March 3rd: Agdz

Agdz is a fertile valley created by the river Draa that rises in the Atlas and peters out 100 miles from Agdz in the Sahara. Apart from this fertile valley, everything is desert. The campsite is in a walled oasis garden with palm trees that provide much-needed shade in the summer when the temperature reaches 50 degrees. It is the hottest part of Morocco.

This is part of the cultivated area that surrounds the campers. It is serviced by irrigation channels connected to a well from which water is pumped every day by an ancient diesel engine.

The kasbah in the photo is owned by the family who run the campsite and is in the process of being renovated by volunteers. They receive free meals and lodgings in the kasbah rooms that have been restored in return for their work.
What we knew of kasbahs before coming here came from corny comedy, the “come into my kasbah!” of Carry On films. It was generally portrayed as a harem type chamber with billowy curtains and lavish eastern decoration, nothing like the fortified tribal village it really is, with walls of mud and straw bricks, or mud and gravel or stones. These bricks are still made in the traditional way as described in Exodus, mixing the mud and the straw, then drying them in the sun for about 7 days. As all good cookery programmes say, here’s one I made earlier:

The restoration work here tries to replicate the original designs and original materials. Although mud-based structures might seem crude to us, once the walls have been rendered (in mud & straw plaster), the decoration can then be as sophisticated as the owner wishes. This is an example from the campsite kasbah, and the result is very pleasing.

The whole building was a warren of rooms and stairways, and we were able to wander around and lose ourselves at will. The last photo is of our group on the kasbah roof against the background of the lush palmery contrasting with the arid mountain in the background.

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!

26th Feb: Aourir (nearest village to the campsite)

Just a reminder that Health & Safety is paramount in Morocco. This unfenced square hole was a permanent feature in Aourir (aka Banana Village), and the interesting point is that it was purpose built, right in the middle of a busy pavement. It was about 3 feet deep, so a nasty fall was the reward of strolling along inattentively. Could this have been its purpose, to gee up people’s general awareness? Further, could we benefit in the UK from importing these Moroccan holes to make us more self-aware and responsible for our own safety!

Eat here at your peril. The clue is in the name.

Visitors like us who bring their own vehicles to Morocco are rightly concerned about breakdowns. This is an example of the cavalry and certainly looks man enough for the job. Suspicion is that the breakdown recovery might be somewhat too robust: fingers crossed we won’t need to find out.

And finally, a last view of the shoreline outside the campsite: we will be leaving in a few days. It has been a delightful setting and most relaxing: a highly recommended location.

The Camels are Coming!

Actually they’re here, next to the campsite. The site has been carved out of a coastal strip of scrubland the remainder of which provides grazing for a herd of several hundred camels. This is a quite extraordinary sight at first, but as they are there all the time you soon get used to seeing them scattered about. This photo is a typical evening scene.

The young camels look bizarre and cute at the same time. This little one looks as if his legs have been dipped in white paint.

And this one only has eyes for Jane! She stroked it for about 10 minutes, and the camel gradually developed that glazed, transported look of ecstasy that says, “ I want you to do this FOR EVER”. We moved off eventually to continue our walk and the camel remained transfixed for a short while but then ambled towards Jane, we presumed, for some more affection. Suddenly it broke into a run- heading straight at Jane. I shouted a warning and she quickly leapt out of the way, sustaining a bruise to her arm (as opposed to a set of hoofprints along her back). A guess at the camel’s thought process – “If I can’t have you, then NOBODY will”.

The best camel stroll had to be the new baby. One camel was lying down with the camel herder in attendance. We approached cautiously so as not to alarm the female, and within about 10 minutes a baby camel was born. You could see it getting stronger by the minute, and within half an hour was sitting confidently alongside mum but fell over every time it tried to stand up. The shadows were now long and the sun near setting: it looked as if they would be sleeping and resting until morning, so we left them in peace.

Feb: Civil Unrest in Morocco

On a more serious note this time. With all the unrest in Arab countries, are we under threat of political turmoil here in Morocco? There is a wide gulf between rich and the numerous poor, and the country is ruled by a powerful royal family. So considerable discontent might be expected, and indeed Sunday 20th Feb saw demonstrations in Rabat (the capital), Casablanca, Marrakech and several large towns. These mainly passed off peacefully, but in one town 5 people died in a bank that was set on fire. This turned out to be criminals who had used the cover of the demonstration to try and rob the bank.

About 35,000 protesters turned out in total, but this is not a large number for the size of the country. Actually, the King seems quite popular and the protesters were not demanding the abolition of the monarchy, rather that he should transfer more of his powers to the elected assembly.

The country is more liberal than most other Arab states, so people don’t feel so repressed. There is freedom of speech, and the influx of tourists and the TV allow Moroccans to see the wider world. The Internet and mobile phones are readily available and cheap.

Tourism also gives all inhabitants a chance to benefit. On the campsite there are private individuals providing the following services: caravan/motorhome cleaning, made-to-measure leather goods, a painter of pictures onto your caravan, fishmonger, greengrocer, general store, awning maker, fancy goods, oil & honey stall.

There is grinding poverty here and low literacy rates, but the economy is expanding, particularly through tourism, and the general feeling seems to be that everybody has a chance, and an improving chance, to make a better life. Morocco is certainly nothing like Gadaffi’s Libya or the fundamentalist regimes, and I’ve had no indication that the average Moroccan wants to take to the streets to move in any sort of extreme direction.

Feb 21st: Paradise Valley and Immouzer Waterfalls

The road to Paradise valley heads inland from the coast at Banana Village, a few miles from the campsite. After half an hour driving through arid countryside, we arrived at the river that signals the start of Paradise Valley.

The river is lined with palm trees and cuts through a long gorge that can just about accommodate the road and the river. The road must be impassable after heavy rain, but is well surfaced although not very wide.

The valley ends abruptly after 6 or 7 miles and the road starts to climb sharply, giving some splendid views. Lots of hairpins, and the going was slow, so we took a break at a café with a terrace looking back towards the way we had come. Photos of panoramic views never seem to do justice to the depth and scale of the scenery that you perceive at the time, but this is the fine view from the café terrace.

So onwards and upwards to the waterfalls. These carried a much greater volume of water in past times: nowadays irrigation requirements have siphoned off most of it, but on certain festival days they allow the whole flow to go over. What we saw was impressive, so the full works must be spectacular. The falls cascade down in stages and from several separate points. From the top of one of these water drops a local man was making jumps into a small plunge pool, probably a 30 metre dive, all for the hope of a few dirhams tip. We picnicked by the falls and had coffee in a nearby café, from which the following photo was taken. It was a truly delightful day, with warm sunshine all the way.

Feb16th: Sidi Ifni

Today we are visiting Sidi Ifni, 100 miles south of Agadir and not far from where civilisation runs out and the desert, stone and rock rather than sand, takes over.

On the way, we called at Aglou Plage, a small, very new beach resort in the middle of nowhere, where we picnicked for lunch. Small it may have been, but it sported a military guard post that can be seen on the right of our group, complete with keenly alert sentry feigning a soporific pose in his chair. He did have a use, though, in commandeering the key to the beach toilets for us to use. These were squat toilets, for the use of which we were invited to leave a 1 dirham tip (8p). But leave it where? Ah yes, lob it into the floor hole, Three Coins In The fountain style, whilst making a wish invoking the protection of the anti-dysentery angel.

This is the smart new prom at Aglou plage, clearly designed by an architect with railway experience.
And now 50 miles along a lovely coast road to quirky time-capsule, Sidi Ifni.

It’s totally blue-and-white art deco architecture, having been built between 1934 and the rest of the decade by Spain, who occupied the town as Spanish territory between 1934 and 1969 when Morocco blockaded the land borders and the Spanish evacuated. Here’s another example below, the lighthouse. The town is built on a headland commanding beautiful views of the sea.

Many of the buildings are in a state of decay as the photo beneath shows, which would have been a magnificent structure in its day. It’s a shame that this town, unique because all of the architecture is of the same design and period, is simply falling to bits. It is currently just retrievable but will soon go beyond the point of no return, and this is the likely scenario because there is no huge tourist potential to tempt the necessary investment this far south.

We returned via Tiznit, another walled town, but dusk was falling and we had another 2 hours to the campsite, so we didn’t stop. A 250 mile long day out, but well worth it