May 31, 2017 - Erfoud to Ouarzazate, Morocco

Before boarding the bus today we took a few pictures in the hotel lobby.
The hotel even had a stable full of camels. This one wanted Tobey’s shirt!

Once we were underway, we passed miles of artesian wells, all dug by hand. We stopped at Kharret to see some of the wells. Most were dug during the 14th and 15th centuries. There is a large aquafer located about 20-30 meters under the desert.

We stopped a little while later to take pictures of nomads who were stopped at a modern well to water their goats, donkeys and sheep.
Laundry is not easy for many of the people. The river in this area was used by many for that chore.

Our route today is referred to as the “Road of a Thousand Kasbahs”, and all along the oasis there WERE thousands of kasbahs. Kasbahs are typically known as a citadel, or fortress around a city. Many of the kasbahs were built in the 14th and 15th century. They are walled buildings with living areas inside where extended families lived. Today, many, of them are abandoned and crumbling. We found them to be beautiful and mysterious and wished we had an opportunity to explore them close-up!


When we stopped to take pictures we were met by Berber vendors, all dressed in blue. Abdulwahab, our guide, told us that they are called “blue men” because the fabric is dyed using indigo, and it used to stain their skin blue! Not so, today.


Wendy tried her hand at bartering with one of the Berbers and came away with a beautiful pashmina.

We took a small detour and saw the Todra Gorge, the “Grand Canyon of the Sahara.” I’m not sure it resembles the Grand Canyon very much, but it was interesting geology and scenery was beautiful.


Our lunch today was at the Kasbah Lamrani Restaurant in Tinghir. The tables were set with these beautiful arrangements. They removed the cones and placed hot backed bread on the trays. A pumpkin/squash soup was followed by chicken kabobs spiced with saffron, rice, and vegetables. The dessert was orange sliced dusted with cinnamon.

After lunch we were treated to a traditional tea making ceremony. The traditional Moroccan tea is made with green tea, mint, and lots of sugar. We were told that the average Moroccan consumes 40kg (88 pounds!) of sugar a year! They do like their sweets.

Seeing how the local people live and commute is most interesting. Donkeys, mules, and horses are used by many to transport goods.




We had a surprise stop at this Kasbah. It was built in 1722 and has been owned by one family since. The owner is a friend of our guide.
We were able to go inside and see part of their living quarters. Three brothers and their families all live here – 18 people in total. Inside the walls were almond, walnut, apricot, olive, and fig trees, as well as flowers.

The family also has over 300 palm trees, 120 fig trees, and 5300 square meters of roses. This area is famous for its rose oil and we passed several stores in the town selling rose water perfumes, and rose products of every kind!

We continued on to Ouarazatzate and enjoyed the different scenes from the bus windows.

Students leaving school


Tajine pots for sale. Many Moroccan dishes are cooked in these conical covered ceramic dishes.
The area near Ouarzazate is the film capital of Morocco and served as a backdrop for movies like Lawrence of Arabia and Star Wars! The Kasbah below has never been lived in, it is part of a movie set.

We are finding we wish we had more time to explore these areas, but the tour departs at 8:30 tomorrow morning, so we are getting a taste of Morocco and will have to be satisfied.

May 30, 2017 - Fes to Euford

Today we spent lots of time in the saddle … on the bus then on a camel!

Our wakeup call was at 5:30 and we were on the bus and on our way by 7:00 am because we had to cover 440 km.

Our first stop was in Ifrane, a smaller community located in the High Atlas Mountains. It reminded us of a Swiss village with pointed roofs and modern buildings. They get one to two meters of snow during January and February and there is a ski area nearby! There were even huge concrete snow fences outside of town to keep the snow from drifting over the highway.
There were storks on the roofs and a huge Lion statue along the central boulevard. There are NO lions in this area and haven’t been for many years.
From Infrane, we continued through cedar forests. There are over 18 million acres of forests in Morocco.

In one small town we stopped to stretch and saw all of these people lining up at one of the municipal buildings. They were all in line to get food donations from the government during Ramadan.
There were many Berber tents set up in the area. They were the first inhabitants of Morocco. They are mainly herders of sheep and goats. Ten days after the end of Ramadan, Muslims have a large celebration and everyone wants to buy sheep for their feast. Our guide told us the herders buy the sheep for about $150 USD, raise them, then sell them for $350 after Ramadan. The are semi-nomadic, traveling to these areas to graze their flocks, then moving back to permanent homes after Ramadan.

We also passed a field covered with white flowers. It looked like snow!

We continued our journey and reached an elevation of 6000’. We passed landscapes similar to Wyoming at home. Flat, brown, scrub bushes with mountains in the background. After lunch in Midelt, we continued up through the Ziz Gorges, past miles and miles of date palms.

Dates are a major source of income for the people. They plant over a million date palms each year and each tree can yield about $300 in income and there are thousands of trees. The dates are harvested in August and September.

The oasis are manmade along the river. The major dam in this area was built in 1985 and feeds the river. There are about 135 dams in Morocco, all of which help provide water and hydroelectric power to the country.

We finally arrived at our hotel about 4:30 pm today. We had time to freshen up before heading out on our 4-wheel drive to the Sahara with a brief stop at a Berber family’s home.

After seeing their simple home, we continued to the sand dunes of the Sahara. Tobey, Wendy & I paid extra to ride camels onto the dunes. It was a fun experience.

Part way through the ride, our guides dressed me and Wendy up in the traditional Berber outfits. We look pretty good!




The dunes are about 30 km long and 50 km wide. It was hard to get a good perception of their expanse, but none of us wanted to spend any more time in the saddle than we did! The Berbers are a hardy bunch of people.

We were back to our hotel about 7:45 and had dinner around 8pm. Tomorrow is a “relaxed” start – 7am wake up call, departure at 8:30!

May 29, 2017 - Fes, Morocco

We started the day with a city tour of Fes, the second largest city in Morocco. It was the capital city until 1925, before it was moved to Meknes.

Our first stop was Fes’ Royal Palace, or the Dar el-Makhzen. Unfortunately, it is not open to the public, but the outside is still worth a visit. The 7 golden gates that mark the entrance to the palace can only leave you imagining how grand it is inside. These famous, beautiful brass doors with matching knockers are covered with intricate patterns.

The current King of Morocco uses the palace when he visits Fes. We also passed one of the large Muslim cemeteries. The graves all face Mecca.

Across the road we stopped to get a good view over the residential medina area. There are 15 km of city walls around this area. You can see how packed together all of the houses are!

Back on the bus we passed the Jewish Quarter, or Mellah, which dates back to the 14th century. This is one of the gates.

The city has two old medina quarters, the larger is Fes al Bali. It is listed as a UNESCO heritage site and is believed to be one of the largest urban pedestrian only zones. This area is mostly commercial, with lots of shops and narrow, winding “streets”. We walked and walked, and were happy to have a guide because I am not sure we would have found our way out!

This was the oldest – and most narrow street in the medina.

This young fellow wanted us to take his picture … and then, of course, wanted money.

We had a local guide on this part of our tour. He explained that the doors were two part with two knockers. The smaller was for the women and they would only answer if a woman knocked on the smaller part. Men knocked on the larger door and the women didn’t answer if they did not know the man.

We passed lots of markets in the medina. This one sold fresh chickens!
There were stray cats everywhere, scrounging through the trash.

Knife sharpening/Metal works


Vats for dying cloth
Thistle which they use for making yogurt!

Olives

Wendy and Tobey passing the scarves shop.

This woman is adding honey to the pastry.
The river running through the medina was clogged with trash.

A delivery vehicle in the medina.

This was a Berber hotel in years gone by. The animals were housed on the ground floor and the people on the second and third floor.

Mausoleum in the medina

Beautiful mosaic walls in other parts of the medina.

The mosque in the medina will accommodate up to 22,000 people!

We stopped at the tannery within the medina. It was interesting to see how they process sheep, cow, camel, and goat hides. It takes between one and three months for the hides to be ready to use as leather, depending on its origin.
After our tour of the medina, we had a couple hour break at the hotel before we took an optional tour to Bhalil this afternoon. Bhalil is a small community about an hour outside of Fes. The houses are built into the picturesque mountainside and painted in pastel hues of pink, yellow and blue.

There are 74 caves and the cave dwellings date back to the 4th century and for hundreds of years have been inhabited by shepherds to protect against the elements. Currently only 11 are inhabited. We were able to go into the home of Naima Fatina. She has lived there and raised 9 children there. This is one of her daughters. Her major handicraft is making woven buttons.

When she dies, or moves out of the cave, this will become a UNESCO heritage site, as well.

Our last stop of the afternoon was a ceramic artisan school. We were shown the entire process of forming the pieces, firing, painting, and glazing.The artisans also chip the glazed tiles into tiny pieces which they use to make the mosaic fountains, tables, and other artistic pieces.

The mosaics are made UPSIDE DOWN! How they are able to know which color and piece needs to be placed is a true art!

This table was beautiful. It was about 3 feet long and 2 feet wide and carried a price tag of $1500 USD! Needless to say, we had to leave it behind.

We had a fantastic day and will have an early start tomorrow, so we are off to dinner at the hotel tonight.