DFR Travels: February 2020

Tented Camp...

Saturday February 29. Hot, desert hot.

After an interesting sleep in an interesting hotel we left at 10:00 AM for a Fossil Factory for lack of a better name. All the creatures and plants that were encased in sediment for millions of years before the continents all bunched together split up, [Gondwana]. Morocco was right about in the middle so this is an excellent source of them, possibly the only. They are worked on and turned into the most beautiful pieces of art.

At 10:05 AM we were turned over to a new driver for 24 hours in the desert. He speaks no English and very soon he said 'English is Forbidden". Now when a Frenchman says that to me, a Canadian, that does not sit well at all. Nevertheless we all tried for a few hours to communicate with him to no avail. So I just shut up and looked at the passing scenery. We had no idea where we were going or what was next. It was interesting.

We did have a fun ride in the dunes in the 4x4 Land Rover. The time dragged on and some frustration was building, Fellette had a wee bit of success with him, bless her.

We had a visit to a Berber home/farm which was quite nice in that we could wander about and see how they lived, 11 in this small group of adobe structures of thatched walls of bamboo and palm fronds. The men appeared to be elsewhere today, two women, a child, a donkey, goat and kid were home. Solar panels make life a bit easer. It is still very primitive, but as clean as it can be.

We wanted some lunch as it was 1:30 by now. We finally ended up at a cafe run by a Berber family. The men were gracious and black a coal, [we saw no women], the meal was interesting. The driver was nowhere to be seen until Jim found out he was praying. Interesting.

Next we went for a 30 second drive across the street where we joined an African Musical group of 7 men, who finished 5 minutes later, and the audience that was in there when we came in left. We sat there and they played one song for us and we left. No words spoken. Interesting.

We then waited for the driver to appear and we went on a Magical Mystery tour for 45 minutes until we arrived a a camel site. Gail opted out and Jim, Fellette got on, not knowing where we were going and how long it would be. 50 minutes later we saw Gail at our Camp for the night. That was how we found out we were on a camel rid to the camp where our suitcase and packs were in the room Gail assisted in that regard. Our driver has by now disappeared fortunately and we are in the hands of Moroccans and Berbers for the night it appears at this point. Interesting.

For your information we did have a detailed itinerary for today but apparently nobody had the information, foresight or communication skills to inform us, the clients. Interesting.

The tent is lovely they even had the heater on it when we went in, [?], it gets chilly at night apparently. The temperature inside when we arrived had to be 80F!

Dinner is at 8:00 so we had lots of time to relax before dinner. There is no Alcohol here. Interesting.

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Again I apologize for errors and other gremlin-like things that follow us as we try and do a blog under less than ideal conditions: no table, no proper light, flies etc. The worst of all is that there is no wine to lubricate my brain!

Farewell as we left this morning!

Our French driver and a small goat at a Nomadic home we later visited.

Our Berber host and a dish that he called Pizza. Pastery top and bottom with vegetables in between. Interesting.

He looked Like 'what's his name' from a Tarzan movie. They moved here a long time ago from Sudan. That is the closest we could get without the help of google. [I looked it up and it could be as long as 5000 years ago.]

The building their cafe and home is in. Adobe.

The area surrounding us tonight.

Our African band.

Wee Three!

Our Camel Driver Man.

Our bedroom in the tent.

The entire camp tents.

Locals.

Our Berber server for dinner.

The staff at the camp played some drums for a while after dinner. As I send this blog off at 10:00 PM, Fellette is in bed as I add the last two pictures. In the distance we can hear drums in adjacent camp. Now that is truly an interesting way to be lulled off to sleep!

Travel Day, 420 km Road Trip...

Friday February 28. Fantastic day.

On the road by 9:00 AM. Today we are moving south so we were prepared for a relaxing day is a beautiful van with a great driver and a guide.

We were out of Fez in no time and for the next 7 1/2 hours, with a few short stops, we were transported through so much of the Moroccan country side it is impossible, once again, to convey it in words. So, I will give a brief commentary and let you try and determine what Morocco is.

We were soon in sight of the Mid Atlas Mountains on number 1 quality two lane highway/roads, speed limit max today was 100 KPH. We passed through hamlets, beautiful agricultural valleys, villages: all clean as a whistle with wide newly paved blacktop through Alpine Forests with pine, cedar and other greenery, first to 5000 feet rising to 7000 feet and clear blue skies, absolutely glorious!

We then passed snow fences then later sand fences both to stop drifting snow and sand from drifting across the road. Today we saw our first oasis and also or first sand dune. We saw endless nomadic shepherds, hired by wealthier owners. The shepherds and their family move the herds of sheep from spring, summer, winter pastures as the weather and grass permit. I will never listen to Zamfir playing The Lonely Shepherd again without thinking of the shepherds, single males or families, without thinking of what we have seen the last several days.

- There appears to be an ongoing road and highway improvement programme in Morocco, every time we travel it is going on. The infrastructure is ahead of the country in some regards.

-Then we were in hight desert country that became rather uninteresting and then downright bleak, almost wasteland, marginal with a very, very sparse population, if at all.

- By the way, Morocco has closed the border to Chinese because of corona virus. Tough decision as 4,000,000 Chinese have been coming here recently, each year. A reasonable portion of Morocco's income is from tourism, 4,000,000 less will have a major impact.

- Climate change is a reality here. Vast amounts of the country we have passed through are marginal for agriculture and they acknowledge that there is a drought here, if it is not a drought but indeed global warming there are big consequences for many Moroccans, let alone other millions, possibly billions of people in this big world. So, if you life in BC don't complain about the damn rain!

- I had a marriage proposal today from a Berber widow, see the photo below.

Tomorrow we go to a desert camp for an overnight: tents, camels and all that stuff, do not get too excited though, we apparently have electricity, hot water and showers, and get ready for this 'Internet". Really Doug?

It was great day, our health remains somewhat stable and no more accidents. [A week from today we are on a plane on our way home!]

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With apologies for some of the photos taken at 80 KPH, [otherwise we would have taken two days to get here with all the photo opportunities.]

Also please forgive the spelling and grammatical errors and the photos not being in consecutive order. Thinks don't work the same over here!!!

iPhone showing the altitude.

The Berber on the right is looking for a new husband. Volunteers?

She lives here, below the highway, all year round, has chickens!

This is a mosque, alongside a restaurant in the middle of nowhere. They take their faith seriously!

Our lounge and sitting area.

The bathroom entrance.

The bed. A killer in the dark, as it is on a raised platform a few inches high that is a toe stubber!

Our reception at the hotel upon arriving. Read their faces.

It's a job!

Countryside.

An Alpine Town in the hills alongside a University built by the Saudi King. It's good to have the King of Saudi Arabia as a friend obviously. The most expensive university in Morocco, U$20,000 per year.

A home in the hills.

Donkeys are a key part of Moroccan life, inside and outside of the cities.

Typical barren countryside that went for miles. Contrasting to the verdant and fertile areas that abound here.

A dry river or Wadi with a small community nearby.

Where is the French Foreign Legion?

Our room is somewhere in there...

Our hotel, rather like an oasis as we visualize one in our mind don't you think?

Fes Walking Tour...

Thursday February 27. Cool then hot.

Jim and Gail are both much, much better today.

We started off with a Moroccan breakfast that is just too much food. We ate what we felt like and then we went for a drive to the Royal Palace where the King is in residence, we think.The city has flags by the zillion and we did see the 16 year old Prince's Escorted Caravan whizz by today.

After the palace and a few other stops, we started a walking tour that chalked up over 10,000 steps by the end of the day. In no particular order, we visited today: The Royal Palace; the Jewish Quarter, A jewish cemetery, a Jewish Synagogue, an early carpentry museum, a Tannery for leather goods, a Weavers site, several souks and a restaurant where we had an edible lunch.

We also had a 1/2 hour shopping frenzy at a large supermarket for groceries, [I call it survival food]. Lunches and dinners are just too much food, so is breakfast for that matter, I repeat.

Back at the hotel at 5:30 and we had dinner in Jim and Gail's room of chocolate bars, cookies, an orange and wine! It was a very simple and unhealthy meal but one of the better on the trip because of the ambience, shared experiences and conversation, we all just needed that!

Tomorrow we leave Fes on an eight hour trip down south and a bit east close to Algeria. We are all getting a bit weary of travelling but we are on the home stretch and really do love the adventure of living the unknown almost each hour of the day. The nice thing is that we know that we will be in a great beds and accommodation that evening that feels so good after a somewhat tiring but adventure-filled day, Sleep is good!

Our guide Moe met us today in this garb. He wore this we think because he gets a bit of respect as a guide leading some Fragile Foreigners around this town and his country.

Guess who at one of the seven gates at one of the 13 Royal Palaces in Morocco, all fully protected by a myriad of guards and security people every 50 yards around the very, very large Palace grounds, some with golf courses. Very extravagant. He moves around from palace to palace, or residence, to be seen by his loyal subjects.

The Jewish cemetery in Fes. Still in use. The Jews fled Spain when the Spanish kicked the Moors out of Spain, centuries ago fearing persecution from the Catholics. There is no longer a large Jewish presence in Morocco but they seem to preserve that part of their history.

Just an interesting shop.

Young women applying paint to pottery prior to firing, a rather complicated process. Delicate work and very beautiful.

The colours change significantly when subjected to the heating and firing process.

It is very hard to explain but these men are making the small tiles, of one of 3600 shapes, for use in the intricate designs of tile work.

A sitting area in the display room/museum.

Pottery with Islamic designs that you have to admit are beautiful. Paisley as we have in cotton prints comes from Islamic roots.

A very narrow passage in a souk.

Meat market, so much for hanging for 28 days!

Did you know there were this many kinds of dates?

Metalware, beautiful and showy.

We had mint tea in a Carpet shop, quite the experience!

They rolled out the carpets for us, it was nice 1/2 hour rest. We have had this experience before and it is a game they play and they do not resent the fact that we do not purchase. Good tea.

We went to a school that is for potential people who do the call to prayer every few hours from mosques, one of the prerequisites is that you already have memorized the Koran/Quran. The state pays these people. This is a black tile, chiseled out to have a verse from the Koran wrapped around the main floor room.