Morocco - our travel adventures
When organising this trip from home we opted to go with a travel group – this was intentional to navigate language, culture, key locations, being provided with historical and archaeological context, plus all logistical support. Indeed, by the time we got to Tangiers city we’d travelled for three days without that support, and whilst we were fine it was nice to place ourselves in the hands of the guides and drivers for the next eight days.
Tips: The Port of TangierMed is some 45kms from the city of Tangier – keep that in mind when booking accommodation. We’d opted to stay at a small beachside location called Ksar es Sghir (which was a cheaper 10 min Grand Taxi ride vs 50 mins taxi).
We travelled during the holy month of Ramadan and found it to be a very rich experience, we learned a lot about the Islamic people and faith and particularly Ramadan celebration, but if you’re wanting the full tourist experience, a lot can be closed at his time and you need to take that into consideration. After sunset the streets come alive with a festive atmosphere for the breaking of the Ramadan fast. We tried to be very respectful and limited eating and drinking in front of our hosts during the daylight hours.
A side point - If you don’t like cats or have allergies to them – you’ll be sorely tested in Morocco they are everywhere, and the smell of cat urine can be intense (we can confirm that and we travelled in early spring when temperatures are low). Also some of the markets are not for the faint hearted – we walked around one corner having just left t-shirts onto a scene from either Saw or Dante’s Interno, was eye and nose watering!
Todra Gorge – if you must then visit but too touristy for us even off-peak, and we’re spoilt for gorges in New Zealand.
If you enjoyed the movie Casablanca you can visit Ric’s café – but don’t be fooled into thinking it existed at the time of the movie, due to tourist demands the café was opened – you need to book, we stopped the bus, took a pic and carried on.
Types of accommodation in Morocco
Riads are pretty much best described as a traditional Moroccan home often built around an interior garden or courtyard. We definitely recommend staying at Riads as an authentic and immersive option if you want to experience Morocco’s culture and history, these can be found in the old medinas.
Side note – during Ramadan in the medinas a lone drummer bangs a melodic (loud) drum at 3am, to wake the house to begin food preparation before sunrise and fasting begins. That morning drumming outside the window was an experience!
Westerner hotels – not something we enjoyed, the plastic food, large hotels culminating in scrums of rude folk at the breakfast buffet wasn’t for us.
Highlights – in order of travel (not ranking):
Chefchaouen – we travelled to the Blue City on our own staying two nights at a Riad in the Medina (the old city), we had been confused when we were told to park at a hotel on the outskirts and people would meet us to help with our luggage and so we didn’t get lost. The Medina just goes up and up and google maps is useless here (it makes Venice look like a novice)! Big steps and unnamed tiny narrow streets, but everything painted the most remarkable shade of blue. When we arrived we were offered our first Maghrebi – Moroccan mint tea, amazing refreshing drink which has a rich cultural past and is a tradition poured from the height of the server and is re-poured 3 times before drinking, while we were on the balcony we heard the first calling from the Mosques which was extraordinary – Chefchaouen sits in the shadows of the Rif mountains and when all mosques call to prayer the echoing sound is both haunting and beautiful
The blue streets these are repainted every six months
Al Boraq – Morocco’s high speed train (we travelled from Tangiers to Casablanca), incredible double decker train, efficient and extremely clean and quiet (two and a quarter hours including a couple of stops to travel approx 340kms).
Our new travel companions – during Ramadan and early March being the least popular travel window our intimate group of five included us and three from the USA -Stephanie and her daughter Savannah (celebrating her birthday whilst on tour) and family friend Li. We had many laughs and got on tremendously, supporting each other and when departing shared contact details to remain in touch.
Cooperatives – we stopped at various remote locations to visit (predominantly) local women showcasing their products eg argon oil (products from an almond tree used in food and cosmetics), rose oil (distillery process for oil and water used for food and cosmetics), carpets, textiles (eg scarves and clothing). Had some wonderful exchanges with the women – in the Tinghir Province noted they had a glass countertop with foreign currency on display, they had an AUD$5 and $10 but only a NZD$10 note – so Serena ran back to the bus to grab NZ$5 note to give them, with Sir Edmond Hillary proudly on the note and given Tinghir is between the High Atlas and Todgha Mountains it seemed appropriate. The carpet cooperative showcased the beautiful Berber craft – months of work using products of camel wool, sheep’s wool and cactus fibre, everything is natural including the colours – Serena bought a carpet (note earlier blogs about luggage challenges, we needed to add to it clearly), she claimed it’s just a small carpet. Also visited a large fossils cooperative – huge pieces polished and turned into furniture – sadly there was no room in the bags for those.
Grinding the argon nut to extract the oil - (seriously hard work)
On the road from Marakech to Ouarzazate – we lunched at a small Berber settlement called Telouet – food was really good and our group were the only ones in the place! The Riad and restaurant owner was super friendly and encouraged a photo of him wearing his traditional Berber clothing. We also stopped at Ait Ben Haddou, a UNESCO site and kasbah built into the hill - is quite beautiful and a very popular location for movie filming from the 1960s.
Our host a friendly and rather cool dude
Merzouga Sahara sand dunes overnight camp (in and out by camel) – the flat Sahara landscape we’d been travelling along for a while on our way to Ouarzazate. We weren’t however prepared for the massive sand dune mountains we could see in the distance as we approached Merzouga. We parked up and Savannah and Serena headed off to meet the camel and guide for the 90 mins “walk” into camp. Rob and others opted for the jeep as Rob particularly wanted to focus on taking photographs. This part of the trip was absolutely magical, the ride to the camp site was peaceful (if not a bit freaky going down the dunes), the bonfire with music and crazy dancing. The night sky was perfect for us for a glorious sunset, clear skies (unfortunately bright moon – so not great for astro photography), but found ourselves not wanting to go to bed, was magical. Likewise the camel ride out at sunrise was equally memorable (Rob, Stephanie and Li did get to experience a few minutes on the camel – to our guide, Savannah and Serena’s great amusement).
Shadows on the sands of the Sahara
Ancient city of Fez – former capital of Morocco with three large medinas which we got to tour through (the second and newer one built 12th century was the location of our Riad). The oldest medina has been around since the 8th century and is the largest car free place in the world with 9400 streets and alleyways all fully protected by the seven mile wall and 18 gates – as a result we were advised to not wander off from the group as we would get lost which even happens to locals. We visited the enormous Chouara tannery (oldest in North Africa) and were presented with fresh mint to help disguise the strong smell of enormous quantities of limestone and pigeon poop used in the start of the tanning process (the camel skin was incredibly soft). We celebrated Savannah’s birthday whilst here as well as enjoying breaking fast with our guides with traditional food. The birthday cake was purchased from a local patisserie and that was an experience not to be missed – hundreds of bees flying around, sitting on the food, on the floor everywhere, amazing, had to be careful where you stood but everyone was oblivious to them, they were attracted by all the honey in the pastries – very cool. Visit to the roof was magical too – there were a number of nesting storks on the higher roofs in the medina, so got to enjoy them and an unexpected opportunity for wildlife photography. Also visited the ceramic quarter and observed the incredible work of tiling and pottery.
The Chouara tannery, beware the white pits they stink!
Cutting tile pieces accurately to size by hand and eye
The Hamman Experience
One experience not for the fainthearted or prudish was a traditional Hammam. Serena had been contemplating doing this (I certainly hadn’t and was happy to watch TV), she booked one on our last evening just for herself (although she had been asked why her husband didn’t join as they offer couple Hammams).
Modesty garment!
A Hammam originates from Roman bathhouses and being integrated into North African Islamic culture, they evolved into a vital part of society. Traditionally they were communal bathing spaces offering a place for relaxation, socialisation, and ritual cleansing.
In Serena’s words:
On arrival I was directed to the mixed gender changing room and presented with a paper bikini bottom to change into (!) and provided with a robe (plus extra strong grip rubber shoes which they called slippers).
Enjoyed an hour’s “relaxing” massage – although my arms definitely felt longer with all the pulling and intensive moving of them. Anyhow was overall relaxing and being all greased up with oil headed for the Hammam.
I was met by the Hammam attendant – there was a language barrier, so some instructions had to be repeated, and she was a little scary lol.
I had to disrobe outside the door of a large sauna room in the middle of which sat a very large and extremely slippery heated marble table, obeying instructions I sat on the table’s side. In front was a large double sink with constant running water and wooden pail in the middle, the contents of which was thrown at me several times (it was warm water at least). I must say that must be a satisfying job – throwing water at tourists!
I then had to lay face down while the sauna was ramped up – and I mean in a big way I couldn’t even see my hands, where I stayed for the next 15 mins (however I did really enjoy the sauna)!
The attendant returned and after another few pails of water were thrown at me. I was suddenly accosted by frenetically moving hands encased within very rough gloves called Kessa gloves, attacking me with a FULL BODY scrub, vigorous exfoliation was probably an understatement. More pails of water ….. but this time cold!
Then I was covered head to toes with Ghassoul, which is a Moroccan natural mineral-rich clay – unfortunately I didn’t squeeze my eyes tight enough (there was no warning just frantic purposeful hands everywhere) and my eyes didn’t half sting plus were very gritty – so when the attendant left me laying down on the marble I quickly perched on the side of the table (slipping and sliding as I tried to reach the sink) to wash the worst out of my eyes – half worried she’d appeared and tell me off! So back on the bench – relaxing.
She returned and being instructed to sit on the side of the slippery table, pails of warm water thrown at me followed by a full body soapy wash using a special Moroccan black soap, which was washed off again!
What followed was a full application of argon oil while laying on the bench (rolling over gripping the sides so I didn’t slide off), with my hair washed as well. The argon oil had a delicious scent and did leave the skin luxuriously soft following all the exfoliation and layers of soap and clay.
At this point I was instructed off the bench and under the shower to wash off, and that was the final part so returning to the pool area enjoyed a Moroccan tea eventually taking my time to dress and leave.
I can say my surgery 12 months ago prepared me for this experience – leaving one’s modesty at the door and picking it up on the way out.
The following day it was time to eventually depart Morocco and head for the UK, arriving safely and currently enjoying beautiful Cornwall, next blog to follow.