She Says – Ancient citadels and leaking fuel

11-13 September
Yesterday we left Marrakech, having spent a pleasant sunset the night before watching the city come to life. There was a lot of sun over the square, which stood out incredibly against the thick black storm clouds at the edge of the sky. We sat in an expensive café, taking sneaky photos of people passing through the square (we weren’t alone!). We headed for Ait Benhaddou, northwest of Ouarzazate, in the early morning, travelling along 200km of twisting, winding roads up and down through the High Atlas Mountains. We went through a pass at 2260m high, and saw some spectacular views. The landscape is stark, and while I agree with Xander that you can’t really call it beautiful, it really does have an appeal to it. Like some kind of Martian landscape, hardly any vegetation, the rocks changing colours all the time, little villages tucked into the folds of the hills, and on top of it all, big clouds hanging over the highest mountains because the weather is still hit and miss right now. It actually got cool at this height. All along the road were people selling local fossils, rocks and minerals, either in little roadside stalls, proper shops, or just on some scary bend with a truck coming the other way on your side of the road as they leap out to wave an amazing huge (but usually dyed) geode in your face!!! At the end of the passes, it was onto the plains and the stony desert they call the hamada – this was the real thing, we were in desert Africa!!!

Ait Benhaddou contains an old kasbah (think walled city/citadel Morocco-style!) that I have wanted to visit for some time. It’s an iconic place, featuring in movies (e.g. Jewel of the Nile, Gladiator) and Michael Palin’s Sahara, and is the classic mud-coated construction that you see from the Sahara region. We got there in the early afternoon, which was nice for a change, and meant we were feeling fresh enough to check out a few hotels instead of taking the first one that seemed good. We had been wondering whether to take this opportunity to treat ourselves to something nice courtesy of the challenge Xander’s work colleagues had set us. I looked at two places that were OK but not quite right – they had views of the kasbah on the other side of the river, but not great ones. Then I found a third place, La Fibule D’Or. Looking absolutely nothing from the outside, in fact I wasn’t even sure it was open!, I fell in love with this place when I got inside. With stunning complete views of the kasbah from our bedroom (and therefore I knew from the roof terrace) and a rustic homestay feel to the place, I knew it was time to complete our challenge. The whole building was covered in the mud and straw coating typical of the area. The rooms were decorated in a very simple Berber style, so they had personality and were not just a standard room – that goes along way with us. The more we learnt, the more we loved it – the owner take roles as an extra in the movies made locally (e.g. The Mummy, Kundun, Lawrence of Arabia), he offered us a lower room price so we would have dinner there (we had already taken the breakfast package), the dining salon was gorgeous, and the roof terrace was amazing! Xander brought the bike around and we were able to park inside a side room, entering via the front doors – a strange experience! We let the manager’s son, a very serious little boy of about 3, sit on the bike and he checked out all the controls like an old pro. After we settled, we were treated to a free mint tea on the terrace and got to lay back and take in the stunning views all around us. We were pretty close to fulfilling our third challenge for the trip, the one our friend Sam set about finding the most amazing place in Africa, but I think there is something better to come yet. As it was getting late, we crossed the river to the kasbah for a look around. This involved shoes off and wading over, as they had had enough rain to get some water in the generally dry river. We had to fight off the kids with donkeys, horses and camels to get over the river. OK I exaggerate, but they were smart at taking advantage of easy money! Over the river, you either go around the edges of the kasbah and make your way in for free, or you pay 10 dirham to go through a house. I thought it would be cool to see the houses, to get a feel for how people live. We had several kids trying to make us pay them, but we eventually got an adult to come out and let us in. Unfortunately, the houses are no longer occupied or guided (maybe if you took a kid!), but were set up as a museum of life in the kasbah with tools, cooking equipment, and other pieces of everyday life. We also got to play with some Berber wooden locks, a neat system using little pegs that raise and lower to the pattern of the wooden key (looks like a hairbrush missing some teeth!) to open and close the lock. Really cool! Much of the kasbah has been reconstructed, either through use in movies or by grants from UNESCO World Heritage, so it was hard to tell what was traditional or not, but the buildings were beautifully decorated. The kasbah doesn’t seem to have many people living in it now, but has many shops selling jewellery and clothing, all the usual bits and pieces, but also some selling really nice watercolour paintings. I watched a guy demonstrate how they make the colours – the yellow paint is a mix of tea and saffron (maybe something else), which he paints onto thick paper, then heats the painting over a gas flame, thus darkening the colour. The pictures were very simple, mostly landscapes and men riding camels, in various shades of yellow and the blue of the Tuareg people. I got myself stung because I watched the demonstration without buying anything, and the local custom is you pay for an artisan showing you how they work. I don’t like this, though I understand it I guess. However, it means you rush past things, as we did in Marrakech, instead of taking the time to watch art and creation and handiwork in progress because you don’t want to pay for every person you watch. In turn, you don’t get to learn about the techniques. Not that they request very much, but the principle should be to watch and learn and that should encourage you to buy, not to get money out of you in every possible way! I also don’t like it because I don’t know what is a reasonable amount to pay for a demonstration, so it makes me feel very uncomfortable. Funny thing is, it’s the first souvenir I’ve actually wanted to buy for myself because the paintings were really good! I loved their simplicity and use of natural colours, but there is nowhere on the bike I can keep a painting safe enough until ready to post.

We stayed at the kasbah till it was ‘golden hour’, then went back to hotel as we hoped to take photos of the city in the dying light. Luck was not on our side, and it clouded over! We decided to get up for sunrise to catch the morning light on the kasbah, as it was supposed to occur at a reasonable time. We watched sunset and looked over our map to work out what to do and how to do it, as there is a lot to see around this area, including camel trekking in the desert, and we can really only spend about a week here. Xander had also noticed that the clutch is sticking and that maybe we needed an oil change. We decided our best bet was to go to Ouarzazate to visit a Dutch guy who has set up a place called Bikers Home, complete with garage and space for doing oil changes. We also thought it would be good to get some local knowledge about touring the area, how long various roads would take, road conditions, etc. We then went downstairs and enjoyed a wonderful home-cooked meal in the salon of harira soup, chicken couscous, oranges dusted with cinnamon, and pieces of melon. I assume the melon came from the large yellow fruit/vegetables that we’ve been seeing for sale all everywhere on roadsides – a mystery solved!

This morning we got up before 6am to find it was nearly sunrise already - our GPS was giving us the wrong time! Time has changed for Ramadan, but this is obviously not transmitted to the satellites. As luck would have it, the sun rose directly into the only bank of clouds around, but as it rose above the clouds, we had magnificent light across the kasbah. The whole stay had been totally worth it – challenge complete, thanks everyone at University of Birmingham who contributed! Before we left, we had the manager’s whole tribe on the bike, and took photos that we were able to download straight onto their computer. As we prepared to leave, we noticed the room where the bike was parked was full of fuel fumes; Xander found that the boy who sat on the bike last night had caused a leak with his serious testing of the bike’s controls!

We got to Bikers Home bright and early, and Peter welcomed us in. While the price is a bit expensive, especially after last night’s indulgence, we have decided to stay. It is all-inclusive, we have the use of the garage for the bike work Xander needs to do, secure parking, and even a washing machine! After chatting a while with Peter and his lovely Moroccan wife Zineb, we went into town to run errands and get oil. While there, we bumped into Ronald and Nicoline from Camping Zebra in their 4x4! What a bizarre coincidence, but I just knew we would see them again, although I expected it to be later in Morocco or maybe even in Mauritania or Mali. They followed us back to Peter’s for a drink, and filled us in on getting our Mauritanian visas in Rabat. People that Peter knows of were recently turned back from the Mauritania border without visas and had to go back. This is a major blow to our current travel plans, but in the end, it will be fine. The visa is very straightforward but takes 2 days, we can travel fairly quickly after Marrakech up to Rabat via toll road highways, and then we can come back and do our tour of the area. It’s a shame that we will lose time, but I guess we should have stuck with our original plan to go to Rabat after Fes.

In the mean time, while doing the oil change, Xander discovered that the fuel smell is coming from a leak in the tank! Part of the fibreglass around one of the fuel taps (which had already caused us problems before we started the trip) had delaminated. He has just finished sealing the leak – cross fingers it holds. We will now be staying an extra night to make sure the repair is secure. Xander has also been able to fix a few other problems, including the pannier locks that were not secured properly anymore, and to attach the strap mounts he bought in Fes to the top of the main panniers. Hopefully all will be good!