This is the last post of a series that documented our second road trip across Morocco that took us from the desert camp at Merzouga to Essaouira on the Atlantic coast. It was a jaunt of about 1000 km made in 3 days. You can follow our Westbound trip to Ouarzazate on this blog here and here.
Put some tunes on for the last leg of this trip.
This was how the last leg began. We left Dar Chamaa in Ouarzazate at about 10 am.
To reach the Atlantic coast from Ouarzazate, we had to traverse the High Atlas and go through the center of Marrakech. We took a detour on P1506 to visit the kasbah at Telouet.
On this desert road, we passed a restaurant called China Red (Zhong Quo Hong) offering probably some form of Chinese food and advertising at least coffee, tea, juice, and wifi. This road must be popular with mainland tourist group.
The road P1506 connects the settlements along the stream (Asif Ounila) with the main highway N9. Palm trees and arable land lined the banks.
We were traveling upstream for many kilometers, and then the road turned westward and headed into the mountain.
Here is a photo of our SUV for the road trip, a black Toyota Land Cruiser Prado, comfortable and energetic.
There was hardly any traffic on this stretch of P1506.
Telouet was our destination and the kasbah was very much worth the detour. It will be the subject of a future post – [link].
After Telouet, we rejoined the highway N9 to get to Marrakech which is on the other side of the snowy High Atlas mountain range.
N9 crosses the High Atlas at Tizi n’Tichka (Col du Tichka). At 2260 m (7400 feet) above sea level, it is the highest major mountain pass in North Africa. We did not stop at this rest area, instead we went on to a restaurant which provided lunch accompanied by a panoramic view.
N9 was constructed along the old caravan trail by the French military in 1936.
Facing northwest, the plain on the other side of the High Atlas stretches towards Marrakech as far as the eye can see.
From here, it was all downhill on a highway … and soon we saw the street lights of Marrakech … the city does not have a ring road so we cannot bypass the city center.
While stuck in city center traffic, we inched along with this truck ahead that was advertising a go-kart circuit. Using a mirror, the driver of the car behind could see himself. Interesting marketing idea. But would that image motivate a driver to want to race a smaller vehicle in circles?
We passed by Marrakech’s main train station. A few days later, when returning to the city, we opted for a coach service that also ended its route here. In the end, we never had the occasion—or the need—to use the railway itself.
Leaving Marrakech westbound on Highway N8, we passed this massive telecommunication installation situated on a mesa. Must be pushing out 5-bar strong signals ?! Speaking about cellphone service, we had no problem at all even in smaller towns. The government has made some real investments here.
This area which lies between Marrakech and the Atlantic coast is flat and a prime area for cultivating argan tree (Argania spinosa). We stopped by the highway briefly at an agriculture commune where women were demonstrating the extraction of argan oil from the nut. We had seen this demonstration already in Fes at another women’s commune, and bought our share. The oil is trendy at least in Europe and a valuable export for Morocco (the tree is native and found only in Morocco).
These are young plantation trees. If you search online (this link is a good start—you’ll see why it feels surreal), you’ll find photos of goats perched on the branches of mature argan trees. We didn’t see it ourselves, but the goats apparently climb up to nibble on the fruit. The story goes that they can’t digest the nut, so it passes through them and is later collected to produce argan oil. Voilà.
While descending to Essaouira on highway R207, we caught our first sight of the Atlantic. It was nice to see an ocean after days of endless expanse of sand and rocks.
Essaouira is a fishing port and a beach resort, well known for wind surfing. As it was the winter season, there were fewer tourists in town.
Our lodging was at the edge of the medina near the Avenue du Caire entrance. We never found out why there were so many taxis going around with the Moroccan flag flying. A football match ?
Finally, we arrived at the west coast of Morocco having started the journey near its eastern border with Algeria.
What a truly memorable, bucket-list, cross-country excursion.