10/11/24 – Breaking a long journey

Ourazazat town is better pronounced as “Owzazat” as in 2 outs in cricket! Or “Owsyerat”. The local Carrefour provided welcome dog food – and unusually – beer!

Leaving “Howsyermate” the clever satnav took us on a major tour of a new road area ready for hundreds of new houses – added a half hour to our journey – “owzourdickysatnav” then?

Saffron area at Taliouine – a stop and purchase. A marquee up for the end of the saffron festival. Didn’t get to go in as outzazate for lunch.

11/11/24 – Another Driving Day

Taroudant breakfast in a side street – yoghurt and cake in a quirky small cafe….lots of markets and too crowded.

Drive to Taftout. Tent up in record time – it gets quicker – we viewed 2 campsites and settled on “le tete de lion” – the Lion’s Head – an indistinct shape in nearby rock. German noisy shenanigans at 2:00 am – K spoke to them at the time. K: I was impressed that I remembered a) to be polite and b) the word for quiet in German.

12/12/24 – Rocks and an Oasis

“Chapeau Napoleon” – a massive rock formation that looks like nobody’s hat – and the man never got to Morocco!

However, a drive to “Blue Rocks” was much more impressive – a Belgian artist, Jean Vermame, wanted a worthy memorial to his late wife – in 1984 he painted a vast area of large rocks – blue , pink and a little yellow – bizarre but striking.

Drive to an oasis via some narrow mountain roads with steep drops and some subsidence – stop for soft drinks and return on the same tracks.

13/11/24 – Museums and Motor Repair

We drove a short way out of town to a Berber house museum. This was most informative – the guide had lived there as a child. Three families still live there in the summer but mostly live away to earn a living – due to climate change almost nothing grows in a previously rich land – massive water shortage. In September there was heavy flooding in many areas. Here they had just 10 mins of rain. The first rain this year! Water is piped down from the mountains / oasis we saw yesterday. As a lad, our host explained that water was plentiful for daily washing, crop irrigation etc. A government minister wanted to make the area into a joint protectorate but some of the families fought and the project died. No funding available.

The next museum was the Memorial to the Resistance- 104 exist in Morocco – we visited one – very knowledgeable guide – independence from France happened in 1956 but squabbles continued with Spain. The world’s largest peace march happened in 1975 to free Western Sahara – sponsored by King Hassan II – partly successful but followed by guerilla fighting.

Lunch in Restaurant Nadia nearby was excellent.

I check our not so ancient Mercedes vital signs weekly and the engine oil level needed to be topped up. K met a chap who came to the campsite looking for business – a car and motorhome mechanic. We followed him to his patch – he topped up the oil and sorted our slightly loose foot parking brake – €30 – a good result at the end of an excellent day!