Arrived 28th May in Morocco after a rather choppy crossing, at least it is only one hour. Stayed overnight at Chefchouen, a typical Moroccan town painted a mellow blue. Lovely Medina and great weekly market. The only slight irritation here is the number of touts who think you are only there to buy hashish.
Followed a small white van on the road when there was a loud bang and it rolled onto its roof. Remarkably the 5 occupants walked away unscathed. Equally amazing they didn’t end up going over the edge into the deep valley.
Headed south and had a day of rain (it isn’t supposed to rain in Morocco at this time of year!). Heard there had been flooding further South. Spent a day in Fes with a (rather eccentric!) local guide. There are two huge Medina here so without a guide it would be easy to get very lost. The tanneries here are incredible especially the dyeing vats which make a great picture.
From here we headed to the middle and high Atlas where the scenery is absolutely stunning. With the recent rain the route was challenging in places!
Bush camped with a family in the mountains who offered tea when we stopped for a break from driving. The kids loved the car and climbed all over it! Managed to communicate with the elder brothers somehow!
In the next town we stopped for a tea and a ‘guide’ at the hotel wanted to take us to look at the town. Further down the road two other hustlers joined us saying that the other guide was a bad man. Hustler number two then decided he was going to thump hustler number one! We then ended up being shown around by hustler number three!!
On the road to Agdoul we got stuck in the mud. Trying to get the winch onto a nearby tree we could see that one side of the Land Rover was slowly sinking. A lorry pulled us out saying that we had taken the wrong line through the water (tell me something I didnt know!!).
I was violently ill during the night in Agdoul. Eleven and a half months in Africa and fall on the home straight!! C’est la vie!
Stayed at Le Source Bleu de Meski which has a wonderful pool originally built by the French Foreign Legion to cool off. Here I met Aziz who took me to see his house where I had Tagine and lots of wonderful refreshing berber tea. Swimming here was great as it was pretty hot. However at times the pool gets pretty crowded with local kids.
Headed south to Merzouga where there was devastation after the recent rains. Several people had been killed, 32 Auberge and 300 houses damaged or destroyed. Even some huge Dunes had been swept away. The dunes here are stunning though especially at sunset.