2008.10.11
In fact, this is the last full day of our Moroccan holiday. After the Sahara, the Dades and Todra, and the Atlantic, snow-capped mountains of the High Atlas were the next destination in our itinerary. It was no easy journey to reach the mountains without hiring a car or taxi. We started off the day with a 40 minutes walk from Djemma el Fna to a highway south of the city, to seek for a public bus that would perhaps bring us to Asni. We were instructed by a local to get onto a bus bounded southwards. The bus ran for over half an hour. We were half asleep throughout most of the way. By the time we were fully awakened, sunbreaks appeared in front of us and we could see the snow-capped mountain range of the High Atlas. Because of the thick clouds, most of the peaks were pretty much hidden.
The bus dropped us at a village, probably Tahnaout, at an intersection where a group of locals were waiting for mini-buses and shared taxis. We joined them at the roadside and ended up finding ourselves cramped like prisoners at the back of a mini goods van. I was the last to get on the van. Luckily two old men were kind enough to squeeze out 1/4 of a seat for me, while HC, MC and SH all cramped in one corner. It was an exciting half hour ride uphill zigzaging along narrow mountain roads. HC fell asleep almost as soon as he sat down. MC, a local old man and I exchanged smiles everytime HC's head fell onto the shoulders of the old man. Crowned as the biggest saturday market at this part of the High Atlas, saturdays in Asni have always been a gathering time among the locals. We strolled through the market from the end that sells tajine pots to the opposite that sells donkeys and horses (a). Nothing caught our eyes. At the exit, we hired a taxi for Imlil, a tiny village that serves as a popular base for trekking.
Jbel Toubkal soon fell in sight as our taxi left Asni. With 4167m, it is the highest peak in North Africa. The snow-capped peak was well hidden behind clouds. The taxi driver dropped us off at a cafe and agreed to pick us up in two hours of time. We followed a path into the Toubkal National Park. On our way to search for a good view of Jbel Toubkal, groups of children and locals waved at us as we passed by Berber settlements. On a dried stream bed, we ascended towards Toubkal for a short distance, climbed up a few terraced fields and reached a large rock in front of a stone retaining wall. We went no further but climbed on the rock one by one to take photos of the mountain, as well as ourselves (b)(c). This stone retaining wall and a semi-hidden Jbel Toubkal concluded our day excursion.
After we returned to Marrakech, we made a last effort to shop for souvenirs in the souk (d). As I used up my last Moroccan dirhams, I bought nothing but a box of mini-French/Moroccan pastries for my colleagues in London. That night, we skipped supper altogether. MC didn't fell well and went to bed early. SH, HC and I bought a box of mini-pastries and played some games of Big2 to determine who got to eat.
2008.10.10
I have never intended to visit Essaouira. Yet, after some days of sand and dust, it seemed rather tempting to relax ourselves at a seaside resort by the Atlantic. At the CTM bus station, we encountered a mid-aged Hong Kong couple. Having travelled to almost all nations in Euroasia, they were starting a 3-month journey across North Africa and the Middle East. On the bus, a German woman from a town near Frankfurt sat behind me. She chatted with me about her travel experiences in China and how her nephew had been having a great time studying in Shanghai.
The blue ocean had finally came in sight after almost three hours of bus journey. Immediately after we arrived, we headed southwest towards the old walled city and the harbour. We strolled through many street markets, with vendors selling all kinds of fruits, meat and household goods. A small laneway off the main shopping street led us into a courtyard filled with seafood vendors, selling all sort of fresh catches, from seafish to shellfish. We didn't stay long in the market as loads of tourists flocked in one group after another to take pictures. We found our way to the southern end of the walled city, exited a gate, and reached a junction point between the fishing harbour (a) and a long stretch of beach. At this junction point stood about a dozen of outdoor seafood eateries. We took our time to pick and at last landed on one of them (they all looked the same) to treat ourselves with some local seafood. We enjoyed the process from picking the seafood to filling up our tummies, despite the Moroccans hardly put any effort to prepare the dishes, just by adding some salt and grilling everything in the fire, without even cleaning the fish. At the end, after days of meat and bread, we were all pretty satisfied with a change of taste (c: photos from HC's camera).
After the seafood, we stayed at the harbour to shoot some pictures, lingered at the beach for an hour, toured the old city for another hour and a half where I have done some shopping, before headed back to the bus station for an evening bus to return to Marrakech.
2008.10.09
The wind was blowing strong. A mini dust storm was visible down at the river valley as we approached the ancient mud fortress of Ait Benhaddou. We stepped out the shared taxi and could barely walk against the gust. Although in the middle of nowhere, Ait Benhaddou is a popular tourist attraction in Central Morocco. David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia, John Huston's The Man who would be King, Martin Scorsese's Kundun, and the more recent The Mummy, Gliadator and Alexander, and many other films have all been filmed at this well-preserved and renovated fortress (a).
We made our way to one of the entries of Ait Benhaddou after crossing an almost dried-up river on stepping stones. Since all entries into the fortress have to transpass private homes, we had no choice but to pay an "entry fee" to one of the local family. On the way up to the kasbah, we encountered a group of Hong Kong tourists. It was extremely windy when we reached the top. We didn't stay long, despite the arid landscape beyond the fortified walls are quite spectacular.
Our hired shared taxi brought us back to Ouarzazate. We had about 45 minutes before the CTM bus departed for Marrakech. We took our backpacks with us to the main town square and chose an outdoor cafe. Each of us ordered an egg omelette, three omelette Berber and one omelette fromage. The owner and his Berber cook did took their time to prepare the food, despite HC went to chase them after 10 minutes and we constantly stared at them from our table. We were left with merely two minutes to finish our fresh cooked omelettes on hot pans before we dashed to the bus station nearby.
The CTM bus turned up 40 minutes late. It was a great bus journey that winded through some spectacular mountain ranges of the High Atlas. The experienced driver seldom slowed down during sharp bends and descends. All we could do was to trust his driving skills and admire the sensational scenery outside the window. The route through the Ourika Valley was the highlight (b).
In early evening, we arrived at Marrakech. From our hotel, we headed towards Djemma el Fna. Filled with street eateries, snake charmers, vendors of all sorts, local shoppers and tourists, the gigantic square was noisy, smelly, smoky and crowded. Recommended by our guidebook, we headed to the third level, a dining balcony of a restaurant that faces the square. That night, we had the best tajines in our entire trip. I had one cooked with beef and plums. The cooked plums was sweet and the beef tender. The swirling ambience of the surrounding permeated our exhausted bodies and lightened our spirit. All of a sudden, bell tolls were heard and a flag was raised at a mosque across our dining balcony. We took our cameras out and peeked over the shoulders of other diners to examine the activities of Djemma el Fna. As our attention had been shifted from the food to the square, our magnificent Moroccan supper had finally come to an end.
2008.10.08
At 08:00, our guide came to pick us up at Hotel Royale. About 45 years of age, our guide AS is very talkative and knowledgeable. We hopped onto his 4x4 and started off our day excursion at our first stop at the kasbah of Ouarzazate. Then we headed east out of the city. Rugged terrains along both sides of the highway. The rocky plateaus, suggested by AS, are renmants of prehistoric era when Morocco was pretty much under the sea. Pointed at a number of refurbished kasbahs, AS told us that many of these ancient mansions are owned by wealthy Europeans, while the rest were owned by local restaurant and hotel keepers who turn the traditional castles into tourist commodities. High mud walls and traditional motifs, these kasbahs now cost roughly 100,000 to 200,000 euros each.
AS began to talk about his company, Ksour Voyages. Owned by a Moroccan and his Japanese wife, Ksour Voyages has good reputation in Ouarzazate, and even aboard, especially in Japan where the Japanese co-owner has written guidebooks about Morocco. Culture, history, geography and then of course, politics, AS was never tired of speaking out his opinions. We discussed about certain political issues, mainly on the conflict between Islamic and the Western worlds. We spoke of George W Bush, Gaddafi, Mugabe, and so on. It was a pleasant talk.
We drove through the oasis of Skoura, a village in a river basin filled with palm and olive trees. Under the shade of thousands of palm trees, mud houses and patches of crop gardens dotted along a labyrinth of narrow streets. Dades Valley, a long and lush-green area along Dades River, was picturesque in the sense that the thriving energy of life from farming villages and palm clusters on the context of barren land reveals nothing but beauty of nature (a). As our 4x4 winded through hills and plateaus, vistas of small Berber villages and farming terraces unfolded after each bend we made. From afar, the mere mud colour of the village houses may suggest a quality of ruins, yet the lush-green crops, palms and olive trees along the river banks reveal the true richness of the region, that is, water.
At about 13:30, we arrived at Todra Gorge, one of the most important tourist attraction in Central Morocco. We had lunch at one of the two restaurants in the gorge, had a short walk in the canyon, where rock cliffs rise to about 150m at both sides, and returned to our 4x4. AS drove us deeper into the gorge for about 15 minutes, on a bumpy road along a tiny glacier stream (b). We passed by a packed minibus with local Berbers heading back to the village deep in the mountains.
We back tracked as we headed back to Ouarzazate. Everyone of us fell asleep in the return journey. With his sunglasses on, AS quietly brought us back to Hotel Royale, after almost 4 hours of driving. Even today I felt really grateful to AS.
2008.10.07
As expected, we were waken up by desert flies. This was indeed a good thing. Before breakfast, we walked towards the dunes of Erg Chegaga again (a). We didn't climb to the top as the day before, but managed to walk far enough to get surrounded by sand dunes. HC, MC and I were busy taking pictures. At one point, we indulged ourselves making funny gestures to cast shadows on a faraway sand dune (b). As the desert warmed up, so as the flies (c).
After breakfast, we made our return trip to M'hamid. We had lunch at a local restaurant and boarded a bus for Zagora at 14:00. The 2 hour bus ride turned out to be the harshest experience of public transportation in all my journeys over the past few years. It was way over-crowded with people. The air was stuffy, humid and extremely hot. Before departure, the locals hopped on and off to greet each other and yielded to each other on seat arrangement. Half an hour was gone and the bus had no sign of moving. We sweat from hair to toes but the operable windows were in no way operable. We were cooked for about 40 minutes until the bus finally crawled out the village. After dozens of stops along the highway where people get on the bus from nowhere, at last we reached Zagora.
There was still 4 hours of bus ride to reach Ouarzazate, our destination of the day, but we had no idea if there was any bus available at Zagora. At the end, we decided to pay some extra money to hire a shared-taxi to make up the time and comfort. The 4 hour bus ride was cut to 2.5 hour, thanks to the vintage Mercedes. All four of us squeezed into the back seats, while 2 more locals took the front passenger seat. As evening approached, we drove through the magnificent Draa Valley, the road of Berber villages, ancient kasbah, oases and mountain valleys (d). We drove by sharp turns atop some rocky hills, where Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu filmed the scene in Babel, in which Cate Blanchett was shot at in a tour bus with Brad Pitt. We reached Ouarzazate in late evening and took the last quadruple room at Hotel Royale.
2008.10.06
I sat by the window and watched the sun rose as the bus drove by Berber oases and arid landscapes. We entered Zagora early in the morning. We called the desert tour operator and a taxi was sent to pick up us onwards to M'hamid. At M'hamid, the village where the road ends and the desert begins, we began our desert tour with HC's old friends, the camels (a) (b).
It was a cloudy day in the desert, although according to our guide, there hasn't been a drop of rain in the area in the past 10 years. We switched from camels to 4x4 after 1.5 hour of slow riding, and the camels behaved well. At midday, we stopped at a tiny oasis where our Berber guide made lunch for us.
It was late afternoon when we reached our camp, right by the dunes of Erg Chegaga. Immediately we set off to the dunes by ourselves and decided to conquer the biggest dune in the area, the Erg Chegaga. It wasn't an easy climb and it seemed quite overwhelming from below. We walked along the ridge like ants and slowly climbed to the top in about 1/2 hour. The view on the summit was rewarding (c). We relaxed ourselves on the top (d) and waited for the sunset. A magnificent spectacle of sunset was never a promise as great amount of clouds clustered near the horizon, though the sun did descend low enough to change the hue of the dunes from yellow to orange before it disappeared behind the grey all together.
At the camp, we chat with other fellow travelers, enjoyed some good food prepared by the Berbers, played with a cute cat, played some card games under an oil lamp and as night fell, each of us grabbed a blanket from our tents and set up ourselves to sleep outside in the open area next to the tents. Although there were some clouds but we still had a good time of star glancing. HC was the first to fall asleep. SH and I had some glimpses of shooting stars as the night deepened.
2008.10.05
We said goodbye to AC and left my London's flat at 2:30am to catch the 6:00 flight at Luton. After 3.5 hours of flight time and a long and chaotic queuing at the passport control, we finally arrived at the lobby of Marrakech's Menara Airport (a). We immediately felt the heat as we left the plane. Compare to the wet and chilly night of London, the Moroccan sun warmed up our spirit despite we hardly got any sleep.
After all the practicalities of storing our backpacks, securing tickets for the night bus, payment for our desert tour and a quick lunch, we finally entered the old city of Marrakech. From Djemma el Fna, the main square at the heart of the medina, we lose ourselves into the labyrinth of the souk. In mid afternoon, we found ourselves at the door of Marrakech Museum. We stayed in the cafe at the entrance courtyard, purchased 4 bottles of coke and played some big2 and then dosed off and waked up one after another until we all felt it was time to leave. We left without entering the museum. We headed back to Djemma el Fna and found a dessert cafe (b). We ordered some cakes and drinks and allowed time to pass.
We ventured off into the busy and dusty streets of the old city (c), meandered through some markets and arrived at the bus station. Again we found ourselves having a bottle of coke at a small cafe/bar across the station, for the purpose of using their toilet. All people in the cafe had their eyes fixed on the TV showing the last 15 minutes of the La Liga game: Real Madrid vs Espanyol.
At last, we boarded the night bus for the town of Zagora, which situated right at the edge of the Sahara. In the middle of winding through the ranges of the High Atlas, our bus arrived at a stopping point along the mountain road, in the middle of nowhere, for toilet and food. Raw meat were hung at shop front at every eatery along the highway while smoke and smell of cooked meat filled the air(d). The local passengers gathered at their favorite shops and enjoyed their late dinner. This was our first time to see cooking tajine pots in the fire.
Time:
2008.10.05 - 2008.10.12
Venues:
Marrakech, Sahara, M'hamid, Ouarzazate, Dades Valley, Todra Gorges, Ourika Valley, Essaouira, Asni, Imlil, Marrakech
Characters:
HC, SH, MC and me (CC)
2008.10.11
