Advertisement
Published: February 5th 2020
Edit Blog Post
Day 16. 4
thFeb (Tuesday)
We duly met & went to a local cafe for breakfast of omelets & bread, Yan got strong coffee, I asked for coffee & separate milk. I got a glass of cold milk & a sachet of Nescafe! Over breakfast we decided to see the famous Painted Rocks & then drive through a gorge shown on Yan’s map. I needed the loo so popped back to my room and went – it was like Niagara Falls! Don’t know what I ate to give me this, but had to go 3 times (and wash my undies). Told Yan when I eventually got to his car, that I may have to nip behind a boulder on our travels, but he didn’t seem to mind, so we set off.
On our road, after a few miles, there was a sign to the Painted Rocks so we drove down the good but bumpy road and eventually found them. Created by a Belgian Artist they are huge boulders painted vivid shades of blue, red, yellow and orange (and one black one). 20 years down the line, the Moroccan government has repainted them (and many others) so they still really stand
out against the brown background. Half a dozen camper vans down there (lots of camper vans over here…) Yan went to climb a distant pile of coloured boulders, I sat in the shade of a blue rock and filmed whilst waited for him.
Then we set off on a longish drive across the mountains, eventually descending into a narrow valley, which got greener and narrower as we went. The highlight was a wonderful palm-rich valley, all very lush and still with the immensely high cliffs on either side. We stopped there for a mint tea with Yan buying some salted dried sweetcorn (I had one). Yan also befriended a local golden labrador, when he slapped it’s sides I could see clouds of dust but couldn’t get it on a photo. Yan washed his hands and we set off again.
Quite a long drive along minor roads. I kept telling Yan that we were nearing Algeria, but we weren’t, we found the Tafraoute road eventually and picked up some hitch-hiking schoolboys who were so quiet we forgot they were there! We dropped them individually at their respective homes and arrived back in Tafraoute at around 5pm.
We went
for dinner at 7, at a cafe very near our hotel. As we waited to order food, I noticed the lady who had been hurrying to get out of Taroudannt a few days back (she had spent a night at Inezgane – so hadn’t come here that afternoon from Taroudannt, as she had insisted she would). She’s called Maryanne and is staying another night here. Jan leaves tomorrow, he’s going the quick motorway route back to Fez, then meeting his girlfriend in Rabat in a few days. We have had a good laugh together though, same sense of humour, so I’ll miss him. I had a bowl of vegetable soup with bread & a mint tea. Seems OK, so far… Arranged to meet Yan at around 9am for breakfast and then headed back to my room to type this.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.138s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 5; qc: 47; dbt: 0.0557s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Pedro
non-member comment
Having a good time!
Hope you enjoying Morocco. Now on your on, but looks like you making friends along the way. I think the painted rocks have a shade of brown now, with your belly troubles....good to know you keeping clean undies! Good photos. Safe travels.