Moulay-Idriss

We are parked tonight on a campsite a few miles south of Moulay-Idriss. It's a nice site on three levels and very busy. Good electrics but we are using our on board facilities, say no more.

We left Azrou this morning heading for Meknes, the guide books said it had a nice Medina and souk and was not as frenetic and less hassle free than Fes. Unfortunately there are no campsites in Meknes, which is quite a large sprawling city so as we arrived we were looking for a parking space whilst trying to negotiate the most traffic we had seen for some time. I picked up a sign for the ancient medina and we ended up down a one way street which became increasingly narrow with locals waving telling us there was nowhere to go at the end. It did look like a dead end but finally there was a narrow archway leading to a small car park which just had space for our two Motorhomes, phew! The medina was a five minute walk away and didn't disappoint. Paul and Chris had been looking for a lantern and found one they liked at a price they liked too and we found a kilim that we hadn't been looking for at a price we liked. It's a perfect fit in the van and looks beautiful. We wandered the alleyways until we stopped for coffee and biscuits, or Moroccan gateaux as it was described, until we came to the main square and stopped for coffee again to the sound of the snake charmers flute. Food shopping next, fresh fish, chicken, olives, fruit and veg and then back to the vans to restock our fridges. Back to the main square for lunch this time by a different route through a bewildering array of small shops which, once again, sold pretty much everything you could need. There really is no need for supermarkets here, everything you could buy in Tesco's can be bought wandering down a couple of streets and in the covered market.

We stopped to buy some bananas from this guy and he snapped us with his camera, as we returned the compliment he couldn't help but strike a pose:

 

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Bit of a leak

We are parked up tonight at a campsite just outside Azrou, we arrived yesterday after driving over the Middle Atlas from Midelt. As we climbed up, peaking at 2200 metres it started to rain and became considerably colder, the snow gates were open but there was still snow lying around us. The landscape reminded us of the Yorkshire Dales or the Lake District. We dropped down into Azrou and the weather could only be described as miserable but we parked up, turned on the heating and settled down to waste an afternoon watching a movie. We enjoyed Captain Phillips despite the sub-titles for the Somalie actors being in Japanese! We would have enjoyed it more had a sudden rush of water not splashed onto my neck and over the bench seat. We've had a small problem before with the roof light leaking but nothing like this. Water was running down almost continuously and as is was teeming down outside I couldn't get on to the roof to see where the problem was. Captain Phillips was paused several times as we manoeuvred a bucket under the leaks and eventually I taped a bin liner over the roof light, cut a hole where the water was gathering and placed a bucket underneath. At least the water was now falling into one spot and we could hear it dripping into the bucket as we lay in bed last night.

This morning it had stopped raining and I took a look but couldn't see where the water was coming in. Paul came to my rescue and we dismantled the rooflight but still couldn't see any breaks in the seals. Eventually I taped the whole outside perimeter with glazing tape, courtesy of Paul, we re-assembled the rooflight and now have our fingers crossed that it's leakproof until we get back to the UK when I can carry out a more permanent repair. I have to say it was fun standing on Paul's kitchen table which was balanced between our work top and a collapsible stool balanced on our bench seat!

Repairs completed Paul and Chris offered to drive us in their van along the tourist trail through the cedar forest to the south of Azrou so we quickly packed a picnic and set off and what a great afternoon we had. The forest changed from Holm Oak to Pine to Cedar and other varieties that we couldn't identify. At 2000 metres there was snow on the ground but it was warm in the brilliant sunshine and the views through the trees into Azrou below were stunning. We came across a troop of Barbery Apes who were foraging by the roadside and as soon as we stopped they took to the trees but for five minutes or so we watched them swinging through the trees, stopping occasionally to look back at us before dropping into the snow covered ground some 50ft away and disappearing into the forest. A mile or so further on we came across another troop of about twenty Apes picking over stones looking for food on a hillside about thirty metres from the road. We stopped and we were far enough away that they didn't seem bothered by us and we felt so lucky to have seen these animals in the wild. As we left the forest we passed a couple of picnic places adjacent to the main road where local folk were feeding some of the Apes who had grown used to this type of contact. We didn't stop.

There's a lot of fruit grown in this part of Morocco and today we passed small farms all of which had a cherry orchard and a couple of places with larger orchards. It must be beautiful here when the trees are in blossom. Even the site we are now on has cherry trees planted all over the site.

If you look very closely you'll see an ape up this tree:

 

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Midelt

We are parked up tonight in Midelt on the Municipal campsite. It's ok although the facilities leave a bit to be desired so we are using our on-board loo and showers. The site itself is a little reminiscent of Granada insofar as we have a backdrop of snow covered mountains. That's as far as the similarities go because it is scorching hot and we have storks nesting in the trees, mosque and ariel pylons just behind us. Recently we have been awoken by the call to prayers and donkeys braying. This morning it was the bugler from the barracks round the corner and the clacking of storks. Makes a change I suppose. Despite the all day sunshine here the local folk are walking about in wooly jumpers, hats and parkas and they reckon it's cold! Us Europeans on the site here are in shorts and t shirts and in danger of getting sunburnt.

There is a Sunday souk here and we walked the mile or so to have a look this morning and although we weren't too sure where it was the policy of following the crowds led us to what I can only describe as the biggest car boot sale I've ever seen crammed next to stalls selling clothes, shoes, pottery, glassware furniture, animal feed, fruit, veg, car parts, doors, jewellery. In fact just about everything was on sale with vendors shouting each other down with megaphones. The place was rammed with shoppers and browsers although amongst the thousands of people there we were the only Europeans we saw. After half an hour of dodging bikes, mopeds and donkeys we escaped and walked back to town for a coffee. No sooner had we sat down than a well dressed guy comes over and asks where we are from. We told him and he chatted with us for five minutes or so telling us all about the local area and friends he had in, coincidentally, Yorkshire. He asked where we were going next and he told us a few places to look out for and then, wait for it, you'll never guess. He has a shop selling Berber carpets and jewellery and would we like to have a look? No need to buy anything, just have a look, no pressure. We explained that we had some more shopping to do in the small market next door and he offered to wait at the cafe for us. Off we went and bought our bits and pieces; rice stuffed chicken off the rotisserie which will last us for three days,a kilo of dates for £4 and some fruit and veg. We took a different exit from the market and would you believe there he was, our friend with the Berber carpets. We went to his shop, took tea with him while he showed us some great carpets, camel wool, sheeps wool and cactus silk. But we only have a small camping car! Out came the small carpets and I must be honest I would have bought one but common sense in the shape of Phil prevailed and we left on good terms despite not having bought anything.

The Souk at Midelt:

 

 

I mentioned a couple of days ago that we were going to take the national roads from Chez Pauline, our last stop, to where we are now rather than the "scenic" route but our hosts said that the longer but far more interesting route was on ok roads so we took their advice and we were glad we did. We drove through an impressive gorge after a few miles and noticed how the landscape changed afterwards and as we came further north, leaving behind the desert with its oasis and palm trees and fertile irrigated land for the High Atlas Mountains with sheep and goats scratching around in the almost barren surroundings. The few villages we came through looked like the poorest and least developed that we had seen so far, real subsistence farming on the small parcels of land that were available in the valleys. We climbed to nearly 2000 metres before we dropped down again quite rapidly to where we are now at 1500 metres.

Tomorrow we are heading off for a campsite mid way between Azrou and Ifrane. We met a Russian guy and his wife when we were in Ourzazate a week or so ago, as you do, and he recommended this site. He's been to Morocco before and was a mine of information so we'll take his advice and look for the apple orchard campsite.

Finally, many of the dwellings here are still built with traditional mud and straw blocks. They're long lasting and have good insulation properties. Here's a photo of some drying at Chez Pauline's before being used to complete the building in the background.

 

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Chez Pauline

We are parked up tonight at Chez Pauline, in Tadighoust about ten miles or so north of Goulmima. We arrived yesterday and the last few miles were along narrow bumpy tracks with overhanging trees and buildings but the drive was well worth the effort, this is a truly remarkable place. Owned by Andre and Chantal Boyer, who were hoteliers for a decade in Guinea and Seirra Leone, they now have a homestead just outside a small Berber village with some gites and parking for a few Motorhomes. We are surrounded by Palm trees, and cherry, apricot, peach, almond, plum, olive, lemon and orange trees. Pet dogs and cats wander about and we have no need for an alarm clock as the donkey in the small paddock behind us starts braying at 6.30am sharp. This couple have amassed an amazing collection of African masks, statuary and artefacts which are scattered about the house and gardens. Chantal can cook too! Tonight we enjoyed cream of courgette soup, home made rilletes, pork (yes pork) casserole and strawberries and papaya, all ingredients being organic and sourced locally if not grown by Andre and Chantal. The best meal we've had in Morocco, in fact the best meal we've had anywhere for a long time.

There are fertile fields all around the village and a primitive but effective irrigation system and the lush green environment is a stark contrast to the Hammada, or rocky desert, which surrounds it and which is overlooked by the High Atlas. And it's the Haut Atlas which we will be crossing tomorrow heading north on our way to Midelt. There are two routes, one on a national road all the way and one on tarmac which has a stretch of piste for about ten miles and which gets up to about 2500m. Much as we would like to take the "scenic" route, considering we are driving Motorhomes and not Land Cruisers common sense has to prevail. Also the rougher road may well be blocked by snow at time of year. According to the guide books Midelt hasn't a great deal to recommend it and for us it's just an overnight stop on the way to Azrou and Ifrane which both sound like places we would like to visit. Meanwhile, a couple of pics:

I think this sky could safely be called azure eh?

Parked up at Chez Pauline, the oranges in the tree in the foreground were picked an hour or so later for marmalade.

 

 

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Gorges du Todra

Today we walked the four miles or so up to Todra Gorge. It was a lovely blue sky morning when we set off although a little chilly in the wind out of the sun. We stopped for breakfast, somewhat inevitably, and the rest of the gang scored it a seven. I gave it a zero. No cheese, marmalade instead of apricot jam and mint tea instead of a nice Moroccan cuppa. Hey ho. We arrived at the gorge and the many tourist stalls just ahead of the coach parties and 4WD excursion groups. It's certainly an impressive geological feature but I thought it narrowed to a couple of feet, which it doesn't. I must be getting my gorges mixed up. I think the narrower one is at Dades where we were a couple of days ago, confined to our Motorhomes due to a sandstorm. I took some photos but they don't really do the place justice, the red sandstone cliffs tower above you on either side while a shallow river bubbles through which I expect would be quite wide and deep at another time of the year.

Todra Gorge:

 

It became much warmer as we started our walk back, the wind had dropped and we were in full sunshine all the way back. Boy, was I ready for that cold can of Flag, even at £1.50 a pop and we certainly enjoyed our lunch of salad and the last of our cold meats. Just in case you don't think I deserved my cold beer these are the kind of temperatures we are having to endure in Tinghir at the moment and it looks like it's getting warmer!

Tomorrow we are setting of to Chez Pauline, described in the guide as an "organic oasis/African art gallery/farmyard petting zoo/gourmet retreat". Something for everybody in our party then. It's less than an hour away and we are hoping to stop there a day or so before pushing on to Azrou via Ar-Rachida and Midelt. The latter two places are just stopping off points for us but we'll be looking out for the Barbary Apes as we approach Azrou through the forest. But before any of that I have to attempt to follow Arsenal (2) Bayern Munich (1) on a very, very poor internet connection. There's a German van on the site here with a tv dish and I'm tempted to pop over and introduce myself with a couple of cans of Flag but I'm sure it will end badly.

 

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Rings and rugs

We are parked tonight on a campsite about five miles north of Tinerhir (Tinghir) about four miles south of the Todra gorge which we are planning to visit tomorrow. We left Boumalne Dades this morning with very dirty and dusty, yellow streaked vans and after a short journey of only 45 minutes arrived at Tinghir and stopped for our morning coffee. Eight out of ten today for good coffee, bread, cheese and apricot jam. Next door was a supermarket and we called in for a few bits and pieces. As we waited to pay a guy came in, had a muttered conversation with the assistant and a bottle of fig vodka miraculously appeared which was quickly wrapped in newspaper. Aha, I thought, and enquired if they had any beer. I was shown to the room next door which was stocked with wine, beer and spirits and purchased a tray of Flag beer at an exorbitant price. As we left the guy who had purchased the vodka was outside and asked with a laugh if I had managed to find the beer. We got chatting and it turned out he had lived in Paris for twenty five years, worked as a motor mechanic and had come home for a holiday and to visit his mother who was unwell. He asked if we had been to the market or the area where the Jewish silversmiths had lived and worked and when we said we hadn't he gave us directions and eventually said it was no trouble to show us the way. Off we went through a maze of streets where small metal fabricators, welders, joiners and a few other trades were banging and clattering away, roads were being repaired and push bikes, mopeds and the occasional car weaved their way through, avoiding pedestrians and pot holes. Eventually we arrived at a small market square and were led through a tiny doorway, which we would never have found, and into the women's market, so called because it sold women's and children's clothes and shoes and not much else. We exited into a maze of alleyways where the Kasbah was being restored with the traditional clay and straw blocks. This was a part of town, explained Mohamed, where tourists rarely came. We passed a water fountain where women and children were filling water containers and Mohamed explained that the water only flowed for two hours in the morning and two hours at night. By now we were completely lost amongst the narrow twisting lanes, we turned a corner and Mohamed, before taking his leave to his house just around the corner, introduced us to Hassan, who was stood outside a fairly non descript doorway. On the way Mohamed,who is a Berber, as is almost everybody here in the south, chatted away to us in near perfect English, telling us about the silver mine just outside town which is the largest mine in Africa and which employs over three thousand people. Telling us, as other people had told us before, how well the Berbers and Jews had got along together. He pointed out many community and educational centres in the Ksour. For many years in Morocco the Berber people were looked down upon and even persecuted by the Arabs, who arrived in the seventh century but now there is a resurgence in Berber pride with Berbers, who were the original occupants of Morocco, accounting for eighty five percent of the population as a whole and the Berber language being taught now in mainstream schools.

So, back to Hassan who invites us into his house. Up a flight of stairs and we're into a veritable emporium of pottery, jewellery, lanterns, some percussion instruments and glassware. There were no signs outside the shop and when I enquired of Hassan he explained that his business was partly wholesale to retailers and the retail trade he enjoyed arrived by word of mouth, the odd tour bus and, of course, folk like Mohamed. Hassan explained the significance and origins of the, almost exclusively, silver jewellery he had. Some of it he bought in but a lot of it was made by family members or Berber or Tuareg craftsmen. It was some of the best silver work we had seen and although we had no intention of buying anything when we were first invited in, inevitably we did. Hassan said that he didn't negotiate on price, "We'll, maybe just a little bit" but, to be fair the first prices he quoted on the things we picked up were more than reasonable. Phil bought a beautiful tiger stone set in a silver ring and I bought a silver "living man" which I will wear with pride to remind me of the wonderful people we have met so far here in Morocco. After "negotiation" I think everybody was satisfied with the price we paid. Paul and Chris wanted to buy a lantern, they've been looking for the ideal one for a few days now but Hassan didn't have any that took their fancy but offered to take us to a friend of his who had a wider selection. Up another flight of stairs to another exit from the house and we entered a carpet weaving room with some fabulous examples of the work hanging on the walls. We'd been keeping an eye out for a small rug for the side of our bed in the van and although there wasn't a rug the right size we eventually bought an "antique?" cushion cover which is just the right size, is beautiful and will be another memory for us.

Off to the lantern shop through another maze of alleys, guided by Hassan, and sure enough Paul and Chris found one they liked. Unfortunately, on examination, it wasn't as well made as they would have liked. In fact a piece dropped off while they were looking at it! So, we exit the shop and Hassan offers to take us back to our Motorhomes as, by now, we were completely lost. Phil mentioned that she needed to but some yoghurt so we are taken to three shops before Hassan is satisfied that we have the right yoghurt. Chris wanted some oranges from a stall and started loading her basket. "No" says Hassan, "not those ones, these ones." All the time the conversation flowed, we were as interested in him as he was about us and our travels and we laughed and joked until we reached the road where we were parked, albeit a mile or so down the road. He called us sun nomads, "Most nomads look for water, you look for the sun"

Ok, so Hassan had made a sale but we were never pressurised to buy anything and he didn't drag us off the street into his shop. It seems so much more relaxed here in these small to medium sized towns and villages than in the cities and if you take people at face value instead of thinking that they're out to rip you off the whole experience is just so much more rewarding.

We stopped for lunch at a cafe just next to the market before heading off to our vans and considered how a chance encounter outside a supermarket this morning developed into a fascinating tour of Tinghir and a further insight into the culture and personality of the Berber people.

Finally, a big thank you to Paul. I hadn't been to the bank and had very little cash (I'd spent it all on beer!) but he kindly lent me the money for our purchases today at an extremely low interest rate.

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Lost day

We are still parked up in Boumaine Dades. Last night it was blowing a hooly and it was the same when we woke up this morning. We couldn't see across the valley for the sand in the air, just a buff coloured mist. Consequently we decided to stay put as these are hardly ideal driving conditions and the majority of other folk on this site decided to stay put too, the wind has died down quite a lot now so hopefully we can push on tomorrow. So a day of doing not much at all really, catching up with emails, reading and watching a movie on the iPad - The Life Of Pi. We brought quite a few movies with us but so far we've been too busy having fun to watch many but it was an ideal diversion today.

We also booked our ferry back to the UK. We leave Morocco on the 5th March and the plan was to drive back through Spain and France and take the tunnel back from Calais but it's a long drive back through France so we've booked Bilbao-Portsmouth for the 18th March. That gives us time to visit Seville, Cordoba and, possibly Toledo on the way to Bibao. The Ferry isn't cheap but when you consider the diesel we'll save and food for five or six days that we won't have to buy there's probably not much in it and Phil is really looking forward to 24 hours on a boat. I'm encouraging her by telling her that if she can manage twenty minutes on a camel a day on a boat in the Bay of Biscay will be a piece of cake. Anyway, we have another three weeks here in Morocco and plenty more to see before we have to think too much about heading home. The place we are at now is a hotel with a high walled courtyard adjacent for Motorhomes. Here's a pic, the reason you can't really see any sky is because it's obscured by sand!

And here are a few more pics from our trip in the desert-

No, my knuckles are not white!

 

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