Rocks and Kasbahs

As we travelled down the coast of Morocco, we were taking advice from a couple of guidebooks we'd downloaded for the Kindle and from previous visitors' blogs.  One of the blogs had made a comment “sticking to the coast doesn’t really do Morocco any justice at all”.  We'd been having a great time and seen some fascinating places, so that left us wondering what marvels were waiting in the mountains.

The Journey Blog Bit

We've been carefully saving our track files from the satnav almost since we first set off, but have only just worked out a way to display them on a map.



Our first route inland from Sidi Ifni was through the Anti-Atlas from Tiznit to Tafraoute. Our campsite at Tafraoute amply rewarded us for venturing away from the warmth of the coast. We arrived just as the sun was beginning to set and were surrounded by the most beautiful red rocks glowing in the evening sun.



Next day we had a walk into the surrounding countryside and were struck by how like parts of the American west the landscape was (it reminded us of places in Utah and Arizona), yet how different the towns and villages are here.

From Tafraoute we looped back almost to Agadir, then took the road east; a flat easy drive through the orchards of the Sous valley. At Taroudant we spent the night free of charge in a lay-by full of European motorhomes just outside the impressive city walls.  It was Saturday night and in the main city square the locals were enjoying dramatic performances, music and lectures, almost like a small town version of Djema El Fna.

Next stop was Taliouine (in the saffron producing region of Morocco) and then we were into the stony desert, relieved by narrow ribbons of greenery wherever the rivers broke to the surface drawing people, agriculture and trade.

From Ait Benhaddou we took a trip into the snows of the High Atlas, to Telouèt and the palatial summer residence of the Glaoui Pasha. 



Heading further east we visited Ouarzazate, which was built as an outpost of the French colonial airmail service, today it's the place to go if you're in the desert and need a cashpoint.  In the stunning Gorges du Dadès the river cuts such a deep and narrow channel through the mountain it's hard to believe it's not flowing the other way.  Our campsite 'Berbere de la Montagne' must be very popular in the heat of the summer, as it's 1700m up in the cool of the mountains shaded by the walls of the canyon.  In January that can make for a chilly night. 



Here in the beautiful Gorge du Todra, however, we're a few hundred metres lower and warmer, parked under a date palm on the banks of the clear bubbling river, where tiny birds are darting out to catch insects on the wing.



The Rocks Blog Bit

This part of the world must be especially thrilling for geologists, mineralogists and those who can make sense of this astounding landscape. 

It's a complicated scene; there seems to have been a lot of volcanic activity in the past, and the tectonic movements of Africa drifting into Spain have brought a lot of layers to the surface.  In addition to that, it's a dry country.  There's no cloak of vegetation so the geology is left naked for all to see.



As you drive through the desert the colours and shapes of the rocks are continually changing from red, to green, to grey with orange stripes, from bulbous lava lamp blobs to smooth cones, John Wayne table mountains, jagged plates or toothy spikes.  Some hills look burned like industrial slag, some glisten like coal and some look as soft as a heap of pillows.  We've had to be resolute to keep the photos down to a reasonable number.  With all these layers come all sorts of minerals.  We've passed a salt mine and a silver mine, we've been offered trilobites and ammonites, quartz geodes and cobalt crystals.



The Kasbahs Bit

Southern Morocco is incredibly rich in kasbahs (castles belonging to one family) and ksars (fortified villages).  Most of the old buildings are built from rammed earth, with beams of unsawn wood supporting floors, flat roofs and staircases made of bamboo-like reeds and more mud.  The faces of the towers are often decorated with elaborate carved designs.  It's amazing what you can build with mud and wood – towers, arches, and three storey buildings. 




We had a good look around a couple of particularly spectacular kasbahs in Telouèt  and Ait Benhaddou, and in Skoura we camped beside the kasbah that's featured on Morocco's 50 dirham note. The one at Ait Benhaddou was used as a film set for various productions such as Gladiator, Lawrence of Arabia and Jesus of Nazareth, so the restoration is a bit odd, being partly directed by  Hollywood, partly by UNESCO.



The reason for all these fortifications is, of course, that this used to be a very lawless and violent place.  Anyone who had anything worth nicking needed a fort to keep it in.  The twentieth century brought peace and magistrates, and also concrete.  Most of the old mud ksars and kasbahs are abandoned and gradually dissolving like abandoned sandcastles. 



The speed of the collapse is a reminder of how recently these buildings were needed.  They look mediaeval and in some ways they are, but the Glaui Kasbah in Telouèt for example was only built in the 1940s.  The King of Morocco was still collecting revenue from his southern provinces by means of armed cavalry raids in 1913. We walked around an abandoned ksar in the palmery yesterday, and failed to spot anything which would give us a clue as to whether it dated back a century or five centuries.



Other Impressions

There's a lot of space here, but a lot of it is very little use to anyone.  The desert is scattered with springs and river valleys, and that's where the people are.  Everywhere where there is water there are date palms, tiny irrigated fields of wheat and beans, an abandoned red mud town, a kasbah or two and rows of new concrete houses, flats and shops.

Towns are a fairly new idea in this area.  The typical southern town is a wide dirt street with a strip of tarmac down the middle, lined with shops selling gas bottles, water and bits of sheep, and workshops making beds and doors and fixing bikes. For vegetables other than onions and potatoes you generally need to wait for market day.

We had lunch at Chez Dimitri in Ouarzazate.  The front page of the menu boasted that Dimitri's was founded the same year as the town – 1928.  The old photos looked like old photos from Queensland.  The French needed a base to support the air mail service to their African colonies, and of course a decent restaurant that does salade de chèvre chaud, brochettes and crème brulée.

Away from the coast we're into Berber country.  It seems that most Moroccans have mainly Berber ancestry but many, particularly in the old towns and on the coast, feel themselves to be more Arab.  Berber culture and language has tended to be looked down on and even suppressed, but things have been changing since the current king took the throne.  The language was recently given official status alongside French and Arabic, there are some Berber programmes on television and the Berber alphabet can now be used in public.

It's far from clear who is more Berber and who is more Arab, but we've noticed a few changes as we've headed inland.  Berber men still wear jelabayas but often of a plain colour rather than stripes.  Many wear big turbans which can cover their faces against the dust. 

More of the women wear dresses and loose scarves, rather than the gowns and nun-like headscarves of the coast.  Dress patterns seem to vary from area to area, but are often black with red and white embroidery.  Berbers like to swap things – if you make it clear you're not going to buy their produce they'll ask if you'd like it in exchange for some of your clothes, your rucksack or an old mobile phone.

People seem more friendly and less pushy.  We've met people who genuinely seem to want to chat and be welcoming and don't expect to be paid for it.  In  Telouèt our guide to the kasbah, Rachid, and his friend Mohammed were so courteous and laid-back that we ended up spending some of our Christmas money on a Berber rug from the women's co-operative. They were so pleased that they gave us a necklace and key ring as a present. It's not like Marrakesh here.




The Wine Blog Bit

Suspended due to Islam.

Where Next?

Today we're enjoying the greenery and the river, and had lunch overlooking a pool full of sacred fish.

We're a bit kasbahed out and are looking forward to heading even further east to the Saharan sand dunes of Erg Chebbi, where we may even ride on a camel.