She Says – Mad Marrakech

9-11 September
Well, I enjoyed my first cold bucket shower in Ouzoud, tying in my first bucket hair wash! OK, I lie a little – we had cold bucket showers, but I cheated a bit with the hair wash because the campground makes solar hot water from black plastic drums, so I got to add a little warm to my wash! In the evening, the growing storm broke into an incredible thunderstorm, with continuous rolling thunder like some sort of vision of hell from a movie, and amazing lightning coming at us from all directions and very low in the sky. The rain that followed was not so heavy as the previous night but lasted longer, and before long there was a call saying that the town had flooded! We all drove down the road to see what had happened and talk with locals. The river running through the middle of town, that which creates the waterfall, had risen at least 6 meters, and had wiped out the markets stalls we had just visited that morning. Even worse, it had flooded through the campgrounds – boy were we glad we hadn’t camped there! People said no-one was staying at the camps, but we have our doubts. No-one in camp would have known it was coming, although apparently the storms start in a town about an hour away and they usually call through if anything is happening stormwise. There had been a similar flood the previous year that caused a huge amount of damage to the market and nearby buildings. We thought about the rafts below the waterfall, how they must have been destroyed with the force of water going over the falls, and wondered how other businesses down there had fared, though most were set back from the water’s edge. On the trip out the next morning, we saw evidence of flooding across the roads, but amazingly it was already being cleared up.

Now, we are getting ready for our third night in Marrakech. We had a reasonably easy trip into the city, only getting lost once we stopped finding direction signs for the main Djemaa el-Fna square! We managed to get ourselves where we wanted to be, made easier by being on a bike, as cars are not allowed into the square. It’s absolutely full of tourists here, as expected (it’s a cheap and easy jump from Europe and often comes as a cheap package holiday), but it’s no more expensive than elsewhere, which was one of my concerns. Our hotel is costing 300 dirham per night, which is pricey but similar to other places (and less than 30 euros at that), plus it’s a really good place with wi-fi and breakfast included, excellent view over the square, and very clean. We’re paying for parking at another hotel on the square, and we have plenty of cheap food available, which is a big change from other places we’ve visited so far. Everywhere else, a tajine or couscous costs from 40 to 60 dirham. Here, you can get a meal for only 20 to 30 dirham at one of the snack bars or in the square at night. The Djemaa el-Fna square was the big drawcard here, and unfortunately I feel a bit let down. Basically, the square is surrounded by masses of souks, selling all the usual stuff, just heaps more of it and particularly geared towards tourists (with prices to match!). In the square during the day, there are a few orange juice carts and other stalls, but little else. At night, the orange juice sellers move over and the square is filled with small stalls selling hot food, everything from the usual food (tajine, couscous, meat brochettes) to fish and snails and sheep heads! There is high pressure to eat at each stall and the touts/waiters work hard to relate to your nationality (“kangaroo, dingo ate my baby, look at me”) and convince you their stall is the best (“air conditioned!”). We’ve eaten some great food – fried fish and eggplant, snails in peppery soup, plates of mystery meat! (sheep’s head stew) – and value has been excellent. Outside the stall area is the performer’s area, with dancing monkeys, snake charmers, storytellers, acrobats and water sellers. This is the disappointing part – there’s hardly anyone out there! I don’t know if it’s to do with Ramadan or if things aren’t what they used to be, but this whole square is supposed to be crammed with tents and performers, a relic from medieval times. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still really cool, but not what I was expecting from all the photos, TV shows and guide books I’ve seen over the years. Each night we’ve watched sunset from the roof deck of our hotel, watching the square come to life and everyone prepare to break their day’s fasting, and it’s interesting to watch the square come to life each evening. Xander described Marrakech as Disneyland, and it certainly has a set-up-for-tourists feel to it. However, if someone was looking for their first trip to somewhere really outside their usual holiday destinations, I would recommend it for its ease. However, I definitely preferred Fes for its more authentic feel.

Our wanderings in the city have taken us up, down and around the souks, and paid for a photo of one of the water sellers holding Dr Otterboro. These guys once had a job selling cups of water, but now they are just a tourist attraction. I don’t really like to pay for photos, but decided this was their job so why not. After much hunting, hard bargaining, and a lot of walking away from ridiculously high tourist prices, we finally found a second gift for our kind hosts in Spain – a decorated glass bottle, which we will fill with Saharan sand as we once did in Tunisia for ourselves. The men and donkeys carrying enormous weights are less evident than in Fes; however, they are replaced by insane scooter drivers who would run you down in the blink of an eye if you didn’t jump out of their way! In some ways it was better, as the treatment of the donkeys in Morocco has been really getting to me. Most of the poor animals are so heavily laden they can barely move their legs. The massive weights and carts they carry rub huge sores into their skin, and few look like they are fed or watered well. I find it so difficult to understand this mistreatment. I understand carrying as much as possible in each load, as then you get more money. What I cannot understand is that by treating the animals poorly, they are unable to work as well and will eventually die, depriving the people of their livelihood and transport, but also costing a lot of money to buy a replacement animal. Looking at it in completely pragmatic terms (though of course the animal welfare issue is what burns me up), these people have no business sense and are costing themselves money by not looking after their tools. I just don’t get it.

The city has several old palaces around it, and we visited one of the medersas. This theological college attached to the Ali ben Youssef Mosque was really impressive, with fantastic typical architecture (tilework, carved alabaster/plasterwork, carved wood) and all the tiny student’s rooms crammed around the central square with pool and fountain. It’s difficult to be able to really appreciate Islamic architecture as non-Muslims aren’t allowed in the mosques and only a few medersas are open to public, so this was a great opportunity, especially after missing our chance in Fes. I’m still very glad we went to the Alcazar in Seville though, as the sheer grandeur and size of the palace was astounding, and gave so much more to someone like me who is crazy about Moorish architecture!

Yesterday, I was a bit under the weather with a minor stomach bug, so I took the morning off while wonderful Xander ran all over the new city to try and find a new external hard-drive to replace our dodgy one (difficult to find here, should have got it in Fes but he found one eventually) and a memory stick (not difficult). He wasn’t able to find good memory cards for the cameras though; they only seem to sell a few brands of unknown quality. The city is full of pirate DVD sellers, including proper shops! In the afternoon, we picked up a disc to test the DVD drive, and found the drive was fine so it must be the burning program that is having issues. Xander set about downloading a new copy, and in the meantime it was good to just lay back and watch a movie! In the evening I felt much better. Seeing as the pirate disc worked fine, we picked up a couple more movies to keep ourselves entertained over the long months ahead. A massive storm hit in the afternoon, flooding the streets outside our hotel and drenching the men praying in the open-top first floor mosque directly opposite our room! In the evening, we ate in the square again before having a wander around the city, but we’ve pretty much had our fill of the place and want to get to the desert!

One of the things I wanted to put in place for our travels were stickers with our blog address and email on them. As we never got a logo, it never happened. However, Paul and Renate at Camping Zebra showed us the small cards they carried when they travelled across Africa. They recommended it as a way of saying thankyou, as Africans often want money for help, but they also want Westerner friends and this does the job nicely. On return trips, Paul and Renate have even had people run up and show them the card that person had received several years before! Marrakech would have been a good place to sort out something for ourselves, there are plenty of digital photo shops around, but we first need to get a decent picture to use. This would also mean that I can stop using my notepad to give people our email and blog address – I’m fast running out of paper, and keep tabs of all our expenses in this book, so need it to last as long as possible!