Morocco Part 3 - the last 5 or so Days

Leaving Todra Valley at the foothills of the Atlas Mountains we travel about five hours in total to Ait Ben Haddou a UNESCO World Heritage site on a former caravan route between the Sahara and Marrakesh.

We have several stops along the entire journey to admire the scenery.  I no longer can put a name to every photo ... just the memory of timeless beauty remains constant.

And somewhere along the way, someone takes a photo of the seven of us, Mohamed our guide and Lasham our driver.

We stop for lunch at Ouarzazate, Morocco's Hollywood and all decline a tour of the movie studios there, so we can just stretch our legs at our own pace, although one can't miss the studios in their prominent locations and larger than life gates.

The landscape of Ouarzazate (war-za-zat to help with pronunciation) has been made to look like Tibet, Ancient Rome, Somalia and Egypt in popular movies.

Ait Ben Haddou is more known for its backdrop in Game of Thrones than it is for its value as a World Heritage Site.  It's precious for the architectural authenticity of its earthen buildings.  From the bedroom window of our guesthouse, we can see the ksar or earthen houses grouped together behind defensive walls.

From our window, we also see something that at first I think is a wedding photo shoot, but our guide tells us later that it was probably an ad or a part for TV or a movie being photographed with the ksar as a backdrop.

As we walk about town before dinner we admire how sections of the adobe buildings are elaborately decorated.

Back at the guest house, our host gives us a lesson on preparing couscous the way it is done in Morocco that is hand-rolled from semolina, a time-intensive process.  No instant couscous here.  I wrote down his recipe step by step, then lost it, but here is one from the Internet that seems very close: Hand-rolled Cous Cous from Semolina 

I am surprised at the number of seasonings used in the couscous.  Personally, I will stick with the instant, whole wheat kind.  Our gracious host also takes on to learn each of our names and to show us how to write our names in Arabic and then autographs them.  His nickname is 'Action' because he has been an extra in many movies made here.

In the morning, we have breakfast on an upper patio, then Mohamed walks with us over to the buildings of Ait Ben Haddou.  As we climb up, there are great views.

Thanks, Susi for the photo

Again, we look forward to the next leg of the trip with great anticipation.  We are travelling for four hours over the spectacular Tizi n' Tichka Pass of the High Atlas Mountains at 2,260 metres above sea level to Toubkal National Park to Imlil.  We learn that the Barbary lion used to call this territory of North Africa home, but since 1942 has been regionally extinct.

Then, while our luggage is being transported we trek for an hour up into the remote village of Aroumd (population about 1,900) and stay in a family-run, Berber mountain home (gite).  Aroumd is the highest village in the Ait Mizane Valley and also serves as a base camp for mountaineers who want to summit Mount Toubakal, the highest peak in North Africa.  Our gite host also takes people to the peak and Mohamed has done the climb too.

The photo below is looking up to the Gite from the ground before going in the door.

The food and the evening here are wonderful and the children a delight.  I seem to have lost all but one photo from the evening.

In the morning our host takes us on a trek into the valley and to the village where his sister and her family live.  The tea she serves us is a welcome treat at the half-way point of our hike.

Views of the village from the gite and photos from the hike to the village:

The hospitality here has been second to none.  It seems that we are going too soon.

The next stop is a five-hour drive westward towards the Atlantic Coast and the fishing town of Essaouira.

On the way, we stop at a place that makes argan oil, a kitchen staple in Morocco for centuries, known for its subtle nutty flavour and its many potential health benefits.  Its also used in cosmetics and hair and skin products.  Here a woman grinds - and grinds - and grinds the kernels from the argan tree that is endemic in Morocco until she has oil.  Her hand is a blur as she rotates her grinder.

In an argan tree plantation, you can see goats up as high as ten meters in the branches as they climb up to eat the fruit and leaves.  Go to Google Images to see some many examples: Moroccan Goats in Argan Trees

The medina here is attractive and small enough that we can walk about without getting lost, once a local guide has walked us through.  We admire the marquetry work done in some of the woodworking shops here and go back later just to get a closer look.  It is some of the finest in the world.    

Our local guide for the medina tour has some first-hand knowledge of how the marquetry is done and in the shop can share with us in detail how it's done.

Here is an article that explains the process:  The Artistry of Marquetry   

We are also led to a shop that makes fine jewellery.

I do get a pedicure in the medina, but not being shoppers, we spend our time in the port and outside the walls at the beach, where we've discovered a restaurant that we like.

Early morning at the port when the fishermen arrive with their catch is a spectacle.  What a busy place: citizens circling around to see what they can buy to take home, seagulls circling ever closer, which the fishermen fend off with a long stick, homeless cats of which there are far too many here and perhaps some restaurant owners.  A few photos from the port:

This is the day we say goodbye to our soft-spoken, kind and gentlemanly driver Lahsam.  The final leg of this journey to Marrakech is by bus.

Mohamed takes us by city bus to the famous Djemaa el-Fnaa - a riot of colour, noise, aromas, music, people ...

This is the largest public space in the world.  To say its overwhelming is an understatement.  As darkness descends, the place gets ever busier.  We climb to a rooftop patio to get a view of the square from above.  We eat street food in the bazaar, many delicious little plates of one item each that Mohamed orders up for us.

...then Mohamed leads us home, confident that we will do it on our own the next day ... and we do.

In the morning Paul and I head off to see the famous Jardin Majorelle, a 2-and-a-half acre botanical garden and artist's landscape garden created by the French artist Jacques Majorelle over forty years ago.  The property was purchased in the 1980s by the fashion designers Yves Saint-Laurent and Pierre Berge who restored it.  A large number of plantings are cacti.  We have seen numerous cacti and other gardens and this one truly outshines all of them.

The huge jade plants in colourful pots throughout the garden and the hedge of jades are delightful.  They obviously like the growing conditions here.

The bamboo forest feels solitary and secluded even with hoards of people.  Water gardens, ferns and fountains keep everything fresh.  The splashes of colour in the pots are like jewels amongst the plants.

Exploring Djemma el-Fnaa and its souks by daylight.  The wares are the same as we've seen in Medina's throughout Morocco, its the sheer numbers of them that make this place so remarkable.

One of the first things we hear is the music of the snake charmer.

Paul's not too sure about wearing this one:

There are numerous palaces to see in the medina of Marrakech.  We pick the Bahia Palace and spend several hours exploring it.  This palace was built at the end of the 19th. century by Si Moussa, grand vizier to the sultan Sidi Mohammed ben Abderahmane as his personal residence.  The work on it was continued later by his son.  They brought in craftsmen from Fes to carve, paint and guild many of the public rooms and numerous courtyards. 

The palace was quite a warren of rooms that apparently grew randomly as wives, concubines and children were added to the family.

Unfortunately when Ba Ahmed died all of his possessions were seized by the sultan, so we don't see the fixtures and fittings that should be in place...even still, the Royal family sometimes uses the Bahia palace for some official occasions.

Here are a few of the carved and/or painted ceilings in the palace.  The ceiling, bottom row, third from left is in a courtyard.

Some magnificent doors and doorways:

Close-ups of some exquisite work:

A fireplace and a couple of windows:

Finally, four of the courtyards:

Our last dinner is a communal one where we eat together with Mohamed in our hotel.  We were a pretty compatible, small group that travelled well together.   Mohamed was an excellent guide, greasing the wheels so that all our many transfers went smoothly.  He knew when we needed guidance and when to give us space to explore.  He was willing to answer any and all questions ... and he got them from our inquisitive group.  He was willing to share himself with us, taking us out for a beer during Ramadan; cooking a meal for us in a hotel one evening; bringing us to his family Kasbah for a wonderful home-cooked meal and casual conversation; presenting Savannah with a birthday cake on her day; keeping a very close eye on Katrina when she was ill, and so much more.  The local guides that he selected were each one, a great choice.

For two weeks we went from being quasi travellers to being tourists on a tour and having our every need looked after.  It was a vacation from our (6-month travel) vacation.  The experiences were great and not ones that we could have gotten travelling on our own.  Intrepid Travel has our respect for how they contribute to the local culture and economy in the country where they work (at least here in Morocco).  We would return to Morocco any day, for the food, the music, the landscapes and architecture, the people.  It was a good two weeks.

The next step was to fly from Marrakech to Crete.  You have already seen that post as the blog is behind schedule.  In real-time, we are on the Peloponnese in a small village that we hope to soon write about.

A couple of random photos that had nowhere to go, but caught my fancy: