0421 Bab Boudir to Al Hoceima

12^th Feb 2016

Caves, mountains, dust storms and a night on the beach.

We awoke to a cold and misty morning, so after a quick cup of tea and some breakfast inside the van, we headed off down the mountain from Bab Boudir.  And of course, not only did we pass a couple of much nicer Aires just down the road, one right beside a lovely river, but within 20 minutes of leaving our cold and misty camp site we were in warm sunshine and increasingly blue skies !!!  Ah well……….   So we went only a little way down the road till we saw some caves we had read about signposted.

The Gouffre du Friouato is a cavern over 20 m wide at the top, and 150 m deep, and is said to be the deepest cavern in the whole of N Africa.  When we arrived, the car park was empty, and everything was locked up tight – The office, the toilets, the caves (they have a door over the front entrance !!) and even the restaurant.  But as so often happens in Morocco, within 10 seconds of stopping, a couple of people appeared from somewhere, smiled and welcomed us, and took 13 dirhams off us for cave entry.  6.50 dirhams is like 90 cents, so where they came up with the 50 cent bit, I don’t know.  Anyway…..  We told them we didn’t want a guide into the lower parts of the caverns (speliologists we are not…), and then Janet went to the loo.  5  seconds later she was back out, deciding to she wasn’t that desperate !! Lot of squat pots in this part of the world, and she claimed that in this one she couldn’t even see the squat pot it was so dark and dank in there !

So off down the caves, specially opened for us. 520 steep steps down, each seemingly of a different height, which made descent hazardous !   How they built the concrete staircase hanging out into mid air from the sides of the cavern is a mystery, and fortunately we only realized how precarious the staircase was once we looked up from the bottom !  We didn’t even go all the way to the bottom, let along off into the cavern at the bottom – A) it was too far, and B) I do not have many “fears”, but going into holes in the ground that get smaller and smaller are not my favourite activity – And anyway, Janet’s knee was a bit sore……..Ha ha 

Once safely back in the sunshine at the surface, we agreed it was a wonderful hole in the ground, were glad we had seen it, and headed on down the road to our next adventure.  Very simple farming area through the area back to Taza, and green fields in the valley. We finally caught glimpses of Taza below is in another valley, and then dropped down to 500 m from about 1300 m down a great winding road through the hills. In Taza we found a boulangerie so dropped in to pick up a baguette and some of the delicious round flat loaves they have here, then it was off across more desolate looking countryside as we journey east to Guercif.

At Guercif we turned due north, heading towards the Mediterranean coast. We had decided we didn’t need to go further east towards Oujda and the Algerian border due to increasing frequent police checks on the road (nothing bad, in fact always very friendly, but just a nuisance when they are too frequent).  And the guide books inferred that there wasn’t much to see over there – so we headed north.  And that road was pretty desolate and boring too !  The winds were getting a lot stronger too, and as we headed north there was quite a dust storm over to the east which was partially blocking out the mountains, and the olive trees and tall grasses were bending over in the wind.

Shortly after that we came over a small col, and everything changed from brown to green, just like that.  Quite an amazing difference – Almost made you want to drive back and see if the brown scenery was still there behind you. 

But the wind was still there, so we carried on a little way, until suddenly everything turned back to brown again !!  Ho Hum. It is apparently called the Plaine de Gareb, so I guess this is usual for here.   We were hungry so we found a deserted garage of some kind (it smelt of diesel if you got too close !) and sheltered behind it, and managed to eat our lunch without too much blowing away !  Soon afterwards, turned west towards Al Hoceima and a supposed campsite, and we started to climb again - I can only say that these drives through the Atlas and the formations and scenery are just incredible, and usually quite unexpected compared to what you were driving through 10 minutes earlier ! 

The folds in the mountains, and the fact that you can often see 3 or 4 rows of mountains one behind the other into the distance is just breathtaking, and I am so sorry the camera doesn’t really do it justice.  We were both truly gobsmacked (yet again) driving through here, with the scenery keeping us busy, and every local we pass (old, young, male or female) usually waving at us, not just by raising their hand in salute, but a full blooded wave, usually accompanied by a big smile – One really feels welcome in this country. 

Eventually we came down from the mountains (we had been at about 1200 metres again), and for maybe an hour or more as we drove down the winding roads, we could see the blue Mediterranean in the distance – It just took a long time to get there !  The valley floor was fertile and lots of agriculture there, and people wandering home on their donkeys (it was 5 pm).  We came to a roundabout just before Al Hoceima and some sheep were running down the road with all the traffic, having seemingly escaped from their shepherd. While we were all dodging them, the lead sheep saw a roundabout that was green with grass, and right in the middle, a little flower bed filled with tasty red and blue and yellow flowers.   As we left the roundabout, they were all starting to tuck into the pretty flowers – They must have thought all their Christmases had come at once !!  Had a good laugh at that one !

An island off the coast of Al Hoceima looked a bit like an Alcatraz, but I am sure it was just someone’s big house !  We went looking for this campsite, but couldn’t find it anywhere.  We did find a beach that may have once been a campsite, but it was now closed, but looked OK if necessary.  We drove into town and found another little beach right in the middle of town – And in the car park was the motorhome of our Dutch friends from Midelt and Fez, Anita and Anton.  They planned to camp right there, but as we wanted to put our rear awning out, we decided to go back to the beach just a couple of kms down the road, and camp there.  We drove down onto the beach and were just about to set up camp just above the highwater mark when a couple of very nice guys came over from some kind of maritime building on the hill and told us we shouldn’t camp right on the beach, but we could just up above the beach where there was a designated area.  So we just went up above the beach, and there was a little area with red painted stones and a couple of traffic cones – And they told us to park in this little “box” of stones !  So we did !  There was a guard on duty, and he had dogs and a high visibility jacket (most important !), and we set up camp for the night with the waves breaking just below us.  Delightful.  There was a small altercation or something between a few guys and the guard just before we went to bed, but that was quickly sorted when he got his two dogs out, and we had a very peaceful night on the Mediterranean coast !

Pics here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/0421BabBoudirToAlHoceima?authkey=Gv1sRgCPr3vp7stZz6dQ