19^th March

OiLibya for an O'Clean and the truckers mosque.

Before we left town, we decided to get the car washed as it was brown with accumulated dust and looked awful.  We chose the 1st petrol station we saw which happened to be Oi Libya.  For less than £2 the car had the most thorough wash it has ever had - we were worried than any loose bits of body work might fall off!!  They even opened the 2 front doors of the car and managed to blast the inner door frames with the pressure hose without soaking any other part of the car - quite a feat! Also, if we felt the need there was a mosque!

We then headed for Essaouira further north and on the coast. What we wanted to see goats in trees. We knew there was the “Goat Tree Tourist Trap” en route, which we planned to avoid as we wanted to see the real thing rather than a goat tied up in a tree and 10 D’s for picture of you holding a goat. We also wanted to see the cascades at Imouzzer. That required going cross country and relying on the sat-nav and the map – uh oh! After turning off from highway N1 we climbed and climbed, the views were stunning and snow capped mountains picked out from the haze in the distance. The terrain was dotted with Argan trees which grew more and more stunted as we climbed. 

Yet more stunning scenery

We reached Imouzzer and followed directions to the cascades. Hmmm, I’m sure the cascades are stunning when they’re flowing, but not today. As we had noticed road distance counters to Essaouira along the road we decided to continue following the map and the sat-nav. As we dropped the other side of Imouzzer the scenery changed again to more lush vegetation especially in the valleys below. Some distance on we saw what we had been looking for, goats in Argan trees that were not tied there as a tourist con. We continued after much photo taking and eventually we came to a reservoir that was not marked on our map or the sat-nav. Tamsin slowly drove over the dam until we came to a barrier. Fearing the worse as a soldier appeared I would the window down. All he wanted to know was did I have a cigarette as he raised the barrier – phew!!

Real goats up the argan tree....

Shortly after we approached the main road to Essaouira and turned north. Arriving at Essaouira we had to leave the car parked outside and walk into the medina as our hotel was inside and there are no cars allowed inside. As we walked through the medina we bumped into Jane and Michael who we had arranged to meet there. After a brief exchange we parted to meet later for dinner. Our hotel was on the north outer seawall of the medina and had the waves crashing below - a great location.

Cannons on the ramparts

We did a brief foray around the town and got onto the ramparts with a long row of impressive looking cannons.  The view from the ramparts is fantastic as they’re literally on the sea edge as is our riad.  We then wandered around various fairly similar looking alleys all lined with shops.  Strangely, there was no hassle from the merchants and most things seemed to be fixed price – I almost missed the hassle and haggling from before!  There are also loads of cats here in all shapes and sizes – most of them in very good condition.  The same can’t be said of the people.  We haven’t seen so many beggars anywhere else or deformed or crippled people or others seemingly somewhat deranged and obviously suffering from mental problems.  Initially we liked the feel of the town, but scratch very lightly under the surface and the seedy, scruffy and slightly unsavoury nature of the place soon becomes apparent.

We all met up back at the hotel at about 6pm and went to have a drink in a bar overlooking the ocean. It was pretty chilly due to the strong cold wind coming off the ocean and it wasn’t long before we were the only people mad enough to be there.  So, we decided to forgo a 2^nd drink and go to the restaurant next door early.  There we had a very nice fish dinner ( Michael had lamb) and I had the best John Dory I’ve ever had whilst Chris had the largest sole I’ve ever seen!  After dinner we decided to have a night cap back at the hotel only to discover tht it’s a dry hotel – Qeul horreur!!  So, we broke into our emergency supplies and had our last bottle of Spanish plonk which was just the ticket.

18^th March

Glossy ibis

The plan for the day was to chill out, rather apt as it was a cold and overcast day at the hotel. We read books and did other things until about midday when we decided to go out to the bird sanctuary area south of Agadir – Souss-Massa. We realised that it was late in the day and our chances of seeing much was limited, but if you don’t try... As we entered the park area we were stopped by “guides”. We had read elsewhere that you didn’t need a guide which was true, but after discussion with Mustafa he said that was so but if you wanted to get around the whole part you needed a guide. I tested him on English names for birds and he produced a booklet with them in which satisfied me that he knew something. We agreed a price as we only had about 2 hours to see anything given our late start. 

Little owl

Over the next few hours we saw “Flying Martinis” (Mustafa meant Martins flying – we think??), Little Owl, Glossy Ibis, Cormorant, Grey Heron plus other small raptors, the thing we wanted to see was the Bald Ibis, we went all over the place including long periods on the dunes looking for them. We saw some in flight on a couple of occasions, but didn’t get closer than that – very frustrating!! As time was getting on we wanted to head back as the light was fading.

17^th March

Chez Momo 2

Chris left yesterday with us arriving at Chez Momo 2.  What he failed to mention was that it was an absolute delight.  Very nice staff, beautiful gardens with small one storey bungalows in the grounds.  The rooms were rustic but comfortable enough.  There was also a resident young, very friendly female black and white cat.  She was really sweet but unfortunately suffered from either mites or a fungus so was scratching around her ear which was a bit of a mess.  After we petted here, we made sure we washed our hands!

The main dining area was huge and very nice.  They had lit a very inviting fire in an enormous fireplace which I made a beeline for as it was chilly at night.  We had some drinks before having our half board meal – an artichoke, a tagine (yippee!!) and then a very rich and tasty chocolate mousse.  We washed this down with a a couple of bottles of red wine from Meknes.  We’ve only found one wine we’re not keen on so far, but the choice hasn’t been huge.

Common Bulbul

Before we set off, I got a glimpse of a bird that instantly reminded me of a bulbul.  Several photos later, we established that it was definitely a common bulbul, which seems an unfair description as its song is far from common.  It has the most extraordinary melodious song which easily rivals the blackbird or thrush.

Some of the winding roads

Today, we had to drive to Taroudant which involved some tortuous mountainous roads to get out of the high Atlas.  I’d drawn the short straw as Chris has done most of the driving so far and wanted a well earned break.  The views were still hazy which was a real shame as this is one of the best drives in Morocco and renowned for its incredible views of the high Atlas Mountains.  However, the scenery was still incredible even without seeing the snow clad peaks clearly - seeing those would have been the icing on the cake.  Unlike most European countries with roads along high stony rock faces, the sides of the mountains are not clad in any sort of webbing or netting to catch loose rocks or stabilised to prevent landslides, so the roads are littered with chunks of rock and you can see where rock falls have been cleared.  We came across a lot of road works where the narrow road had been made even narrower as part of it had collapsed down the hillside.  At one point, I have to admit to having an attack of vertigo, which somewhat alarmed both Hanna and Chris.  However, I decided just to focus on the road ahead of me instead of glancing at the sheer drop just a few feet from my side of the car!

Tea stop.......

Once we’d cleared the high pass and were on the long descent, we stopped off for a well earned tea/coffee break and feasted our eyes on the amazing views from the back terrace of the road side cafe.  We even managed to avoid carpet sales there as there was a small shop, but don’t know if it had any carpets......

Eventually, we descended to the lower plains where it is arid and hot.  At long last we have a chance to wear our hot weather gear!   Our hotel, where we’re staying 2 nights, is wonderful and has scored 5 stars for the last 2 years on Trip Advisor.  We’ve been upgraded to suites, which suits us down to the ground!  This hotel also has beautiful gardens stuffed with lots of scented plants – lemons, oranges, roses, brugmansias, rosemary etc. etc.  There are also tortoises resident in the garden.  Each bungalow has a private, shady patio where we can hear and see the abundant birdlife here which includes the very melodious common bulbuls.  Chris and I even found the time to go and sit in the large and heated Jacuzzi late this afternoon, so now feel totally chilled out and relaxed and ready for drinkies and dinner!!

Yes- we have to slum it by this pool....

Okay – update from drinkies and dinner.  In a word – FAB!!  We couldn’t believe that we were served HAM on sticks as an accompaniment to our pre prandial drinks.  Dinner was light – fingers of fish in a light batter for H and myself, thinly sliced duck breast salad for C and then scallops all round for main. No room for pudding.  We’re now all having a brandy on H’s patio listening to cicadas.  Perfect.  No sign of the tortoises.

16^th March

Wild flowers on the high, arid plateau

 The next destination was Ouirgane which is 64km, by road, southwest of Marrakech, so a leisurely day ahead driving wise? Our initial destination was Asni a small town that had been mentioned in the guide. Just short of there we decided to do a detour to Moulay Brahim as one of the guide books said that the views were good from there and the scenery different.  Coming out of Marrakech we had already commented that the views of the High Atlas were hazy so didn’t expect much of a view. We climbed a bit from the main road and eventually came onto a high plateau of limestone. The land was being worked, but looked poor, however, there was lots of planting of some type of grass which could have been wheat. Despite the poor soil, it looked green.

Spot the donkey.........

We continued on, as the map showed a smaller road to the left that would take us back to the main road just south of Asni. Going through small villages we were waved at by the villagers - on we went but didn’t find the illusive left turn (of course there are no sign posts). Tamsin mentioned that there was a larger loop that went around a lake. The sat-nav at this stage had been telling us to turn back, which we ignored as we couldn’t find any via point in its memory to use. As we came down through another village we passed a small hotel and then came across a left turn, which we took. The sat-nav then stopped telling us to turn around and showed a route, which we followed. This took us though village and on towards another. Just outside of this village the sat-nav was telling us to go through what looked like a quarry. I found a road around that and the device seemed happy, then the road got far worse and took us into a gorge where the road was now a rough track. After some discussion it was decided to turn around. We searched for an alternate route, but ended up on the wrong side of a river, time to turn around. Retracing our steps back to where we had turned left. I decided against Tamsin's wishes to press on rather than retrace our steps all the way back to the main road.

Scrubby Junipers with the hazy mountains in the distance....

At this point we were passed by some guided tour groups which gave me some hope, after which we entered Lalla-Takerkoust which sits at the top of a reservoir and dam. This was on the map so we turned towards Amizmiz, also on the map. At some point we were passed by a coach and the road was improving, this gave us some hope – wrongly as it soon transpired. We entered Amizmiz which looked more like a building site rather than a town. All the roads were being dug up and there were people and cars everywhere at this point we passed a road sign pointing to Wiregane (Ouirgane??). Still, the sat-nav seemed happy right up until the point it tried taking us down another rough road which was not in keeping with the map. As we turned around and found another route out of Amizmiz we went back to being told to take a U-turn. Tamsin deduced that we needed to go east towards the mountains and road was doing that so we continued. The scenery changed here to green deep valleys with fast flowing rivers and sweeping vistas with the mountains distant in the haze – simply beautiful.  We asked a local lad if we were on the right road to Ouirgane and he told us it was only 5kms away (this we doubted), soon after we came across and interesting set of road signs. None were to Ouirgane, but all roads seemed to go to Ouzguita! Armed with this useful information we carried on. As we dropped down towards a river we passed a road sign stating that our speed could be monitored by a speed gun for the next 5kms. Expecting to come across some decent road and a town as our speed had been less than 40km/h for some time it was a surprise to find the road got worse as it turned and went across a bridge and a river. Climbing back up the other side we noticed that there was a lot rocks and soil that had recently been shifted to clear the road.

More wonderful scenery!

Leaving a small village behind, we continued to climb out of the valley negotiating around boulders and other debris that had been brought down by what we think was a storm a few days before. We also passed another sign in the opposite direction about the speed cameras – can’t think how many tickets they must have issued. Finally we dropped down into another valley and connected with the main road. Our hotel Chez Momo 2 was not far. (N.B. Chez Momo is under the waters of the local reservoir created in 2006).

14-15^th March

At 09:30 we met our guide for Marrakech in reception. Abdullah was a pleasant guy with lots of information. I asked him what the agenda was for the day as I wanted to avoid any carpet sales. He deftly avoided the answer, which had me a bit concerned, but there was no need to worry.

Inside the first tomb

First stop was the Saadian tombs. These are some of the finest examples of Islamic architecture in Morocco. The first tomb has all of the male heirs, the women all being in another tomb close by. This tomb has a beautiful cedar wood ceiling with gold leaf inlay In between the two tombs, the slaves are buried. Apart from the first burial plot closest to the mihrab (altar) all the others in accordance with Islamic tradition are unknown. In the male tomb the first plot is that of the first sultan and in the second is his mother. You can tell from the size of some that they were children.

One of the covered courtyards

The next stop was the Palais Bahia, this is owned by the Ministry of Culture which is bit like the National Trust in the UK other than it is goverment run. It is currently having an area refurbished so that we could only see part of what is normally open to the public. We entered into a compound that is lined with oranges and other plants. These are Seville oranges, but it is not the fruit that they’re grown for, but the flowers which are harvested to make orange water for cooking. On the other side we entered a normal looking building that was anything but as it opened up into a courtyard. It has an exquisite reception area which overlooked a courtyard with a fountain. Also off this courtyard is an administrative office and an area for conducting business. None of is furnished now, but would have been very comfortable in its day. The next courtyard is for family and had rooms on either side for each of the Sultans 4 wives and their families. Beyond that was another courtyard which was for the Sultan himself. This is where he would entertain his family with a room that was specifically for him and an area where he would entertain one of his wives. Each successive courtyard was more and more lavish culminating in the Sultans personal quarter.

The dyers palate

From here we walked into the medina, as it was a Friday it was relatively quiet. We stopped at a dyers workshops (souks) and had the colours explained to us. Interestingly the colours on the palate didn’t produce the dye colours that you would expect - for example, an iridescent green dye actually produced a purple stain when mixed with water. The next stop was the woodworkers souk. Here Tamsin and Hanna were given a necklace that he produced on a Berber lathe using a bow and his feet to hold and turn the wood whilst using his hands to carve the wood. We bought some lovely bowls for crisps etc. We also walked through the metalwork souk and the leatherwork souk.

We entered the main square of Place Jemaa el-Fna. This is the place to be at night.  However there were still many stalls mainly based on horse carriages that sold oranges, fruits, vegetables as well as nuts and dates.

A view of the Majorelle gardens

From here we got into a car and went to the Majorelle garden. The gardens here were started by Jacques Majorelle in 1919 and contain many plants, mainly succulents from around the world. The gardens were renovated by Yves St Laurents and Pierre Berge and opened to the public place. Tamsin has tried to create a pastiche of this garden in Portugal and was keen to see how it stacked up – many photos were taken.

We returned to our hotel for the afternoon and decided to go back to the square for the evening. Here we were accosted by almost every food stall owner there. Almost all could speak with a cockney accent complete with rhyming slang, a bit like spivs. There patter was amusing as they seem to have an answer to everything we manage to move on until we came full circle and decided to eat at the first place where the “spiv” told us he had lived in Essex!!!? We wanted to have one plate to share, the idea being that we would work through the menu, sadly they had other ideas and brought us 3 plates of the same rather than one. Needless to say we filled up fast. I think we all lost out in the end as I’m sure we would have taken longer and ordered more food – oh well.

Sat 15^th. Tamsin and I had a Moroccan cookery course booked with a 09:30 pick up – or so we thought. The receptionist came and found us at 09:00. The taxi took us across town to another hotel. Here we met Wafa who was running the course and the other 7 people taking part. After a quick introduction that included the various types of tagine we moved to the kitchen and took up our stations. First we were shown how to make bread and each of us got to knead the dough. We were then taken to the hotel shop and shown all the herbs and spices that are used in cooking here.

Rose "sculpted" by TJV

Our kitchen after we'd finished.

On our return we started chopping vegetables. I was making a vegetable tagine and Tamsin a classic chicken with lemons, both with a side of cooked vegetables and a salad. Guiding us through this process were two cooks the Dada (head chef) and her helper. They showed us what to do from their station and walked around helping us if needed. In preparing the tomatoes we had to skin them like an apple and use the skin to make a “rose” to decorate it.  During all this was quite a bit of banter from the chefs and participants and was a lot of fun. When we had finished cooking the food we went outside to a table to eat it. At the end we were all full and returned to the kitchen to pick up or cooking diploma and a surprise small tagine. All in all a lot of fun.

13^th March

Impressive High Atlas Mountains

Woke up to brilliant sunshine and a tantalising glimpse of the snow capped high Atlas Mountains at the bottom of our valley – phew, my promise to Hanna had been fulfilled!

The drive to Marrakech took us through the high Atlas Mountains via the Tizi-n-Tichka pass at 2060 metres, so we knew we’d see some really stunning scenery.  Before the pass though, we took a 20km diversion to Telouet where there was supposed to be a highly decorated but abandoned Kasbah built in the 20^th century but not lived in since 1956.  This drive in itself was just jaw dropping as we followed switchbacks along the valley to eventually arrive in Telouet.

Inside the Kasbah at Telouet

Mohammed, our guide....

We parked up near the Kasbah and Mohammed, a local guide, took us round.  He was very interesting as his ancestors had been enslaved by the local pasha to build the Kasbah, and he’d traced them back to Timbuktu.  He was absolutely passionate about the Kasbah and the 20 dirham entrance fee went to towards its conservation – a monumental, but seemingly impossible task.  We were taken to the main state rooms which were still splendid and had miraculously escaped the ravages of time and neglect.  We saw beautiful painted and carved cedar wood ceilings, intricate carved gypsum plasterwork, the colourful ceramic tiles on the lower walls and the marble tiled floors. We were then taken up on to the roof and duly admired the mountainous scenery all around us.

We were just making for our car on the way out, when Mohammed asked us to come and look at some carpets!!  Well, it would have seemed very rude not to have done. So, we looked at a few and I ended up buying a small rug to go my side of the bed – it’s made from the fibres of the aloe succulent and camel and sheep hair and I think will look great.  Mohammed asked if we would give a lift to a local shepherd back to the main Marrakech road, which, of course, we did as were happy to oblige.  In the very mountainous section of the drive, seemingly at very viewpoint or bend in the road there were men selling rock lodes cleaved in half with the most revolting, highly artificial looking , gaudy pink or red crystals inside – we managed to resist these gems!!

We then continued our drive to Marrakech.  The pass actually recorded some 40 metres lower on our sat nav than our guide book stated, but still, the views were outstanding.  From there, it was downhill, so to speak to Marrakech through more amazing countryside.  As we got closer to the city, more and more vehicles appeared so we ended up going in slow moving convoys, which made for dull driving.  Our sat nav got us to the hotel fine – it looks nothing from the outside, but is a haven of peace and tranquillity once through the front door.  So much so, that we’ve all decided to veg. out this afternoon and relax.  We have been on the road now for some 12 days and I think all need some quiet time to recharge our batteries.

12^th March

Driving to the Dadnes Gorge

Today we had to pack a lot in.  We started off with the Dadnès Gorge and then we were driving the route of the Kasbahs.  These are fortified castles lived in by one family, which generally have square turrets joined by crenulated battlements based around square courtyards.  They are made from local rocks or mud bricks and mud which are compressed and are then plastered with a mix of local soil, water and straw – not dissimilar to lime render being put on a cob wall.

Dadnes Gorge

The road to the Dadnès Gorge was much better than the one to the Todra gorge and we drove through some lovely countryside for about 20 kms before we got to the gorge proper.  On route, we drove along one side of a river valley with fertile, cultivated plains below and the most astounding rock formations forming the sides.  The gorge itself was amazing with lots of switchbacks in the road to get us to the top where we parked up.  One of our guidebooks described the gorge as looking as if a huge sword had been wielded and cut a huge cleft in the limestone, which we decided was pretty accurate.  Chris got chatting to a local hotel owner who was very friendly and invited us in for tea and some cake and a view from his balcony.  The view was incredible and we were most grateful for the hot beverage as it was pretty cold up there.  As we took our leave from our host, we were ushered into his carpet shop “just to take a look”, but nothing appealed so we left empty handed. 

We continued up the valley a little further, but when the valley opened out and the scenery became less dramatic, we turned round.  We had hoped to pick up a minor road, possibly not tarmacked, so we could drive back to the main road via the Valley of the Roses.  However, we never found the road so had to retrace out steps completely, which was not a hardship at all as got to see the incredible scenery from the opposite direction.

Amerhidil Kasbah - panoramic

We drove on towards Skoura, which is surrounded by a huge palm oasis laid out in the 12^th century.  Some of the most beautiful Kasbahs in south Morocco are to be found here.  We stopped off first at the recently restored Ben Morro Kasbah, which is now a hotel.  We were warmly welcomed and had a cup of tea and then a tour of the rooms and taken to the roof for the panoramic view of the oasis.   From there we could see the imposing Amerhidil Kasbah, part of which has been fully restored and is used as a guest house but the rest kept as a living museum. 

Similar to the image on the 50 dirham note......

We decided to drive to this Kasbah and again, had a tour around it. The rooms were incredibly dark with tiny windows, but I imagine the thick walls kept the rooms at a constant temperature throughout the year.  The image of this Kasbah is actually on the 50 dirham note.  It was really interesting to compare the newly restored pristine Kasbahs with older ones in various stages of decay.  Our guide then directed us through the oasis to an area which gave us the most fantastic panoramic view of the whole oasis which is 25 km long.  Unfortunately, low rain clouds obscured the snow capped high Atlas Mountains which all our guide books showed as being the incredible backdrop.

Ait-Benhaddou from the granary

We continued our journey on to Ait Benhaddou, a picturesque village tumblling down a hillside on the left bank of the Wadi Mellah.  It used to be fortified and has an abandoned igherm, or granary, on the top of the hill side, which really stands out.  The village is now a UNESCO world heritage site.  We enjoyed wandering through the narrow winding streets and followed the steps up to the granary to be rewarded with a stunning view of the surrounding countryside.

We then drove on to our accommodation which was an unexpected delight – Kasbah I Roccha in the tiny hamlet of Tisselday.  Our rooms were off a small central courtyard.  Another door off the same courtyard led to a couple of large and cosy dining areas heated by a log fire and some gas heaters as it was rather chilly.  From here, you could get to a large outdoor terrace with lovely views up and down the valley.  We had a superb dinner here – the best chicken tagine yet washed down with a couple of bottles of the delicious Sahari Reserve red from near Meknes.

When we went to bed, it was raining quite hard, but I’d promised Hanna that the rain would stop for the next day so we would have some superb views of the high Atlas Mountains – I had a good feeling about it!!