Onto Tafroute

52 days in Morocco
133 days on the road.
 

We stopped at Sidi Wassi till the 28^th, we met a few people that we met last year, a German chap called Karl who has been coming here every winter for 15 years and we also bumped into Jack and Barbara who we met a few weeks ago at Sanlucar de Barrameda in Spain and who we met here at Sidi Wassi last year, they have also been coming to Morocco every winter for the last 10 years.

Jack and Barbara

 

The weather has been very hot and appears to be getting warmer, one afternoon I took a swim in the sea to cool off, the sea is not good for swimming along the Atlantic coast more for surfing, and a wave crashed into my back with such force I lost my upper dentures, I have a spare set but they are not too comfortable, I will try and get new made when we settle somewhere.

The beach at Sidi Wassi

 

 There is rental accommodation on the site, basic but comfortable.

 

Pizza anyone? 

 

28^th Jan

Today we took the coast road down to Erkounte Park near Mirleft, after a wrong turn at Massa the first 15km of our journey saw us driving over a piste road to a town called Tassila, we then were able to pick up the N1 to Tiznit and the R104 onto Erkounte.

We passed through Mirleft on the way.

We stayed here also on our last trip; it’s a very modern site 29.507870 -10.06788,75dir per night, the site was busy but not full. We parked at the far end about 100m from any other vans and close to the gate that leads to the beach.

Not that we are anti social.

The next few days we spent doing chores, I rewired my two 100w solar panels in series so I now have 24v going into my regulator rather than 12v in parallel, this will be better when we are in the UK with the limited sunshine available, we also caught up with the washing and spent the rest of the time lounging around and taking walks along the deserted beach.

 

 Another nice beach views from both sides.

 

 There appeared to be someone living in this cave, we found personal belongings and a few blankets, we think it's where a local fisherman lives?

 

I have been contacted by friends of ours Mike and Marguerite, who we met at a few meets through the Wild Camping forum in the UK, they are planning to enter Morocco for the first time in a few days and he mailed me to ask for some information regarding stopovers and with a view to meeting up along the road, they are a nice couple and we have had a few drinks together in the past, it will be nice to meet up.

Another fantastic sunset

 

1^st Feb

After four days at Erkounte we headed south, a few km down the coast road we stopped at the beautiful village of Legzira and parked up on the cliffs, took a stroll along the beach and stopped for coffee at one of the many restaurants, the place was buzzing with locals.

Legzira arches

We are stopping at Sidi Ifni for a few days at El Barco campsite 29.383352 -10.174779 70dir per night,  we decline EHU as the solar panels are keeping the leisure batteries fully charged and saving a few euro’s a day. The site is opposite the promenade overlooking the sea, there are three other sites in town and when we drove thru last year Sidi Ifni had suffered the brunt of the floods in November 2014, and two campsites were totally devastated and so was the bridge and surrounding roads, all have been repaired and the sites are very busy. Our first night we ordered a chicken tagine delivered to the van,

 Camping El Barco.

 Add Ostrich to the things Max don't like!

 

Not a great advert for Morocco, it seems the elder generation still throw their rubbish to one side, I've been told there is a major drive in the schools about waste and recycling. 

 

 A street vendors van.

 

 

 

3^rd Feb

We spent two days at Sidi Ifni,  it was then on to Guelmin climbing over the Anti Atlas mountains and stopped at the large Marjane supermarket to stock up, we plan to go wilding on the Plage Blanche coast, as usual Guelmin is hectic to drive a large motorhome thru its narrow streets, with cars, bikes, donkeys and carts parked up along the way, people expect you to stop as they casually stroll across the roads! shopping done it was back thru the melee and then 50km on an unnamed road which was pretty good as it goes to Plage Blanche.

 

 

 That's as far as this four got, Max had their measure.

 

 

We parked up on a cliff top along with a few other vans 28.963873 -10.603031,  it is overlooking a lagoon and free to stop here, there is a small Berber camp on the beach,  it’s a beautiful place with over 30km of beach,

You see plenty of these ground squirrels in the desert.

5^th Feb

After two days relaxing at Plage Blanche we needed to move on to empty our tanks, we headed for Abaynou just outside Guelmin 29.09642 -10.01775 to Auberge Abaynou 30dir per night.

The thermal baths.

 

We stopped at a campsite last year in this valley, we decided to try this one due to it having a hot spring you can swim in, checking it out it’s no more than a small swimming pool that is constantly fed by the hot spring, unfortunately for us it was full with school children making quite a racket, it was not looking like the leisurely relaxing soak I had envisaged so decided to give it a miss,  we took a stroll around the small village and into the valley before settling in to a curry and few beers for supper.

6^th Feb

We set off for Bouizakarne about 20km up the N1 to a new site called Camping Tinnougba 29.18575 -9.72703, 50dir a night, it was very hot, the place is rustic and pretty much work in progress, the owner used to work at the old campsite in Bouizakarne which is now closed, he was very friendly and brought us some complementary mint tea and patisseries later in the afternoon, there was only four other vans here all French, the site is about a km from the main town, we will stop here a couple days and move on.

Bouizakarne in the distance.

 

8^th Feb

Today we set off for Icht, it is about 20km from the Algerian border, we took the R102 which was basically a stretch of tarmac one vehicle width for the whole distance, any oncoming vehicle you needed to slow and pull to the side onto the dirt track to pass, having said that it was a nice scenic drive through the mountains, with quite a few Berber encampments dotted along the route.

There are two campsites at Icht we opted for the cheaper at 80dir a night including EHU at Camping Amerdoul 29.046989 -8.846050, today it was melting the hottest day so far. On arriving here there were three other French vans, the next day they pulled out and we had the site to ourselves, again it was another scorcher and quite hot even when the sun had set dropping to 17°c at night, the days were spent lounging around topping up the tan! it was too hot to do much else, we decided to stop a further day and then head up to Tafroute.

The toilet and shower block are quite good for Moroccan standards.

 

 Another empty swimming pool, common for the winter on many sites.

 

 

The campsite at Icht

I have also been contacted by Mike and Marguerite, they are in Tiznit, I have given them the co-ords for Tafroute and we have arranged to meet tomorrow.

11^th Feb

After three days chilling or should I say roasting at Icht we are on our way to Tafroute, we stopped at a garage to fill up 14km up the R102 where the R107 branches off, I asked the pump attendant what the 107 road was like?  He told me it was piste and to go slowly, it looked ok to me fresh tarmac, it was 11am and we headed off, after a few km and passing through a couple of villages the tarmac ended and I could now see what he meant by go slowly, the track meandered alongside the dry river bed occasionally crossing it over concrete bridges or platoons and even they were bumpy and that was the only decent surface we encountered for 19km.

The R107 road Tafroute, I likened it to Death Valley,

it was an extremely hot day

After stopping for coffee and a sandwich, we passed over a few mountains and the surface was just fine gravel, the van laboured up them and we pressed on finally reaching another village not far from Izerbi,

Some of the villages we passed through on route

It’s then we hit a major problem, the road started a steep incline after a tight switchback the van was veering to the edge and a large drop, the wheels were slipping on the gravel surface, I managed to right it and then hit another switchback this time the van was going nowhere in first gear wheels spinning I braked and told Sam to get out, I now had to reverse back down the steep double bend incline with no barriers to stop me reversing to what would be sudden death down the steep drop off below, Sam with Max kept a look out for me as I slowly reversed it back, further down I was able to do a nineteen point turn and then drive forwards down the mountain to terra firma, I’ll be the first to admit it was squeaky bum time up there,  I was literally shaking, knuckles white but relieved to be in one piece, we had drove for two hours only to fail just short of Izerbi where the road from there on would be tarmac and would lead onto Tafroute, we now had to do the same stretch back which took another two hours to the garage we were at earlier in the day, when we reached the garage the van was full of fine dust and it would take a few days to get it clean again.
Deflated we decided to try and get to Tiznit that day and off we went, passing the campsite at Bouizakarne we pondered whether to stop there but made the decision to carry on!! again another mistake because shortly after we were stopped at a mountain pass for about 40minutes to allow a wide load pass through, once we were on our way again zigzagging over the narrow N1 mountain road we stopped at the town of Tieta Akhssass to buy a chicken for supper, Sam went to the chicken shop and was asked if she wanted a live one at 19dir a kilo or killed and feathered at 30dir a kilo, not sure where he thought we were going to keep him in the MH? so the live bird was placed on the scales and was then dispatched of whilst Sam turned her back to the chicken as it squawked its last breath, in the meantime Max was the centre of attention to the local children having their pictures taken with him on their smart phones, one young lad went away and returned with a chickens foot, possibly from the one that was just dispatched by the butcher? When Sam returned the chicken was warm albeit now headless, featherless and footless in a plastic bag.

A present for Max from a local lad.

 

The time was getting on and the sun was beginning to set it was about 5.30pm and we had roughly 40km to Tiznit, I also knew that if it got dark soon I would be blinding everyone as I had not fitted my beam deflectors, has I don’t normally drive in the dark, further on and about 20km from Tiznit it was dark and the inevitable happened! I was getting flashed by all oncoming traffic for blinding them, to make matters worse a police motorcycle tailed me for a few km then overtook and gestured to which I thought for me to pull over, after pulling over onto the gravel shoulder, and every vehicle seemed to pass us with no sign of the policeman we proceeded, I guess he was trying to say to dip my headlights? 25 minutes later we entered Tiznit which was well lit so I switched to sidelights and found the campsite, it was now 7pm and I was cursing myself for not fitting those bloody beam deflectors.
We stayed at Riad Asilaf  29.696280 -9.711020,  66dir a night, we parked up and cracked a beer, it had been a long day, I was a tad stressed so we had cheese and crackers, the chicken still warm could wait till tomorrow, a few beers and some large wines seem to have done the trick, we slept like a log,

12^th Feb

A few photo's of the campsite at Tiznit.

 

Woke early, a quick walk around to check out the campsite and its facilities, it’s a menagerie with Peacocks, Guinee Fowl and ducks walking about, the facilities are good, to European standard and there was roughly 80 vans parked up. It was about 10am and we set off for Tafroute along the R104, this is what I expected yesterday nice tarmac road for an R road!   

About 40km along it began to twist and turn as it climbed the mountain range, we stopped outside a hotel at one of the peaks Col du Kerdous at 1100m high and took in the breath taking scenery around, then pressed on to Tafroute, passing through many small villages along the way, a few hours later and 110km we were at our destination for the next month.

Tafroute is our favourite place in Morocco a busy little town in the Amelyn Valley, with three campsites and a vast piece of land to park up wherever you want amongst the palm trees 20.72107 -8.98118, it’s an idyllic setting and at 10dir a night with water, and bread delivered to your van and a host of other artisans selling their wares, it’s a great place to be. The weather was hot when we arrived and we quickly saw friends of ours who we met here last year Darren and Lyn, we stopped for a chat while we decided where we would park up, Sam spotted Mike's van so we went over to where they were parked and decided it was nice and flat so parked up behind them, this will be our home for the next three to four weeks until the Almond Blossom Festival has finished we will then head towards Mhamid, close again to the Algerian border.

Darren and Lyn

 

We have been here two weeks now chilling and enjoying the hot sunshine although the last few days has been inclement with a few showers, there are quite a lot of the people who we met last year Colin and Sandra also Dave and his new partner Mags, there are lots of vans arriving now in readiness for the festival,  and quite a few British, the stages are being erected in the town, soon the decorations will be put out and the town will be bustling with visitors and street vendors selling all sorts of food, I will post pics of the festival in the next blog.

The mountains around are amazing.

On one of our many walks into the valley we came across an Oasis

Max thought this was a patch of grass, and was shocked as he sunk whilst trying to run across it.

Tafroute in the background.

 

 We had a few showers, contrary to myth it does rain sometimes in Tafroute.

 

 The Tue's and Wed market.

 

Freshest chicken in town.

 

The lions face on the mountain in the background.

 

Streets of Tafroute.

 

 These guys have been building this flood barrier for the last few days, it looks extremely hard work, many of the boulders are broken with just a sledge hammer.

 

Some of the British contingent enjoying another of the many beer o'clocks.

 Mike and Marguerite.

 

I have been trying to post this blog for the last week, unfortunately the internet strength is poor in the daytime when most others are trying to access it, the photos have taken ages to upload, I find it best to go on when I hear the first call to prayer at 5.50am.

I will probably and get another blog out late March before we leave Morocco early April.