Eleven and a half hours since leaving Fes we arrive at our riad in Marrakech.
The paradigm changes in Fes. Cars have the absolute right of way although walk lights at the street corner are somewhat effective, credit cards are not accepted, at least around the Medina, the scooter riders wear lids and there are more stray dogs then anywhere else up to now. As far as cars go they do obey the traffic lights.
Today we leave Fes and head to Marrakesh. The driver shows up with a very fancy Kia. It has 6 seats, the four in the back face each other like a limo. Debbie and I pile in and we are officially VIPs.
The landscape is grided with rock fences. They follow the road and define the crops of apples, strawberries, plums and the ubiquitous olives. There are a few wire fences that appear and some fields are surrounded by olive trees mentioned a couple of days ago but the rock walls are more prominent.
Our route takes us into the area of Morocco that gets covered in snow each winter. Enough snow to have a few ski areas about. Ifrane is known as the Moroccan Switzerland. It’s a really personable town. With the ski slopes nearby, I could live there!
The route from Fes to Marrakesh is a little more populated than the route from Chefchaouen to Fes. The roads are in a bit better shape. After all is done I think I prefer the Chefchaouen to Fes route. Time would be better spent on the super highway and get to Marrakesh faster. Although you can see the high Atlas Mountains as you drive along you don’t traverse them at all. And more olives.
Because there are more towns and cities enroute we were able to stop part way at a very local restaurant. The driver orders up lunch. He doesn’t like tagine because he does not know if it was made yesterday or two days ago or this morning. He goes straight to the fresh meat counter and orders .5kg of chicken and about the same in cutlets. The meat is grilled and then served hot off the BBQ, with bread. We later find the cutlets are mutton, no wonder I didn’t like them. The meal is filling and reasonably cheap but not as cheap as the driver would have us believe. The restaurants Debbie and I have been eating in are not any more expensive.
There are more changes as we progress along the route. The sheep herds are bigger. Instead of 10 or 15 sheep for a herder the numbers have grown to say 30 or 40 and bigger. And more olives.
More and more scooters are on the highway and in the towns and villages we pass through. And more olives. When we finally get to Marrakesh the number of scooters almost matches the number of cars and it is more like the roads in SE Asia. And more olives.
When we are in the rolling hills the farms change to grazing land. Mostly sheep, a few goats and hardly any cows, at least that is what is in sight from the road. Once again in the valleys crops are the dominant farm product. Just north of Marrakesh within 150kms the sky gets bigger and the plain we are on is flatter than Alberta. And more olives.
Real life strikes, traffic slows and is diverted onto a gravel side road. As we pass I see someone laying in the middle of the highway and a scooter being pushed to the side of the road. The injured person looked to be moving but none too quick. The accident must have take place at highway speed. I’m sure it was not pretty. Shortly after we arrive in Marrakesh as we near the Medina there is more traffic kafuffle. As we go by the intersection there is a girl prone beside an e bike and not moving very much. Maybe not high speed but it was going to hurt none the less. The drivers, including those on scooters, seem to go with the ebb and flow of the traffic but they are not very careful and I would imagine these types of accidents are common.
The last part of the adventure pissed me off. The driver drove us to what he was sure was our riad. Debbie had located the riad on Google maps and was sure we were not at the right place, she said so but the driver insisted. The driver again insisted we have some guy standing on the side of the road lead us to the riad and then tells me to tip him 20 MAD. The driver heads off and the hotel guy says we are at the wrong hotel. We phone the driver; he has to come back pick us up again and get us to the right spot. I did not appreciate being treated like an incompetent tourist. I don’t care how many people he has dealt with when Debbie says we are at the wrong riad we most likely are and when I say we don’t need a guide to get to the riad we don’t need a guide. It was only 3 bucks for what, I DON’T NEED A GUIDE.
As to that statement Debbie and I have traversed 5 different Medinas and have not got lost once. People, good travelers, told us they are so complicated, so twisty and turny, you will get lots. Granted we did download Google maps and use it to navigate but we always eventually found where we were looking for without too much trouble and we always got back to the riad we were staying in very easily.
Arrive late to Marrakesh, miss supper and to bed.