On the way down to Essaouira we stopped off for one night at Safi, the centre of Morocco's ceramics industry. They make everything here, from bricks to roof tiles to fabulous hand painted plates and ewers. They also make dribbly castles like giant fish tank ornaments, plates with 'Souvenir of Morrocco' written in glitter and Barcelona FC commemorative plates – the full range of everything you can do with baked earth. We couldn't resist buying a little something to remind us of our trip, and ended up buying a large tagine cooking pot and charcoal burner – far too big to carry in the van, but never mind. It'll come in handy if we run out of gas for cooking!
In Europe the local tourist board gets very excited if one of their towns has a surviving section of town wall. Walled cities like Chester, Carcassonne and Aigues Mortes are automatically big attractions. In Morocco, the city wall around the old medina goes without saying. Safi was just one more example, the medina being fully enclosed by a red brick wall, intact from footings to crenelations, and only pierced by a handful of dramatic gateways.
We entered by the port, walked up through the lively souk and emerged on the inland side of the town at the Hill of the Potters. Red stone is quarried a few kilometres up the road and brought to the Hill of the Potters where it is ground up, soaked in water and puddled into usable clay. The hill is scattered with ramshackle workshops and the brick chimneys of wood fired kilns. We were shown around the kilns and workshops and met men making pots and also a man with a remarkably steady hand decorating plates.
Further down the coast we spent a few nights at the appropriately named 'Camping Le Calme' near Essaouira, a former Portuguese colonial outpost, now a lovely, laid back fishing port and resort. Essaouira was popular with hippies in the 60s and there are various stories about Jimi Hendrix and Cat Stevens staying here (some possibly true, most works of fiction). It still attracts Europeans of a hippy persuasion, but due to its huge sandy beach and breezy climate it's also a very popular holiday resort for Moroccans, especially those wanting to escape the heat and bustle of Marrakesh. According to our guide book it's “loved by all”, and we're not about to argue.
The area on this stretch of coast is famous for its Argan trees, and it's here that we first saw what Stella has been looking forward to since arriving in Morocco – goats in trees. The goats love to climb up into the trees to eat the outer coating from the Argan fruit, and since it's the inner nut that people really want to harvest, no-one seems to mind much. On our way to Marrakesh we saw a tree full of goats and stopped for a photo. This turned out to be a tourist trap as we were accosted as soon as we stopped, handed baby goats to hold & have photos taken with, and then charged for the privilege. Still, we got the photos.
After Marrakesh, when we returned to Camping le Calme in Essaouira, we found a herd of goats among the Argan trees just outside the campsite. They were happily climbing the trees and posing for photos without anyone around to hassle us for money. As it was a Friday afternoon the herd was being looked after by young boys rather than men (who have time off for Friday prayers we think), and they really couldn't be bothered to do anything except sit under a tree while the goats did their own thing.
As for Marrakesh, well the guide books and other people's anecdotes had built up our expectations for the place, expectations that didn't really fit what we actually found there. We'd been warned to expect the most intensely busy, noisy, dirty city with the most aggressive sales people and touts. Yes, it's a big town, yes it's in a dry dusty plain, and yes it's in Morocco, but we enjoyed it much more than we'd been led to expect. We're glad we weren't scared off!
Sitting having lunch in the restaurant Chez Chegrouni, overlooking Djema el Fna (one of many ways of spelling the name of the town's main square), maybe we understood the reason for all the warnings. Scattered amongst the snake charmers, acrobats, dancing monkeys and bustling figures below us there was a lot of very pale white flesh on display. Marrakesh is such a popular city break destination, it was sobering to think some of those wide eyed, half naked, overheated visitors were only eight hours from Solihull. Modern travel makes it easy to teleport yourself way out of your comfort zone with no opportunity to acclimatise. We were glad that we had spent a couple of weeks in the country already and had learned to smile politely and refuse firmly when someone tried to drape a snake around our necks, paint henna on our hands or drag us into a shop, “Just for looking”.
We also suffered a little from the hype, having been led to believe the nightly entertainment at Jamal Fnâ (another one of many ways of spelling the name of the town's main square) was the show to beat all shows. We spent the evening visiting the food stalls and walking around listening to the story tellers (not for long, it was all in Moroccan Arabic), musicians and conjurers, but were left feeling pleased that other people were enjoying it so much rather than being overwhelmed. Sometimes I suppose there's an advantage to being teleported; you get the 'wow factor' more powerfully.
The medina of Marrakesh is the usual Moroccan warren of alleys, but on a larger scale than any we've seen so far. In addition, it's a city that has wielded great power and wealth, so behind some of these doorways are hidden some of the most magnificent palaces. We visited some fabulous buildings and now have more photos of elaborately carved stonework, and beautifully tiled walls than we know what to do with.
We actually paid to see all the major tourist attractions, which is unusual for us, but since the entrance fee was usually around 10 dirham (75p) we thought we could afford it. On our first day we visited the stinky but interesting tanneries, the Ben Youssef Madersa (study rooms for students attached to the mosque), the Almoravid koubba (ruins of a pavilion covering an ablutions fountain, apparently it is the only surviving Almoravid building in Morocco), and the Marrakesh museum (a fabulous building which is much more impressive than the rather half hearted temporary exhibits it hosts).
Next day we went to the Saadian Tombs, where the graves and mausoleums are covered with beautiful tile work and carved stucco, and also the Badi Palace, where once again we encountered nesting storks amongst the ruins.
Before leaving the next day we went to the Bahia Palace, an oasis of tranquillity with a series of courtyards and cool airy rooms with every surface covered in elaborate decoration including intricately painted woodwork and astoundingly elaborate ceilings almost everywhere. There was also a beautiful enclosed garden, full of shrubs and trees including a fruiting banana.
After Marrakesh we returned to the coast and continued our way south. We passed so many Women's Co-operatives selling Argan oil products that eventually we were compelled to stop at one. We were told all about the process of extracting the oil from the nuts and watched some women shelling them using the traditional method of hitting with a stone. This really does seem to be how they do things here, and despite the recent increased popularity of Argan oil in Europe as a cooking ingredient an ingredient in cosmetics, it doesn't appear to changed their method of production.
First stop after Essaouira was Imsouane, where we cooked a huge chicken, olive and preserved lemon tagine (and ate it all), listening to the waves breaking on one of Morocco's finest surfing beaches and laughing at the cute dog who had decided to take up residence on one of our folding chairs outside the van.
Next we continued south past Agadir and spent the night at a lovely beachside campsite near the Sous Massa National Park at Sidi Ouassai. This morning we walked along the beach and over the dunes, just to see what was there, and came across a big flock of Bald Ibis, who posed very nicely for us.
Our current location is another lovely beachside campsite, this one in Sidi Ifni, a former Spanish colonial outpost filled with Spanish art deco buildings.
After a couple of days here we'll turn around and head inland and north (Timbuktu, Lagos, Kinshasa and Cape Town will have to wait for another trip!).
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