Marrakech Mayhem

After our very late lunch stop coming down off the Tizi N' Test Pass Laura took over the driving for the last leg into Marrakech. In theory, despite Marrakech's reputation for manic traffic, our run in to our hotel should have been pretty easy given that we had a printed map of its location and Google Maps to guide us in.

However as we neared the pointy end of the process we hadn't factored in the intermittent lags in Google updating our current position, so we'd suddenly find that we were past the intersection where we were supposed to turn, not approaching it. This left Laura having to do a three-point turn on a tight corner in the face of one-way traffic - not a good position to be in in Marrakech! After navigating our way through a couple of narrow streets we then found that we could not turn right as we neared our hotel because it was a pedestrian only thoroughfare. We continued on until we found a side street we could turn into and park, so that we could walk back and work out how - or if - we could actually drive to our hotel. Of course the street parking wasn't free and I think we paid for more than the two hours we said we needed but it wasn't exorbitant - and by that stage we were just happy to not be still driving!

The walk back didn't take too long and we found the hotel with no problems. Turns out we would have had to do almost a u-turn to get into the half dug up street leading to our hotel, not just a right turn. Having sorted out the route we needed to take to drive back to our hotel from where we were parked we managed to accomplish that with a minimum of fuss. The underground car park close to the hotel was way more expensive than the street parking we had paid for in Fez but it was a secure car park and - as we were to learn - this was Marrakech so everything was more expensive.

The evening was still young, and since our hotel was quite close to the famous Djemaa el Fna Square, where everything was supposed to happen on a Marrakech evening, we set out to have an explore. The pedestrian thoroughfare Google would have had us turn into earlier (Passage Prince Moulay Rachid) leads straight to Fna square and was a pretty lively place in itself. Lots of touts, tour sellers and eateries - including La Patisserie des Princes, allegedly the most famous in Marrakech. The square itself was alive with dozens of pop-up restaurants that setup from 4:00pm each day and pack up again about midnight. Plus there were rows of fresh juice stalls. Then milling around the square you have the monkey trainers, the snake charmers, the musicians, the catch-the-bottle game we'd seen in Meknes, and many performers hidden in the middle of large circles of spectators.

After our day's adventure we decided to get some food to take back to our room. This happened to include some treats from the aforementioned patisserie for dessert - which were yummy and did nothing to tarnish their reputation! :-)

After a good sleep, next morning we took up the hotel's offer of breakfast on the rooftop terrace. The breakfast wasn't included and for 45 dirhams each we expected something much more substantial than the few pastries, some bread, coffee and a very small orange juice. No yoghurt, eggs, cheese or fruit. It was our last eat-in breakfast.

Colour produce in the market.

Somewhat fortified, topped up with water and slathered in sunscreen we set out on our day's planned excursion. The plan was to follow one of the walking routes suggested in the LP guide, which required us to first navigate to the start point not far away. Along the way we spotted a small market and ventured in - and it turned out to be really interesting. First up there were some good fruit stalls than enabled us to re-stock. We watched a guy making incredibly wafer thin but huge crepes on two big round hot plates that looked like kettle drums. It really was fascinating. We also stumbled across the chicken gutter and chicken plucker stands which were also fascinating - in a much more gruesome kind of way. We hope the caged pigeons and bunnies we saw were not destined for a similar fate.

The cat feeder in action.

Moving right along we reached the square called Place des Ferblantiers that was lined with eateries and souvenir shops - at one of which we bought some postcards. We also watched a guy feed a whole bunch of cats that had gathered for the event - he was careful to make sure the food was spread around despite the evident pecking order.

When we reached the Bahai Palace around the corner - the official start of our planned walk - there was a big queue for tickets so we decided to come back later and moved along. We also bypassed the Tiskiwin Museum (which was just about to shut for lunch) and the Dar Si Siad (a traditional artisanal museum) which we decided would probably not be interesting enough to us to justify the entry price. The walk took us through the top of Fna square where we bought some fruit to eat and thought we might eat it in the little park on the other side of the square.

A man and his snakes.

On the way there we were waylaid by a snake charmer determined to make us visit and touch his selection of snakes. We did pay him 20 dirhams - not the 200 he wanted - as we had taken some photos  of his snakes. Afterwards we abandoned a visit to the park to eat our fruit as it smelled too strongly of urine from the horses used to offer carriage rides, and found a more agreeable spot nearby.

A cat minds a market stall.

After our snack we plunged into the narrow winding streets of the medina on the other side of the square. We were trying to navigate our way to a fountain - which we never did find in the end. Though we did find a nice little Moroccan restaurant where we had a delicious tarjin and salad for lunch.

Not long after lunch, as we continued our search for that elusive fountain, we were hailed by a guy passing on a motorbike who gave us directions to a weekly Berber Market just a few streets away. He then called out to a guy to lead us to it, though we were sure we could find it given his directions. However he also said there was tannery nearby that was interesting, but would be closed for the next two days for the Muslim weekend. We weren't overly interested, having already seen tanneries in Fez, but we just let that ride for the time being. The Berber Markets were quite close and interesting enough - we even managed to buy some more fruit.

The hide scraper at work.

Tannery in action.

We thought we had lost of "guide" but he popped up again when we reached the end of the markets and insisted on leading us to the tanneries. It was quite a long walk in a very different direction from where we had been trying to go and I was beginning to wonder if there even was a tannery by the time we arrived. Our guide introduced us to the "tannery manager", thanked us profusely, and disappeared. The manager then took us on a tour of the tannery which was not much different to the one we'd seen in Fez except that we were able to walk around close to the vats. We also watched a guy scraping the hair off the hides using a large scrapper that he pushed with his chest. Inevitably we were then taken to the leather shop "just for looking" where we politely declined all the wonderful produce on offer.

When we left the shop though things took a nastier turn. Both the "tannery manager" and "guide" reappeared demanding that we pay then 200 dirhams each for their guide and tour services. There was even some suggestion that their children would go hungry unless we gave them money. They said it was an insult when I offered only 20 dirhams (which was 20 more than I felt like offering). Then some other guy weighed in offering to provide us change if the problem was that we only had big notes. After increasingly acrimonious haggling we eventually gave them 50 dirhams and walked away - with neither them nor us happy with the amount that had changed hands.

Inside the Photography Museum.

Once we found our bearings we discovered that we were quite close to the Museum of Photography, so given my interest in matters photographical we went in and had a look around. There were historical photos of people from different tribes in the Morocco region in fraditional dress and were very striking.

After that we felt we had done a pretty good job of exploring for one day, so we meandered through some more of the medina on our way back to the Fna square and from there back to our hotel to put our feet up. We may have bought something from a certain aforementioned patisserie along the way!

One of the streets inside the medina.

For dinner we had decided to eat at one of the pop-up diners in the square, since it seemed like the thing to do. And we'd seen at least one last night that offered calamari. So we went for a bit more of a wander through the square and surrounding medina checking out the goings on before heading back and selecting a pop-up restaurant that served calamari - "Number 37" I think it was. As well as the calamari we ordered some lamb chops, a Moroccan salad and two orange juices. They also brought some fairly inedible looking bread rolls and some spicy dips that we didn't want and didn't eat. So imagine our surprise when the bill arrived and we were charged 10 dirhams each for these 'extras' which we had assumed were complimentary (such things always had been previously in Morocco) and hadn't eaten anyway. They wouldn't budge on this so if I'd had the correct change I'd have paid what I believed we owed and walked away. Unfortunately I didn't have the correct change so we just had to accept what change we were given and dismiss any thoughts of eating at any of the pop-ups again.

Fruit juice and dried fruit sellers.

At the end of the day we were reminded of the couple we had met just before our Desert Tour in Merzouga, who said that everyone in Marrakech just wanted your money. We had encountered at least three such people on our first day in Marrakech.

The next morning we went out into the "main" street that ran up to the square to look for somewhere better for breakfast. We ended up in a little place which seemed popular with the locals and even though the proprieter didn't speak English we were able to communicate our needs for breakfast. Except that there was some confusion over whether we wanted two boiled eggs or a two egg omelette and ended up getting both. Along with the coffee, large fresh orange juice, bread, pancakes and yoghurt the whole lot for the two of us came to the princely sum of 56 dirhams. No comparison to yesterday's meagre hotel breakfast that cost us 45 dirhams each.

Breakfast sorted we set off to see the Bahai Palace before the crowds built up. This meant going past the same little market we had seen yesterday so of course we popped in to have another look and buy some fruit.

Bahai Palace detail.

Bahai Palace detail.

Bahai Palace detail.

No big queue for tickets to the Bahai Palace today so we were almost straight in. It certainly is a pretty amazing palace, with so much intricate carving and mosaic decoration. We ended up spending well over an hour there going through much of it twice. Hopefully some of the photos will do it justice.

By the time we finished looking over the palace it was after 1:00pm so we back tracked to a little patisserie near the market before continuing the day's explorations. Next stop was the Tiskiwin Museum but we discovered that it closed between 12:30 and 2:30 which left us with about an hour to kill. We continued exploring Rue Riad Zitoun el Jdid which eventually led us into the medina north of the square. As well as a number of interesting craft stalls we spotted a little restaurant that claimed to serve cappuccinos and also another nice looking patisserie - both of which we decided to try later.

Tiskiwin Museum courtyard.

We doubled back in time to find the Tiskiwin Museum now open - sort of. The front door was now open but there was no-one in attendance and the door through to the actual museum was still locked. We waited about 10 minutes, by which time we had been joined by a French couple, before an older gentleman opened the entrance door from inside the museum and seemed surprised to find anyone waiting. Nevertheless he accepted out donation to the entry fee fund and we went on to inspect the exhibits. It was interesting to see the collection of exhibits and photos which documented the Berber lifestyles in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Once finished there we returned to our hotel to put our feet up, planning to be back up in the square for me to record a time lapse of the setup of the pop-up restaurants. We had noted yesterday that no setup had started at 4:15pm but today when we got there just before 5:00pm the setup was almost complete. So no point making a time lapse video - instead we just watched as one of the last stands completed their setup. We then went on to explore the medina on the northern edge of the square, including one part that was double story.

Market inside the medina.

Our intention was to try out the "cappuccino place" for dinner but it appeared to be shut so we continued a little further along the same street until we came to another likely looking place and tried that. The food was nice and the prices quite reasonable so we counted it as a winner. Afterwards we tried out the new bakery, the Patisserie al Jawda, for some dessert (passing the now open "cappuccino place" on the way) and counted it as another good find.

Otherwise we just checked out the action the night's action in the square as we wandered through on our way back to our hotel.

The next morning we revisited the scene of yesterday's breakfast and were greeted by a genuine smile and enthusiastic welcome from the proprietor. We had much the same breakfast as before, except this time we had some cheese as well - which inflated the price by a whole two dirhams.

Colourful street stall.

Street musician.

Our plan for today was to start with a visit to the Tomb of Said. Just before we reached it we saw a tour group being led in a slightly different direction so we decided to follow them for a while to find out what they were going to see. We saw some really pretty little streets, an interesting street musician with a twirling hat, and a nice local market where we learnt what some of the items at the spice stand were. Such as a little stem with what looked like thin strands of cane on it was actually a natural collection of ready made tooth picks!

Back on track there was no wait getting into the long courtyard which contained the Tomb of Said, but the queue within to see inside the actual tomb was quite long indeed - about 50 minutes, much of it standing in the hot sun. We took turns with one standing in the queue while the other explored the rest of the courtyard. When we reached the head of the queue there was only space for two at a time to stand in the doorway of the tomb to survey the marvellous mosaic work inside. The tomb is definitely worth seeing but the long queue in the sun (our first in Morocco) was a real downer.

In tbe courtyard of the Said Tomb.

Fisheye view of Said's Tomb.

We meandered back to the park of Arset el Bilk (the horse piss park) which joins the main Fna square, then headed for Place el Jdid in the new part of town. This allowed is to detour through the lovely green and shady Parc Lalla Hasna along the way. It was also easy to see that this was the part of town where those with serious money stayed - there were some very swanky looking hotels and resorts that probably wouldn't let riff-raff like us in, dressed as we were. Reaching the huge roundabout that was Place el Jdid we decided not to go on and try to walk all the way to Menara Gardens as it was just too hot. Instead we returned to the main Fna square where we had some lunch before going back to our hotel to put our feet up.

Street perfromer.

Parc Lalla Hasna.

Today we were determined not to miss the setup of the pop-up restaurants in the square so just after 4:00pm we arrived at Le Grand Balcon du Cafe Glacier which overlooks the square, where the cost of admission to the balcony was to buy an over-priced drink each. I had the camera's monopod lashed to the railing and the time lapse started by 4:15pm as the first of the stalls was just setting up. We had to sit back from the edge of the balcony at first but later as others left we were able to move first to a table overlooking the square and finally to one right next to the camera. In the end I ran the time lapse recording for about 1h:50m to try and capture the last stand being set up, the same one we had watched yesterday I think. By this time the balcony was getting aggressively crowded and unpleasant and I had to keep trying to stop people from knocking my camera.

Wave pattern in pavers.

Inside the medina.

Feature wall in our dinner restaurant.

By now it was certainly dinner time so we strolled through the square to the same restaurant as last night - since the "cappuccino place" was shut again. The dinner was once again delicious - as were the fruit yoghurts that we had at the Patisserie al Jawda for dessert.

After another goods night's sleep we were back at Patisserie al Jawda to have fruit yoghurts for breakfast. We felt a little mean about abandoning the lovely man who had given us breakfast the last two days but we just couldn't resist.

Pavilion in the Menara Gardens.

After checking out and retrieving our car from its three days of rest in the expensive secure car park, we set out to drive to the Menara Botanic Gardens which we'd chickened out on walking to yesterday. We had a little unplanned detour via what looked like the entrance to an unlisted military establishment, but the friendly guards told us we had turned a street too early. It turned out that the car parking for the gardens was a bit of a walk from the actual entrance, but probably no more than from the park entrance to the large reflection pool at its centre. Not that there was much to reflect in the pool. Although the botanic garden was established in the 12th century I think the gardens in their new guise as a tourist attraction are actually still a work in progress as there wasn't that much of interest to see. There is a large pavilion at one end of the pool (which gives the gardens their name) but that required a separate entrance fee and we decided not to bother. We encountered a man walking with his two children in our stroll around the pool and when Laura said hello they both reached up to give her a kiss on the cheek. Cute!

With our exploration of Marrakech at an end it was time to return to our car and head for Essaouira.

Lookout for Landslides

Breakfast this morning was in the hotel's restaurant for an extra 20 dirhams each, but it was not as comprehensive as others we have enjoyed. Still, we knew we had a fairly demanding drive ahead of us today - up and over the famous Tizi n' Test pass - so we were keen to get as early a start as we could. We topped up with fuel on the outskirts of town (though we probably didn't need to) and since they only took cash we then doubled back to hit an ATM before setting out.

The road approaching the High Atlas.

We were underway by 10:00am and the first 20 kilometres or so was all on the flat as we approached the High Atlas mountains ahead. Then we began the climb, from an altitude of 490 metres at Oulad Berhil to 2,100 metres at the top of the pass. At first the road was pretty good - a smooth road surface with wide lanes plus a concrete shoulder of about another metre on the hairpin bends. Gradually the roadway became narrower and the shoulders rougher. Nearing the top of the pass the sealed roadway was little more than one lane wide and quite rough in places - no doubt a consequence of the heavy snow that can block the pass in winter.

View on the way up.

The road near the top.

Meanwhile as we climbed the pass we took advantage of every lookout on offer (six) to stop and admire the view. At one of these stops a man showed us some pretty amazing mineral samples. One was hallow with green crystals on the inside, a bit like the halves of a paw paw. We have seen lots of mineral rocks and fossils on sale by roadsides and in market stalls throughout Morocco, due to the fact that the area was once at the bottom of a shallow sea. And possibly aided by some judicious marketing!

By 11:40am we had reached the top of the pass on the Tourandant side and stopped for a final look down at the road we had climbed. Five minutes later we reached the Marrakech side of the pass and stopped again to check out the view before beginning our descent.

View down southern side.

View down northern side.

From there is was to be pretty much all downhill to Marrakech with a lot of winding road still to go but no so many of the precipitous hairpin bends we had negotiated on the climb up. So we were feeling good about having put the worst behind us.

A gravel flow quickly blocks the road.

Or so we thought. On our first downhill lookout stop we heard some thunder but it was still very sunny. Not longer afterwards though the heavens opened. Luckily there was not much traffic to contend with as we continued cautiously downhill. At about 12:40pm we paused briefly to watch some storm water gushing across the road. A couple of hundred meters later I paused again to take a photo of a small waterfall forming on the uphill side sending a large volume of water across the road when the large volume of water turned into a substantial flow of gravel. Within a matter of seconds it had covered the road to a depth of at least 30 centimetres blocking both our path and that of the water streaming down the road. As the water banked up I reversed a bit so as not to be stuck in the bank up of water. Shortly afterwards, as the depth of the gravel flow passed a metre in height the combined weight of the gravel and the water caused the bank on the downhill side of the road, and part of the roadway itself, to collapse. This at least gave the water streaming down the road somewhere to go. It didn't help us though as the wall of gravel that had washed across the road made it completely impassable.

The collapsed bank allows the water to drain.

Laura standing on the road block.

The water drains through the collapsed bank.

We pondered our options, which didn't seem very attractive. We had no phone service on my Orange Mobile SIM so we couldn't call anyone even if we knew who to call; there was no other road down the mountain; and the only other way to Marrakesh was a detour of at least 400 kms and seven hours back over the pass and around via Tourandant - if the road back over the pass was even open.

Thinking we might at least find somewhere to get some lunch we turned around and headed back up the mountain. We didn't get far before we encountered a van coming down whose driver paused to indicate that the uphill road ahead was blocked. I tried to indicate the same fate awaited him downhill but I'm not sure he understood. Anyway we figured we might as well turn turn around and follow him back to the landslide since we could see gravel across the road ahead as well. Back at the landslide the blockage was now about two meters high on the uphill side. So there we were, second in line at the landslide with no idea how long we'd be stuck there - or when we'd even be able to get some lunch!!

A motorbike is manhandled over the blockage.

Conversing in broken English with a passenger in the first van he indicated that this happened "a lot" and he seemed confident the relevant people knew of the problem and that it would be fixed in "an hour or two". This was somewhat reassuring but we were not sure if the suggested time frame was measured in regular hours or "mountain time". Still the rain had stopped by now so we explored the blockage from both sides and took some photos. It was evident that the road was not closed to everyone as we saw a few motorcycles manhandled over the soft gravel on their way uphill or down.

Some sustenance!

Time dragged and tummies rumbled. We spotted some people using rock on the road side to break open something to eat. We made some enquiries and it turned out that there was a walnut tree nearby. They kindly broke some open for us to share. We also saw some guys eating some fruit from a nearby tree and asked them what it was. It turned out that they were small fig like fruits that actually tasted OK. We managed to collect some, but Laura became a bit distressed when one guy started splitting open some from her handful and throwing most of them away as being unsuitable, for some reason that wasn't evident to us but was probably that they were over ripe for his taste.

No long after this - and almost exactly two hours after we had seen the landslide form - I heard the telltale beep-beep sound of a heavy machine reversing from somewhere not too far down hill of us. On a curve in the road below I also spotted what looked like part of a backhoe and hopes were up that help was at hand. We walked over the blockage to see what was coming and just after we did we spotted a front end loader come around the corner, clearing gravel off the road as it went. The driver passed us and went straight to work on the major blockage, which in the end took him no more than five minutes to clear. We're pretty sure he'd done this before, as he scooped loads of gravel and dumped them into the pit on the side where the road bank had been washed out.

Laura cheering the arrival of the rescue.

Clearing underway.

Almost done!

We jumped back into our car eager to be on our way ASAP, but with only one lane open had to wait a couple of minutes for the stream of uphill traffic that was following the front end loader as he continued up the hill. Finally it was our turn. For the next little while the driving was pretty intense, with a long line of cars behind us (some of whom were keen to go faster than I thought prudent), intermittent rain, and oncoming cars on what was still a fairly narrow and oft times rough road.

Gradually traffic thinned out, the rain stopped and we looked forward to getting some lunch at Ouirgane which seemed to be getting nearer at a maddeningly slow pace. When we did reach Ouirgane though it was a major disappointment as we saw nothing even vaguely lunch-like on the drive through - perhaps the main part of town was hidden off to one side or the other. The only option was to continue on to Azni another 10 kms down the road. Here at least there was a main street with little eateries where, at about 4:30pm (over 90 minutes after we had been freed from the landslide), we were able to procure some long overdue lunch.

From here it was only another hour or so of increasingly flat and straight roads to Marrakech. What more could go wrong?

It Ain't Bad at Ait Ben Haddou

Having eventually come to the end of Bourmalne we were only a couple of hours from Ait Ben Haddou. After about 90 minutes of driving through pretty bleak, flat and treeless country we reached Ourtzazate, which is a bit of a Hollywood town on account of the number of movies that have used locations in the area. You can even do a studio tour here - though we didn't. However we did find a supermarket and used it to stock up on some fruit and nibblies.

Then it was only another 20 minutes out along the road to Marrakesh before turning off at Tizgzaouine for the 10 minute run to Ait Ben Haddou. This little town with it's old mud brick Kasr, or Berber Castle, is a famous movie and TV location in its own right. Most recently famous for being used as a filming location for "Game of Throwns", it has also featured in such films as Gladiator, The Mummy, The Living Daylights, The Jewel of the Nile, and Lawrence of Arabia. In former times it was an important stop for caravanserai on the trade routes of North Africa.

Our window view.

We found our lodgings without any problems and checked into our room which offered uninterrupted views across the river to the Kasr itself. Perfect! We had deliberately timed our arrival for late in the day because the setting sun is supposed to bring out the colours of the mud brick walls.

A bridge to the Kasr.

About 4:30pm we set off through the "back streets" (unpaved lanes between houses) to reach the street that ran to the bridge across the river. Once across the bridge you are almost straight into the Kasr (no entry fee, nice) and into the ubiquitous craft / souvenir stalls. In places there were restoration works going on and some parts you could not enter but we had no problems winding our way through the various levels as we climbed to the top.

The small round hill next to the Kasr.

View of lower Kasr from the top.

The keep at the summit of the Kasr.

The stonework pattern in the upper wall.

Berber musician.

Formations in the upper Kasr.

The view was expansive and included the low coloured hill that surrounded the Kasr. It was interesting to see some of the patterns in the stonework in the wall around the summit. We explored a different route on the way down, and since the build up of cloud on the western horizon meant that there would be no setting sun on the mud walls today, we didn't worry about loitering until sunset.

We took the low road back to our hotel - which meant walking along the river bed and crossing the ankle deep water in the middle on a series of stepping stones reinforced with sand bags that was pretty much opposite our hotel. From our bedroom window we were able to see that there were no last minute breaks in the cloud as the sun set.

We had declined the hotel's offer to partake of their tajine dinner for 140 dirhams each because it seemed pretty expensive. We figured we'd get something nice up in the main street instead. As it happened, this turned out to be more difficult than we thought. There really wasn't much on offer and what there was wasn't cheap either. We managed to get caught in a rain shower too, so just as well I'd taken my rain jacket for us to share. In desperation we checked out a restaurant that had no-one in it and found to our surprise that it was a Chinese restaurant - which was very reasonably priced and, as it turned out, served quite delicious food too.

Dawn shoot setup.

Sunrise on the Kasr.

I wanted to get some photos of the Kasr next morning as it was lit by the rising sun, and this required the arduous job of sitting on the edge of my bed at 7:00am, opening the window and lining up the tripod and camera in front of it. Very civilised - why can't all sunrise shoots be this easy! Laura even sat up and watched through the other window as the sun moved down the walls of the Kasr. We could see some other poor sods who had to actually get up and climb to the top of the Kasr or the big round hill next to it to watch the sunrise play out.

Laura crosses the stepping stones.

The included hotel breakfast was upstairs on the terrace, which also offered a nice clear view across to the Kasr. After we had eaten, packed up and checked out we decided to go for one more look across the river. We took the stepping stone route, but declined the assistance of the trio of youths who turned up wanting to hold as hands as we crossed - seeking a few dirhams for their trouble no doubt. This time we took a different route though a small grove of trees leading, passed some nice craft stalls to the base of the big round hill. Since there was a pretty straightforward track up the hill we climbed it to admire the view of the Kasr on one side and the surrounding desert on the other.

Panorama of the surrounding desert from the hill we climbed.

Colourful scarves for sale.

Colourful plates for sale.

Front-on view of the Kasr.

After walking down the hill we went for one last stroll through the lower levels of the Kasr before returning across the stepping stones to where our car was parked at the hotel. Just before we reached the hotel we were entertained for a few minutes watching three men and a woman trying to persuade a cow to get into the back of a little ute. After much pushing and shoving and lifting of back legs they eventually succeeded.

A cow being taken for a ride.

Our next major port of call was to be Marrakesh to our west, which once back on the main road we could have reached in about three and a half hours. However we had a much more elaborate plan for getting to Marrakesh. Our plans was to head south west for a similar amount of time and spend the night in Oulad Berhil so that we could get to Marrakesh via the much more renowned and challenging Tizi n' Test Pass.

Some of the less barren country we drove through.

We shared the driving though country that was still pretty barren looking for the most part with mostly gentle hills rather than any testing mountains. We spotted a little market in Tassousfi around lunch time and decided we'd get some eats there. I tried going into a bank to break a 200 dirham note, but after having to take a number and wait five minutes while the only teller was putting bundles of notes though a counting machine for the same customer at least six ahead of me, I gave up on that idea. I was subsequently able to break the note straight away at a Western Union exchange counter further down the street. This enabled us to buy some fruit and yoghurt for lunch. Then on the way out of town I spotted some inviting shade next to a large wall around a big empty square, so we parked there to eat.

It was still barely mid afternoon and quite warm by the time we arrived in Oulad Berhil, so after checking into our room we rested up for a bit. To get some exercise we then undertook a hot walk for the kilometre or so into the centre of town where Google Maps promised a bakery.

Interesting mural, with child watching us.

Not being a noted tourist town the one we found was not very promising, so we continued exploring the local markets. In the process Laura found a nice broad rimmed hat that cost all of 20 dirhams. A little further along the main street we found a much nicer patisserie. A local chap helped us select what we wanted and translate the cost - which wasn't much. He then suggested that we go to what looked like a bar (though it obviously wasn't) down the little arcade beside the patisserie where lots of men were watching a soccer game on the TV. We were able to buy lovely cold orange juices for only a couple of dirhams and sit and eat our pastries in the nice cool room. Afterwards we finished exploring the main street, noting some murals on one of the wall,
selected a likely candidate for dinner later, and bought some fruit before the hot walk bag to our hotel room. The aircon was very welcome.

Later, come dinner time, we drove back downtown and had a pleasant dinner at our selected diner before revisiting the patisserie for dessert.