rory + stephs travels: Morocco

I have one word for Morocco: Wow!!! What a beautiful, diverse and panoramic country.

After landing in Casablanca early Monday morning we rented a car and did some sightseeing around the city. As in Ghana, driving in Morocco is a bit of an adventure in itself. African driving antics - only Morocco style. We discovered strange rules such as traffic entering into a roundabout has right of way. It escapes my logic and makes me wonder why you would have a roundabout in the first place. Anyway, not quite ready for a new level of traffic mayhem and never ending beeping concerts we left Casablanca the same day and drove along the coast to Rabat where we stayed for 2 nights. Rabat is a nice, relatively modern city.

The highly praised hospitality and friendliness of the Moroccans is not so much present in the cities I'm afraid. Very much like in any big city I suppose. One of the many guys in Rabat sitting by the side of the road to watch your car got fairly aggressive when we refused to pay him. We had parked inside a dedicated area (blue lines) and paid for a ticket at the machine. He argued that the car was not entirely parked inside the blue lines. Hence we had to give him money. We acted the stupid tourist. He opened the drivers door and released his anger by saying: 'English? Yes? SHUT UP! ... Go home Jew!". On hindsight very comical. Where did that come from?!

Leaving Rabat we were headed towards Meknes and Fes to see the remains of Volubilis, a Roman settlement. I'm sure there are more spectacular and well preserved ruins around the world but I am always amazed to see how details such as elaborate mosaic floors survive for centuries. After wandering around for a while and guessing who might have lived there and how, it was time to get going again. We booked ourselves into a Hotel in Fes for the night.

From Fes we were headed to the Beni Mellal region the next day. We stopped for dinner in Beni Mellal. Funniest moment of the holiday: Rory asking for pork at a restaurant in a totally muslim country. Priceless!
About 20 km before Azilal along some very windy, mountainous roads we stumbled across a dam (Bin el Ouidane). Apparentely the largest in Morocco. Driving past a very nice hotel overlooking the lake we decided to try our luck and stay for the night. Upon further inspection of the hotel we liked it that much that we ended up staying 2 nights. We made a day trip to the Cascades d'Ouzoud. We were determined to find our way from the top of the waterfall down to the valley without the help of a local guide and succeeded. Being there in the low season is a definite plus. I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much if it was as overrun by tourists as it is in the summer months. This way it was just perfect. We even got to see some monkeys who live in the caves around the waterfall. Amazing!

As nice as the hotel was we left the next day with the goal to pass through the Gorges du Todra. A narrow valley between mountains, with steep rocky walls. It was quite a long drive through the snowy Atlas mountains and windy, rocky roads which made me dream of having my bike there (yes Daniel, you were right!). Another highlight: Giving an older man in the middle of nowhere a lift to the next village. He only spoke arabic and my poor attempts of pronouncing a few standard sentences from my dictionary failed. It didn't matter though. Every now and then you heard a chuckle from our unusual passenger in the back. He was very thankful when we dropped him at his destination and we both felt great.

Just when it was getting dark and about 20 km before Tinerhir we spotted an unusual complex of buildings which turned out to be a very hospitable Guesthouse. We spend the night in a cave! The warmest and coziest we had been the entire trip. The price included a heartwarming dinner and breakfast. If you're ever traveling through that area make sure to spend a night at 'Le Festival'. An absolute must! If you're lucky, you will also get to see the clearest, starriest sky at night, see some real Nomads and listen to hundreds of their mountain goats giving out with an echo :) Loved it!

The next morning we got the see the gorge in full glory. Pictures never fully capture stuff like this tho. We decided to keep driving and to make it to Marrakech the same day. It was a long yet again very enjoyable drive through Dades Valley and a few more mountains. I got to see Camels in the flesh for the first time. I was very please none of them decided to spit at me.

Upon landing in Marrakech we decided to spend a few days there to relax from all the driving and fully experience the city. Being one of those who absolutely hate it to be approached by shop assistants (in Europe that is) I wasn't really looking forward to the hassle that is the Medina. To my surprise it turned out to be a lot of fun. The Medina didn't see Rory 'Berber' Gaffney coming :) I suppose bartering runs deep in the Irish gene. The shopkeepers loved it and called Rory a 'Berber' because he wouldn't make it easy for them. Pure entertainment.

Unfortunately Rory got food poising and was knocked out for 2 days followed by less amusing news from his workplace so that we didn't leave Marrakech until Sunday when we had to leave for the airport in Casablanca. We were in a class hotel though so that I didn't really mind staying.

In summary: Both of us left Morocco stunned and with the promise to return - next time by bike :) Here are a handful snaps (click on image for larger version). Enjoy!