Marrakesh & Ouarzazate, Morocco

Next on the Moroccan tour was Marrakesh, about 3 hours drive south from Casablanca, again on excellent roads with tolls of about $10 in total for a one way journey. Our target destination was the edge of the Medina and a Riad called Jnane Mogodor but the closer we got to the Medina the more intense the traffic became with motorbikes, bicycles, donkeys, horses, caleches (horse drawn carts) in addition to the foot traffic. By chance we found a parking garage next to the Medina entrance, ditched the car and walked into the Medina to find our hotel.

Glen at the entrance to one of the Souks

You make a lot of friends in Morocco. People start talking to you occasionally to help but mostly to sell you something or get you inside a store. The Medina in Marrakesh, while not huge, is certainly complicated to navigate initially. A random Berber quickly showed us the way to the Jnane Mogodor, offered us some hash(which we declined) and then left as quickly as he came after we tipped him.

The Jnane Mogodor is a traditional Moroccan Riad which is a house with an internal courtyard with most of the windows facing inward. It's a way of not making an obvious statement about wealth by having few windows to peer through from the outside. They are a great place to stay and our one had a two story rooftop terrace which we enjoyed in the evenings and for breakfast.

I was expecting the Medina to be filled with snake charmers and belly dancers but the reality was there were orange juice stands and lots of very similar looking food stalls which didn't look too appetizing. We found a nice rooftop restaurant overlooking the Djemaa El-Fna square after wandering around some of the labyrinth of souks and alleyways.

The following day we drove over the Atlas mountains to Ouarzazate, stopping at the hugely impressive Ait Ben Haddou kasbah where we walked around and had lunch. Ouarzazate and the surrounding area has been used as a film set for a bunch of movies and tv shows from Lawrence of Arabia to Game of Thrones (the Ait Ben Haddou kasbah is Junkai in Game of Thrones). It's a long way to come for a day trip but we wanted to see it while we had the chance. The 200km drive over the Atlas mountains took about 4 hours with Glen at the wheel. It could have taken a lot longer but Glen likes to walk slow and drive fast. It's a superb drive and the scenery is nothing short of spectacular.

Ait Ben Haddou Kasbah

Ouarzazate is known as the doorway to the desert. It's a beautiful location and its not particularly busy. It is a sprawling city but the area around the Kasbah is easily explored on foot but not much of the Kasbah is open to the public. Beer is very hard to find in Morocco but we found a nice rooftop restaurant serving Casablanca with commanding views over the valley and off toward the Sahara.

The Kasbah at Ouarzazate

Our final day in Marrakesh saw a return to the main square in the Medina where I found my snake charmer and explored more of the alleyways. Inside the Medina there are no cars but it's still a hazardous place to walk because motorbikes are constantly forcing their way through the foot traffic. The horses and mules add to the confusion but in a wonderfully chaotic way, it all seems to work.

Cobra in Marrakesh

In the late afternoon we retraced our steps back to Casablanca's Mohammed V Airport, returned the car and checked in for the four hour flight to the Cape Verde islands.