Doing the Nomad: Morocco

Exploring Morocco in depth

Having spent our week in Rabat collecting visas we made our way down to Todra Gorge, doing some bush camping on the way. Along the way our driver Steve managed to talk his way out of a speeding ticket by pumping up the grateful policeman's flat tyre. Steve is no stranger to Africa and I feel I'm in fairly safe hands as he has been on the road for about 25 years and has done the trans Africa trip 15 times. Around this point is where I got my first chance to be in a cook group which is rotated around the truck. Helen, Sarah and I were responsible for breakfast, lunch, dinner and cleaning the truck for 2 days and after that we get 2 weeks off. Pasta with a chicken and vegetable white sauce and a butternut squash curry were a hit among the group and named best dinner of the trip so far.......... ;)

An old monastery

Winding through the hills

Views whilst driving through the Atlas mountains

Todra Gorge was magnificent but unfortunately the day we hiked through it was very cold, raining slightly and worst of all foggy so we couldn't get any decent pictures. Luckily we had a guide but unluckily he practically ran the whole way up the Gorge but we managed to keep up. This is not a place where we would want to lose the guide especially in the fog as we were warned of a previous group with another company that lost 1 of their travellers in there and he was never seen again.

Villagers at the top of Todra Gorge

Small village in Todra

Todra Gorge

Todra Gorge campsite

From Todra Gorge we made our way down to Marrakech which is definitely the tourist capital of Morocco. The square in the centre of town was full of snake charmers, pet monkeys, banging drums, cheap food and spices. I ate with a few friends at a café that had a 2 year no diarrhoea guarantee so it was the obvious choice but the food here was twice the price compared to other places in Morocco mainly due to the huge amount of European tourists.

Girls doing their exercises

Lunch on the road

Marrakech by day

Marrakech by night

West of Marrakech we came to Essaouira on the coast of the Atlantic. The waters here are still quite cold but I managed a quick swim, mainly to freshen up, clean and get some salt water on various cuts on my feet. The town was quaint and we had a full seafood feast, drinks and salad for 80 Dirhams which is about $10 Aus. Essaouira was also the place that we celebrated our first trip birthday with Chris turning 37. We planned to have a few drinks at midnight the night before and the main party the next night. By midnight the night before the entire truck was dancing, singing, and going absolutely mental for what I would declare our biggest truck party yet. How Steve sleeps in the front cabin of the truck is beyond me.

Tent practical joke prop

Market stalls in the streets of Essaouira

Spice stands

Alleys in Essaouira

Leaving Essaouira we bush camped for 5 nights straight through the Western Sahara region of Morocco which is very militarized due to the region wanting its independence. Police checks before and after every town made the going slow but I suppose they’re there for our safety. The 5 bush camps in a row was our first real experience of how hard the West Africa leg of the trip is going to be with the temperature starting to rise and showers few and far between. A couple of times along the way we have managed to find a douche (public shower) in some of the towns we went through, one of them in Laayoune would only let the men shower which is another reminder of which part of the world I am in. Our 9 hour border crossing into Mauritania was a bit longer than we expected but we all got through and we now find ourselves in Nouadhibou in Northern Mauritania. I was lucky to make it to the border in the first place almost getting hit in the face with an exploding battery which had made its way into the rubbish bag and subsequently the fire but my pretty face lives another day.