Going on travels to Morocco and the Western Sahara

I am going to be taking a couple of weeks off from my blog to go on holiday travels!  (My blog will return to normal postings on Monday 17th September) Jamie and I will be flying to Spain tomorrow then taking a 4WD and catching the ferry from Algeciras to Ceuta and beginning our tour of Morocco!

If you interested to know where we are going carry on reading below our map!

We are spending only 10 days in Morocco but covering over 2600km and staying in different places every night except one!  The green highlighted line on the map roughly outlines our journey.

Below is what we plan to do from day to day!

DAY ONE

Wednesday 5th September 2012

Meknes

Today we take our ferry from Algeciras in Spain To Ceuta sill in Spain but on the African continent!  Like Gibraltar in southern Spain is to the English, Ceuta as well as Melilla are Spanish enclaves in Morocco!

We will then drive through the hot day to our evening stop over in Meknes.  We will hopefully stop on the way in Chefchaouen (about half way)

Heres a quick peak at beautiful Chefchaouen

"Like lots of northern Morocco Chefchaouen is renowned for its Cannabis plantations and you will often see it being sold in between fruit and veg stalls on the market!  However, despite its reputation Chefchaouen’s appearance will immediately jump out at you. Houses are generally simple, but decorated with bright white walls, while the doors are painted bright blue. If that isn't enough there is the skyline. The city of Chefchaouen is nestled snugly between two mountains, climbing up the valley between the two and only ending at the water source which provides some of the freshest water in the country".

More Than Just a Buzz: Chefchaouen, Morocco

The Morocco Travel Blog

by Journey beyond Travel May 19th 2007

That evening we will be staying in the centre of Meknes' Medina and will be exploring the city and enjoying a well earned meal! 

RIAD D'OR

Rue Ain El Anboub, 17 Et Derb Lalla Aicha Adouia, Meknes,

http://www.riaddor.com

(212) 0641 07 86 25

The city of Meknes

DAY TWO

Thursday 6th September 2012

The Atlas Mountains

This is where the adventure really starts!  Today we will be doing some beautiful drives and walks through the atlas mountains!  I'm hoping to fit in a lake tour as well as a separate waterfall tour!  Today alone we will be covering over 450 km (the most we will do in any one day)  taking us over 6 hours to drive!

Tour One - Lake Circuit (route des Lacs)

This takes us on a beautiful drive though lakes (obviously!) with lots of nice places to stop and have a picnic and enjoy the scenery!

A sneak peak of some of the views along the route!

I'm hoping to return with some more inspiring pictures then these!

Tour Two - Waterfalls - Source De L’oum-er-Rbia

We then want to drive to Ain Leih then take the road to Lac Ouiouane then onto Sources de L'Oum-er-Rbia for the waterfalls.  We will only do this tour if time is on our side. The drive from the end of this to where we stay for the night near Midelt is off the map so its important we do it in daylight and leave plenty of time! There is also the possibility of snow (a contrast from the 45 degree heat we will wake up in that morning!)

 A sneak peak at some of the views on route!

Again I hope to come back with some more inspiring images then these.  These are areas that are not visited my many tourists so its hard to search for decent images!

We will be staying in Aguelmous which is between Zaida and Midelt for the night.  It is in the middle of nowhere but offers a great stop over en route to the dessert!

RIAD MIMOUNA DE TIMNAY

Route Principale 13, Entre Zaïda Et Midelt, Midelt,  

+212535360188

E-mail:timnay@menara.ma

DAY THREE

Friday 7th September 2012

The Sahara Dessert

Today we will be driving into the dessert for a nights stay stopping at the source Bleue de Meski south of Er Rachidia for lunch.

We will then drive onto our 'camping' destination for the night and plan to take a camel ride into the beautiful dunes or Erg Chebbi.

The Erg Chebbi dunes near the remote town of Merzouga are renowned for their great height and size.  The vast pile of sand that stretches east into Algeria Sahara has dunes that reach heights upwards of 50 meters.  As the sun sets on these dunes in the early evening the light changes from orange to pink to purple.  I'll confirm this once I'm back!

Auberge Camping Sahara, Merzouga

Ksar Hassi Labiad, Merzouga, 52202

DAY FOUR

Saturday 8th September 2012

Dades Gorges and Skoura

Today we will be taking a scenic drive through some of the most beautiful dessert oasis' to get to our destination of the day Dades Gourges.

A sneak peak of some of the delights of Dades Gourges

We will then drive onto Skoura for our nights stay!

KASBAH DAR ESSALAM

Douar Rouha - Palmeraie De Skoura, Skoura, 45500  

+212524852139

nuancesmarocaines@menara.ma

DAY FIVE

Sunday 9th September 2012

Exploring Skoura and Marrakech!

The morning we will explore the beautiful palm groves of Skoura before driving just over 3 hours to Marrakech.

We will be spending the late afternoon and evening exploring Marrakech!  We will spend the night in Marrakech.

RIAD LE JARDIN D’ABDOU

Arset Bel Baraka 2 and; 3 Derb Makina, Medina, 40000 Marrakech

http://www.lejardin-dabdou.com/

+212 (0) 650 786 830

DAY SIX

Monday 10th September 2012

Essaouira

Today we will drive to Essaouira a town Jimi Hendrix apparently lived in during the sixties!  Since the 16th century, the city has also been known by its Portuguese name of Mogador or Mogadore. The Berber name means the wall, a reference to the fortress walls that originally enclosed the city.

We will stay the night in Essaouira.

IBIS MOUSSAFIR ESSAOUIRA

Route de Marrakech-Essaouira, Essaouira, 44000

+212524479280

h6810-fo@accor.com

DAY SEVEN & EIGHT

Tuesday 11th and Wednesday 12th September 2012

Oualidia

Today we will travel up the coast to Oulidia to spend two nights (finally some rest)  We will be enjoying the beach here and hopefully taking part in some surfing!

Oualidia is famous for its natural lagoons. It is a very pretty little town on the Atlantic coast, an hour South of Casablanca. It is famous throughout Morocco for oysters, as well as fresh crab and lobster. Oualidia has one of the most highly rated beautiful beaches in the world.

DAR BELDI

Oualilidia, 24252

+212523366288

DAY NINE

Thursday 13th September 2012

Cassablanca

We will finally be driving up the coast to Cassablanca for our final nights stay before heading back to Spain.

HÔTEL CLUB VAL D’ANFA

Angle Bd De L'océan Atlantique & Bd De La Corniche. Aïn Diab, 20000 Casablanca

I have included some taster picture in this post to give you an ideas of some of the places we will be visiting on our journey.  I will also be uploading some of my favourite sights along the way to instagram.  You can follow me by searching for the username emily_kiddy or by clicking here.

Keep posted the week I return home for some posts of how we got on!  For now bye!

Day One - Gaucin (Spain) to Meknes (Morocco)

It's the same time as England here and after our long day yesterday where time went out of the window (as well as being woken for prayer at 4am this morning) it's now 6am and I can't sleep so I though I would re call the events of yesterday.

We woke at 3am, jumped into our car packed with a makeshift tent, enough water to survive a week, tools, spades and digestive biscuits - just in case hunger strikes! We drove down in the dark to the port of Algeciras (Spain) to check in for our boat two hours early as advised! Apart from a few shady characters - no one else was there including the staff that were supposed to be checking us in! Anyway about 15 minutes after our ferry was due to leave the staff turned up and we drive aboard. Our crossing lasts an hour and a half with the sun rising beautifully behind the rock of Gibraltar as we do so making up for the lost hours of sleep!

We arrive at the Port of Ceuta (the Spanish enclave to the north of Morocco) and drive on a mile or so before reaching the Moroccan border. Here the fun begins! We were warned about the bureaucracy at the border where you have to get your passport stamps and import the car and were advised to slip a five euro note to a kind man to help us through less stressfully. After sourcing a trustworthy looking gentleman in the huge crowd we gave him a tip and he offered us help - he advised us to drive down the queue further and we could go from there. We never saw him again but for another fifteen euros we found two other men (who generally were very helpful) and after nearly an hour of paperwork, a young driver crashing straight into the side of our car and about fifteen different police offices checking and re checking our papers on the twenty five meters to the border gates - we were finally in Morocco!

The first 50km of our journey were not so inspiring. Commercial towns and dumps of rubbish the size of many football pitches lined the roads with litter spread like a multi coloured carpet for miles around - and the smell! Had I picked the wrong route? I'm sure the book said this road was amazing!

After leaving the 30km of toll dual carriageway we entered onto a more 'modest' road that along with the amount of lorries and vans overloaded with cargo and people doing no more then 25km an hour and far less up hills - I suddenly wondered how long our 460km journey to Meknes would take!

With the time going back an hour we were doing well for time and decided to stop off in Chefchaouen for lunch as planned. This is an amazing little market town high up in the mountains that lined our route. We entered the maze of streets painted in beautiful shades of blue and were soon picked out of the crowds by an English speaking Moroccan and taken to visit his factory. I knew this wasn't going to be a quick visit but after being sat down in his sun sheltered den of (many many) carpets and being welcomed with some surprisingly delicious mint tea we looked with much interest at the amazing craftsmanship and stories behind these rugs. After an hour and £150 spent on a rug bargained down from £480 (who knows if that's a good deal but it is beautiful) we headed off in the 38 degree heat back to our car and decided to drive on a little further to find lunch as the road ahead was still long (very long!)

The town of Chefchouen, Morocco.

We descended back down the mountain to the road ahead and everything was different! I don't know if the morning roads are more busy or if we had just reached the end of the rat run but we proceeded onto a much quieter road and the landscape we realised after our refreshment was beautiful. The road snaked through the countryside alongside the meandering rivers that leave the Atlas Mountains. At first these rivers were empty but as we headed south they became like bright blue veins in the hard parched land. We drove through mountains and Gorges then through vast plains. We stopped for petrol in the middle of nowhere, worried this may be our only chance and satisfied our hunger at the same time with a Tagine they were selling on the roadside next door. It was the best lamb dish I have tasted and this morning I look forward to finding something similar for lunch along our journey too!

Images from the road from Tetouan to Chefchouen, Morocco.

We carried on through the breath taking landscape of vastness followed by a small roadside market town then opening out again into huge farming landscapes before the process repeats again! The fields are farmed by men, women and donkeys and the odd tractor with a plough but with little logical strategy and no idea yet of the benefit of ploughing in a straight line! Instead these furrows meander as hectically as the rivers! I think modern machinery is still quite new here - it also seems to take at least five people to drive each tractor - or maybe they just find them too lonely in comparison to their traditional techniques?

We finally reach Meknes at 5pm. We freshened up with some mint tea and a dunk in our rooftop pool (accompanied by baby tortoises) and went off to explore the Medina.

Meknes has 25km of sandy coloured walls around the Medina that glowed like gold at sunset. We explored the many tiny streets selling vegetables, meats, threads and beautiful silks before taking a seat at a cafe in the main square for dinner and a fruit juice. We sat here and watched the whole world enter the square with people playing music and crowds surrounding magicians before heading back to our calm hotel in the middle of the medina for some well earned sleep!

Today I think is going to be the most exciting day! As long as our car remains in tact on the crazy street we abandoned it on last night!

Bye for now!

You can see more of my pictures on my instagram username emily_kiddy

Location:Derb Lalla Aicha Adouia,Meknes,Morocco

Day Nine - Oualidia to Casablanca

We had breakfast at our peaceful guesthouse in Oualidia before hitting the road further north again to Casablanca. The coast continued in the same way as before with sandy beaches leading down to the sea and the odd natural lagoon along the way too. As we head past El Jadida and got closer to Casablanca though, huge beach resorts lined the way and you could no longer see the sea!

We were unsure what to expect of Casablanca, we had heard such contrasting reviews! We knew it was the commercial capital of Morocco so we expected something modern and hectic. We had read that few tourists visit the city, which was appealing to me, so I had made it our last stop on our tour home.

However, once we successfully navigated our way to our hotel just on the upmarket Corniche coastal area of town we noticed it was going through a little 'renovation'. In fact the whole outer facade was being replaced with a shiny new one! Jamie still not being sold on our stay here suggested we carry on our journey home - I thought it was at least worth a look inside - never judge a book by its front cover and all!

After parking up and wandering inside we found it was a nice hotel and you would have no idea of the work being carried out. The hotel offered six restaurants as well as air con - sold! We moved in for the night before having some lunch and deciding how to spend our day!

We decided to begin the afternoon with a walking tour of the old town suggested by our Lonely Planet guide. We took a taxi into town and were dropped off at the Cathedrale du Sacre Coeur. The cathedral was built by Paul Thornon in 1930.

We then walked onto the Wilaya, the old police headquarters, a fantastic 1930's building with an impressive clock tower you can see from streets away. This building dominates the Place Mohammed vi centre square.

Right next door to it is the Palais de Justice (Law courts) built in 1925.

It has a very impressive entrance inspired by the Persian iwan.

It was well over 30 degrees so we decided to stop here at one of Casablanca's famous street cafes for a quick refreshment!

We then continued down streets lined with 1920's and 30's hotels. Lots with beautiful art deco facades. Some had been renovated impressively and some were sadly in a little more state of decay then others.

The street continued down lined with old colonial styled architecture now renovated into hotels and apartments.

We then walked to the Petite Pi
Pouchet bar and cafe where characters such as Antoine de Saint-Exupery spent his time in the 1920's between flights to the Sahara. Edith Pilaf and Albert Camys were also among customers. Now full of seedy old men its still worth a look and imagining it back in its hayday - it still has the original bar counter too! However, it's best to go round the corner for a coffee at one of the smarter cafes in my opinion!

We then strolled round the corner to the Cinema Rialto a classic art deco style building.

Our route ended at the Place 16 November that was currently pulled up in preparation for the much anticipated (and needed) new tramlines!

We were then going to get a taxi to our next destination but no one wanted to take us there! We started to walk in the right direction and strolled upon the Hassan II Mosque. This is the third biggest mosque in the world and can accommodate 25,000 worshipped with a further 80,000 within its grounds too! It is also the tallest building in Morocco.

From here we managed to grab a taxi to our next destination the Socco de Moina Souq in the Hay Hassani area.

This place is a real gem! It's a market selling everything! As Jamie described 'it's like a walking tour of the treasures of e-bay!'

You can find all sorts of antiques left by the french here from the colonial times. Grand pianos, gramophones, chandeliers, paintings and more line the narrow alleys of the market. Here are a few treasures we saw!

Casablanca gave us a great ending to our holiday and I would definitely make an effort to pay a visit rather then pass it by!

Today we make a long drive up the coast back to Ceuta for our late evening crossing back to Algeciras.

Location:Rue Des Biaridez,,Morocco