After flying from Malaga to Casablanca over the straits of Gibraltar with Africa on one side and Europe on the other I joined a tour run by G Adventures with 10 guests of varying ages and nationalities. It’s actually pleasant to have everything done for one, all you have to do is choose which clothes to wear. We drove firstly to Volubis through dry hills cultivated once more by Olive trees. We staggered around the Roman ruins in fierce heat and then on to Fez. We had a tedious dinner with entertainment by ageing musicians together with equally ageing belly dancers and a magician with a fez like Tommy Cooper. We walked around the Madina which is a rabbit warren of alley ways, passages, all crammed together containing artisan workplaces such as silverware, brass and copper ware, a full leather tannery, clothing manufacturers, ceramics, metalware. There are a number of mosques, education centers; in fact, the Medina operates as a city in itself. The impression was of a densely packed, age old, traditional huge market but nowadays catering very much for tourists.
Morrocco is like an alien landscape with an Eastern feel about it without the danger. We drove to the Sahara Desert for a camel ride. I thought it would be a joke but it was a wonderful experience. The camel kneels for you to get on and then at the signal stands up where you have to hang on like grim death otherwise you pitch forward over its head. We stopped and watched the sunset before coming back through the sand in awesome silence just listening to the pad, pad of the camel.
The next day I wasn’t feeling well and we did a tedious drive to Todra Gorge. We did a walk through a village with vegetables and a stream to the gorge, a narrow valley through a towering cliff with the last of the sunshine showing on the top.
Much of the driving was through barren, rocky landscapes and we arrived at Ait Ben Haddou village with a traditional kasbah and a walk to the top of the hill with splendid views all around.
There are no women, except for tourists, in the cafes. We cooked tagine chicken in a hotel restaurant, it’s clear that the men do the waitering and women work in the kitchens. They wear conservative dress and hijab over their hair and shawls. I noticed a few women in the cities wearing Western dress but not in the villages. A man can have more than one wife, under certain conditions and divorce laws are being reviewed to enable women more rights.
We drove over the High Atlas Mountains to Marrakesh and had a guided tour through the huge medina. Inside was the palace owned in past years by the Prime Minister and used by him as his harem. The architecture is stunning. Many of the buildings have the same character, arches, decorations and carvings as seen in Southern Spain. The medina is on a huge scale and for sure one would be lost very quickly wandering around. I found it exhausting in the heat.
Our tour was over; I stayed an extra day but didn’t venture far from the hotel as I found the heat debilitating and didn’t fancy traipsing around the medina on my own.
Of course, Morocco has a long history which I’ve only briefly looked at and it’s very much a Moslem country with all that entails. It has progressed since independence; it has a high-speed rail line from Tangier to Casablanca, good roads and infrastructure. The political system is headed by royalty and clearly there is a big disparity between rich and poor. The architecture in the villages, often perched high in the mountains, and cities with age old medinas is wonderful.
All in all this is a country worth visiting
