The Long Drive MM: 14/04/14 - 25/04/14 Morocco

Morocco here we come

Past the Rock of Gibraltar

First impressions of Morocco are mixed. On one hand donkeys are still the most regular rural means of transport ……….

much of the agricultural work is still done by hand, ploughing with horses and cattle; little mechanization, while…..

……..the modern side of Morocco are good expressways and infrastructure at least in the NE and south along the Atlantic Coast

The medinas or old walled cities are where the history is….

……and inside they are a maze of tight alleys where trading has taken place in the same small shops for over a thousand years

The Atlantic Coast stretches south with a combination of rugged coastline and sandy beaches

Our furthest south on the coast that we went was to Safi with an old Portuguese fort and medina. In days past this was the dividing point with the Spanish holding the country to the south

Safi is renowned for its pottery so this was Marina’s first purchase – a traditional tagine pot

The central square in Marrakech has been a trading centre since the days of the camel trains arriving from Timbuktu. Now as then it remains a bustle of activity with everything being sold or traded from false teeth to…….

…….the snake charmers

The alleys of Marrakech are somewhere that you can just sit and watch for hours

By five o’clock the food stall carts arrive and magically by six you can choose from a full selection of traditional food

The stall hawkers jealously guard their turf!

The Palace el Badi with its intricate Moroccan marble, inlaid lime stone carving and then topped with carved cedar

Heading south from Marrakech towards the snow covered High Atlas Mountains

Another ancient Kasbah or accommodation and eating place from days gone by, so common throughout the country

The beginnings of the Anti Atlas Mountains

The ancient walled medina in Tafraoute

The argan tree famous in Morocco for the argan oil extracted from the nut but…….

…….most peculiar are the local goats who have adapted to climbing the argan trees to feed on the nuts. The top goat here is some 4 metres up and standing on hind legs to reach the tasty nuts

Another walled village from days gone by

Into our first oasis valley. This one being Mansour Gorge

What a change to the surrounding harsh dry country side

Minarets in Morocco have their own distinctive square shape

The landscape of the southern mountain range, the Anti Atlas Mountains was another great part of our Morocco drive…….

…..with isolated villages but also…….

The weird layering of the mountains that some 60 million years ago were uplifted from an ancient seabed

Buying vegetables was interesting. You select what you want into a plastic bowl then the whole lot is weighed together, potatoes, carrots, eggplants all in together for one price per kilo. Only some special items like avocadoes (when you could find them) are weighed separately

Gaining some local knowledge before setting out for our drive from Foum Zguid to M’Hamid in eastern Morocco along the Algerian border and the western edge of the Sahara – a distance of around 140klms

9 After being checked into the army post register we head off….

Checking with a local herdsman that we are on the right track….

Many similarities to driving in central Australia

And so our first night in the middle of no where

Around the edge of dunes that rise to 300m

Some water and bread for some camel herders

After our desert drive a young local proves his knowledge by being able to point out on our map Morocco and other countries

Stopped to ask where we could find water and were invited to camp next to this family’s house with full hospitality provided. This was our common experience throughout Morocco – people were openly hospitable and genuinely friendly