What a full on couple of days it’s been.
After a somewhat less than optimal nights rest due in part to a howling wind that was blowing the tables on the terrace around, and Jean walking into a door in the middle of the night ( the room was pitch black), we went to breakfast only to overhear a table of one of our AUKUS partners telling a lady from Germany, that they came from the greatest country in the world. I thought that if it is so great, why would you come to Morocco.
Then, as we gathered out the front of the hotel waiting for our driver, a Canadian couple, on hearing we were Australian, asked if they could change cars and come with us because, as they put it, “Australians are so much fun”. I’m not sure how that went down with their southern neighbours.
Anyway, we finally got under way ( strictly speaking, that should be “under weigh” as in weigh anchor) and were treated to yet another unexpected display from this country.
No amount of photography can capture the magnificence of the mountains and valleys. Long stretches of rock strewn mountain passes and endless flat plateaus, with only the occasions sign of plant life, and then, as soon as we descended into a valley, the valley floor was awash with date palms, fruit trees, wheat and vegetable crops.
Another 4 hours or so of driving, and the rocks are subsumed by the sand dunes. Contours scoured by the wind and colours accentuated by the shadows in the sastrugi like (look it up) sculptured sand, it was straight out of Lawrence of Arabia.
Finally we arrived and there waiting for us were Camel 1 and Camel 2 and Mohamed our camelier. Turbans on, to protect us from the wind, of which there was none, and the heat, which equally was absent due to light cloud cover, we were soon up and away across the dunes with Jean leading the way heading for our night in a desert camp.
Far from being a night under canvas down at the “Prom”, this was yet another eye opener. The best shower and the best bed since we left home. In a camp that could accomodate at least 50, we were the only ones there. More food than we could eat and Youssef our ever attentive host made for an unforgettable experience.
The next day, we headed north to Fes, over the High Atlas Mountains across more plateaus, gorges and valleys, then through the Mid Atlas to the plains to Fes.
More fruit orchards and mud brick villages as well as very large and modern towns, interspersed with Bedouin sheep and goat herders in the more arid parts of the country, presenting yet more contrast of geography and culture.
Then, almost out of nowhere a forest of cedar trees and pines and we are in Iframe, a town that looks like it belongs in the French alps.
Of equal contrast are the mud brick villages in various states of occupancy and decay, and the array of solar panels, satellite dishes, wind farms and hydroelectric stations, all blending into one.
Descending another 2000m we soon arrive in Fes, and like a camel when it knows it is on the road home, the driving becomes more frenetic, road lane markings mean little and we are just one more car in a city of 3.5 million people.
In the hotel at last and ready for another good nights sleep before we tackle the Medina tomorrow. All being well, and with Google maps in my hand, we should be back for another instalment tomorrow.