Blogs from Morocco, Africa - page 4

The sun rose over the pink cliffs surrounding Tafraoute, though the beautiful view was somewhat marred by the roofs of the town below and the rubbish lying in the streets. We set off in the car once more, for our longest driving day. The first 2 ½ hours took us to Tiznit, with the first 90 minutes spent ascending and descending the mountains on a hair raising road that was essentially single track, but with wide enough unmade verges to allow another vehicle to squeeze past on the mercifully few occasions that we encountered one. The land to either side looked as if it had been terraced, but with nothing being grown on it we wondered if it was, in fact, natural. Houssain told us that it was man made, but that the land has fallen ... read more

We woke up to beautiful clear skies and a view of the snow covered mountains in the High Atlas. Our first stop was Ait Benhaddou, a picturesque village that is now a UNESCO World Heritage site, best known for featuring in numerous films including Gladiator, though for that film was there significant enhancement of the site by the use of CGI. By arriving early we managed to avoid the crowds, as we walked through the outer wall and then up narrow passageways between ochre coloured buildings. We were taken round one Berber home, which had a small pen to keep the sheep in, as well as storage space for their hay. The unlit original kitchen with an open fire sat next to a more modern kitchen with at least some mod cons. The village nestles at ... read more

Cancer and Covid have conspired to keep us from foreign travel for four years, so it’s a joy to finally take a proper trip. We have a smooth flight from Gatwick to Marrakech, arriving an hour early. The plane crew mostly look like they’re on work experience – is this a sign of us getting old? The first officer in particular was struggling with his announcements, telling us first that Morocco was an hour behind the UK, then that it was an hour ahead and finally, with a degree of embarrassment, that it was the same time zone as the UK. Meanwhile the young stewardess was struggling to remember what destination we were travelling to! We were quickly at our hotel, a pleasant riad whose one downside was its extremely close proximity to one of the ... read more

We stayed at our beach car park for two night's. We were joined by several Overland Trucks, back in the day these sort of vehicles would have been a necessity to get around Morocco's roads, luckily for us this isn't the case anymore as most and I say most roads are accessible. Of course we have to be careful what tracks we take off but we can normally go as far as we need too. We moved the few miles into Oulidia itself, to some guardian parking, these are a small fee paid car parks. But in this case it sits on a beautiful lagoon to one side and the crashing waves on the other side. It was our favourite coastal stop of 2020 and we knew we were coming back. Although we don't normally do ... read more

2023 New Year’s holidays we visited Morocco. We flew 5 hours from Amsterdam to Marrakech. We travelled by bus during 20 days together with a group leaded by a Moroccan guide, Abdul, that spoke fluent Dutch. After years of backpacking and low-budget travelling, it was a change. A nice change, by the way. We just sat in the bus, fastened our seatbelts and visited Roman ruins at “Volubilis”, monuments attached to the past and the culture of Andalucía: “الأَنْدَلُس” Al-Andalus (when Spain was part of different Muslim States from the 8th to the 13th centuries), the old Medinas (cities) of Fez, Meknes, Marrakech & Essouira, the Atlas Mountains and Ouarzazare, the ancient city where caravans stopped before entering the Sahara Dessert during 51 days on their way to the legendary Timbuktu. The flavours, colours and the ... read more