Friday the 13th, that was lucky.

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Well after my last blog, I spent the next 3 days couped up in a tent/house thing in Marrakesh, feeling the worst I’ve ever felt. The parents managed to make a small trip to the shops on one day, and actually got to go into Marrakesh for the day on another, while I stayed in watching films and waiting for Facebook to load, and load ,and load( the place had WiFi, but our tent house was only just in its zone) Being the first time of having food poisoning to that degree, I didn’t know what to expect, or how long I was going to have to put up with it for. It got so bad that, combined with the awful weather, I just wanted to go home. Which just isn’t right as this is an amazing country, with amazing mountainous scenery, enchanting deserts and fascinating ancient medinas full of history. But there has to be a moment where enough is enough, and its time to cut your losses and go.



Luckily that day didn’t happen, as on day 4 in Marrakesh, we left and headed for the Tiz n’ Tes pass that takes you towards Agadir. Unfortunately I had woken feeling rough, with my head caning, and a stomach not sure what it wanted to do, so for the first half the morning I couldn’t really appreciate my surroundings. But after a picture stop and a couple of paracetamol, my head lightened and I could start to enjoy the drive. This meant that I was ok for when we actually started the pass itself.



What a route! The scenery was jaw dropping as the road wound it’s way around the foot of the mountains, passing tiny villages along the way. Then we climbed, and we climbed, till my ears popped several times. At one point we stopped to take a photo that showed the clouds flowing through the valley below us. A mile further on, we turned the corner to actually drive through the cloud. This continued for quite a time until we had driven around this particular mountain, and begun to decent from its 2100 metre summit. At some point the rain must have washed a hell of a lot of mud and debris over the road, as at points, it was like a farm track rather than a road. But by now they had managed to clear it enough for trucks to drive through. It became single track at times, but the volume of traffic meant this wasn’t too much of an issue.



While near the top, Dad was getting annoyed that he couldn’t see the view because of the cloud cover we were now driving through, but for me it just adding another variation to an amazing drive, the same when road became nothing but mud. There was never a moment you felt in danger, but it did add an air of uncertainty to what was around the corner! To give another way of measuring how good this route is, I haven’t really bothered to take the camera out of its bag, but today everything was being shot, and not always with the right settings so you can guarantee most will have to be deleted. But I don’t care, if you want to see the place, drive down there(or - in best Maroccan accent - if you need driver my friend, I do you good price), as pictures can never truly show a place to its fullest.



Once back down, we began to head for a campsite, and tom-tom did its usual. Instead of continuing down the main road it sent is off on a tangent. One of these roads started off looking like it was a maintenance access road, then became a river crossing! The water was barely above the sills of the truck, but who cares, any kind of river crossing is fun! The next day Mum wanted to head for Agadir to see the goats in the olive trees. Unfortunately we found out that this happens further north, near Essouria. So we headed for it along a nice coastal road, that climbs and twists like all good roads in Morocco. We stopped at a small town for lunch and had some very nice borciettes and chips, then carried on towards Essouria. Along the way Dad spotted a couple of goats up in a tree, so we pulled over and found a while herd in the trees above us, at the top of the hill. After this we headed off to the campsite near Essouria in the next town. The campsite was excellent and even had a large swimming pool. Something we are really starting to notice, is the fact that all the campsites are very quiet, to the point of empty. Don't know if this is because most of the motorhomes have head home now the weather is warming up, or if there has been some kind of warning in the media that has put them all off coming here.

The next day was a burn day. We realised we were now completely in the wrong place to reach the places we wanted to see, so we did nothing but drive as quick as possible to get the distance done. From the campsite it was all dual carriage way to Marrakesh, so those two hours flew past. Once there we headed for the Majaine supermarket to stock up, where the tom-tom decided it wanted to send us through every back street it could to reach it. With the trucks loaded up, we made our way out of town towards the main pass to Oarzazate, which we had all done before, but the other way round. This time how ever, the pass had change, as the traffic along it had increased, then just as we drove down the first descent in the middle, we had to drive through major road works, as they're upgrading it to dual carriage way with crawler lanes.

This was where I realised what a difference 4 years, or even 2, makes to a country like this. Before you could drive for miles before finding traffic other than in the big towns and cities. Now, Like home, a lot of people can have a newish car thanks to 3 years finance, so the traffic levels have easily tripled, and the taxis are now mostly new faster cars. The country has been flooded with Dacias of all the range but mostly Dusters and San Derios, again all with finance stickers in the rear window. The battle busses that would stop and collect anyone and everyone, are still here, but, are now being replaced with professional coach services from town to town. They are shoving tons of money in to the road infrastructure, as just about every town either has nice new tarmac and paths, or is one giant construction site, and as said before, this also includes the mountain passes. Now I understand that a country needs to expand to accommodate the countries growth and progress, but for me this means its harder to find the parts best for overland travelling, like the quiet towns and dirt roads only accessible with four wheel drive, as it's been designed for the commercial tourism business, where they arrive by plane, and then they're carted off by the coach load to set destinations. These destinations are easily spotted, as the roads are clean and perfectly formed, with hotels and gift shops every hundred yards. -Rant over-

The campsite in Oaurzazate was hilarious, as the staff didn't really give a shit, - Heres the form, fill that out, Pitches? ah just go in the yard and find somewhere, I'm going back to sit in my chair and talk to my friends, where i was before you drove in and disturbed me -(in my head at least, thats what he was saying in arabic) . Paying and leaving was pretty much the same attitude. The road towards Zagorra was nice, not a great deal to admire, but it did become a mountain pass as such, which added something to it. Half way down, and we turned off to drive the dirt road that ran parallel to the main. This started out as a dusty track through a few villages, that then became a rock river bed, which really tested the suspension! Then low and behold even this road was being upgraded, as the last half was super smooth tarmac, so we rejoined the main road and headed for the campsite. Once through Zagora's collection of road works, we found the site, and once at our pitch, the owner set up a table and served us with mint tea while we filled out our registration forms. Now we are just chilling in the shade, waiting for diner to cook. Once the evening begins to cool I'll set my tent up. Tomorrow is a really short day of 60 miles down to M'himd which is a small town in the Sahara below Zagora, where the fat bike will at last be fully assembled and i can ride around on the dunes.

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