A new adventure to Africa

[Helen Ariel]

What a great day in the desert. The 2 Brit vans in front of us left so we bagged the best spot of the whole campsite in the corner looking out over the desert with a nice private spot for me to do a morning yoga session.

It was cold first thing but went from chilly to roasting in the space of an hour. It's actually only 20 degrees in the shade but the sun is powerful here when there's absolutely no breeze.

We then cycled out along the edge of the desert into Merzouga town.

It was a lot smaller and quieter than I expected. Only had a few people asking us if we wanted a camel ride or 4x4 excursion.

We found a nice berber restaurant that had locals and a few tourists both eating there. We decided to have a big lunch as we are very low on supplies not having seen a supermarket since Guelmim. We had a plate of lentils with a dish of very spicy harissa that we mixed into it, lovely homemade bread to scoop it up, Moroccan salad beautifully seasoned, a small 44 spice chicken tagine and a Berber pizza! Oh and we just had to order some fries after seeing someone elses that looked amazing. So often fries are served looking anemic and floppy but these were golden brown and crispy. It was all delicious and with really friendly service and we had some Berber pizza left to take home for an evening snack.

Berber pizza stuffed with meat, spices, herbs and nuts.

After that lot we cycled back and chilled in the sun until 5.30 when we set off to climb up the highest sandune nearby for the sunset. We saw a few people heading into the desert for camel excursions and desert camps.

It took about 40 minutes of strenuous walking and got really difficult as we climbed the final steep dune. One step forward half a step sliding back.

Dune photos on the next post!

 

[Helen Ariel]

What made these very regular marks?

Snake?

Whipped cream?

The view from the top out towards Algeria. The border isn't far at all from here.

We brought a cold can each and the last 2 slices of Berber pizza.

It's a shame about all the 4x4 and buggy tracks criss crossing the sand but we hardly saw any during our time out there. Only one 4x4 came through below us but they didn't hang about. I can't understand why anyone would want to tear about making a racket instead of just enjoying the beauty and peace.

The sand was sparkling

Sunset wasn't especially good

It was wonderful being out there when it started to turn dark though and running back down the dunes was fun.

We were really tired after that and had a rest at the van but went back a very short way into the desert briefly once it had gone properly dark to try to play with the astrophotography setting on my phone. I discovered that I really need a tripod to use it as it won't activate until you have settled the phone in one position for a period of time and then you have to press the button on the screen which is difficult if it's lying flat on the floor screen down! Managed to sit it on a campsite chair with the button overhanging the edge. There is still too much light pollution from the town and campsite here.

This was pointing straight up. The usual constellations you see like orion have been drowned out by the huge volume of other stars! I also saw a shooting star whilst waiting for this photo to take as it takes 4 minutes to take!

 

[Wanders from Glos]

Looks fantastic

 

[Helen Ariel]

And some photos that I’ve taken over the last 3 days. Apologies for any similarities!

Paul

Could get pretty close to the feral camels when we stopped for lunch in the middle of nowhere!

Colours to die for in the Sahara

The pool at Haven La Chance where we stayed. Bit too nippy for a dip though.

Can’t believe we drove to the Sahara and literally parked on the sand! Been wanting to come for 40 years!

Had to be done…

En route to the highest dune around.

View from the top.

First attempt at astrophotography.

 

[Langtoftlad]

And some photos that I’ve taken over the last 3 days. Apologies for any similarities!

Colours to die for in the Sahara



View attachment 863132

View attachment 863134

First attempt at astrophotography.

View attachment 863135

I can't believe the colour of the sand either . My little container of Tunisian Saharan sand is so pale in comparison!
Loving the camels in the dunes shots.
The dilemma of Astrophotography - exposure so long that the earth rotates causing smears/trails on the image. Up the ISO for a quicker shot and you get 'noise'.
The earlier images are pretty good, especially without specialist equipment.

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[jongood]

Fabulous pictures, picking up hitchhikers? Time to watch the Wolf Creek series lol

We've picked up a couple of hitch hikers in Morocco before, the worst one was an Irish lad who desperately needed a shower, dropped him in Chefchaouen.

 

[Mikey RV]

Great photos of the dunes. The colours are great.

 

[Dutch 68]

We've picked up a couple of hitch hikers in Morocco before, the worst one was an Irish lad who desperately needed a shower, dropped him in Chefchaouen.

You better watch the Wolf Creek series too then lol

 

[billym]

Great photos.

We regularly picked up hitch hikers . Why not?
The only difficulty was knowing if they wanted a lift or were just sitting in the shade which seems a popular pass time over there.

 

[miconone]

Great photos and write-up, thanks for taking the time to do this!

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[Sparkie44]

Stunning photos, look forward to them every day.

 

[Northernraider]

Mind the roads heading out that direction we encountered a lot of 'traffic jams' out that way! View attachment 861912

Now that's my kind of traffic jam. I'd have been out petting them.

 

[Northernraider]

The wild camel hardly exists anywhere, apparently only in Mongolia & China with fewer than 1000 left.
What we’ve seen, and what you get in Australia are feral camels. The difference is a technicality really.
Doing some research has made me realise that they do have a really negative impact on the indigenous mammal populations as they eat everything and introduce pathogens to water sources.

Paul

Probably off grid camels rather than wild ones .... Wilding only applies in a tent apparently

 

[Helen Ariel]

Merzouga was fabulous. I could not believe that we had driven from our house to the Sahara and we could have stayed for another day or so but I’d been keeping an eye on the weather as we wanted to drive north over the High Atlas via Ziz Canyon and sure enough the weather was due to break, and in a big way!

We can’t complain as we’ve had unbroken good weather since we’ve arrived apart from 2 hours of rain when we got off the ferry on the 9th of January.

95kph gusts with snow in the High Atlas peaks was forecast so we could either head back west towards Agadir, further east around by the Algerian border to the Med, or pull our plans forward and head north through the Ziz Canyon a couple of days early.

Not too much traffic made for a relatively easy drive with only a few humps in the road…

We decided to drive through the canyon and maybe stay in it if we spotted somewhere nice that we could do a hike from.

After a pit stop for some shopping in Errachidia, which appeared to be a big garrison town with several barracks, a military airfield and loads of squaddies cycling about, we headed into the canyon. Impressively rugged but nowhere near as green or amenable to hiking as we’d hoped.

We stopped for lunch at a viewpoint and fed a very timid dog & pup. The pup ate quite a bit and they both had a good drink. They were probably the most nervous dogs we’ve come across, however the female dog had obviously just had a recent operation judging by the shaven fur on her belly so somebody is looking after her.

Unfortunately, as ruggedly beautiful as the canyon was, we didn’t spot anywhere we fancied staying; one of the P4N park ups was in the middle of a busy town and we quickly became the centre of attention. Another 45 minutes driving north and we found an amazing wilding spot in the middle of nowhere with just one other small PVC parked about 250m away. It was about a mile of pretty rough dirt track and probably the most off roading we’ve done in the van since we’ve had it, plus we had to drive past a dead cow but it was fine. We were very happy to get somewhere nice to park as it was getting late.

The rugged drive in was worth it.

Evening light was cracking.

Clear skies and a still night meant we got to try to photograph the stars again. Helen managed to catch a shooting star and we both got the Milky Way!

Helen’s pic on her Pixel Pro using the Astro photography mode.

And mine using night mode on my new iPhone 15 Pro. I decided to splash out for a new phone for our trip as we both love taking photos, and my old iPhone SE was over 4 years old.
Both of the pics above are seriously compressed to enable an upload to the forum btw.

The dead cow looked like a Fresian to me.

A very quiet night with glorious morning light and an early start before we headed north again through Midelt towards the ‘Disney’ campsite in Azrou.

Now I’d been very pleased to have not been caught speeding on the trip so far after reading about how it’s inevitable at some point in Morocco but… I’ve still not been caught speeding, rather the Gendarmerie Royale caught me for crossing a solid white line! I did it overtaking a slow car on a very nice bit of fresh tarmac with great line of sight, and only crossed it about 10m too early. Feck knows how they saw me but they had a speed trap round the next s-bend and rather than being waved through as we have been for the whole trip, we were pulled over. Documents produced, asked to step out of the van, wait here please, very serious level 1 infraction, 700 dirhams please!

I was incredulous. He repeats just how serious it is. I ask if we can pay by card as I only had 500 dirhams in my pocket. Nope, cash only. Please come with me to the police car sir. Plucks 400 dirhams from my clenched Scottish fist so I ask for a photo with him as a souvenir. It’s all very light hearted btw. Opens the back door of the car, produces his receipt book, asks if I want a receipt for 400 dirhams or no receipt for 200! Hands me back 200 and off I trot. Baksheeshtastic, and all done with a smile on his face… He did confirm that there was snow on the way and that we were correct in trying to get ahead of it rather than risk being stuck. Every cloud…

Anyway, we made it to Euro Camping in Azrou after a Carrefour pitstop and having driven down through the gorgeous cedar forest where we spottted the monkeys.

Another update for you this afternoon as we are hunkering down for the next 36 hours!

Cheers, Paul

 

[Mikey RV]

Love the speed humps in the road. They look so real.

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[Northernraider]

Merzouga was fabulous. I could not believe that we had driven from our house to the Sahara and we could have stayed for another day or so but I’d been keeping an eye on the weather as we wanted to drive north over the High Atlas via Ziz Canyon and sure enough the weather was due to break, and in a big way!

We can’t complain as we’ve had unbroken good weather since we’ve arrived apart from 2 hours of rain when we got off the ferry on the 9th of January.

95kph gusts with snow in the High Atlas peaks was forecast so we could either head back west towards Agadir, further east around by the Algerian border to the Med, or pull our plans forward and head north through the Ziz Canyon a couple of days early.

Not too much traffic made for a relatively easy drive with only a few humps in the road…

View attachment 863805

We decided to drive through the canyon and maybe stay in it if we spotted somewhere nice that we could do a hike from.

View attachment 863800

View attachment 863803

After a pit stop for some shopping in Errachidia, which appeared to be a big garrison town with several barracks, a military airfield and loads of squaddies cycling about, we headed into the canyon. Impressively rugged but nowhere near as green or amenable to hiking as we’d hoped.

View attachment 863807

View attachment 863837

We stopped for lunch at a viewpoint and fed a very timid dog & pup. The pup ate quite a bit and they both had a good drink. They were probably the most nervous dogs we’ve come across, however the female dog had obviously just had a recent operation judging by the shaven fur on her belly so somebody is looking after her.

View attachment 863808

Unfortunately, as ruggedly beautiful as the canyon was, we didn’t spot anywhere we fancied staying; one of the P4N park ups was in the middle of a busy town and we quickly became the centre of attention. Another 45 minutes driving north and we found an amazing wilding spot in the middle of nowhere with just one other small PVC parked about 250m away. It was about a mile of pretty rough dirt track and probably the most off roading we’ve done in the van since we’ve had it, plus we had to drive past a dead cow but it was fine. We were very happy to get somewhere nice to park as it was getting late.

View attachment 863809

The rugged drive in was worth it.

View attachment 863813

Evening light was cracking.

Clear skies and a still night meant we got to try to photograph the stars again. Helen managed to catch a shooting star and we both got the Milky Way!

View attachment 863810

Helen’s pic on her Pixel Pro using the Astro photography mode.

View attachment 863811

And mine using night mode on my new iPhone 15 Pro. I decided to splash out for a new phone for our trip as we both love taking photos, and my old iPhone SE was over 4 years old.
Both of the pics above are seriously compressed to enable an upload to the forum btw.

View attachment 863814

View attachment 863816

The dead cow looked like a Fresian to me.

A very quiet night with glorious morning light and an early start before we headed north again through Midelt towards the ‘Disney’ campsite in Azrou.

Now I’d been very pleased to have not been caught speeding on the trip so far after reading about how it’s inevitable at some point in Morocco but… I’ve still not been caught speeding, rather the Gendarmerie Royale caught me for crossing a solid white line! I did it overtaking a slow car on a very nice bit of fresh tarmac with great line of sight, and only crossed it about 10m too early. Feck knows how they saw me but they had a speed trap round the next s-bend and rather than being waved through as we have been for the whole trip, we were pulled over. Documents produced, asked to step out of the van, wait here please, very serious level 1 infraction, 700 dirhams please!

I was incredulous. He repeats just how serious it is. I ask if we can pay by card as I only had 500 dirhams in my pocket. Nope, cash only. Please come with me to the police car sir. Plucks 400 dirhams from my clenched Scottish fist so I ask for a photo with him as a souvenir. It’s all very light hearted btw. Opens the back door of the car, produces his receipt book, asks if I want a receipt for 400 dirhams or no receipt for 200! Hands me back 200 and off I trot. Baksheeshtastic, and all done with a smile on his face… He did confirm that there was snow on the way and that we were correct in trying to get ahead of it rather than risk being stuck. Every cloud…

View attachment 863817

Anyway, we made it to Euro Camping in Azrou after a Carrefour pitstop and having driven down through the gorgeous cedar forest where we spottted the monkeys.

Another update for you this afternoon as we are hunkering down for the next 36 hours!

Cheers, Paul

View attachment 863801

View attachment 863804

View attachment 863815

The police are corrupt as anything.. they tried me for 150dh in agadir for parking.. I told him I had no cash would he take card .. after 20 minutes they gave up and let me go lol

 

[125BEER]

I bet that cow will be "Freesin".......

Great photos by the way...

Cheers

 

[Northernraider]

I bet that cow will be "Freesin".......

Great photos by the way...

Cheers

Bit I bet it smells rottin

 

[Helen Ariel]

After we arrived at Disneyland we decided to head straight out for a hike up through the stunning cedar forest to see the monkeys.
Straight up, then straight back down again!

We needed to stretch our legs after a long drive, and the cedar forest was gorgeous.

The monkeys were to be found near the guys selling bags of food along the roadside.

We were interested to see a big sign advising against feeding them, or getting too close as we could pass on diseases to them.

But it would appear we were the only ones who paid any attention to the sign.
The only real downside to Morocco for us has been the overwhelming amount of plastic litter everywhere there are people.

Around the cedar forest it was almost entirely made up from the plastic bags the monkey food is sold in…

They really were everywhere.

Anyway, we wandered back down to the van and are huddled up sitting out the weather before heading to Meknes tomorrow morning.

Our green card runs out on Wednesday but we may jump on a ferry this Tuesday to get back to Spain.
Morocco has been amazing and we’ll definitely be back next year!

 

[Northernraider]

After we arrived at Disneyland we decided to head straight out for a hike up through the stunning cedar forest to see the monkeys.
Straight up, then straight back down again!

View attachment 863869
View attachment 863870
We needed to stretch our legs after a long drive, and the cedar forest was gorgeous.

View attachment 863871

The monkeys were to be found near the guys selling bags of food along the roadside.

View attachment 863872

View attachment 863873

View attachment 863874

View attachment 863875

View attachment 863876

We were interested to see a big sign advising against feeding them, or getting too close as we could pass on diseases to them.

View attachment 863878

But it would appear we were the only ones who paid any attention to the sign.
The only real downside to Morocco for us has been the overwhelming amount of plastic litter everywhere there are people.

Around the cedar forest it was almost entirely made up from the plastic bags the monkey food is sold in…

View attachment 863880

They really were everywhere.

Anyway, we wandered back down to the van and are huddled up sitting out the weather before heading to Meknes tomorrow morning.

View attachment 863881

Our green card runs out on Wednesday but we may jump on a ferry this Tuesday to get back to Spain.
Morocco has been amazing and we’ll definitely be back next year!

The monkeys were very cute I spent a night parked in beside them ..

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[Mikey RV]

Shame about the litter. You would think the guys selling the food would pick up the empty food bags. Be better if the peaple never dropped it in the first place.

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

Your not too far from Volubilis .The roman town with several really good floor mosaics. Parking a bit tight so best go early. Plus its not far from moulay idriss.

 

[CaptainPaul]

Morocco has been amazing and we’ll definitely be back next year!

Glad you enjoyed it, although around the world in 80 days got nothing on you!
Hopefully you'll have a lot longer next time, there were days there you guys were doing in a day what would take me a week or more! Lol

 

[Northernraider]

Shame about the litter. You would think the guys selling the food would pick up the empty food bags. Be better if the peaple never dropped it in the first place.

They probably throw a lot of it down too. The rubbish was one of the most upsetting things in Morocco. They actually drove it down to the beaches and buried it in the sand in some places , other places it was thrown in the woods..

Crazy

But then there's a fair bit of rubbish dumped in Greece too and here in Turkey

 

[Northernraider]

Glad you enjoyed it, although around the world in 80 days got nothing on you!
Hopefully you'll have a lot longer next time, there were days there you guys were doing in a day what would take me a week or more! Lol

Me too

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[Just smiffy]

I find a lot of places in Spain too with lots of rubbish lying around, it gets me going past a really nice house/villa and there’s a load of trash outside it and it’s probably the owners that’s put it there, seems out of sight out of mind as long as it’s not in their four walls…

 

[Helen Ariel]

Duplicate post

 

[Helen Ariel]

Glad you enjoyed it, although around the world in 80 days got nothing on you!
Hopefully you'll have a lot longer next time, there were days there you guys were doing in a day what would take me a week or more! Lol

Needs must! We still have lots more to do and see on our next trip.

 

[Helen Ariel]

Me too

Some of us have to get back for work!

 

[bobnick]

What a great day in the desert. The 2 Brit vans in front of us left so we bagged the best spot of the whole campsite in the corner looking out over the desert with a nice private spot for me to do a morning yoga session.
View attachment 863043
It was cold first thing but went from chilly to roasting in the space of an hour. It's actually only 20 degrees in the shade but the sun is powerful here when there's absolutely no breeze.

We then cycled out along the edge of the desert into Merzouga town.
View attachment 863044View attachment 863045View attachment 863046View attachment 863047View attachment 863048View attachment 863049
It was a lot smaller and quieter than I expected. Only had a few people asking us if we wanted a camel ride or 4x4 excursion.

We found a nice berber restaurant that had locals and a few tourists both eating there. We decided to have a big lunch as we are very low on supplies not having seen a supermarket since Guelmim. We had a plate of lentils with a dish of very spicy harissa that we mixed into it, lovely homemade bread to scoop it up, Moroccan salad beautifully seasoned, a small 44 spice chicken tagine and a Berber pizza! Oh and we just had to order some fries after seeing someone elses that looked amazing. So often fries are served looking anemic and floppy but these were golden brown and crispy. It was all delicious and with really friendly service and we had some Berber pizza left to take home for an evening snack.
View attachment 863050View attachment 863051
Berber pizza stuffed with meat, spices, herbs and nuts.
View attachment 863052
After that lot we cycled back and chilled in the sun until 5.30 when we set off to climb up the highest sandune nearby for the sunset. We saw a few people heading into the desert for camel excursions and desert camps.
View attachment 863053View attachment 863054
It took about 40 minutes of strenuous walking and got really difficult as we climbed the final steep dune. One step forward half a step sliding back.

Dune photos on the next post!

Started reading this thread at post 331. Think i'll be going back to post #1. Got some reading and looking at i think.
Fantastic photos.
The Berber sandwich we used to call the Al-Khaleej

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