March 2nd: Agadir to Agdz

We’re heading east for the desert, but the first 70 or 80 miles contain some of the most fertile land we have so far seen in Morocco. There are orange groves, market gardens and large plastic greenhouses. But as we climb into the foothills of the Atlas range, the scenery gradually becomes more barren. By the time we reach our overnight’s stop at Taliouine, the mountains are almost completely bare, and any greenery is confined to the valleys served by intermittent rivers. This view from the campsite is an example.

Close-up, the valley greenery isn’t much to write home about where it isn’t being formally cultivated, and is suitable only for goat grazing, of which there are many herds.

We’ve also now in Kasbah country. These were defensive buildings containing dwellings, anything from a single large family with dependants, to whole communities of families. The building material was mud and straw with gravel or stones, which deteriorates rapidly without regular maintenance.
The need for defensive buildings has long disappeared so most of these mini fortresses have been abandoned and become derelict. Only in recent decades has it been realised how valuable these structures are as part of Morocco’s heritage and also as tourist attractions, so now many are being restored or partly renovated: in the case above, as a hotel conversion. They don’t seem to be very pro-active in promoting it as a hotel and you only realise it is a hotel when you get close-up. You’d have thought they would have had a big sign on the side saying something like “Kasbah Komfort Inn”.

After leaving Taliouine we soon run into an almost completely bare landscape. The next photo is a variation on the same theme.

This empty region is not without commercial value though and there are several working mines extracting a wide variety of minerals. The lunar landscape below is in the heart of this mining area- the rocks in the foreground even look like lumps of iron. This is where we stopped for a picnic lunch, two hours from our destination, Agdz, along a road the first half of which was atrociou with potholes, lumps and crumbling surface. The remaining half was superb!