Thursday, 24 November 2016

A Road Less Traveled.... Skirting along the Algerian border.... They call me Ali Baba.... Zagora (with a name like that, why wouldn't we go)..and more..... stunning Moroccan mountain scenery..

                            Morocco....part 4...
......heading south to Zagora, skirting the Algerian border

We leave the desert at Merzouga for the mysteriously named town of Zagora, which is about 5 hrs or so in the far southwest.

Seems easy enough..... but..(if you've followed our blogs - you know...you don't always get what you want).....

After arriving at the station, we discover there are no buses leaving Merzouga that morning - seems one is broken, while another leaves later in the afternoon.

We could take the Moroccan grand taxi/collectivo; but the southern route we wish to travel along is quiet and desolate, with only several small towns on the way.

As the grand taxis only go to the next town, and don't leave until they have their 7 paying passengers, the idea of hopping from town to town in this fashion to Zagora could take all day or longer. So........

.......we opt for a private taxi. We find a taxi willing to take us the distance. A bit of bargaining leaves our driver in a bad mood. Seems, he thought his first offer was fair and we've somehow insulted him.

Great ... spending about 3 hrs or more with an unhappy, moody driver won't be fun.



But, the scenery along this flatter, more southern route, running east to west, just above the Algerian border is breathtaking.


The quiet road, just newly paved takes us across vast tracts of dry, barren rolling hills. Our quiet, moody driver manages a brisk 120 kms/hr, as we zoom beneath red-rock mountains.

Our driver stops only long enough to ask for directions, as he hasn't been on this road before. We take a short cut and save another hour or so getting to Zagora.
The 5 hr drive ends up being about 3 hrs.


We find a wonderful riad on the outskirts of town in the palmerias; these are the areas where the palm dates are grown. Located on the valley bottom, alongside the rivers, these oasis' of lush greenery stretch for kilometers. Most are protected by government laws, and UNESCO as they are a crucial source for the date industry. With fall harvest underway, the dates are as yummy as they are varied!




We've also come to Zagora and area to take one last look at the Sahara.

 Rather than ride camels, we want the 4WD jeep off-road kind. As we walk through Zagora, we talk with a  company offering such tours. With a little Berber bargaining, we have a deal. 

3 amigos...wind blown hair!
They are starting to call me AliBaba!

This desert called the Erg Chagaga is flat, rock strewn, along with the traditional sand dunes. We are standing on the bottom of a 25 million year old sea bed. Fossils abound. 

There are dunes, vegetation, water sources scattered throughout.  One can only imagine the consequences of being stranded or lost out here; esp in the 50+ Celsius temps of summer.


Our guide, Rachid and driver Saïd are great. We start from Zagora and head the nearly 2 hours south to M'Hamid; where the desert 'officially' begins.

Along the way we stop at a 1000 year old Kasbah. People still live in the narrow, dusty, cold and damp labyrinths.



We visit a pottery co-op. By the looks of things, little has changed in how they work for the past 1000 years.


First, the clay is mixed with water and other ingredients unknown to us, then spread out on the ground to cure.


Next, the potter starts to do his magic while sitting in a hole and turning the wheel with his feet.


Traditional oven fired kilns set in the ground with the wood ovens below to heat them


Separator pegs are placed between items so they do not stick together 

Voila!


We head for the town of M'Hamid and our jumping off point for the desert.


There are no roads here. Our driver, Saïd  follows tracks, old river beds and his knowledge, from years of guiding in the Erg Chagaga.  
By the end, we feel like the clothes tossed around in a washing machine that's on steroids...so much fun!

We are told that before one can guide/drive in the desert, you must spend time navigating it on foot to find your way around. 

Both desert areas we've visited in Morocco are anything but lifeless. There is greenery everywhere. Seedlings, sprout through the sand, in a show of green defiance in the land of sand colored tones.


Bushes, trees, not only survive, but thrive, drawing moisture and sustenance from sources deep underground. There is water, hiding, just metres below our feet. 


A nomads' well available even for Canadian nomads. Local village kids have a long hike to fill up jugs of water for drinking and cooking back home.

Water, thirst quenching, crucial for survival, bubbles to the surface at an oasis. These proverbial life savers of a rest stop, are the real deal here. 


While known to many of us, only through books and film, these shaded, cool spots, have been a welcome respite for millennia, for traders, the caravans and camel trains that plied these parts on their cross Sahara freight runs that would last 50+ days.


.......Ah, what tales these cherished treasures could tell. The fortunes traded, scores settled, gossip told......

Birds, butterflies are seen throughout the dunes and hard scrabble. Life fights, survives, even flourishes here.


We end up at a quiet, secluded camp
 for lunch.


A young boy prepares another fine meal of salad, chicken tagine and fruits for dessert. 
Our food in Morocco continues to be remarkable.

 While the menu is limited at times, it is fresh, seasoned and spiced and delicious.


Our desert camp dining room 


We are eating tons of salad everyday. Chicken, lamb or meats are available everywhere on skewers or in tagine.  

In fact from our riads to bus station bathrooms ( yep, even those hard to take squatters), to eating, and even getting a shave from a barber in the Medina....it is all very clean. 

......however time flies by way too fast out here, and soon it's time to leave... our final journey to the Sahara Desert is nearing its end and we don't want to leave, just yet...we must climb an Erg one more time!



....our lengthening shadows stretch down a dune one last time in the late afternoon sun...

 Saïd says he knows the way back; and it is a looong way back - at least a 2 hour journey to the highway.  As the dark closes in around us we wonder if Saïd really knows the way back as we bounce over rocks, dried river beds and scrub.  He does!!


Said our driver /Rachid our guide





Our final desert sunset...

Returning safely to Zagora, we pack up to leave the next morning, north to Ouarzazate  

It is about a 4 hr ride. We are unsure if there's any bus leaving, as it is a holiday......and, we are not sure why that should be a problem.... Don't buses run everyday????!!

Leaving Can Be Hard To Do...
The Road North - Zagora to Ouarzazate

Our quest to find a bus the next morning proves futile...seems that both bus stations have either no bus, or a bus leaving much later.

This time we search out the grand taxi. It is a much better, and cheaper option than the private car that someone offers us for $80 euros.

A young Moroccan man is also stuck in Zagora, and as the 3 of us are going the same way, we agree to join forces and hunt down a grand taxi. Besides, we know a sure thing when we see it.....Saïd has the language.....we are set!

  We wait for about 30 minutes, until the driver gets his 7 passengers and we are off in the van north.


Saïd..our grand taxi buddy

We sit with Saïd and talk the whole 4 hrs. He's a software programmer, working on sophisticated guidance systems for radar and planes.

 During the journey,  he pulls out his laptop, shares his thesis paper with us on these software applications that he is involved in. We know a bit about computers etc, but his work looks like 'Arabic' to us. Time goes by pretty quickly.

Oh, did we mention that our taxi breaks down.  Yea! 
We should have known..... the warning signs were there, before we'd even begun heading north.

We just laughed when a group push started the taxi to get us out of Zagora.  
Little did we know that our attempt at a bit of humor would come back to bite us!  
....is this what we call irony......

 We break down in the middle of who-knows-where.....ok... to be fair...it was somewhere in Morocco...

The driver gets out, looks under the hood ('cause isn't that what you're supposed to do, right?). 

He hops in, we push the taxi once more. 
Thank God,  or Allah, it hadn't stalled on the uphill! 
 Success, it fires up and we continue on to Ouarzazate.



Ouarzazate
Our time in Ouarzazate passes quickly. It is a well organized town. Weather is great. Hot for several hours during the day, but cool at night. We visit several sights around the area. 



The old Medina's


Intricate ceilings and walls abound

Upon visiting an ancient Medina we take pause to have tea in a local restaurant where we are quickly invited to tour their restaurant and rooms for rent.  We drink tea and sit outside with the locals in front of the community fountain and washing area.



These women were hard at work brushing their brilliantly coloured carpets.

Next up was the quirky Atlas Corporation Studios where many movie sets are on display for viewing. Ouarzazate is famous for this studio.



Rested, we say goodbye and head to Marrakech ...



Up, Up and Away...Over the High Atlas Mountains
.....the road from Zagora to Marrakech highway.....

This stretch of road has to be one of the more spectacular pieces of highway anywhere in the world. 
In our humble opinion.....
And, in our travels, we have driven over, around and nearly over the edge of some pretty amazing mountain roads. 

Much like our travels through Morocco to this point, this journey from desert over the Atlas Mountains epitomizes the best this varied country offers. 

Morocco is a big, rugged, beautiful country. Regions of abundance are spread throughout. The geographic variety is outstanding. It is a country worth visiting!

The scenery, vistas, elevation changes, mountain passes is truly second to none. Total bus time starting from Zagora and ending in Marrakech is probably 8 hours and  costs about $30 Can/person.


If you had a car, one could easily spend several days on this route. From jaw dropping pull outs, the opportunity to hike, visit small, neatly tucked away villages or stop by shady river valley bottoms..the views are never boring.


We start in the flats of the desert area of Zagora. From there, we begin a slow, steady ascent to Ouarzazate. We soon leave Ouarzazate's rolling hills and begin climbing. When we reach Agdaz, we encounter a series of dizzying, switch back ascents through the High Atlas Mountains. 


Some villages looked to be carved right from the iron colored hills.


Once over the top, reaching 2260 metres, we begin our descent to Marrakech... equally impressive...

Work is being done to upgrade, eliminate corners, add passing lanes etc. Quality is similar to our own highway roads.


Roads here in the High Atlas Mountains, like elsewhere in Morocco, are in great shape.

 Narrow in parts, our bus seems to spend a fair bit of time in the other lane and blaring on the horn while rounding blind corners.



Motorbiking this region of Morocco would be an adventure.


Truly jaw dropping....snow rests on the highest peaks.



Next up.... Morocco...part 5... Marrakech and more



Additional Random Photos ...











These sand fences are found everywhere in the desert to prevent sand from crossing the road and creating a driving hazard, as well as around some crops.




                             Cheers, until the next time....

Sunday, 20 November 2016

Midnight at the Oasis, Put your Camel to Bed.......Rock the Kasbah...Internet dates, palm dates and Camel dates, and there are no bad dates in the desert...

The prologue....
....we went to the desert (without a horse with no name) on dromedaries called Ali and Hassan....

                          Morocco...Part 3.....The Sahara....
...... a place of overwhelming beauty at every turn and much much more...

"Berber whiskey makes you frisky, but it isn't risky"
...ancient Moroccan proverb...told to us by our taxi driver...it actually refers to Moroccan tea...ha

We find ourselves on a sand dune in the Sahara, under a November supermoon, a scant 15 km from the Algerian border...

     OK.... let's rewind this story and start back        several days earlier......

Paul Bowles; author of The Sheltering Sky and more...writes the following about the desert...

..."The coming of day promises a change; It's only when the day had fully arrived that the watcher suspects it is the same day returned once again - the same day he has been living for a long time over and over".....PB

His words strike a chord with us....a timeless cycle, sand, sunrise, sunset...the wind shaping, shifting dunes...yet, the rhythms of the desert continue on..

To us the desert is like a lover we all desire... intimate and close.....it gets under your clothes, lingers on your skin, slips into your bed, runs its fine, wind-driven fingers through your hair and caresses places only a lover knows....


...it is a place of silence and solitude...a place where dreams and mirages merge; where beauty lies in the sameness, the wind, the quiet....it is unhurried and reflective...it is to sit silent, watching the dunes in a Sahara sunset capture shadows and spirits like a Berber storyteller gathers tales... it is a place for footsteps to vanish, to return to the grains to be cleaned once more...where the vast emptiness speaks to our hearts and grabs our soul....it....is.....to breathe...







We meet Mohamed on an internet camel site... OK... actually, it was a blog that mentioned his outfit.... Camel-Trekking Experiences...he sounded good online....and, as several other Trekking outfits hadn't bothered to respond - we were left with little choice.... upon reflection...it was a great choice....

Hassan (our driver) Mohamed (Camel Trekking Excursions)

After several back and forth emails between us, sight unseen, we have a Camel Date with Mohamed in Merzouga.

Mohamed and his driver come to pick us up 2 hours north in the town of Errachidia. From here we travel with an SUV south through spectacular gorges, villages and palmeraies.



A 'donkey parking lot' in the middle of town...vendors coming to town with their donkeys laden with their wares need a place to secure their animals.  Ropes staked to the ground prevent these beasts of burden from wandering .

Later that day, with the sun setting over the desert dunes, we are now in the wild, empty, vibrant, silent Sahara... alone, spending 2 nights in the desert at Mohamed's camp with our camels.




Trust got us here. To this point. In Time. In Morocco. With Mohamed. Trust gets us everywhere we want to go when we travel. No different in Morocco.

We see how that the little voice of fear, pounded into us by the everyday noise and naysayers, erodes and poisons one's dreams and journeys. It paralyzes all of us, yearning to live a life. We ignore the doubters and are here, under the deep blue sky and golden sands of the Sahara...it seems to be at the ends of the earth near the Algerian border.


We ride the camels. Over 3 days, we spend 6 hours on these quiet ships of the desert. Just us in the Camp, along with Mohamed and several others to watch over us, feed us and guide us among the dunes.


The hammada or stony dessert

We visit an oasis, eat Berber pizza made fresh in a simple ground oven, wander through an old, abandoned Kasbah and climb a sand dune to watch the setting sun.

The oasis full with solar panels, water lines being pumped from the well and woven mats to walk on in the dining area.

The pizza, stuffed with ground beef and veggies is covered by this tiny drum that has the wooden fire lit on it.  At about 15 minutes the pizza is flipped and the cooking continues...



The result...a most delicious pizza eaten in our own little  Berber dining room! Even the goat Herder enjoyed it.

An abandoned Berber village from years gone past.



Our camel guide watching the sunset in his traditional jellaba coat
This is me in my jellaba coat watching the sunset.

For 3 days, we sleep in and wear the same clothes. We do have a western-style toilet, a 6 person tent to ourselves and a wash basin. It is cool at night, so we layer up on our clothing and pile on the extra wool blankets. So cozy as the wind whistles through our woven door flap.


The young man that guides our camels walks for hours over dunes and on the hard packed, flat desert.

He has a few Arabic camel commands and, it seems, only a few English words..."Good"....either inflected with a ? or ! and, "hold on" as we descend a dune while holding on tightly.

We spend hours together, just the 3 of us (hum that tune) tethered by rope and the stillness, alone with our thoughts, as our able footed friends... (Ali and Hassan as the camels were named)...plod along.


Our last morning starts early.... Yvonne goes to capture the blossoming sunrise. We eat a simple breakfast of bread, jam, cheese and tea. We pack, say our goodbyes and shokrans. Then, we climb onto our trusty rides for one last hour, rise up awkwardly on their backs, and head back to Merzouga.



Our time in the Erg Chebbi is over. We leave with an appreciation of the ancient camel trains that traded these routes.... bringing spice and cloth....sharing knowledge and passing history...

We leave you with another quote from P Bowles....

"The only thing that makes life worth living is the possibility of experiencing now and then a perfect moment. And, perhaps, even more than that, it's having the ability to recall such moments in their totality, to contemplate them like jewels"

......our moment in the Sahara was just such perfection....to remember....will be to cherish..


                              Next up....... Morocco... Part 4...
              ........Taking the road less traveled..
          ..Skirting the Algerian border....




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