Tottering around Taroudant

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Day 12. 31^stJan (Friday)

Up at 8 for breakfast – a buffet affair – I had a boiled egg & olives with bread, then a cream cheese & jam butty, washed down with 2 coffee’s and a glass of orange juice.

It’s quite warm here at night – only t-shirts needed. Makes a change from Marrakech and Ouarzazate where it was quite chilly at night and only warmed up by mid-day. Due to this we decided to take a walk to the Kasbah here, about half a mile away, have a look around, then come back for a shower. Which I have just had.

The Kasbah was quite good. This is a walled city, 6km of it, with most houses inside them. The Kasbah and wall are made from packed earth and this is the best example left in Morocco. The town was founded by the Almoravids in 1056 although it’s golden age was under the Saadi Dynasty under the reign of Mohammed ash-Sheikh who constructed the walls and built the great mosque in 1528. The Saadians used it as a base to attack the Portuguese in Agadir, although later they moved their HQ to Marrakech. Moulay Ismail massacred the whole population in 1687 as they refused to surrender to him!

It’s a nice peaceful town now though, we have only been hassled by Ahmed yesterday and briefly by a horse carriage driver offering an hour’s ride around the walls for 100Dh as we returned to our hotel last night. We kept saying that we may be interested tomorrow (today) and he kept dropping the price, going down to 50 as we left him. His horse he called “hinny” and it had a ginger mane, we eventually realised that he meant henna, not a mule/horse cross, or a Geordy lass, as we thought.

Back to today though – the Kasbah was quite good, you can get up to the ramparts but with nothing to stop a fall on the inside….

Not much of the interior is open to public. 2 very posh hotels in there both with nice gardens & pools. We crossed the Kasbah and out the only other door, then followed the exterior wall to a park to the North with a line of fountains, a kids playground and a shady park full of palms, flowers and birds. We wandered around the park to the end and sat a while in the shade, watching all the birds. 2 Moroccan youths approached us and said ‘hello’ but then Mike started practising his French on them (+ a bit of Spanish) so I left after 10mins of boredom, telling Mike I would see him at the entrance. After 20mins waiting there I tried ringing him but could not get through, so went & told him that I was heading back to the hotel. I had a nice hot shower and washed a few smalls, then Mike returned. It seems these youths wanted to go to Europe and to marry a European girl and live there, but as Mike told them they need to stay at school (where they learn French & English) and then they might get a job in Europe and meet their dream wife. It is Friday today so they may not be at school. Our hotel is between 2 mosques, so we hear the calls for prayer 5 times a day. There are over 120 mosques in Taroudant, so you’re never far from one of ‘em.

After Mike had showered we wandered off for lunch. Near the square a mad old man accosted us and began babbling away in French, seemed friendly enough. A younger man, Aziz, joined us, laughing at the old man’s rantings. All this was in a patch of hot, hot sun and I wanted to move on into the shade. Aziz took us into the square and sat with us whilst we both ate tomato omelets and chips with orange juice. Then Mike wanted to visit the Berber Market which is only on today at the other, nearby square. I said I’d get some cash from an ATM and go to buy our bus tickets to Agadir on Sunday.

Mike met a friendly old man who we call Mick Jagger after he approached us last night saying that Mick Jagger had visited his shop (probably 50 years ago). This time Mike went with him whilst I was at the ATM, but after I had my cash he reappeared saying Mike was having tea in the shop and I should join him. When I got to the shop, Mike wasn’t there! But we met outside as I was leaving.

Back to plan A. He went to the Berber Market, I went to the CTM bus office. On my way I met an English lady rushing along (it was about 2pm & very hot). She wanted a Grand Taxi to take her to Tafroute, although I told her she would have to go via Agadir possibly in 2 taxi’s. Then who should we meet but Abdul the guy who had met us off the bus yesterday and now wanted us to go to his uncle’s shop. The lady zoomed off at quite a pace, leaving me with Abdul. I had to be quite forceful in saying no to the shop visit and he got rather angry, which reinforced my reluctance… He’d disappeared when I came out of the Bus Office.

I found our hotel and had a siesta for an hour until Michael came back. We sat in the ‘bar’ outside our hotel and bought some coffee, watching the world go by. A cyclist side by side with a motorbike, hanging on for a free ride. Lots of kids balanced on bicycles in various ways. Lots of horse carriages passing by – at one point we spotted Hinny going past with a few Moroccan ladies in the back, we shouted at him to stop, calling “Hinny” quite loudly. But he didn’t stop.

Thinking he may come back to the horse-carriage rank past the Grand Mosque we headed there and sat in a cafe opposite with our orange juices, but he didn’t reappear and, as it was dark by then (6:30) we headed for the main square. I plan to do the horse carriage ride tomorrow dressed as Michaels bride (he doesn’t know this yet…)

I had a meal of a plate of cuss-cuss and a bowl of vedgies in a nice sauce, Michael got a 3 course meal with a tomato/onion/olive starter then some small meat-balls with eggs dropped among them and tagined, followed by bananas and oranges. Although he enjoyed it, afterwards he realised that he’d eaten eggs 3 times today after the boiled one for breakfast and the tomato omelet at lunch. He’ll be getting egg-bound!

It was 10pm and everything was closing down (it was a Friday), we shuffled back to our hotel bar and got talking to a customer who was an administrator, but Michael told him the story of the kids in the park this morning and mentioned that one had talked of getting into porn as a way of working in Europe. But he said it with a smile, rather than the frown he should have used, as the guy was quite offended by this slur by a local youth. Michael said it was due to the internet and we have similar problems in England and we quickly scuttled away back to our rooms, thinking we had dodged a bullet there.

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Comments

[Roz Grubb]

Virtual shopping
Love the pics. Ma is debating what is in the mud bricks in the Kasbah. I said mud. She said poo. Mucky fossil. The sky looks a lovely blue. I'm wondering what was in the Kasbah? Also what did Michael find in the Berber market? Virtual shopping experience please. Love from Gordy and me, and the (naughty) fossils xxxxxx

[DickDiamond]

Hi Roz, the mud bricks speak for themselves, although contain straw for strength. There is no poo involved. The Kasbah is mainly taken up with 2 posh hotels. We just walked through it on a lane without shops, but with beautiful gardens for the hotels on our right. Michael said the market was rubbish - we haven't bought anything here.... yet!