Desert Towns
We could have stayed at Hassi Smara for a few more nights but a sand storm was forecast and we thought that being right on the edge of the Sahara would be a bad idea, so we decided to hot foot it out of there.
We drove back through Zagora and used the opportunity to stock up on groceries as we were running low.
After Zagora we drove through the massive Drea Valley and stopped off at the brilliantly named Foum Zquid for the night. This is a small desert town where we picked up a Moroccan LPG bottle.
One of the challenges of travelling long-term in Morocco is that you can’t refill your LPG tanks as they don’t have LPG pumps like we do in Europe. Fortunately the Gaslow system that we have has a great feature, a Braided Local Gas Cylinder Connection Hose (which you have to buy separately), that fits straight onto the filler point on the outside of the gas locker. This hose can then attach directly to a Moroccan standard bottle. Once one of the tanks in your system is halfway empty the system will then use the external bottle rather than taking gas from your onboard bottles.
The addition of the Moroccan bottle enabled us to connect to it whenever we were parked up for the night, which meant we were all set for our gas to last the entire time we were in Morocco.
In Foum Zquid we went for a walk around the town and discovered an abandoned Ksar (fortified village) and Zaouia (religious complex), although we were a bit wary wandering around as some sections looked like they could fall down at any second.
After leaving Foum Zquid we stopped at Tissint where there is actually a river with water running in it! It is billed as having waterfalls but that really is a bit of a stretch.
We were heading for the town of Icht where we planned to spend the night, but we had a couple of stops to make on the way to visit some Ancient Petroglyphs and caves.
We drove down a dirt track (easily missed as it is marked only by a cairn), that led us away from the main road until we were stopped by a dry river bed which was too rough for our camper to cross. From there we walked the short distance to a rocky ridge. After a little while of searching along the rocks we started to find the petroglyphs. They weren’t the best examples we’ve seen but we had fun hunting around for them.
Our next stop was a few km’s further along and again off the main road, where we found a big flat area to park up in on the edge of a deep eroded Wadi. Across the other side of the Wadi is a set of rock formations called the Messalite Caves.
These provided us with yet more fun clambering up the rocky walls of the canyon and into a variety of caves that had been eroded in the soft rock.
Eventually we ended our day at Camping Amoudil in Icht. The weather was fast deteriorating as a full blown sandstorm was on its way. However the campsite is walled so it was a great place to weather the storm.
The reason we chose this particular campsite was because they arrange tours to the nearby “underground city”. It’s not really an underground city but it is the old ksar, where corridors run underneath the buildings allowing people to live inside to avoid the summer heat. It is constructed of rammed earth, local stone and palm timber making it very susceptible to damage in heavy rain, which fortunately is relatively rare.
The tour cost €5 each and lasted for over 2 hours so it was great value for money. It was in French but the guide used his phone to translate everything into English for us. After leading us through the Ksar he then took us onto his father’s house in the heart of the town, which was a traditional home over three floors with a atrium in the middle.
The old town was the centre of many conflicts over the years due to its natural spring and was attacked by neighbouring towns to capture its riches. In fact in the 19th century it was abandoned for 6 years after 1 attack was successful in conquering it.
Unfortunately most people who had lived in the old city have now moved into new houses outside the old town and so many of the buildings are slowly eroding. Without regular maintenance the guide worried that there will be little left of the old town in 20 years. Despite this, some families still return to their old homes in the height of the summer as they are much cooler than the new buildings.
We also visited the old mosque which is no longer used. This was interesting as in Morocco you can’t visit any of the mosques that are still in use unless you are muslim. The old mosque predated loudspeakers but still had a tower where the call to prayer would be sung from. The mosque is estimated to be about 500 years old.
In the area surrounding the old town were the palmeries that the towns wealth was built on. A sophisticated irrigation system involving open channels ensures that all the palms get the water that they need.
After the tour we spent the afternoon inside while the dust storm raged outside. The next day it had largely passed although the sky was still a dirty colour. We left Icht and headed to a nearby Petroglyph site.
This was nearer the road and a rocky ridge ran along parallel to the main road. We walked along the ridge searching for the carvings and soon came across a whole load of them. We must have found 40 different carvings – some big, some small. Some of the petroglyphs in this area are as old as 9,000 years but most of the ones we saw are more likely between 2,000 and 4,000 years old.
A couple of hours drive west of Icht we drove up a dead end road to the small village of Amtoudi. This is at the end of a red rock canyon and has two well preserved Agadirs.
Agadirs are the banks of the ancient Moroccan world. They were fortified storage facilities built in easy to defend areas. The wealth of the village would be stored here including their crops, with each family having its own room in the Agadir.
The desert environment was so harsh that raiding nearby villages was a great way to obtain more resources and was therefore commonplace, hence the need to protect their food and other wealth.
Each Agadir would also have 24 hour guards to ensure that they weren’t raided. They were still in common use up until the 1950’s and some across the country are still in use today.
The first Agadir, Agadir Id Aissa, is perched on a peak right above the town and is only accessible through two narrow switch-backing trails. It is around 800 years old and it would have been hard work carrying your crops up here for storage. On arrival you are greeted by a heavy wooden door which was locked. After all that effort we were worried it was all for nothing but after knocking on the door it was eventually opened by an elderly guardian who let us in.
Carved into the rock at the top of this peak are 73 individual storage cells along with stone beehives, rainwater cisterns and a small mosque. The Agadir would also have been used by the villagers as a refuge during times of conflict.
The second Agadir, Agadir Agellouy, is further down the canyon and is more of a fortified building. This Agadir is around 500 years old and has commanding views down the canyon.
This Agadir is notable for being fully covered rather than having an open courtyard and the storage cells are stacked three stories deep.
Both of these Agadirs have been restored using traditional techniques to ensure that they are preserved for posterity and are not crumbling away like so many buildings in Morocco.
After visiting the Agadirs of Amtoudi we retraced our steps and headed Northwards towards the popular town of Tafraoute.
The R107 highway towards Tafraoute is a stunning road through the Anti-Atlas mountains. It varied between good highway and long stretches of unpaved diversions where the highway was being repaired.
Whilst driving we saw a massive herd of over 100 camels being herded along a valley by a guy riding a donkey.
Before driving to Tafraoute itself we took a diversion down The Route des Canyons which lead us, unsurprisingly, deep into a Canyon.
Highlights of the drive are the Grand Canyon viewpoint, which rivals many of the views in the South of the USA, the ‘Window of Life’ and then at the end of the canyon the road dead-ends at a small village called Aoukerda.
We parked up here and carried on down the canyon on foot. In the wall of the canyon is the entrance to a cave with a small stream flowing through it. You can walk through the cave, mostly without getting your feet wet if you hug the edges, through the canyon wall to the other side.
Once you climb down there is a small pond formed from the stream flowing through the cave.
After exploring this part of the canyon we headed back to the camper and drove back through the canyon to the main road to Tafraoute but just before arriving at the town itself we took another detour down a fairly rough gravel track to visit the famous painted rocks.
In 1984 the Belgian artist, Jean Verame, decided to create a tribute to his late wife. This took the form of 18 tonnes of blue paint spread over the massive rocks in the desert. He even enlisted the local fire department to help using their hoses to spray the paint.
It’s one thing to read about the painted rocks but once you are there the sheer size of this undertaking really strikes you. The rocks are huge and painting them must have been a massive undertaking. They have been repainted several times over the years so still look vibrant and fresh.
We spent a couple of hours walking between the rocks and climbing up on them to get better views but we wanted to make it to Tafraoute for the night so eventually headed off.
Tafraoute itself is an oasis in the desert landscape where palms and argon trees were the main crops. In the winter it attracts 100’s of westerners in their motorhomes, expedition trucks and campers who are accommodated by a massive area just outside of town that is probably the biggest Aire in the world.
For only 15 MAD or £1.20 a night you can stay in a big open area – there is no problem getting away from others as it really is a huge area. The great thing about this Aire is that the local merchants visit everyday bringing pretty much everything you need straight to your door. You get vendors with bread and pastries, samosas, dates, fruit, door to door laundry and water fill-ups. You can even order fully cooked meals to be delivered to your camper and the local mechanics and bodyshop owners also come around offering work from minor repairs to full resprays. It really is something else and it is easy to see why it is so popular.