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The snow-capped Atlas mountains
are at the top of the picture! |
Outside of school holidays travel from the
UK is cheap, so for our first trip 'abroad' we decided on somewhere exotic, warm, and where we hadn’t been before. And
cheap. Each day we get enticing offers
in our inbox from
Travelzoo (amongst
others) and both Spain and Malta had very good options, but Morocco was more
tantalising, especially as several members of the extended family had already been there
and reported back how wonderful it is. The timing was good too as earlier in
the year it can be quite cool, and any later and it is far too hot – it can get
to over 50C out near the desert where we wanted to go.
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| A culturally sensitively dressed tourist |
Marrakesh is the tourist centre of Morocco, and
it feels like it. Tourists everywhere and many of the them wearing inappropriate
clothes for an Islamic country. We had been told that two
days in Marrakesh was about right and by our third day we agreed with that. It
is small enough to walk everywhere if you are energetic, and given the wiggliness
of the alleys in the centre it does feel
as if you have walked everywhere. With the narrow alleys it isn’t always possible to
get a GPS fix so at times it is easier to
accept an offer from a 'guide'. If you stand on a corner for but a moment a local man or boy
will approach you and offer to take you somewhere – usually at a blistering
pace, followed by a request for money.
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| Slippers, slippers, slippers ... |
For tourists the atmospheric medina area, the main square, the
souks, a couple of mosques and a palace, offer the most interest. For us, the best was probably just walking around the medina area taking in all the
sights and sounds. The souks (shopping areas) are wonderful and the little shops
seem to cater for locals (butchers, bright plastic household items) as well as
tourists. While it is famous for its leather (bags, coats, slippers), there are
many wonderful items for filling up a home from rugs to lamps to furniture. Lucky
we don’t have a home! We just had to go and see the 'tripadvisor' top-rated site in Marrakesh - 12,000 people just had to be right, surely? Well, the top-rated site is some gardens, and they were a big disappointment. They had some lovely specimen plants - huge bougainvilleas and many varieties of cacti were a highlight, but the whole place was manicured to within an inch of its life, with small paths carrying the masses of tourists. The challenge is that the narrow alleys are crowded but
still open to cycles, motorbikes and the odd donkey.
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| Need a musket? |
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| Fruit seller in Jemaa el-Fnaa square |
The main square is the centre point for locals and tourists
alike. It is here that you find singers, storytellers (though our understanding
of Berber is somewhat limited), snake-charmers, henna artists, jugglers, dried
fruit sellers, and the small stalls you would see at any fair. And numerous
stalls where you can sit down and enjoy wonderful food. Loud and exciting. One of the most memorable moments was watching a man with his monkey - they were unoccupied by tourists, so were quietly sitting on the ground, the man watching the world go by while the monkey searched his hair for a snack!
Most of the buildings are painted shades of red. Apparently Casablanca is white and there are blue villages ...
One of the ”attractions” is a visit to the tanneries. Every
day a self-appointed guide would offer to show us the way as “today is auction
day, much more interesting”. Well it is the smelliest place to visit, full of
pits containing liquid and a bundle of animal hides being processed, plus a
chap sloshing around in waders. The hides are subjected to washing in lime,
ammonia and pigeon poo! One section is full of Berbers who look after the
larger skins (camel, cow), the second section is the Arabs who work with the smaller
skins (goat, sheep, etc). Unfortunately it is only at certain times of the year
that they dye the skins and then the pits are full of the most amazingly bright
dyes. Not while we were there though.
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| 'Ministry of Works' vehicle |
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| Taxi ranks |
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| Inside an ex-palace |
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| Crushing argan nuts to make the oil |
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| Tagines! |
Though it was a struggle getting through an entire holiday
with nothing alcoholic to drink, the local food and drink mostly made up for
this. Oranges are a major crop, hence freshly-squeezed juice was readily available
and delicious. Apart from omelettes and
couscous dishes, tagines seemed a staple of most restaurants. And not
surprising is that food and drink is very cheap!
A quick bit of history: the original inhabitants - and still the majority - are the Berbers. They have their own language and customs. The Arabs, with their language and customs, arrived much later. These days they seem to mix more and inter-marry. French is their common language, though many in the tourist areas seem to also speak English, German, Italian, and Spanish. Very multilingual.
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| At least one of these palms is fake! |
Our next post will describe what we did for the rest of our
time in Morocco, our “desert adventure” …
Leaving the city of Marrakesh the first things to note were
the large resort developments on the outskirts. Most were still under
construction and many featured golf courses. Given the amount of sand blown in
from the Sahara it must be a challenge to keep them in good condition, not to
mention watered. According to our guide, Hamed, this is causing problems
and conflict with people who live and farm in the area. Still, it
shows how many foreign tourists they must be attracting.
The countryside between Marrakesh and the Atlas mountains is
fertile and irrigated with the water flowing down from the mountains. Lots of
orange and olive groves. The Atlas mountains, which look huge from Marrakesh,
are just as big close up, with a very windy road up and over the high passes
and even some snow on the tops just above the road. Along the rather barren way
are many villages, often quite hard to see as the buildings are made of
whatever stone is local to the area and blend in very well. Plenty of trucks
and tourists travel this route, and a lot of motorcycles look like they
are preparing to cross the Sahara, but most are probably just enjoying the very bendy
road. Plenty of deep gorges and good viewing spots plus little shops selling
jewellery, ceramics and tagines.
The geology is spectacular and it must be a well-visited
area for students. There are frequent rocky outcrops, very colourful rocks, and
clear strata lines that have been tipped and squeezed into all angles. There are a couple of very spectacular gorges
too and these are well populated as they tend to be a bit cooler and shadier than
the surrounding desert. We noticed a lot of quite nice houses lying empty in
the villages and hillsides. These belong to the lucky workers who are based in
Europe and just come home once or twice a year. We stayed in a rather nicer
hotel that the basic one in Marrakesh but it was getting a bit late and cool to
take a dip in the swimming pool. And that was our fault as we had Hamed, our
driver, stop every few minutes throughout the day so that we could take
photographs! The hotel was situated in the Dades Valley. It is a rose growing
area and though we weren’t quite in time for the annual rose festival, there
were a lot of boys at the side of the roads selling wreathes of roses.
There are many picturesque desert oases with mud-brick
buildings. Sadly many are falling into ruin as the mud brick needs constant
maintenance to prevent it washing away. On the plus side, though, there appears
to be a lot of new construction in the larger desert towns with new schools,
public buildings and even subdivisions. Clearly the government are encouraging
people to stay rather than migrate to the major cities.
