MOROCCO
We’ve always been drawn to desert landscapes. There’s something so thrillingly foreign about those massive skies, the incredible light, and the people, plants and animals that survive the harshness. And now, here we were with Ivy at the edge of the largest desert on the planet – the Sahara. To us, that word – Sahaaaaaara – just sounds extremely far away from everything we know. In fact, if you really pushed it, you could probably drive to its north-western edge, near Merzouga, in one very long day after getting off the ferry from Spain. But nevertheless it felt like the first of many of our little mental milestones. We’d driven to the Sahara.
On the way there from Ifrane, the road was peppered with deserty clues. Gradually we saw more and more palm trees, groaning with huge dangly clusters of sweet dates. Kasbahs lined the route. The colours changed from greens, browns and beige to ochre and orange. Even the rivers were caramel-coloured following recent rains. Ever since we arrived in Morocco there has been some unusual weather happening (although what’s ‘usual’ weather these days?), with floods in several regions. By sheer luck, so far we’ve either been just ahead of it or just behind it.
We passed through the gorgeous Ziz Valley and emerged to a view over the vast Tafilelt oasis (palmeraie), then drove down into it and camped among palm trees.
While there we met Nina and Christian, from Germany. To date we’ve not met as many like-minded travellers as we’d envisaged. In much of Europe, it seems that there are so many campervans now that people don’t necessarily gravitate towards each other as much as they might in places where they’re less usual. We have exchanged small talk and occasionally a drink with people, of course, but were perhaps guilty of falling lazily into the ‘keep yourselves to yourselves’ vibe. This will change as we go south. With Nina and Christian it was more like the days of old when we’d spot another overlander in the wilds of Guatemala or whatever, latch on and hit it off. We shared a couple of tagines for dinner, a stream of interesting chat, and managed to almost decimate our small stock of wine and beer (more on booze and Morocco below...).
The following day we studied Nina’s overview map and made the expert assessment that it was Really Bloody Far to southern Africa and that there could be one or two little obstacles on the route. Sadly, they’re on a tighter timescale than us, so when we said our goodbyes we knew it was unlikely we’d catch them up (they are already in Senegal as I write!).
And then it was on to the actual desert. Erg Chebbi is famous for its classic dunes and therefore can be quite touristy. But it was clear nowhere was busy yet so we opted to swing by and camped right on the edge of the dunes at a vast site that at times we had to ourselves.
The view from the truck was something else! We walked on the dunes and watched as a handful of groups took evening camel rides and climbed up high to see the sunset. The nights were wonderfully starry and so dark – zzzzzzz.
I spent my birthday there. We’d managed to keep back one can of beer and a glass of wine from the relatively bingey night with the Bavarians! So an apero was had before a booze-free, delicious dinner in a little café in the dunes. We were the only customers – except for the miaowing kittens on the look-out for a piece of dropped chicken (oops), you could have heard a pin drop. So it wasn’t the most riotous birthday I’ve ever had but it was lovely. Our nephew Nathan asked when I’d last had a wine-free birthday dinner. I estimated 1987.
So, let’s talk about booze. Obviously, Morocco is a Muslim country. While alcohol is available in some places, it’s not in your face in every shop and café as we’re used to. We’ve been here for more than six weeks now and have not happened across a single bar (although that’s partly because we haven’t spent time in the bigger, more cosmopolitan cities) nor had drinks served with a meal. You have to look for it, and when you find it it’s relatively expensive. In the next country we’ll visit, Mauritania, alcohol is illegal. We took this as a cue to have a bit of a re-set and cut down on our levels of drinking. And, honestly, we’ve enjoyed it. It has reminded us how much of it is habitual, cultural, and normalised as part of everyday life in many countries. Nah, we’re not heading for the tee-total life, but a bit of perspective has been good for the mind, liver and wallet.
Luckily we love a mint tea and a nice coffee, and so do the Moroccans. In fact there are often little coffee vans found along the roadside.
We had a date with a workshop in Zagora, where we planned to tick off yet more items from the seemingly never-ending list of jobs needing done on Ivy. We pushed on south, stopping for the night on the way. As we headed off the road to find a wild camp near M’ssici we passed a tiny walled plot with a small camping sign. Why not? It looked abandoned but we felt sure if we pulled in someone would appear from nowhere on a bicycle. And so it was. Brahim welcomed us with tea and asked if we’d like to see the family’s “garden” – an enormous piece of land at the foot of a mountain where they’re growing dates, vegetables, henna plants, and tonnes of fruit including figs and pomegranates. He was rightly pleased with himself for having fabricated a water pump from an old car engine. We’re just happy when we can keep a car running, never mind turning it into something else.
The next morning we were hurrying a bit to get to the mechanic’s in Zagora. I still found time to run about trying to photograph birds while J had the engine running! :)
Brahim thrust a pile of delicious hot msemen bread into our hands as we left and we enjoyed a dashboard breakfast as we drove.
We had a busy few weeks ahead, during which we/I would be staying in a guesthouse in Zagora so Ivy could get some TLC (more of which next time) and so I could have a base to complete my magazine deadline and stay alone while Jeremy flew to the Balkans for work. Even though it was pre-planned work on the truck and not some mechanical catastrophe, we still find that dealing with all that stuff can be a bit stressy. We’re well aware that the Ivy list will never actually end. But these were some important jobs that we’d been procrastinating over for years. We were looking forward to getting them all done, crossing them off, probably adding some new things to the list, and hitting the road again.
How absolutely wonderful. Thank you for sharing all this
Love the photos and insights. Hope you are enjoying Zagora! P