Morocco Day 4

Two More For The List

Our night was a bit rough though Billy says his watch said he had one of his best sleep scores ever… go figure. I can assure you that neither my night nor Jenny’s was equivalent.

The perfectly calm weather had changed drastically overnight and by 7:00 AM, the winds were whipping. We couldn’t walk the thirty feet to the communal tent without our eyes getting sandblasted – it makes perfect sense to me now why camels have long eyelashes and bushy eyebrows.

Today was going to be a basic washout so since we had a fairly long drive ahead of us, we cut our losses and decided to leave after breakfast.

As we waited for the other parties, we struck up a conversation with Mohammed. He asked me if I wouldn’t mind leaving Jenny behind; I told him not a chance. He said he would turn her into a strong woman; I told him she already is. He said she must take after her mother then; I told him he was a smart man…We chuckled and continued on with a more realistic conversation.

I asked him to clarify if this was the Sahara; he did so quickly and with the utmost certainty. He scoffed at anybody saying otherwise, pointing out that they were most likely outsiders, not descendants of a people who have lived here for eons.

He was intrigued when I spoke of wisdom and wanted to understand what it meant. After giving him my best description, he repeated the word over and over- as though trying to commit it to memory. I wish we had had more time to speak to him; we never saw him last night and I would have loved to learn more about the traditions of the Berbers from him.

Our ride out was a wild one with the blowing sand literally creating “white out” conditions. The sand was shifting so fast that the tracks were getting covered, to the point Mohammed actually got stuck. We swung back around to see if we could help, but by the time we got there, he was free!

Once back in the village of M’hamid, Mohammed led us to an ATM where we finally met with success and were able to get some Moroccan dirham! We bid him, “mae-salama,” and headed north.

We weren’t five minutes on the road before we hit a police checkpoint. I stuck to my M.O. and, for a second as he approached the car, I thought he was going to harass me but instead, he waved us through. Yesterday, we hit another four or five checkpoints and were waved through all of them – at one of them I was certain I was going to get “fined” because we all lost track of our vigilance when we were looking off to the side at our first flock of camels, and I came into a checkpoint a bit faster than the posted speed. The Gendarmarie got up from his seated position carrying some sort of radar gun, walked over to the car with it in hand, then waved me through. The French couple that helped us out earlier said they had gotten taken for 15 Euros because they were told they hadn’t stopped at the sign.

As I said previously, there are so many additional hazards to look out for while driving here and so we can now add camels to the list.

We backtracked north an hour and a half of the same road we had taken yesterday before we turned west to make the 140 or so mile drive to our next destination, Tata. It became evident, rather quickly, that this road crossed desolate lands. We passed more camels than cars or buildings in the two and a half hour drive. It probably comes in somewhere in the top five of most isolated places we have covered.

And in all honestly, there were a few moments there that I thought things could easily go bad for us out here, especially when we encountered literal sand dunes that had formed on the road. Add another Moroccan driving hazard to the list because hitting one of those going 65 miles an hour might not have been so fun!

Unfortunately for us, the scenery was affected by all of the sand particles suspended in the air. The mountains on either side were almost completely obscured while the sun’s rays were blocked, leaving the atmosphere looking like a cross between a thick fog bank and the smoke generated from a large forest fire.

Once we made it through to the first town, and successfully past another checkpoint (though it was a close one because we were all looking up at the boulder covered mountain), Billy noticed a valley off to the right. I was so glad he noticed it because I had been advised to look for it. It was so cool – a deep oasis with plenty of water and a beautiful mosque overlooking it.

By 4:30 we pulled into Tata, tanked up the car and made our way through the deserted streets, minus two more checkpoints which we were again waved through (one even giving us a thumbs up instead). We made the final turn towards tonight’s riad down a trash-strewn dirt road heading straight into the old village. I was a bit nervous, trying to remember the reviews from this place. Tata was not really a destination for us, it was just a stop to break up an otherwise ghastly long drive and the overnight accommodation selection had been slim pickings.

We pulled into the parking lot where we saw two motorcycles (the type that are very common to the people who tour) and felt some relief in misery loves company. But, as it turns out, there was no misery. In fact, except for our bathroom being located outside of our bedroom, the riad was charming in the most authentic unpretentious way.

The owner was an absolutely adorable woman who clearly is trying hard beyond imagination to create something nice and comfortable for her guests. She was warm and welcoming and humble and gracious all at once.

She offered us some welcome tea and asked if we’d like to have it up on the terrace. We obliged her and were so glad we did as the breeze was nice and it was a very cool perspective looking down on the palmeral. I can only imagine what the views would be like if we could see them!

Our hostess prepared a wonderful meal – a traditional soup followed by a lemon and green olive chicken tagine (bumping last night’s tagine down to fourth place – though I still appreciated all the vegetables in that one), followed by a fruit cup (the camp’s was better).

We were all very happy to retire to an air conditioned room for the night!