Aroumd

Although we were nearly at Marrakech we turned off to go to the village of Aroumd, which is past the end of the road and high up in the mountains (2100 metres above sea level).  We left our main bags at the village of Imlil, loaded our overnight bags onto a mule then walked for just over an hour to our accommodation for the night.  

The mule guides taking it easy before getting our overnight bags.  They walk beside the mule once it's loaded.  Some of our group got a ride up on a mule.

While sitting in the shade of a big cherry tree we had the usual welcome with mint tea and we also had some lovely flat bread.  We were in a typical village, adobe houses side by side, cobbled narrow streets and being on the side of a hill this village had lots of steps.

The village of Aroumd

The houses are built on a steep slope

Next morning we were up sharp so we could go on a walk in the mountains.  At first we went down many steep steps to take us out of the village then we passed cherry and apple orchards before taking a track by a stream and shaded by trees.

Some of the steps in the village.  Mules negotiate steps like these.

 As we climbed higher we left the trees but fortunately the sun hadn't got high enough to appear over the nearby mountain.  Beside the track there was a mixture of wild flowers and those I could identify were roses with a very small flower, lupins, small orange poppies and purple iris.

Up in the mountains

The track was a mixture of stony path and rocky steps and many a time we had to step out of the way for mules to pass by.  How the animals negotiate the steps and rocks is amazing. 

You can see why we have to step aside let them past. 

We let them take the outside of the track.

 The track was the route to Morocco's highest mountain, Mt Toubkal (4165 metres) so many of the passing mules were carrying trampers gear.  After 90 minutes we reached the site of a shine at 2400 metres up.

Mt Toubkal in the distance

Here at Sidi Chamharouch there is a group of small shops & cafes near the shrine which is a big white stone (painted white) under which there is a sort of mausoleum with a so-called tomb of the King of jinns (Chamharouch.

Near the shrine

It is a well known place and frequented by Moroccan people and tourists.  Superstitious and uncultivated families bring patients suffering from mental diseases and slaughter a sheep, goat or chicken as an offering thinking that the patient is haunted by devils and will be cured by the sacrifice.

After a refresher of mint tea we retuned the way we had come.  By now it was rush hour with mules going down but we were now adept at moving off the track to let them pass by.

Just a couple of mules passing by.  Sometimes these are restrained the handler holding onto their tails and sometimes they make their way down with little control.  They are supposed to stop when the handler tells them to. 

After lunch we walked back down the hill to our mini van and headed for Essaouira.  Along the way we shared the dual laned highway with mules pulling carts,  goat herders grazing their goats on the median strip and I even saw a lone donkey walking along the median strip, how it got there and where it was going I don't know.

Just before we got to Essaouira we stopped to see how they turn the argan nuts ( the trees grow nearby ) into oil.  It appeared to be an age old process.  After it has been dried in the sun, a woman hits the nut with a stone to crack open the husk to reveal the nut then another woman takes the nut hits it with a stone to remove the kernel from the shell.  Next the kernels are ground using a hand turned stone grinder to extract the oil.  If the oil is for cooking the kernel is roasted before grinding while unroasted kernel oil is for cosmetics.

Women using stone grinders

Ait Benhaddou

On our way to Ait Benhaddou we had a couple of stops for photos of fertile valleys.  Crops are irrigated with water taken from the river.  Women were in the fields harvesting alfalfa, which is used to feed sheep and cows.

             

Typical view of cultivated plots.

We stopped at a weekly market, bigger and much busier than the one we visited a few days ago.  Even outside the market area it was jammed with people, vehicles, motorbikes and cycles.  Taxis were coming and going, no organisation just find a space then pick up or put down your passengers.  A grand taxi can take 6 passengers while a petit taxi takes only three.  The same taxis have been in all the towns we have visited the only difference from town to town is the colour of the fleet.

Grand taxis, always the same model of Mercedes.  You can get 4 passengers in the back and 2 in the front, thats 7 onboard with the driver.

The market before the crowd got there

We passed through the Dades valley known for dates, figs and roses.  Roses are not native to the area and were introduced by the French.   Here many of the small plots of land were separated by rose bushes, it must be pretty when they are in flower.

Next we travelled along what is known as the 1000 kasbah road.  A kasbah is a fort and always has 4 towers.  More than one kasbah can be within a village.  I doubt there were 1000 kasbah but for 24 km there were a lot of them, villages side by side, the inhabitants all from the same Berber tribe.  Neighbours are not related but their doors are always open to each other.

 Ksar (fortified village) 

It was obviously a major time for washing rugs and blankets. This is an annual task and when crossing rivers and streams we saw women out with their colourful washing by the banks drying.

Wash day

Our accommodation at Ait Benhaddou was close to the Ksar Ait Benhaddou.  A ksar is a fortified village and this one was built in the 12th century.  It flourished in the 16th century as it was on a trade route from Timbuktu to Europe.  It has been the location for many movies including Lawrence of Arabia, The Glaxdiator, Jewel of the Nile & Prince of Persia.  We went for a walk through the ksar, beautiful buildings and a great backdrop for a movie.

Kasbah (with the 4 towers) in the Ksar (fortified village) at Ait Benhaddou.

Looking down on a Kasbah 

And another view 

Making our way along a street inside

     

 Looking out the window 

This man is playing a single stringed instrument.  It wasn't a particularity tuneful sound.

The next day we carried on to the High Atlas mountains, passing green valleys and small towns.  As the houses are adobe and being made from the surrounding ground they merge into the landscape.  

 

 Village hiding on the hillside

As the land became steeper we saw more terraced plots of cultivation.  We went over the Tichka pass at 2260 metres and had a winding descent to the valley below.  Near the top of the pass we came across goat herders, they travel to some amazing places to graze their stock.  The land here is greener and the area gets snow in the winter.

At the top

Goat herders walking up to the road

 Not the best place to have your goats.

The way down

Todra Gorge

When we left the Sahara we still had reduced visibility but it gradually improved.  We passed by a line of wells providing water from aqueducts buried underground.  These were constructed a long time ago to provide water for passing caravans and are not used today.  We didn't stop as sand was still blowing so the photo is taken from the van.

There is a chain of wells like this.  They are side by side for many kilometres.  

We stopped at the town of Erfoud to visit a black marble factory.  The marble this area has an incredible number of fossils and at the factory they made furniture and other objects from the stone.  The marble mine is government owned and it limits the supply.

Black marble with fossils.

For the past few days we have passed security check  points.  Most times our van was waved through but a couple of times our van’s electronic log book was checked.  Here bus/mini van drivers must take a 15 minute rest every 2 hours, the log book records the driving time and speed the vehicle has travelled at.  

At Todra Gorge a group of us chose to take a guided walk to visit a Berber home in the mountains.  We started at the gorge where towering cliffs were separated by a river and a road and climbed for 90 minutes, gaining 600 metres in height.  During our climb we meet a 9 year old boy who along with his 12 year old brother were shepherding goats.  Several times a day they would take their herd of 60-70 goats down to the river (and back again). He was amazed to learn that stock in New Zealand were all fenced in.

Where the Berber family were living they had made a rock walled pen for the goats and had dug small caves into the hillside to make a place for cooking and for personal space.  At night they sleep outside, it can get down to -5 degrees.

We were welcomed by the father of the family, an 80 year old whose second wife is about 40 years old.  His first wife died, she preferred to live in the town but his second wife likes the nomadic life.  He has 12 children from his two wives.  Only he and two small children were at home.  The boy we meet on our way up was one of his sons.

We sat in a shelter made from a few rocks and shaded with a woven cloth and had lemon thyme tea and bread.  The lemon thyme grows nearby.  The tea was good and most of us had a second glass.  It was a great experience to be welcomed so warmly by this humble man.  

Serving tea to welcome you is a big thing here, usually it's mint tea.  Often mint tea is served at a restaurant free of charge at the end of a meal and when we arrive at a hotel we are often served mint tea before checking in.  The mint tea varies as sometimes it has sugar, which I think is normal and sometimes sugar is an option. The lemon thyme tea we had high up a mountain was a pleasant change.

We continued over and down the hill to meet the rest of our group and went to a co-operative centre where Berber women make and sell rugs.  Some make their rugs at home and just sell them through the centre. A woman was at a loom and was placing short lengths of wool in place before using a metal fork like tool to to beat the thread tight against the already woven work.  Slow and painstaking manual work.  Another woman was spinning wool using a spindle. There was an opportunity to buy rugs and the number of rugs and variety of designs was amazing.  The money from sales goes back to the makers of the rugs.

Just a few of the rugs for sale.

The Sahara

As we travelled towards our destination it got windier and with dust and sand in the air the view out the minivan window was limited.  We came across some roadworks and travelled on rough track beside the road, then we couldn't see where the road was so had to have faith in our driver. 

Camels in the haze

After a bit of cross country ( hard packed sand) we arrived at where we were leaving our luggage and catching camel trains.  The sand was still flying so we waited an hour or more for wind to drop.  Eventually we were saddled up and on our way, we wore scarves tried desert style and these proved to be ideal for keeping the sand or of our mouths.

We had wonderful views of never ending sand dunes.  After about an hour our camp came into view, a circle of tents in the lee of a dune. 

 Next to the camp was a big dune that had to be climbed and after some effort we got to the top. We didn't stop there long as it was windy up there.

We were served a lovely meal of chicken and vegetable tagine and after dinner our Berber cameleers lit a campfire and played African drums. There was no African sunset for us as it was cloudy.

The night was short as we were up around sunrise, it was still cloudy but the wind had eased.  Saddled up on our camels we began the trek back and after a short while the wind was back accompanied by rain.  Yes, rain in the Sahara.  Sand was flying and any exposed skin was treated with a free exfoliant.  Again our our scarves were put to good use.  Fortunately it was only a short rain shower and we soon dried out.  Somehow the cameleers knew the way back with few tracks to follow.

After we had eaten breakfast we were on the road again visibility was a kilometre or less but as the morning progressed it got better.  

Midelt

We left Fes heading for Midelt passing by arid and stony land with dry eroded gullies.  There were adobe houses here and there and a few herds of sheep.  Where there was a river there was a swathe of green and villages with crops and fruit trees growing.

As we pass through towns and cities we often see partially finished houses.  The first floor is finished so the house can be lived in and the other floors added many years later when there is enough money (maybe 25 -30 years later)

Here and there we pass nomadic Berber camps and people herding their sheep.  They may have 50 - 70 in a flock and sometimes a few goats to lead them.  The nomads that live tents will spend 6 months in the south and 6 months in the north.  Some build houses from stones and adobe and these people stay longer in the same place staying there through winter.  The nomads are free to roam with their stock, there are no fences, the land they are on is government owned.  They sell meat and wool from their animals.  The nomads don't have doctors but they use herbs for medicine; the children don't go to school

We passed through cork oak trees and stopped to see some Barbary apes (macaques).  Forested areas here are national parks and the government has a ‘green Morocco’ project so in areas exotic trees have been planted.

As we climbed we came to an area that sees snow in winter and in places beside the road there were stone fences to stop snow drifting.  These were used by the locals for ' donkey parking”.  If the owner has business elsewhere he hitches his donkey to the fence and gets a ride to where he needs to be.  We felt sorry for the donkeys but they do seem to be patient animals.  Some weren't tethered, just standing by.  We often see donkeys waiting while their owners are harvesting a crop or shepherding stock, sometimes tethered sometimes not.

Donkey parking

This one looks happy.

We had a picnic lunch beside a small stream, in the shade of trees.  Earlier that day we had stopped at a huge supermarket to buy what we wanted for our lunch.

We stopped at a weekly Berber market.  Not quite the same as our farmers markets at home.  Here the stalls were set out on the ground and well as meat and produce there was plastic ware, hardware, tagines, clothing and much more. Vehicles leaving the market were fully loaded.

Fruit and vegetables

Stock truck Berber style.  Sheep are inside too so I don't think this would convert to a campervan 

Midelt is known for growing apples. The farmers generally have small plots and rotate the apples with cropping growing alfalfa or vegetables under the trees.  The women harvest the crops by hand and use donkeys to carry their harvest home or they carry it on their backs.  

We visited the Berber village of Berrem which was a short walk from where we were staying.  We were asked not to take photos of the adults and the women especially were wary of cameras. They were delighted when one of our group had a portable printer so could give them photos of their babies, the smiles on their faces told it all.

Children on their way home from school

We left Midelt heading for the Sahara.  We travelled through a dry landscape with the usual green patches by the river then came to the Ziz valley which is known for date palms.  Wheat, barley and alfalfa is also grown here.  From high on a hill we could see the palms extending for a long way down the valley and villages were dotted here and there.  Date palms crop after 6 to 10 years and a female palm can crop 210 kg a year, a palm can live up to 100 years.