25th
Jan 2016
Coffee, Souks,
Spices and a tagine
Woke up on this
cool winter morning in Marrakech, and had a further explore of the camp site. They have really done it well, with the pool
surrounds enticing (even more so if the weather was a little warmer !), and the
tiles of the shower and toilet facilities quite amazing – Easily the fanciest
of anywhere on our entire journey, if not the cleanest as well. While we were having breakfast the chickens
(including the rooster !) came noisily by to make sure we were wake, and then a
couple of peacocks came over in all their finery – No noise (they can be VERY
noisy – we used to have them at my Prep School !) and they didn’t want to
display their tail feathers either, so after a bite to eat, they went on their
way.
As we did
too. Caught a taxi with 4 others people
from the camp site into the old city – Split 6 ways it was about $1.50 each
! And the same driver came back at the
agreed time of 4 pm to pick us up – Unfortunately a whole etra $1.50 to get
home again ! He dropped us a little way
away from where we wanted to go – That being the Djemaa el Fna – The square and
surrounding souks that are the very heart of Marrakesh life. The fact that
there are far more locals there doing their shopping than tourists demonstrates
its importance – It is not just a tourist mecca.
When we found the
start of the square, we stopped and had a coffee opposite the Koutoubia Mosque and its Minaret that is 70 m tall and
visible for miles around (useful when trying to get “unlost” when in the souks
and their surrounding maze of streets !) This mosque was built in 1184 on top of
an 11th C previous mosque, some of the remains of which are visible
today after ecavations. Once we had got our bearings, we walked down an
alleyway with most vendors selling walnuts, and into the Djemaa el Fna, where
there were crowds and vendors and fresh juice carts, and drummers, and men with
monkeys, birds, snakes, and just about anything else you can think of !
After wandering
around just soaking up the atmosphere, we headed off into one of the souks off
to the side of the square – These are absolute rabbit warrens, and if you
wanted to just wander around them without coming back out, you could probably
be in there for a week and not pass the same way twice ! And of course the vendors are ever present,
but as we have found everywhere else in Morocco, they are invariably polite,
and in many cases it is easier to stop and chat with them for a moment than to
try to be abrupt with them. Also a great deal more pleasant. I have to say that at no point today did we
ever feel threatened or at risk. People were polite and offering help to us with
directions, while at the same time enjoying the banter that goes with this kind
of environment.
We wandered
through alleyways, spent time in the spice souk with Ahmed who persuaded us to
by some wonderfully aromatic spices for our meat and fish meals, and found
falcons and chameleons and tortoises all over the place. (I agree this is not
always “nice” in our modern world, but this is how they survive in a difficult
environment, so I am not going to stand in judgement of them here). In the middle of one square we met Steve from
Sydney who is over here with his wife trying to start a business, and he shared
some delicious fried fish he had just bought from a stall with us ! An escargot salesman had us looking at his
“wares”, and on leaving Janet trod on one that had escaped – One has to be
careful not to damage the merchandise in these places, even when they crawl
into your path !!
After that we
were wandering through a souk and in chatting to some young lad he offered to
take us to the tannery where they were having auctions today. We followed him for about 10 minutes deeper
and deeper into the souk, until it was just getting ridiculous when he kept
saying “Just 2 minutes more”. We had
other things to see in the short time we had, and also wanted to go and have a
tagine for lunch in one of the many restaurants that are on every corner. We tried one that had been recommended but
found it lacking atmosphere and touristy, so we left and went back to the main
square and found a lovely place on a roof top that was mostly locals, and about
half the price of the previous place. We
were perched right on the side overlooking the entire Djemaa el Fna, and able
to see everything that was going on. We
were also able to get some good shots of people wandering in the square without
imposing on them, and I enjoyed getting some shots of locals in their robes,
going about their daily business around us.
A very pleasant lunch hour.
While reading our
guidebook over lunch, we decided to try and find the Saadian Tombs. We were struggling to follow the twisty roads
until a chaop called Mark from St Helena (now living in Marrakesh) kindly asked
if he could help us, and offered to show us the way. Lovely chap. These tombs were built by Ahmed al Mansour
for himself, his sons, and his grandchildren (plus about 33 other Saadians) in
the 16th Century, but 100 years later were walled up by a later
vengeful Sultan (rather than destroying and desecrating graves), and were not
From there we had
to get a move on to get back to our taxi meeting point on time – But first we
followed the roads Mark had told us about, and went through the huge Bab er Bob
gate through the old city wall. We crossed the road (a sometimes perilous
undertaking on these busy roads where basically you walk, and the vehicles move
around you !!) to take a photo of the gate, and as we did so noticed that 3
storks were nesting up on top of the gate, and from the size of their nests
they had obviously been there for some time !
By now we were
heading up through bus terminals and up alley ways, hopefully always in the
right direction, but always guided by the big Koutoubia Minaret which we could
see in the distance.
We passed the
mosque, and saw the remains of the original 11th C mosque, as well
as the well manicured gardens opposite the mosque. From there it was only another 5 minutes to
our taxi point, and we arrived with 5 minutes to spare, and were soon on our
way back to the campsite.
Once back we washed
the dust out of our throats with a couple of beers, before having a light salad
supper (the tagine at lunch had been so good and filling, we hardly needed
more), trying to catch up on the blog, banking, and other internet things
before heading to bed. The temperature
during the days here in winter is just perfect – about 25 deg C, but at night
and in the morning it is quite cool, and you certainly need a warm jacket.
A great day in
Marrakech, and we have changed our plans slightly for tomorrow, and are going
to head out into the Atlas mountains to Ouarzazate and maybe Zagora before
heading back to the coast at Agadir.
That way we can complete a “southern loop” through the mountains, and do
another loop to the north when we head back towards Fes in a couple of weeks
time. So tomorrow could be quite an
adventure, and we could be heading back into cold temperatures again in the
mountains !! Woo hoo !!
Rest of the pics here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/0405Marrakech?authkey=Gv1sRgCKGEuarfmN2CIg
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