LAKES & BIRDS

Today was to be an adventure...an unplanned off schedule one!  With our driver, Rachid, we were going to try & find places even HE hadn't been to before!  We left the valley of Azrou with it's stunning cedar forests & headed for a very touristy quick stop...

...in Ifrane, to have our photo taken beside the Lion!!  This statue commemorates that there were once lions in the surrounding woods. Allegedly the last lion was killed in 1922! The species of lion that roamed here was quite big, with a dark, thick mane. According to our guide book, there is a genetic engineering project happening in Rabat to try & bring these lions back from extinction.  Apart from the lion statue, the only notable thing about Ifrane is that it looks very swiss!  It snows here in winter & consequently the houses have adopted the steep roofed style.

                                    

Our mission was to take the backroads & discover the lakes between Ifrane & Sefrou! Some of the lakes , we soon discovered were quite dry.  The biggest one, Dayet Aoua, was full of water, lined with trees & awash with birds!

 



We saw cranes...

...and coots....

...and egrets.

We'd just got back in the car when Rachid spotted this stork's nest on the top of a street light!!!!!

Our favourite discovery was this little treasure.  The road to it soon made it clear that a 4 wheel drive was ESSENTIAL & I admit that I was holding my breathe quite a bit of the way! It was clearly only visited by shepherds & their sheep, but we were delighted to have stumbled across it. It's name is Iffer, which in the Berber language means 'hidden'.

And this is what we discovered on the lake...one solitary duck & lots of water lilies!!

The next lake we stumbled upon was Ifrah & here we discovered a donkey farm!  They look much healthier here than they do on the streets of Marrakech!!

Back on the road & sure enough...Rachid's eagle eyes spotted this farmhouse with a bit of a problem on their chimney!!!!!!

We stopped in Sefrou for mint tea & looked around to find ANOTHER storks nest, this time a more pious stork withy it's nest on top of the local minaret.

A few kilometres north west of Sefrou is a little town of Bhalil, this is where some of the residents still live in troglodyte homes.

We were welcomed into one by a sweet little lady who spoke no English, so Rachid had to translate.  She was looking after the house for her mother who was currently in hospital & proceeded to show us all the photos sent to her mother from tourists who had had their photos taken with her...just like this!!!

The other thing Bhalil is famous for is the making of silk & cotton jellaba (long cloak like gown worn by both men & women) buttons.  the women sit on their front steps socialising & weaving these buttons with the use of two small needles. I enjoyed watching for a short time, conscious that my two male companions were not in the LEAST bit interested!  Then an old lady came up & had a massive argument with one of the button makers.  It was clearly time to finish my purchasing & GET OUT OF THERE!!!!

What an amazing day!

THE CEDAR FOREST OF AZROU

There were two main reasons to spend time in Azrou, the first was because Jeff had always wanted to walk through a cedar forest & that's exactly what they have in Azrou....

...and in that cedar forest there lives wild Macaque monkeys(the second reason!) & as I am particularly fond of primates, there was no hesitation whatsoever, that we should just spend the morning walking through the forest!!

The cedar's were magnificent, some estimated to be as old as 800 years.  Alongside them grow green oak, juniper & Hawthorn.

It was blissfully quiet, there were no other tourists, it was, in a sense a walking meditation breathing in fresh, cedar scented air!

The monkeys were wary of us & we tried to respect their space.  We saw a whole family group of them go scuttling off up hill, with a couple of youngsters climbing & swinging their way through the cedar trees.  They moved so quickly that it was near on impossible to catch them with the camera!  I couldn't get over how golden their fur was. It was a fabulous walk! I just wish it was easier for me to do it again!!

Back in Azrou we passed  the township's main feature...the rock!  In the Amizagh language Azrou means 'The Rock'. This is a significant monument because in days gone past,  business transactions & markets were carried out at the base of this rock & the location had the same power as a court of law. 

We were in Azrou to have lunch in the home of one of the Journey Beyond Travel team.  They are the company with whom we are doing this trip & we had enjoyed enthusiastic email interaction over the past few months of preparation.  They had a surprise for me...knowing it was my 50th birthday trip, they'd arranged a gorgeous cake. It was huge!  I was so glad there were a few people to share it with!!  It was a thoroughly enjoyable lunch talking travel & 'Morocco' with our hosts!

ZIZ VALLEY WALK & THE DRIVE TO AZROU

Erfoud is renowned for it's dates.  In fact at the end of October, people from all over the world will be coming here for their date festival! Therefore it was destined that our last day in the High Atlas be spent in amongst the date palms of the Ziz Valley.  The first thing we were shown was the difference between a boy date (above)....

...and a girl date! (The girl's the one which bears the fruit!!)

We had started our walk with Hamid, from the road up high above the valley.  Looking down all we had seen were date palms, however, coming down to the valley floor we saw that under the date palm canopy, there was a lush & varied environment for crop growing.

It was all very beautiful, with the cliffs in the background. We spent 2 & 1/2 hours wandering the walkways underneath the date fronds, encountering people on donkeys, working in fields & even a ksar, where we heard young children in the classroom reciting.  Afterwards we went to Hamid's home for lunch.  We couldn't get over how much was produced in a small area. His backyard was certainly rich in fruit & vege.

On our way onward & upward, we stopped again to look back & see the vastness of this date oasis.

We had a long drive ahead to Azrou & a lot of the landscape looked like this, with the occasional flock of goats or sheep....



...and the even less frequent nomad's tent.

Outside of Midelt, we were frequently slowed down behind trucks, loaded up with crates of the area's apples. Every now & then trucks would pull over to the side of the road, & they weren't just allowing vehicles to get past them...

...the truckies along this stretch feed the wild dogs!  From Midelt to Azrou, sometimes 50 metres apart, sometimes a kilometre, dogs wait by the side of the road, because they know what's coming & that they'll get fed!!

Our accommodation once we arrived in Azrou was with a charming couple who run a B&B on an organic farm.  From their rooftop terrace we could see a mobile phone tower which had obviously provided a welcome resting spot for a number of storks!!!

                                     
On the other side of the terrace, our day came to an end with a glorious sunset!

TODRA GORGE & BEYOND

As we've been travelling along enjoying the landscape the past few days, we've been intrigued by the slogans written with stones, in Arabic, up high on prominent hills.  Most of these remind exhort citizens to put Allah first, their country second & their King third.  This one though is more political.  It translates to 'The Sahara Is Ours" & refers to a small region (in the Sahara) which is trying to win independence from Morocco.

The Todra Gorge is narrow with sheer, high cliffs rising up on either side.  Yet another gorge with a narrow river prone to flooding if there's much of a rainfall!

Nestled under overhanging cliff faces, which are beloved of rock climbers, is a new hotel...

...& it provides our 'stork' feature for today.  Fake stork & fake starting of a fake nest adorn the top of these fake Kasbah towers. Why? To look authentically Moroccan of course!!!!!!

Leaving Todra behind, we headed for the small town of Tinejdad.  In El Khorbat Ksar there, we enjoyed a meander through their museum of Berber life.  This not only showed us the method used for building kasbahs, but also a few 'interesting' medicine options!!!!

There were also magic spells....important if the medicines weren't as effective as originally hoped!

Within the grounds of this Ksar was a charming restaurant set up in the garden.  The pigeons are not pets...they're for eating & form the main ingredient in the famous Moroccan delicacy; Pastilla, which is pigeon meat cooked with cinnamon, raisins, honey & nuts, wrapped up in filo pastry.  It is surprisingly delicious!

Our lunch was, however, pigeon free...we opted for Moroccan omelette!

Our timing wasn't brilliant when we left the Ksar, as it coincided with getting stuck behind a MILLION school children all on their way back to school for afternoon lessons!!

Our driver Rachid is very quick at spotting interesting things & knew we'd want to stop & photograph this sign...

... just as well, because soon after we actually did see camels!

Closer to Erfoud we commented on the moon-scape-like mounds that seemed to run parallel to the road.  They are the remains of an ingenius  method of tapping into artesian water supplies & using it for irrigation.

We aren't going to the desert proper this trip, but Rachid, being of the desert, felt we should have a photo taken looking as if we WERE in the desert!!!!!!!!

Soon after our arrival in Erfoud, we were whisked of again for a special treat for Jeff.  Knowing his love of archaeology, the regional coordinator arranged to take him out to where they are currently digging up fossils from the Devonian era.  Here again we saw mounds of human activity on the horizon, this time they were digging down...

...for these types of treasures, which they would then take back to the factory for cleaning, polishing...

...displaying & selling.  It was all very impressive, but alas (to our guide) we were not in the buying frame of mind.

Another big day with lots of interest & input!!

TREKKING IN THE DADES VALLEY

Our day trekking alongside the river at the base of the Dades Valley, saw us once again under the guidance of Nasri.  He took us from a viewing spot on the cliffs, where he pointed out that the rock formations looked like monkey paws, down into the lush valley below, where we tried to keep out of the way of the man ploughing with his donkey & the women picking corn!

The dry rocky cliffs contrast strongly with the lush vegetation alongside the river bed.  This is where walnuts, figs, & many vegetable crops grow.  It is also where we saw women washing clothes in the river water & toiling away in the fields cutting alfalfa & other crops, which were then strapped onto donkeys, taken to the river to be washed, laid out on the hot pebbles to dry & then re-strapped onto the donkey to take home.

In one of the garden beds, where crops had clearly been harvested & the land was lying fallow, boys had obviously not hesitated to erect a couple of soccer goals with which to practise their favourite sport!!

Along the way we saw the elegant remains of this Kasbah, with the moon looking down from above.

Our picnic was to be on one side of the river, but we were on the other side!  It doesn't look too difficult to cross in this photo, but I can assure you, that after refusing to be taken across by a donkey or carried by Nasri & taking off shoes & socks...this short distance from one side to the other was EXTREMELY slippery, not to mention iceberg freezing!  I GREATLY appreciated having a man on either side of me preventing me from making the crossing on my backside!!!!!

It was worth the effort for the picnic on the other side, which not only included a tranquil setting with the lulling sound of running water nearby....but more fresh pomegranate.

After our repast & a pleasant soaking-in of the atmosphere, we hit the road again for a journey further up the gorge.

The sides were steep & the road relatively close to water level.  If there was much of a rain, the road would definitely be flooded!

The day finished with Nasri taking us to his sister's house for mint tea & walnuts.  She wasn't there however, as she is the local junior primary school teacher.  So after having our fill, we just wandered down to the small classroom & said "hello" to about 10 children between 3 & 6.  They were GORGEOUS little children.  I'm sorry there's no photo, but generally speaking the people don't like having their photos taken here & it wasn't appropriate in this situation anyway.

It was another day, where we felt we'd seen a bit more of the less touristy side of Morocco.