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The next stage of our trip in Morocco was a four day trip from Fes to Marrakech via the Atlas mountains and the Sahara desert.
Day One - Fes to Merzouga via Ifrane, the Atlas mountains and Midelt We were picked up from our hotel in Fes at 9am; we walked out of the medina, hopped in the car and set off towards Ifrane. On the way out of Fes we drove past plantations of fruit trees and farms.
The scenery changed as we got further from Fes and after after about an hour and a half we arrived in Ifrane which is in the Middle Atlas mountains. Ifrane is known as the 'Switzerland of Morocco' as it is a resort city known for its nearby ski resorts. Apparently 85%!o(MISSING)f the properties in the town are holiday houses owned by rich Moroccans and foreigners. The town was nice and clean but there wasn't a whole lot to see so after about 20 minutes walking around we hopped back in the car and continued our journey.
Our next stop was on the side of the road to see the barbary macaque monkeys. Fortunately the monkeys were wary
enough of humans that they didn't get too close to us. We opted not to buy peanuts to feed them to minimise the chances of them kidnapping me... After about half an hour of watching them we hopped back in the car and continued.
We stopped again about 15 minutes later to admire the view (which seemed to be getting more spectacular by the minute) before continuing south where the landscape became much drier and flatter with snow capped mountains visible on the horizon. We stopped for lunch in Midelt which is on the high plains between the Middle Atlas and High Atlas mountains. After lunch we switched car and driver before continuing south.
As we made our way south we stopped briefly in a large canyon. The river running through it was quite small; apparently it used to be much larger before the river was dammed.
Our next brief stop was opposite a pretty town set on the side of the mountain with a lovely green valley below full of crops, olive trees and palm trees.
We continued on our way through the Ziz valley until we reached Aoufous. The town is located in the
valley and is famous for dates; apparently the dates harvested in this part of Morocco are the best and, of course, the most expensive. The wind had really picked up by this time and it was about 36 degrees so after admiring the view for a while we were quite happy to hop back into the car out of the sun.
As we got closer to Merzouga the landscape got progressively drier and by the time we reached Erfoud we were well and truly in the Sahara Desert. This part of the Sahara apparently has a similar appearance to the surface of Mars; it was very dry, dusty and rocky. It's so similar in appearance to Mars that the Austrian Space Forum spent some time in the area conducting simulations and experiments to prepare for a mission to the surface of Mars.
As we got closer to Merzouga we saw the sand dunes of Erg Chebbi appear on the horizon. We arrived at our hotel which was on the southern outskirts of Merzouga right next to the dunes at about 7:30pm. We travelled about 465 km during the day but it took us ages as the speed limits
in Morocco are quite slow (60 - 80km/hr on highways). I was thrilled to discover that the hotel was also home to four adorable little kittens and their mum.
Day Two - Erg Chebbi The following morning after breakfast (and kitten time) we met our driver and headed out into Erg Chebbi which is one of Morocco's two Saharan ergs. We drove over the sand dunes and up a dune which appeared to be part sand part volcanic rock with nice views of the sand dunes and views towards the Algerian border which is approximately 20kms to the east.
We then drove over the flatter part sand part volcanic rock ground through an abandoned settlement which was used by the French when they mined coal in the area.
We stopped briefly at the mostly abandoned coal mine and had a look at some of the small scale and incredibly unsafe looking mines which continue to be excavated by sole operators (it seemed). The miners are apparently part time coal miners part time souvenir salesmen as we discovered when a man covered in coal dust approached us with a tray covered in fossils, crystals and jewelry.
We then made our way to an area which had trees which looked like they were straight out of the Lion King movie before driving on to a Berber 'nomad' family home.
The Berbers, which are the indigenous people of Morocco, make up about 77% of the Moroccan population. They still speak their traditional language (of which there are three main languages) and mostly live in rural areas along the coast, in the mountains and in the desert.
After about 2 seconds at the Berber family's home Scott and I both decided that we definitely would not enjoy this lifestyle. The family consisted of one man, his three wives and their eight or so children (who don't have access to education). They had a series of tents roofed with a mix of sheep wool and camel hair rugs, a few more permanent mud brick buildings and a solar panel to charge their mobile phones. It seemed like an incredibly tough existence.
After a glass of tea we headed into Merzouga to have a late lunch. It seems that all tours take tourists to restaurants with fairly expensive set menus (approx. 120 dirham / 16.50 AUD per set
menu) during these types of trips. I ordered a famous Moroccan dish (pizza) as part of a set menu and Scott ordered a 'Berber pizza'. Once the food arrived we decided we'd be able to just share one set menu between us in future as the serves were very generous.
After lunch we headed back to the hotel to read our books and harass the kittens before heading to the reception area at 5pm to meet our driver so we could head off on our camel trek. By 5:50pm he still hadn't arrived and most other tourists had already been decked out in their Berber style scarves and introduced to their camel. Some of the men leading the camels took pity on us and called us over to the camels where we were given bottles of water before we climbed onto our camels.
Our camel caravan consisted of us and four Canadians (John, James, Amanda and Natalie). Once we had all hopped onto our camels we set off through the dunes. They were every bit as amazing as the photos you see online. We rode our camels for about an hour and a half before stopping at our
vantage point to watch the sunset. We hopped off our camels and climbed to the top of a dune where we took photos, chatted with the Canadians and watched the sun set.
Not long after the sun disappeared below the horizon we were summoned back to our camels to make the approximately 15 minutes trek down to the camp. We were shown our tent and then headed to the dining tent for dinner. Dinner was a salad, a mystery meat tajine and oranges with cinnamon for desert.
After dinner we sat around outside enjoying the cooler air, chatting with the Canadians and listening to the music performance the local guides who had led the camels put on. There was a large group of Italians also sharing our camp, and once the locals had finished their singing and drumming, they sang and drummed loudly and enthusiastically for a while.
The guy who led our camel train then decided that our group needed to try drumming... We were definitely less enthusiastic than the Italians (I haven't seen Scott look that awkward for a while) but we managed to make some sounds on the drums at least. After our terrible
drumming effort the guy who led our camel train decided to tell us some Berber riddles. Despite him saying "it's easy!" we didn't manage to solve that many, though got a little better after a few. We retired to our tent at around 10:30 as we had to get up for sunrise the following morning.
Day Three - Erg Chebbi, Sijilmasa, Todra Gorge, the Rose Valley and Ouarzazate The following morning we were woken up at about 5:30am. We packed up our bags and met the rest of the group at the camels. Once everyone had gathered we hopped back on our camels and set off on the 15 minute or so ride to our stop to watch the sun rise.
Sunrise was lovely, but not particularly colourful unfortunately. Once the sun had come up we hopped back onto our camels for another hour or so ride back to the hotel. As the sun got higher in the sky the dunes changed colour to a lovely deep orange which looked lovely against the bright blue sky.
We had breakfast back at the hotel before showering, saying farewell to the kittens and hopping back in the car.
From Merzouga we headed through Rissani to the ruins of Sijilmasa.
Sijilmasa, which is on the banks of the Ziz river, was settled sometime around 740 following the Berber revolts against the Umayyads. The city, which was an important stop on trade routes, grew in influence and size over the years. Little remains of the city now as the buildings were constructed of mud brick, in fact they are recognised as endangered by the World Monuments Fund.
After Sijilmasa we continued heading west. The sky got suspiciously darker and we eventually realised it was because a sandstorm was approaching. We wound up the car windows as it got closer; the wind speed picked up and then the sky turned orange. As we were in the thickest part of the storm visibility dropped to about 15m. It probably lasted about 15 minuted before we drove out the other side. Once we had passed through the sandstorm it started to rain...we weren't expecting to see rain during a trip to the Sahara!
Our next stop was at a network of underwater canals called qanat near Jorf Tinghir. The qanats were created in the 12th century to transport water 300km
underground to allow farming within the desert. We took some photos of the ventilation shafts from above before heading downstairs and into the huge tunnel. We were both impressed by the qanats; an amazing bit of engineering!
We stopped on the way in to Tinghir to take some photos before stopping for lunch. We then headed to the Todgha Gorge which is just near Tinghir. The gorge is quite spectacular; the cliffs are 160m high and it's only about 10m wide at the narrowest point. However, there is now a road running through the entire gorge, souvenir stands at the bottom of the cliff and rubbish in the river. It would have been much more pleasant with a nice walking trail and a bit of maintenance.
From Todgha Gorge we headed through the Rose Valley. Many rose based products are produced in the Rose Valley, hence the name. We stopped briefly by the side of the road to watch women picking the flowers in preparation for the rose festival which was due to begin a few days later.
From the Rose Valley we continued to Ouarzazate. We arrived at our hotel at about 7pm having travelled about
400kms during the day. Dinner was soup, salad (with tuna...), a nice lemony turkey dish with vegetables and rice and fruit salad for desert.
Day Four - Ouarzazate, Ait Ben-Haddou, High Atlas mountains, Tizi-N-Ticha pass and Marrakech The following morning we had another change of driver due to car troubles (although we're a little suspicious about this given the car seemed to be fine the previous day). Unfortunately our new driver didn't speak English so it was much harder to communicate.
After leaving our hotel we headed to Atlas Studios in Ouarzazate for something different. Atlas Studios is the world's largest film studio (by land area). Notable productions include The Mummy, Gladiator, Babel and Game of Thrones. It is apparently quite a cheap destination to make movies, has plenty of land for elaborate sets and good weather year round for filming.
We paid our entrance ticket (which was quite expensive at 100 dirhams each / 13.65 AUD) and waited for our tour to begin. The tour guide (if you can call him that...he seemed to be more concerned with flirting with a few of the girls on the tour) showed us to some of the props
from Gladiator before moving on to a Tibetan temple. We then looked at a number of Egyptian sets which were used in Cleopatra. Many of the sets had seen better days, but that probably made them more interesting as we were able to see how they had been built (definitely temporary structures!!).
From the Atlas Studios we continued on towards the foothills of the High Atlas before stopping at the UNESCO listed Ait Ben-Haddou. Ait Ben-Haddou is a ksar (fortified village) which is famous for the earthern traditional style buildings. Many of the buildings, which are characterised by high walls with small windows and angled towers on the four corners, are decorated with traditional Berber motifs which are constructed from clay brick. The town used to be an important stop on the trade route between the desert and Marrakech, however is now largely maintained for tourism and as a film set (Gladiator, Game of Thrones etc.). Most of the original inhabitants have relocated to a newer part of the city.
We were introduced to a guide who was from the area and then followed him into Ait Ben-Haddou. We walked through the streets past until we reached what
remains of the grain storage depot on top of the hill. The grain storage depot was apparently constructed prior to Islam reaching Morocco (which happened in around 680). The views over the valley and the rest of the town from the top were lovely. The buildings of Ait Ben-Haddou are quite well preserved using traditional techniques which was nice to see.
From Ait Ben-Haddou we headed (slowly) up and over the High Atlas. The highest point, Tizi-N-Ticha pass, was 2260m above sea level. The view from the pass was spectacular.
Progress down the mountain was quite slow as the road zigzagged down the side of the mountain. We had an unscheduled stop midway down on a reasonably flat section (thankfully) when something went wrong with a brake. Fortunately the driver managed to fix the issue with a spare part he was carrying and we headed on our way again after about an hour and a half.
We stopped once more on the way down at a viewing point. By this stage the colour of the soil and rocks had changed to a fairly vibrant red which looked spectacular against the green vegetation.
Eventually the mountains flattened
out and we progressed slightly more quickly towards Marrakech. We arrived in Marrakech at about 6:30pm having covered about 200kms. We were met just outside the medina by someone from our hotel who guided us to our Riad a 5 minute walk away.
We enjoyed our trip through the spectacular scenery of the Atlas Mountains and the Sahara desert, although we definitely think that some improvements can be made to the tourism industry in Morocco!
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Peter
non-member comment
Sahara
Hi Bianca & Scott, loved the blog of your trip to the Sahara; camels and dunes and underground aquaducts and monkeys. I'm looking forward to seeing more photos of the sand dunes. I'm also pleased to see more photos of Scott minus his sunnies! I trust you're enjoying Paris - which must be quite an extreme contrast after the deserts of Morocco.