We left Marrakech, with the temperature heading to 43 degrees, to the East and the Atlas Mountains. Crossing the plains there was very little vegetation and no people. Just rocks, rocks and more rocks. At times we would spot greenery, not a mirage, and then find a few houses. Many of the houses looked very primitive, perhaps just one room, a hand to mouth existence maybe. The people are quite isolated and no doubt contributors to the illiteracy rate of 60-70%. Morocco is a kingdom and the present king who is only 50 is keen to see improvements especially with education. Ten years of school is now compulsory however some of the villages in the mountains have little way of getting their children to the regional Secondary Schools. State schools and universities are mostly free with private institutions also available but they are very expensive.
From the plains we headed up into and over the Atlas Mountains. We had an over night stop in the Dades Valley which is the site of a very old Berber town. The majority of the people in Morocco are of Berber origin but from the year 850 they have mixed with immigrating Arabs and become totally Arabacised. They do however maintain their native tongue and with five main tribes they have five dialects. The Arab are confined to the cities while the Berbers live throughout, often marrying Arabs.
Driving through the countryside has been most interesting. Roads in the main are reasonable, many one lane with crumbling edges as vehicles pull off to avoid one another, but similar to small country roads in New Zealand. Vehicles don't travel very fast and drivers are not aggressive. In fact, most Maroccans are not aggressive and it is disrespectful to appear aggressive, or more dominant than your neighbour. There is a lot of hand shaking and touching to confirm friendship here. All good fun but I did go seriously wrong in preparing to hug an old lady that had just kissed Diana on both cheeks. "...we are all good friends here I thought....." but the old dear in the head scarf was not having me doing anymore than shaking hands. She did laugh though, they have good humour.
Shopping continues to be overly tempting. Under the stress of a long drive, a very hot sun, two delicious glasses of mint tea (to be honest a glass of deadly nightshade would probably have gone down well!) and a Berber with a wonderful persona we purchased a small carpet.
Through the mountains, the plains and the occasional watercourse we arrived at the desert! Serious desert, one that we were destined to mount camels and venture in to. Riding four miles to school on a pony for five days a week for six years didn't prepare me for my camel caravan. The ride was akin to riding in a dray with square wheels down a river bed.......I imagine. Not comfy but we got to our tent camp on dusk. Cloud prevented the anticipated spectacular sunset however the dawn was brilliant....(partly because it heralded the end of a somewhat uncomfortable night in an airless Berber tent). The sun rising on the dunes was an experience we will probably not see again.
We were pleased to shower and board our camel called Mercedes Benz and head off across the rocks again. We had an overnight stop in the mountains and went wandering around our 'Auberge' where we came across a mob of sheep and two shepherds. The sheep are basically free grazing and the shepherds stay with the flock all day and all night. The mob has to be mobile as the feed is scarce and I would guess they are expending as much energy getting to the vegetation as the vegetation is giving them energy. It looked like that to me.
From the mountains we came down across the plains, through some fertile valleys where there are huge numbers of date palms and then into Fes. Countryside around Fes is comparatively rich with many crops, fruit trees, huge numbers of olives and many houses. Fes is a large town with 350,000 people living in the old town, the medina. We have had a walk through the narrow alleys and again been tempted into shopping. The goods seem to be high quality and really not so expensive. Temptation increases as the sun rises and the mint tea is drunk. So as the sun heads for 40 and the obligatory acceptance of mint tea is made the plastic card begins its work. Do they "bounce"?
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