a bit more of Marrakesh by dusk and night.

Marrakesh Riad El Az

Inevitably we are a stones throw away from a mosque, so I was woken up at 05.00 this morning. I think I dozed a bit and then the birds in the trees in the road courtyard decided it was time to wake up anyway.
Marrakesh is nothing like Cairo!  I was a bit concerned that there would be a similarity.  A taxi met us at the airport, thank goodness we arranged that with the road, we would never have found it.  We drove along wide boulevards from the airport, some hectic driving but nothing like the crazy stuff in Cairo.  Then we came to the walls of the old town and went through a large archway.  After that it was narrow streets, shops and stall, people bustling along or standing in groups.  Finally we left the taxi in a dead end and followed the driver on foot for about 200 metres, through winding passage ways until we came to a door low down in the wall.  Inside we stepped into another world, of Moorish tiles, low sofas and cushions, beautiful carpets.  We were in a central courtyard with trees and climbing plants adorning the walls.  There are only 6 rooms, around 3 sides of the courtyard on 2 floors.  We have a room on the top floor, it stretches the length of the building with a low bed at one end and a bathroom at the other.  There is a low sofa and some beautiful chairs, and wonderful wall hangings.
We followed the directions given to us by the young man who welcomed us and retraced our footsteps through the passage ways and out to the other world, to a rooftop restaurant where we had a passable meal.  It was OK, tagine, salad, olives and mint tea, but nothing special.  We remember some of the wonderful meals we had in the desert oases in Egypt, particularly those with strong Bedouin influence.  Maybe we need to get out of the city into Berber country for that.  I think we will try street food tomorrow, anyway, that,s usually a good bet.
First impressions are that Morocco is very different to Egypt, less edgy, less anxious.  We weren't hassled once last night, no touts at all, far less rubbish in the streets.  I saw only one veiled woman, and the majority of young women were not wearing headscarfs.
We have 2 days here before we pick the car up and head off south.........

Leaving tomorrow

Tomorrow we set out on another trip. This time we are going to Morocco for a month, 25 March to 25 April. This is not our ideal time for travelling outside the U.K., Spring here is so wonderful. This applies particularly today, as we have all the doors open and the sun is streaming in. Our garden is bursting with new plants emerging after their winter rest and flower buds bursting to open. The allotment has been put to bed, we dare not plant out our summer crops, we are well aware of the vagaries of our weather, frosts in May. We will re-assess on our return and maybe just have late maturing vegetables this year.
The reason for going at this time is that it is the optimum time for independent travel in Morocco. We want to take in both the Southern and Western Sahara and the Atlas Mountains, so we need a window when conditions will be comfortable in both of these areas.
We have decided not to use public transport for this trip, we have hired a car in order to have greater flexibility about where we can go. We would like to visit smaller more remote locations and have control over our times of travel. It is a 2WD Dacia Logan so it is possible that we will take some short, organised trips in some places, where an experienced driver with a 4WD will enable both of us to enjoy spectacular scenery at altitude.
We are also going quite well equipped, with smartphones and a WiFi Tablet, the intention being to upload words and pictures to this site as we travel. On previous occasions I have written up extensive diaries, e.g. The Southern Africa trip of last winter, which are still languishing on my netbook and will never get published. However if this is the one and only entry then it means that we have ventured outside the scope of internet communications in Morocco. All I can say is 'watch this space'.