Tafraoute

Upon returning to Tiznit, I immediately embarked on a search for a car rental agency, and within about an hour I was signing the necessary paperwork and forking over cash for an older economy model, for four days. In Morocco the deal is, you pick up the car with an empty gas tank, and return it with an empty tank. Hmm - that’s a good one! I reckon that this is a bit of a scam in order for the agent to be able to syphon off whatever is left, and put back about a teaspoon, or just enough to get to the nearest gas station. Good thing the gas station was close-by, because I wouldn’t have made it very far on the gas that was left!

My plan was, instead of returning to Mirleft and through to Sidi Ifni, I would go to the mountains (surprise!) about 130 kms directly east of Tiznit. The town of Tafraoute I had heard to be very beautiful and likewise the surrounding area. From past experience I knew that it would be next to impossible to see anything outside the town without a car, and giving myself four days would be ample, and perhaps enough to take in Sidi Ifni before the return deadline.

It felt SO good to be driving a car myself, instead of at the mercy of a hell bent taxi driver in a clapped-out, hay-wired,, ancient Mercedes! It was such a pleasure to just take as much time as I wanted, stopping when I wanted. THIS is the way to see Morocco! The route is truly beautiful and I was blessed with very fine weather for this trip.

There is a lot of agriculture across Morocco, especially in oranges, olives, and a huge variety of vegetables. Along this route I saw a lot of vegetables growing as well as olive plantations. Another crop, which is unique to Morocco, is argan. Argan trees produce a fruit that looks much like a green olive, but it is more of a nut. It has an outer husk, a shell, and an inner kernel which is crushed for its precious oil. It is a very labour intensive process to produce the oil which is highly favoured by Moroccans for use in beauty products and for cooking. Argan grows well in the region of Tafroute. The trees are big and beautiful, providing shade for goats, who also happen to enjoy eating the fruit for their husks.

Driving into the Anti-Atlas mountains was very scenic. I enjoyed the broad expansive views of the approaching the highlands and distant peaks. Up and up I continued, past tiny villages, goat herds, argan and olive groves, and palmeraies. Very young children who live along the route stand next to the highway waving bunches of thyme that they have picked from the surrounding hills, offering it for sale to passers-by. I picked up a couple of hitchers along the way. Distances between villages is often too far to walk, and so I had no problem picking up a young man and dropping him off about 10kms down the road, and a little further on a grandfather and his grandson, who were going to Tafraoute. All were very grateful for the rides, and the youngster made a special effort to thank me.

I found the hotel mentioned in the guide book and took a room there, though it was tres simple. Literally just a bed and a chair and a window and door, but it was cheap and I didn’t need any luxury - I had the car to provide that element!

Just a few kilometers from Tafraoute, there are some amazing and dramatic rock formations, consisting of huge boulders perched atop one another and the underlying grit stone ridges. I really enjoyed a few hours of scrambling and exploring a small part of that fantasy landscape, until I noticed a change in the weather heading in my direction looking like it was certain to bring rain.

There are a lot of other geographies to explore in this, the Ameln Valley. Part way up the sides of the crumbling mountains are abandoned and inhabited villages. There is a place where a Belgian artist painted blue some huge boulders in a nearby valley, to an extraordinary effect. Chapeau Napoleon is a pile of boulders, one on top of the other, in an isolated tower that is supposed to look like its’ namesake - I couldn’t quite see it. But I did see the lion’s face in the rock formation not far from Tafraoute. It actually quite resembles the logo for the production of “The Lion King”. It’s a lot bigger though, even bigger that the one in Times Square!

Another interesting side trip was to the Ait Monsoor Gorge. Up and over another pass and down into narrow valley, surrounded by steep cliffs of conglomerate, which seem to shed their red mud and stones during heavy rainstorms. Thus, was the road washed out at the bottom of the valley, although drivers with higher clearance vehicles than my little Kia seemed at ease fording through. This narrow valley is obviously fertile, and receives enough sunlight to provide for crops of olives, almonds and dates.

At my hotel, I noticed a fellow who seemed to be travelling solo, like myself. The day before I was going to leave Tafaoute, I approached him after seeing him at breakfast to ask him, if he would like to join me in an excursion into the surrounding valley. He said he would like to very much and so we set out to explore one of the abandoned villages about 15 or 20 kms away.

Yves is a Frenchman who has lived the past 10 years in NYC, which explained his rather odd accent. He worked as a Pedi-cab (bicycle rickshaw) driver there, all that time, and has been a bicycle traveller for years. He has been coming to Morocco since he was a youngster, with his parents, and has also travelled extensively in Turkey. He has learned a fair bit of Arabic, over the years, and can even read it, so he is well kitted out for travelling in Morocco and much of the Arab world. This trip he wasn’t cycling (though he has done a lot of cycle touring in Morocco), but instead doing some hiking, which he has also done in the past.

We had a good look around at the abandoned village, which had some exquisite but crumbling examples of classic Moroccan architecture. Apparently the inhabitants of the village all emigrated to France and America in the 60’ and 70’s, leaving the village to complete neglect. It was sad to see these once beautiful homes in a such condition that they were irretrievable, and yet the newer village below being constructed some short time was so completely unattractive and charmless. It seems that once a building’s roof starts to fail, there is no effort to repair it and continue using it. Eventually it just returns to the earth from whence it came - stones, mud, wood and straw. Such places are scavenged for the attractive doors and window coverings which are sold to oversees buyers.

Since Yves was heading to Tiznit to begin his next hiking trip, he joined said me for the drive back. I told him that I was actually going to Sidi Ifni which is south of Tiznit. He said that although he had wanted to go there, he still had not made it. I suggested that if he didn’t mind starting his hike a couple of days later he was welcome to join me. By morning he had decided to take me up on the offer. We had lots to chat about enroute, so it was a real treat to have him along. He told me that he was pretty much finished with NYC, and had no desire to return to France to live (“it’s too old and cold and settled in it’s ways, here” - Joni Mitchell) but was very interested to check out his options in Montreal, which is where my son, Colin, lives. In fact he would fly from Morocco to Montreal to do just that, before starting a cross-America bike trip.

We arrived at Sidi Ifni in good enough time to find the hotel and search out the giant rock arches some 10kms up the coast from town. Indeed, these arches are humongous and impressive, miniaturizing everything else in sight. It was humbling to walk under them as they span the beach and reach into the ocean. It was also a little unnerving, knowing that they are also composed of a conglomerate of mud and rocks, which are ever eroding and potentially one could be in the line of fire from a missile at any time with no warning. That would be deadly strike, for certain!

Sidi Ifni is an interesting town in that it is a former Spanish port, and has retained that influence. Here, the second language in Spanish, rather than French, which was no problem for Yves, since he also speaks Spanish, having learned it in New York. It was great having my own personal translator! Actually, the nicest thing about the town was the hotel that we stayed in. It was so pleasant, and clean and pretty, and the owners were delightful. But we could only stay one night, as I had to return the car to Tiznit by noon next day.