From Arabs to Berbers to Touaregs in 3 days

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Cascades d'Ouzoud - Atlas Mountains - Sahara Desert...what a dream!

Well day 3 in Morroco, and we get up early to have breakfast on the Jamaa el-Fna, check out of our hotel and make our way to the new city to pick up our rental car.

It all went smoothly, we got into the car and drove off east the road to Fez, to get of in the direction of Demnate, we regret not having bought the morrocan lonely planet, but at least we're glad that we took note of what all the people were saying about sites to visist and where they were to decide what wee can achieve or not, naively so, as we were soon to find out.

Once in Demnate we were told that there were two different waterfall sites but the best was Ouzoud, so we followed directions, the road is good and one can drive fast, very little traffic, so so far so good, we drove to Azilal were we realised tha we'd gone too far, so had to drive 35km back to a turn off, that led to the falls.

We did it rather quick, but never the less wasted time, we got there by 1pm and parked the car, again with touts trying it on on us, to guide us around, to make us park in other places, etc. We made our way and discovered this 150 meters high waterfalls from the top surrounded by a beautiful natural reserve, with lots of greenery and wild life, apparently a group of Macaques monkeys lives here in harmony with tourism.

We made our way down, followed by several guides that we told off, but one was persistant, so I told him to be aware that we were on a small budget and could only pay 50 dirham if he followed us, which he did, this ended up being a wonderful 3 and half hour trek, in which we climbed down to caves, crossroad between two rivers, saw a multitude of bird life, I swam in the ice cold melting snow water, Aziz our guide was very friendly and explained lots of things about the area. we stopped for photos, saw the caves inside, climbed and walked fastly and regretted not having time to spend a night here, it is really an idyllic hippy style place where one can imagine hashish will be easily available!

At the end of the trek we were brought to a restaurant, where obviously, the difficult task of paying for the tour was going to happen, Aziz did not feel satisfied with the 100 dirham we gave him which we felt was better than the 50 offered to start with, he made a fuss, so we left any way feeling not too happy about this fuss, but not giving any more any way, explaining that not all tourists are rich and sometimes we have budgets to negociate when traveling.

We drove off and it got dark rather quickly, when driving in Damnate, the locals were all over the roads, not caring for the car and just walking on the road, in large groups of youths, laughing and having a good time. No hotel was to be seen, the place did not cater for tourism and it actually didnt feel very welcoming in the dark.

The road became narrow and what showed on our bad little map was that this was not a national road, so we weren't sure how good it would be, it was starting to climb rather steeply and in the darkenss it felt rather dangerous, but we drove on until a point in which we could not see what way to go, totaly in the dark at a cross roads.

From within the dark a young man appeared and told us that the road to Ouarzazate through the mountains was in the direction we were, but that we'd be better off staying at a local gite for the night, as the road was difficult by night, this we had already noticed the bad quality of road and the steep climb, we thought we'd give it a try.

We drove to this little path at the end a house with a sign gite touristique, we shouted and shouted but no one would open, then a man from outside arrived and told us that they would charge 240 dirhams for the 2 of us and 60 each for a full meal, so we were happy with that, it felt like a saviour, as till then, we feared we might have had to drive on all night or sleep in the car!

The place wasnt heated, and it was really cold outside, we made our beds and were invited to a living space in a separated building were the rooms were anexed to. We were offered tea and nuts whilst we waited for dinner which was being freshly made, the guest book showed that there had not been any clients in this place since october, and we were told that it was rare for any tourists to take this road in the winter.

The family was a Berber family very friendly, made us feel very welcome, they made fresh bread, and soup, a berber chicken tagine with lots of vegetables, lots of mint and tea (mint tes is not very available this time of year, as mint is a summer herb)and water as well as some mandarines for desert, we spoke a bit and planned our journey, we were told that the area had only had electricity since the year 2000 and that we'd see many villages that are rare for tourist to see next morning.

After a fabulous meal served by the whole family, with the woman carrying her asleep daughter on a cloth bag of her back . We went to sleep really exiliarated by this adventure and not believeing our luck to have fallen into this little place in the middle of the dark road. Allah is with us!

We woke to be served fresh bread, tea and cofee, with honey and dates jam, laughing cow cheese, some sort of sour butter and more nuts. We ate and warmed up and after payment, we made our way off, the man made sure that we had a full tank of petrol as he said there would be none all the way to Ouazazate! he also mentioned that it was 150 klm and that it would take us at least 4 hours...which i thought "well...I usually drive 150 in just over an hour and a half...we'll see".

Indeed, see we did, he was right! you just cannot believe the road we took!!!, if one wants to see Berber villages away from the tourist track, you must take this road! well, road is alot to call this path of mud, snow, dust, some concrete, bend after bend, climb after climb, death defying descents, precipices but a scenery to die for!

We just could not believe where we had landed, and we were ohhhhh so happy that we didnt drive on last night, as it would really have been much to dangerous. the highest level pass that we crossed was at 3000meters (9000 feet) altitude, snowy and absolutely gorgeous!

The locals waved at us, the villages changed in colour from ocre to purple, to burgundy to brown, all of them filtering into the back ground as they were made of the clay of the area, the cliffs off the side of the road were enourmous and there was absolutely nothing to stop us from tippeling over, in spite of this and in spite of having to keep my eye clued up on the road, we totally loved this experience, the most beautiful and dangerous road I have ever driven.

We stopped for photos any where as there was no other traffic at all, just the odd mule cart, bunch of goats with goat keeper, or Berber women carrying heavy loads of wood on their backs or over their heads.

We had a snow stop to through snow balls at each other and to take in the magnificence of it all. at every curve the view changed, one side of the mountains were really green and full of plants, then came the snowy peaks, and after passing the pass the area became more and more arid.

When we finaly saw the end in sight we realised that there was still a way to go, here in the middle of, near desert kind of road, with kashbahs (castle style fortresses) on the sides of the road, and in the middle of the only straight part of road out of the mountains, a huge Oasis with several kashbah's on either side.

We drove on to Ouazazate, a passers through kind of town, not really appealing but finaly able to stock up with petrol, food and water, and able to go to get cash, we entered a large bank, were a staff member offered us to come for a ride to show us where to do our shopping and go for lunch.

We found a restaurant and had something to eat before setting off to Zagora, this was passing the anti-Atlas, a smaller chain of mountains that separate Ouazazate from the desert, another 180klm.

the road was a real road here, but soon enough it started climbing high as well, we picked up a young lad that had broken down, we soon realised that this was a scheme to sell us a trip into the desert , any way when we got to Agdz we let him out and drank a mint tea with him and set off.

We came across many tourists vans taking breaks along the way, and realised that they were stretching and feeling sore of the journey so we were happy to make our own speed, stop when and where we want and eat where we want.

After the mountains the road continued along a river, at its sides loads of palm trees, oasis like and at the other side more and more kashbahs, it made it feel like driving on the sides of the Nile but with just a smaller river instead! a strong feeling of desert already reigned in this area. The road, not as good, but at least here I was able to drive in 4th and 5th gear instead of the 1st and 2nd gear that were needed at all times on the Atlas mountains.

We got to Zagora and decided to continue on all the way to Mhamid, were we had read from other travel blogs is the place where the desert treks start at. Just outside Mhamid it was starting to get dark, at a petrol station a guy asked us if we wanted to sleep in his bivouac (tent like settlement) for 200D each, so we accepted, he got into a van and we drove on following it, there was a police check point at which they got stopped but not us, so we drove on, after a couple of miles we stopped to wait, the guy came out of a taxi and told us, he'd get into the car with us! with a little hesitation to get a young local into the car with us, we drove on, we then stopped as his cousin drove by, who was the owner of the place.

We drove into the village where they had their office, we were offered tea, waited for the Ismail (the cousin) to come by, to negotiate our stay. He was angry at his cousin for offering the place for such a low price, as it normaly is 350 dirhams, but we then tried to negociate a tour the next day having 1 and half hour camel trek, then be picked up by a 4 x 4 to the highest dunes of morroco, eat lunch and be driven back to be back on the road by 4 pm the next day.

The price was too high, but we got to an agreement of 1000D. for the whole thing, so it was agreed and we set off leaving our car in front of the Mosque in town and setting of in 4 x 4 with these two large black men into the desert through well, more desert. The guys are very friendly and did the whole Touareg tourist talk, we saw the sign saying to "Timbuktu 52 days" by kamel from here.

They are from a Touareg nomad tribe that has gone into tourism as due to the droughts, their live stock died and needed to change their life, so they now make tours for the likes of us as a means of surviving in this harsh terrain.. Whilst driving in the dark thought the start of the desert Ismail asked, aren't you afraid of being with two big dark muslim men here all alone....the turth is No i wasnt! I felt safe, although if they had wanted it could have been a dangerous situation, but we just did at no point feel threatened here.

see their website: www.mhamid-travel.com

Once we got to the camp otherwise known as" the hotel of a thousand stars" we were given a tent, to our surprise there was no one else there, the guys cooked us a chicken tagine with olives and plenty of vegetables, a huge amount of food, served us tea, Ismaii was trying to play music for us, but we could see that the guy was dead tired, so we told him there was no need to entertain us, we were happy to eat in peace and go to sleep afterwards.

The food was great and the cousin was very friendly, we spoke for a bit and had a beer, we sat outside in the cold staring at the sky which was full of stars, the dunes were visible as dark shadows, the place was clean, with clean good toilets, the food great and they did their best to make us feel comfortable.

Next morning, breakfast was not too good, rather little, and we had to wait a long time before the dromedaries (there are no camels in the sahara, they have one bump, they are called dromedaries!).
I had asked Ismail if it would be possible to make things hurry so that we could be back faster as we had a long drive ahead of us, he said he would but i think that time takes a different form in the desert and we ended up spending some time under the hot desert sun waiting for our lift to take us further into the desert and to see those fantastic dunes that we has associated with the being in the desert.The journey itself to get to the next camp was in a four wheel drive listening to some fantastic toureaq music.
We then drove on to an oasis, which has been taken over by another bivouac! we saw fish, frogs living in the water source, birds all around curiously looking at us and hoping to pick up some food, we drove on and got to the dunes, which was a fantastic site, 300 meters heigh, we were able to climb them and took some photos , from up there we could see the immensity of the Sahara, and we were day dreaming of joining a caravan of nomads and going on to Timbuktu!.

The view is fantastic and we really felt happy about beeing here, when we came down we had to wait for some time for our food( desert time again methinks..) which I guess that is the way of life here though we had to think about the journey ahead.

Well, lunch came in the form of what was a salad with sardines, olives, tomatoes, onion and peppers and kebabs gilled of camel meat (although they had said that often they served what was said to be camel but instead it was just beef!) so we'll never know if it was really camel meat, but it tasted good any way.

Whilst we ate a young french couple arrived on the site, they had walked all the way here over 4 days, they are actually wanting to follow a nomad caravan to Timbuktu, but due to problems in Algeria the borders have been closed to tourists, and so they have now got to figure our another way to get there, as Algeria is closed for them and will have to go through Mauritania.

Michael had struck up a conversation with one of the staff members who was telling him about his ailments due to love for a married french girl, it was very sweet, specially as he read to us the poems he had writen in Englsh about his love for her.

We said our good byes and set off in this route back to Mhamid for 2 hours in the desert driving like mad with bumps and dust, but we felt really happy from the experience, it was still a beautiful place to svisit and the guys had been very friendly and accomodating.

We got to the car at 4,30 and drove off all the way to Ouazazate, got ther by 8,30pm, we parked the car got a room straight away for 120 dirhams, had dinner at a beautiful restaurant Chez Dimitri's which has a long history in parallel with this city, and we went to bed.

Next morning, after a good shower to get rid of all the Sahara sand in our clothes and bodies, we drove off towards Marrakech. had breakfast in alittle village on the way, fed one of the many cats that we come across every where here. Like most Muslim countries cats abound, dogs are just used for guard mainly!

We got to Marrakech at 12,30PM with a 7,30 am departure, the road was, here as well, all curves and climbs and descents, but a better road than last time when we went through the Atlas mountains, we ran out of photo memory on the camara, so regrettably we cannot show you how scary the road was!

We spent the day organising ourselves, new accomodation, cheaper this time but on the same alley, we had beer at the big bar were we met a french boy and girl (brother and sister) she lives in Cambridge and spoke a bit with them, had a few beers.

I went for a walk alone, we did our shopping over the next two days, visited the museum of Marrakech, the Qoubba Almoravide, and the Mederesa Ben Yousseff, walked through the Berber Souk and found by ourselves the lether tanneries, where we were followed by two youths, for the first time in Morroco we felt rather threatened!, we bought oils and spices, orange water, a nice tagine, met that couple of French falks again one more time the second evening, we went for a Hamam together and just had a nice relaxing time over two days before departing back to London on sunday monrning.

Morroco,is indeed beautiful country full of kind friendly people, glorious landscapes, good food, a nice form of Islam that makes us feel at ease. People are respectful and friendly, some live by Islam fully, others are more westernised, but none of it feels as the threat that America wants us to feel.

A journey of this kind makes one realise that they just follow God as we do, in our villages and towns outside the big capitals and cities in the West, just their way is the Muslim way, and people here are like people everywhere, wanting to live an easier life, making a good income, how ever they come to it, and respect us for ourselves. Poverty and begging is part of living in a country without a social welfare system, but other than that, Morroco has been a great discovery and has thrilled us to bits.

We will be back Inch Allah!!!

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Photos

Caves of Ouzoud
Michael and Aziz

Cascades d'Ouzoud
Our last Picture at the Falls

3000mter altitude pass
Snow up on the Atlas mountains

this peak is a 3800meters of Altitude
J. Ghat 3825meters

Our road thought the Atlas Mountains
one of few trafic thast we came across

Kashbah along the road besides an oasis
As we got to the bottom of the Atlas on our way to Ouazazate

I can't believe I am here
Down that way, another dream destination Timbuktu!!!