Morocco Day 6

Jean Was Right

Yesterday just as we were pulling into the Traditional House Museum, Jenny got an email that she had been shortlisted for an internship she had applied for – that was great news. The email told her she had 24 hours to complete a written assignment- that was the bad news. I suppose it was serendipity that we were staying two nights in Tafraout because there would have been no way for Jenny to complete the required assignment otherwise – and that’s exactly what she spent the day doing…

Following a very pleasant breakfast on the front terrace, where Ahmed shared a traditional sweet that is served for Eid, Jenny took a seat at a table and began working while Billy and I went over today’s planned drive with Jean, the owner of the inn. When I told him what I had scheduled for us to do, he said it was in his top three favorite things in all of Morocco (number one being the mosque in Casablanca and number two being the palace). He warned that one of the sections of the drive would be on rough unpaved road and instead suggested we do an out and back – we would also get the full wow factor of the views he said since we would see it from both directions – so we planned on that!

It was tough leaving Jenny behind but we were very proud of her for choosing to spend her day doing a written assignment that she could have just as easily taken a pass on.

You know what they say about what a difference a day makes? Well never have I seen that so clearly as this morning when we drove back through the town. What yesterday was a deserted village with locked storefronts and mostly empty streets, today was a vibrant community filled with people shopping and carrying on – Ramadan was over and people were back to their ways of life.

Driving out of town we remarked how the area reminded us of Zion and red rock country. The hills were made up of giant red boulders rubbed smooth by the forces of wind. I pulled over to take a picture and this man comes up on a little moped and stops to ask us if everything was ok. Turns out Mohammed owns the shop that Jean had used for the interior decoration at the inn. He was a pleasant guy and had hoped we would come take a look at his store.

I can say this with no doubt that everybody we have encountered here have been so nice and so welcoming. Villagers always return our waves and greet us with smiles. The only exception has been many of the women who will pull their head covering over the face when they hear or see the car coming, but that’s not to be taken as a sign of unfriendliness, it is cultural.

The only good thing about Jenny staying behind was that I think she would have suffered terribly from car sickness as the road was insane, in more ways than one but the hairpin turns basically brought us to about 5mph. In fact, I never reached more than 25mph for the majority of the four hour drive because not only was I maneuvering tight turns but the asphalt was not wide enough for two cars to pass without running off onto the shoulder and more often than not, the shoulder (sometimes on both sides) was severely undercut or missing altogether so I had to use extreme caution. There were a few times I told Billy that I didn’t know what we’d do if we met up with another car but thank goodness we only passed four the entire time.

The drive had us gaining a bit more than 4000’ in elevation where we leveled off briefly before beginning the descent into Mansour Gorge. If we thought the drive yesterday was spectacular, today knocked it out of the park. The landscape certainly gave off a strong feeling of being out west but that quickly dissipated when we hit the bottom of the gorge and the palm valley oasis. Unlike both the Draa Valley and Tata, where we had been a few days prior, the flora of this oasis was incredibly vibrant and healthy. Perhaps because there was clearly plenty of water as the falaj system was running strong delivering the liquid gold where it was most needed.

The drive through the oasis was magnificent with the lushness and greenery of the palm, olive, and almond trees creating a striking contrast against the soaring red cliffs- all topped off by a blue sky – wow, just wow!

There were villages mixed in here and there built into the surrounding cliffs and a few homes and even a small elementary school (easily discernible by the Mickey Mouse painted on the outside wall) in the middle of the oasis. We saw a few local families enjoying the shade and the waters of the oasis.

And as we came to the end of it, we were happy to say, we got to turn around and see it all again!

Yesterday once we had made it to town, we had sought out an ATM and while heading to our hotel we passed the people from earlier. I stopped the car and jokingly hollered over to them, “We made it!” They laughed and said they had been watching for us. We had a short chat with them, and they were inquisitive as to how we came to be in this part of Morocco, more pointedly because we are Americans. Today, high up on the pass, we ran into them a third time, “You again,” I said. Turns out they were Swiss and again were interested in us being American. Billy told him what Elhoussaine had said about us, we are travelers not tourists. They too were driving a Dacia Duster and he told us they rented it for reminiscence sake because ten years ago they were in Morocco and got stuck on a road (actually the same road we drove the first day) for forty hours after it was overrun by flood waters. The and about thirty other cars spent two nights sleeping in their automobiles while local villagers brought them soup and other food. I could not imagine trying to sleep in this car but I suppose when traveling like this you do what you have to do!

We were back at the inn by 3:30 and Jenny was just finishing up and hitting submit. She and Billy decided to take a swim and relax by the pool for a bit. We later enjoyed a stroll through the beautiful gardens, drinks on the terrace (the weather was just glorious) and I finally got to hear the call to prayer.

We finished our day with another delicious meal of … tagine- chicken with orange and saffron, along with some cinnamon studded couscous. Jenny placed it now in her number 3 spot. The dessert was off the charts delicious- Billy saying it was the best he had ever eaten. I thought of my dad and how much he would have loved it – a rich chocolate mousse with a coffee gelee on top – truly decadent!