Below is from the chimpanzee walk….

Sept 10…

This is a little confusing cuz I added pictures to existing posts but no one seemed to get them so…..again i apologize if I am repeating some.

Yussaf a nice young man, picked us up at our hotel “Opera Plaza” around noon, singing after getting all our luggage into the vehicle, “Let’s hit the road Jack” to one near the airport in Casablanca. Crazy traffic. I heard it all night…that and sirens. Lots of ladies on smallish motorcycles. Economic capital is Casablanca but Marrakech is tourism capital (it’s beautiful) with about 1 million people.

Lots of check points. When asked what their checking for, Yussaf said beside licence, if your caught (as a Moroccan ) with your girlfriend you can be fined but if you are caught in hotel you can be thrown in jail for 3 months. But… if they are going to fine you $700 and you give the policeman $200, he will go away.

Yussaf rents his own 1 bedroom apartment….for about $150 US/ month but that does not include any appliances.

We arrive in Casablanca about 2.5 hours later passing through what could be anywhere in the prairies. The parts that had not been planted looked like nothing would grow in “that” soil but it must be fertile…. it just takes water.

We could not believe how unbelievably slow they were at the hotel (it was really quite nice) trying to check us in even though a reservation was made that they couldn’t find ….. well over an hour. Later we sat outside on the terrace, had some “good” wine and shared a pizza and off to bed cuz it was an alarm at 4:30 am (actually it was 9:30 pm the night before in Victoria).

OMG…. Paris’ CDG airport is a nightmare for having to change planes, especially if you use 2 different carriers. Note to self:-make sure that I use same carrier so that luggage can be checked right through. If we hadn’t asked for assistance, we would have surely missed our flight….. wheelchairs, back door entrances, around 8 elevators, buses, shuttle, queue jumping lines….. you would not have believed it. It took probably 2+ hours.

We returned home after close to 24 hours…… in one piece along with all our luggage. It is so, so nice to be home.

I will be checking to see what pictures (from East Africa….Kenya, Uganda & Rwanda) I was unable to post because of sketchy wifi. Stay tuned.

Lovely casbah hotel.

Huge amount of building…. Most privately owned by European Moroccans. Onto High Atlas Mountains this morning.

Going to Dades Gorge (2.5 hour driving)view of most beautiful, Valley of 1000 casbahs on way to Ouarzazate. Unbelievably spectacular!!! Very Berber architecture. Boumalne Dades is the name of this town.

Women carrying grass to feed to animals at home. Hard working women looking after home, children and husbands while men are drivers, policemen & like.

Then we got out and walked the Dades Gorge….. amazing, awesome spectacular rock formation of the gorge. The switchbacks….OMG!!!Motorcyclists…. This would be your dream road!!!

City of Roses…. “Kalaat M’Gouna” Once a year festival of roses… roses, rose water, perfumes and crafts… from what looks like wild rose buses. They bloom in April or May. Pink taxis too.

Skoura….. Amridil casbah … oasis 25 sq kms …. From 17century…. 150 casbahs. Used for movie making.

Needs 4 floors and 4 corners. Old made in pyramid style wider on bottom…1.5 (?) metres thick walls to smaller the higher it was built. … no hole in bottom floor for prevent attack. Made from mud and straw. Tamarack… doors. Stairs were of different heights for protection.

About 100 people lived in casbah… 20 in each of 4 salons with separate bedrooms for boys and girls.

Near Ouarzazate… golf course and rentable homes… also jet ski on the lake. 2 million power customers by solar plant…. Largest in Africa. State run power grid but no rhyme or reason to charges.

Roads are generally very good but lots of road building going on.

96,000 people living in Ouarzazate… cinema city

Walking thru oasis. The irrigation is controlled by the chief of the tribe …..he is responsible for the community…..is the one who organizes the review system here between the families. Each family is responsible for maintaining their own section. Family has one hour & half hour or two hours,depending on how big the families and how long it takes to water the farm. At a meeting once a year between parties of the tribe plus the responsibility irrigation they sit down and talk about everything. Of course, global warming and climate change, farming is hard to make a living. Animal are important too but most of the families have turned their attention to work in tourism. You never forgot about the farming, but “I would say 99% of the families rely on tourism”. The national healthcare system during COVID, depending on income previously, got benefit of $150 per month for this job so it’s like a minimum wage for them that they wouldn’t be doing that.if this seems a little mush-mashy, it’s because I thought I would just record what Mustapha was saying but…. OMG… not a good idea. I tried to fix it.

Walls of the well/ irrigation lines round and rising from the desert, keep sand out plus some animals. They get a lotta wind here in winter

Mehya… alcohol made from figs. Camals have 12 months gestation …,one birth at a time. Live 30 years.

Erg Shabbi….the highest dune, is 160 metres high.

We stopped and had tea and conversation with Berber nomad woman and her family.

Goat skin bags containers ….shake for half an hour and it gives you cheese, you take the cheese out and you have whey.

Nomads gathering… Mona is mom, Omar and Ishmael ….her two kids plus the dad.

There is no crescent moon in Moroccan flags cuz that is sign of Ottomans who never ruled the country.

Nomad berbers when marry, bride wears white and face is covered before marriage. Ladies use kohl for eyes and henna on nails.

These people only shower every 15 days or so but no smell. They very seldom get sick.

Border between Algeria and Morocco closed since 1991. Border with Algeria to be avoided. Different culture, people, oil producers change attitudes.

Fossil yard … from 300 million years ago, the desert was under Mediterranean Sea…snails (ammonites) and squids.. sliced into slabs for table tops, water fountains and the like.

Stopped by an ancient 14th. Century irrigation system, under the desert. It had a well 5 metres deep to underground tunnel of at least 3 meters deep and wide with a gradual slope to it. It has dried up since droughts in 18th century and not been maintained by the state.

45% agriculture… tax exempt up to $50,000 USD; 40% in tourism. 8,000,000,000 USD worth sent home by Moroccans abroad. Last year 3,000,000 returned in summer last year after being not allow because of COVID.

High Atlas Mountains lots of minerals …. Biggest being silver. #1 tourist destination in Africa.

Ait…name of tribe or family. When woman marries she does not carry husbands name but retains family name. Children take father’s name.

35,000 people in Tinghir…. 20 kms oasis.., pretty town.

Ifran, a city in Middle Atlas Mountains -1600 metres high… looks alpine……has a ski resort. It is a university town… $10,000/ year. Runners come to train because of altitude. Lots of snow in winter. Lovely, lovely town…. Very green. Most treed area of North Africa (cypress, pine). Forest is protected from farm animal grazing.

Barbary macaque monkeys… here and in High Atlas Mountains & Gibraltar), wolves, foxes also. Most other animals have been eliminated by farmers. We did not see any Barbary Apes….. they were noticeably absent.

Sometimes in winter this road will be closed because of snow. Lakes in area have flamingos but because of drought, some have dried up. Lots of storks in country. Raven presence means a dead animal nearby. December-March…they will have 1 metre snow. Middle Atlas best area for lamb. Apples and cherries grown in this area.

A human interest story of one of the gals on our tour. She and her family lived through the hurricane Katrina that devastated New Orleans. Now in therapy how many year after the fact, still suffers from PTSD especially every time another hurricane threatens N.O. …Going into panic mode…. Having the need to keep everything that has some connection to someone or something … not being able to part with stuff (maybe I need therapy too but from what I don’t know).

Still in Middle Atlas but we can see the highest mountain in the Atlas Mountains at 3300 metres.

Arena in Casablanca is 60,000, increasing to 90,000 capacity in hopes of hosting World Cup of soccer in 2030.

Midelt… nice town… camping and hiking to highest mountain (9,900 feet). GAdventures hiking tour has mules for packing stuff and own chef.

The country plants over million trees a year…. pines to prevent erosion, junipers are native.

We arrive in the town called Rich for pit stop and snacks, mid way to High Atlas Mountains

Spectacular scenery driving in High Atlas. It’s been about 10 years since beginning of drought.

High Atlas 60 million yrs old (drier than Middle. Anti-Atlas is 550million yrs old. Tamaracks, palm trees, dates planted. Casbahs are clay buildings/villages that were originally forts….military protection, are now homes. Warmer in winter, cooler in summer because made of clay and have thicker walls. Berbers always built near stream… in mountains and desert…. not in cities which are predominantly Arab.

Since 2006, every home in country has electricity.

The dam seen earlier provides irrigation for the oasis near where we are stopping for lunch. All the people that live here each own a patch of land for growing dates and olives. There is evidence of the fire from extreme heat burned 30 kms….. in an oasis.

We arrived at our casbah hotel literally on the edge of the dunes of the Sahara in Merzouga. Gorgeous infinity pool to cool off in…yes!!! Later some walked the dunes to watch the sun set. 4… no 5 of us rode camels…. best camel ride I’ve had!