Went into town quite early – fended off countless touts to be alone – bought painting.
Got a bit lost, but then found souk – I bought sandals, Janie bought the baboushes [slippers], then got bored with touts. Found ourselves a horse and carriage lad who had kept looking out for us and got him to take us round the ramparts, and then back to the souk (Berber part, then Arab part) where Janie, bought raffia.
I haggle hard & one [merchant] offered 6000 camels for Janie (previous best offer – 4000 camels).
Then home for relaxing afternoon on fab terrace.
Realised we needed extra baggage for our purchases. The result was to return to souk quickly (with tout). Naturally no touts were to be found, but shunned souk shopkeeper from earlier grabbed us and sorted out great leather holdall and more sandals & baboushes dead cheap!
Home to change and dinner at oh so snooty La Gazelle Dor (méchoui). Adam (manager, so OTT, it’s untrue). Great meal at £50 plus tip all in better than I expected.
Taroudant as seen from our original Palais Salaam room
Left early. Drove from Ouarzazate To Taroudant – uneventful drive, 300 km.
Arrived at lunchtime Palais Salam – super place. Terrace in room. [See headline photo] Took light lunch of Moroccan delights, minced lamb samosa type and liver tajine – superb.
Relaxed on Terrace and afternoon – dined on pre-arranged pigeon tajine in evening – delicious.
Tucking in to tajine (above) and sweetmeats (below)
Went to bed early to relax, but earlier “have you farted?” sulphurous smell pervaded and after several comedy sketch attempts by plumber with no sense of smell, [we] got upgraded to a magnificent suite.
Headed off quite early – visited Dadès Gorges – went in as far as car will sensibly go – attractive.
Drove through relatively hassle free villages…
The reference to “relatively hassle-free villages” was actually a throw back to the previous day, when we had encountered several instances of “little treasures” finding it amusing to throw stones and pebbles at our car as we passed through their villages on the Erfoud to Tineghir run.
…then drove out to Ouarzazate – arrived at hotel, nice and early – relaxed around pool.
Rested in room and unexceptional dinner in overflow room at Riad Salam, with monotonous music and interesting Irish journalists.
I don’t think we were wild about that hotel, with the “interesting Irish journalists” being the only highlight. We didn’t photograph the place at all.
Rose at 4:30 am to head off for sand dunes with our guide Hassan.
My abiding memory of this early morning jaunt is setting off from our hotel in our modest Renault 19 with Daisy at the wheel. Daisy, because I didn’t have the confidence even to attempt driving “off piste” in a Renault 19 before daylight. About five minutes into the tentative journey, Hassan said, with some authority, “if you want to get to Erg Chebbi in time to see the sunrise, you’d better let me drive.” So he did – and so we did see the sunrise.
Watched the sunrise at the large dunes, then went to examine the smaller ones…
…before home for shower and breakfast. Set off in direction of Tinerhir – an unremarkable, Sub-Saharan drive until we reached Todra Gorge…
…drove right into the canyon.
Todra Gorge CanyonTinerhir looking at its very best, as seen from Todra Gorge
Got to hotel in Tinerhir, to discover the whole town lacked water. After two to three hours of contingency planning we [decided to] stay put – [the] water came on – [we] ate an unexceptional meal.
We flew out to Fes (or Fez) on the evening of 7 November. We stayed at the Palais Jamai there – we liked that place, although it flattered a little to deceive with a flashy outward appearance – much of Morocco was like that.
We had arranged a walking tour of the Fes Medina (only feet and mules are allowed) for our first day in Morocco. Our guide, Abdl Jawl, arrived promptly and without ceremony.
A selection of the photos and yarns follows. More photos can be found in the Flickr albums, linked at the bottom of each piece about this holiday.
Examining the snailsColour-co-ordinated Moroccan womenZawiyya (mausoleum) Moulay Idriss IIMedersa El-AttarineKairaoine MosqueDebating with Abdl Jawl in Seffarine MedersaLittle treasures in a Seffarine District schoolYou’ll be grateful that the tanneries are not shown on a smelly-visionIn the souk we were neither persuaded to buy a carpet, nor a Fassie outfit
Having failed my audition as a Klansman, we took some lunch back at the Palace – Pastilla (Moroccan pigeon pie).
