0417 Midelt to Moulay-Ismael

8^th Feb 2016

Storks, mountain passes, ski fields, and barbary apes !

In fact, there was much more than that, so it was yet another adventurous day !  The Midelt campsite had been a delight, with the guys there calling me over when I came out of the car in the morning and handing me a free French style bread stick that was straight out of the bakery (yes Free – A “Good Morning present,”, he said !)  Then there were hot showers, and people to chat to, including a couple from Sweden, Marianne and Sven Erik, and another couple from Holland.  There was an ENORMOUS motorhome from France in the camp, - It was that big that they had a ramp at the back up which they drove a Citroen 2CV, and it was “garaged” inside ! Ridiculous and it must be impossible on so many of the smaller and bumpier roads of Morocco.   He even had to reverse it out of the camp site because he couldn’t get round the corner if he went forwards !

We knew it had been cold last night, but when we left Midelt we were a little surprised to see a good dusting of snow had fallen up on the mountains to our left – SW of us.  The tallest is 3757 m, and anther at 2250 m, so there are some big ones there in the Jbel Ayachi. We continued on across the Plateau de l’Arid (self explanatory really – Not much there !) and soon afterwards passed through a small village, Zeida, where, as we entered town across a bridge, we saw a man wheeling a cart filled with the delicious round Moroccan bread loaves across the road.  We also spotted rotisserie chickens in a couple of shops, so we quickly pulled over and I ran back – But the bread man had completely disappeared !  I asked shop keepers where he had gone, and they all shrugged !  So we bought a cooked chook from a shop, and got our bread from him as well, and were just crossing the road over to the banana man when we saw our bread man – His cart was empty !  I think he was actually supplying the shops, and had come direct from the bakery – That was why the shopkeepers wouldn’t tell me where he had gone – They wanted me to buy my bread from him !! 

Bananas bought, we jumped back in the car and were heading out of town when I thought I saw something on the top of the minaret of the mosque.  On getting out the binoculars, I was right – There was a stork’s nest right at the top – And right beside the loudspeaker that the Muezzin would call the Faithful to prayer 8 times a day, at VERY high volume ! I wonder if Storks are deaf – Or maybe just this one !!  Or maybe he is a good Muslim stork !  Anyway, on down the road……..

Past little restaurants beside the road, past donkey carts as usual, plodding along the road.  And all the time, we were climbing.  Having started the day at 1500 metres, we were soon heading up towards 2000 metres.  Suddenly the scenery changed from sanding dry plains to trees – A regular forest, with many of them stately old cedar trees – In fact the area is called “Forêt de Cedres”.   There was a small valley as we entered the forest with lots of sheep and goats and shepherds, and their Bedouin tents pitched in the valley around an old ruined building – A wonderful seen in the midday sunlight. 

Then it was on up a pass, I think the Col du Zad, where we actually went over 2200 metres, our highest so far in Morocco, I think.  Past a rather sad looking lake, which had a few ducks and moorhens in, but still looked pretty seedy, and then across this amazing moonscape with nothing but sheep and shepherds and a few tin huts dotted around – It just seemed endless, and was all at about 2100 metres.  We went through a little village that I suddenly spotted something on a roof top – and when we stopped, it was more storks – And then we noticed there were storks a=on almost every roof in the village ! 

We went through more little villages with all the restaurants cooking their tajines out near the road, and we went through barriers on the road which they can close if the snow drifts get too bad (many big snow drift barriers beside the road, so when it snows up here it obviously gets pretty bad).  We turned off the main road on a loop to take us to Ifrane, and after more barren plains we entered the Cedar Forest again, and almost immediately saw a sign to a Ski Area !   I wanted to see this, so we U turned and went down this little winding road – Only to find a little valley with 3 ski tows up through the trees, a hotel, and buildings for “Ski Equipment Hire”, and an enormous car park with all the car bays painted on the tarmac – But the whole place was falling apart !  We are still not sure whether it was never finished, or whether it was finished and just fell into disrepair.  Most odd.  We stopped in the car park in the sunshine for our lunch, pondering over the whole development, and then, on the way out we passed another newish building where workers were still working – It was brand new !  Still don’t know what the situation was !

As we came back out onto the main road, we saw Police and Military guards, and it turned out there is a Royal Palace there – No King there at the moment but they keep the guards there all the time.  Fascinating.  Then 100 yards further up the road is the most enormous car park (again), and a building that said “Ifrane Ski Club”.  We stopped for a look, and all we could see out the back was an electrical substation, and farmers houses down in the fields below.  Where would they ski ?  No tows here !   Suddenly we heard horses hooves and a guy pulled up beside us on a lovely horse (Janet tells me !) and wanted to know if we wanted to go for a ride or climb on and take photos, etc etc  Another one rolled up shortly afterwards, and we just had a good chat with them and gave them a few dates and coffee sweets (that we travel with !), and set off on our way again.  The unexpected things that happen in these mountains !!

From there we dropped into Ifrane.  This little town REALLY is weird !  Where are we ?  In Switzerland ?  It certainly doesn’t look or feel like Morocco ! The French built Ifrane in the 1930’s, deliberately trying to recreate an alpine-style resort. It has neat red-roofed houses, blooming flowerbeds, and lake-studded parks, all kept impeccably tidy.  The affluent come here to ski in winter, but outside of that the population is boosted by the rich, trendy students of the Al-Akhawayn University, which was founded in 1995 by King Hassan II and King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, and includes in its lofty aims a tolerance between faiths. Only the rich and beautiful need apply, and lessons, in English, are based on the US system and there are US staff and exchange students.  The only other landmark (apart from another well guarded by empty Royal Palace) is a stone lion, that was carved by a German soldier during WWII when Ifrane was used briefly as a POW camp. We drove round and around this small piece of land looking for a lion statue, and the policeman on the corner was by now waving at us and smiling each time we passed him !  Finally, we realized that the big rog in the middle of the park had a lion’s face – It was just a big rock with the head of the lion carved into it !  So having seen the Lion, we went past the palace where we saw some Barbary apes (Don’t ask me – I haven;;t a clue why they have these here in Ifrane !!) and then headed off to Azrou. 

Once again, crossing beautiful “high country” with views as far as the eye could see over the rolling and mountainous countryside, until we came to Azrou – Not a big place, but we saw these turrets of this enormous castle type building. As we pass it, there are two enormous statues of Dubai-style coffee pots outside – It is the “Emirates Tourist Office” !!  Why in Azrou, and why it was closed (there were rocks across the driveway although there was a guard there !), who knows.  These anomalies just seem to be everywhere !  They need to polish their coffee pots too – They are looking a little tarnished !

From there it was on towards Meknes – And before we reached there we passed lots of people selling figs and other local delicacies from cars beside the road – And as Janet loves figs, we topped to buy some for her to nibble on.  I am nibbling dates all day, and she doesn’t really like dates, so she wanted some figs…….  After that, we went straight past Meknes because there is no camp site there, yet there is one near Volubilis, Roman Ruins from about the 3^rd Century BC which were one of the Roman Empires most remote posts.  We drove up through Moulay Idriss on the hillside, and this is the town where the ruler of the same name, founder of the country’s first dynasty, a great grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, and one of the most revered men in Moroccan history, is buried. 

We reached Volubilis just as it was closing, and had a quick look but decided to go and find a campsite back down the road.  After an offer to sleep in one man’s Olive Grove on the hills above Volubilis, (it was on a 30 degree slope and would have been a bit uncomfortable !) we headed back down the road to a nice little camp site where we set up camp and cooked our supper.  Along with vegetables, we ate the roast chicken that we had bought this morning, and Janet was busy breaking up the whole cooked chook when a local cat was drawn to the aroma of chicken !   Most people know that Janet is not a cat lover – In fact is quite allergic to them, so when she tried to shoo it away, I was not surprised.  But 5 minutes later I saw the cat munching away on something – Yes, Janet had fed it.   I saw the writing on the wall, said nothing, and once we (and the cat) had enjoyed our respective suppers (its actually quite a cute little cat, said Janet),  we hit the hay. 

How can so much happen in one day ? !!

Photos here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/0417MideltToMoulayIsmael?authkey=Gv1sRgCJrXlfaD0dKSXQ