Essaouira III

It is about 3 years since we were last in Essaouira so it was a bit of a culture shock. The town is essentially a resort although there is also a traditional fishing port. It is in complete contrast to Agadir appealing more to the "independant traveller" rather than the all inclusive package tour market. It relies heavily on its tenuous connections to Jimi Hendrix and the hippies of the early seventies. The medina is heavily, although not entirely, europeanised, with the majority of the moroccan population living in the new town but working in tourist related trades. There is a large market in alternative neo-hippy clothing and surfer culture, although really it is a bit far north for the later , the hard-core beaches are around Tamazgrout. The annual musuc festival means it is an excellent place to buy CDs of african music but the music and clothing stalls also show a dedicated following for Bob Marley from young men in dreadlocks which is slightly weird because he must have been dead before they were born and I am probably the only person present who saw him in concert, but then the whole town is a timewarp to my youth.  There is a flourishing if somewhat "head" based artistic community and vegan restaurant relics of the past, run of course by ex-pats. There are luxurious hotels along the front which is more of a luxury med resort, we stayed in the then Sofitel the first time we visited and the view of the sunset from the balcony was stunning, but the accomodation in the medina is in restored riads done up to offer visitors the "real" morocco although they about as real as the average english country house hotel or beamed cottage B&B is to england. We stayed in such a riad and Ali Baba and the knitter were impressed.

Essaouira sunset

We took Ali Baba and the knitter by a long detour and overnight in Essaouira. More of that later but first let me share a Kodak moment at sunset.
                                                                                
                                                                             
                                      

Ali Baba and the Knitter

We have friends visiting , a former colleague of Beloved. I was going to call him the Restorer because he aspires to restore things. They live in the eponymous old mill of a village in Cerredigion and have been restoring it for nearly 25 years. They have still not finished as everyhing has to be genuine and quality but cheap. They also keep extending the scope of their vision to landscaping and pond digging so there will always be something more to do; also he will be prevented from engaging on his other restoration projects. 8 classic cars are part of their collection but they have only one 2 seater which actually goes. Meanwhile land has been bought and timber garages erected to accomodate the accumulating projects. Anyway the restorer he isn't. He has a beard and that causes all the locals to address him as Ali Baba so Ali Baba it is. His wife who was a primary Head objects to my referring to her as the Headmistress and asked to be called the Knitter instead. I said "Is that with or without a K?" and got a very old fashioned look.
They came to the cave and Agadir with us and have generaly been exploring Taroudant on foot. Today they were shopping and here are some of their purchases.

Carpets for sweetheart

Sweetheart wants me to buy a carpet for her living room. Here are some of the possibles.



1 x 0.43m




1.4 x 1m




1.85 x1.25




1.9 x1.45



Grotte Windimouine

If you turn north off the honey road at  Tamazirt you are signposted to Grotte Winimidouine. You take the road for about 8km and then come to a car park. The drive is very picturesque and worth the trip in itself. There is then a piste track uphill, seemingly leading to the top of the mountain and far distance but actually only for about 500m. There is then a last scrambly bit and you are at the Grotte.
There is an artificial pool ouside the entrance which makes a good place fo a picnic and the water is invitingly clear for a swim in summer. you can't go very far into the cave itself as there is a safety gate at 20m. There is a man brewing mint tea and he will give you a cup, tell you of the cave and show you a map of them. It is a major extensive cave system extending for 19km but most of it is flooded and so best left to cave-divers but for them it would be a great expedition.

The Builders

The assiduous reader of this blog will have noticed how fascinated we were by the rebuilding of Bab Taghout so you will not be surprised to learn that we have transferred this fascination to the new shop/house being built near us. It fronts onto the main road through Sidi Belkas and the houses opposite us back onto it. Strangely the builders  do not get their water from that house although they use the garage to store equipment but the water comes from the house next door to us. Initially it passed in a red plastic hosepipe across the street but this kept getting holes in from traffic driving over it so the solution was to pass it up in the air and it crosses the street above lorry height. It is some what irritating that the water source is next door as it exacerbates the the variable pressure difficulties. The leak that eventually led to the hosepipe being raised actually cut off the water for half a day but when restored was at much better pressure, since then we can either have really good pressure or a level that produces a dribble rather than a shower depending on what they are doing about cement and concrete.
The ground plan was laid out with chalk or flour or some other white powder but there was no need to put lines in as there was no danger of the chalk washing away. Then about a dozen men set to with spade to dig the footings; strangely they completed these before bothering with the drains. To save on concrete large bouldery stones were put in the dug out footings,  no boarding required, and the concrete added over it. All mixed by hand, no diggers, no concrete mixers, just lots of manual work.
Then the metal was added for the concrete pillars and then the bouldery stones were repeated over the whole footprint before concreting the floor. They are now doing the blockwork before pouring the concrete pillars so its all a bit backwards from at home.
We have a friend buying a house north of the town up towards the university, opposite the market. He bought it as soon as it was topped out at first fix. We went up to look at it the other day,.The ground floor was more or less at second fix and he is concentrating on getting that floor finished. He saves each month and gets a bit more done.We asked if he did any himself and he looked shocked. DIY is unknown here. Of course he is project managing but as it is all done a bit at a time with no end date that is not quite the logistical nightmare it would be in Britain. When the ground floor is finished the family will move in and he will continue gradually to complete it upwards.

Dracaena Indivisa

The plumbago on the terrace has not been very happy so when we had a car to go to Agadir we went to the pepiniere. We explained to the woman running it that we needed a plant to grow in a jardiniere in full sun with only occasional watering over the summer. She showed us a variety of plants but I was taken with one which I thought was a sort of palm but she said was a dracaena indivisa. Two were bought and with some difficulty put into the back seat of the car. When I got home I went on Wikipedia whoch told me that it is the same as  cordylline indivisa from north Island New Zealand and that it has a tendency to keel over in heat or drought. I hope not but remain confused because pictures of cordylline indivisa show the leaves groing from the base with no trunk as my plant has.
We have made some additions to the terrace as there is a big temperature difference between sun and shade at this time of year and which you want to be in varies with the time of day so we have added another "sofa" in the sun.
We had a moroccan family round for a barbeque yesterday; I don't think they were impressed. We tried with limited success to introduce the children to skittles which they don't seem to have here. We explained that grown men play it in leagues. What they knew about sport in 'England was from their school textbooks which told them that cricket was by far the most popular sport much more so than football. We disaboused them but when we said that te most popular participation sport was fishing they knew we were joking. We have british friends coming next week; I hope they appreciate the terrace.

Almond Blossom

Almonds are a basic of Morrocan cuisine. Slivered they are essential for the classic Tajine of Lamb with Prunes and Almonds and ground to a paste with sugar they are the filling for Gazelles Horns pastries. They are sold whole and salted or blanched. They make the coating for the fried fish fillets dipped first in beaten egg for Fish Tajine with Plums and Apricots. Strangely for a country so addicted to sugar I have never seen them sold as that Xmas classic, sugared almonds.
Now is the Almond Blossom season. As you rise into the foothills of the Atlas or Anti-Atlas  and leave the argan trees and palms of the Sousse valley behind the almond trees start. They are at the side of the road towards Tafroute or set at the centre of sqares that will later be irrigated for wheat and beans. The white flowers clinging fragilely to the leafless branches. Reminiscent of Houseman's cherries "wearing white for eastertide". 

Paradise Valley and the Honey Road

There is a round trip from Agadir you can drive in 3-4hours without major stops which makes a nice day trip. Start by going up the coast road to Aourir and then take the turn off for Immouzzer. This road leads up "Paradise Valley", a pretty road up by a river which is supposed to have bathing pools at the right time of year. It was popular with hippies in the 70s and was allegedly given it's name by Jimi Hendrix who seems to have covered most of southern morocco in his week's visit. There are two car parks linked by a nature trail with information boards describing the plants. Obviously this is best done by having someone drop you at the top car park and collect you at the bottom so you can walk downhill. We had previously visited in the summer when it was deserted and we had a pleasant picnic in the lower car park. At this time of year there was much more activity from snowbirds. The campsite inland from Aourir was nearly full of smart campervans. Just beyond that an informal area was turned into a presumably free campsite of some smaller shabbier caravanettes and a number of self converted vans. Up in Paradise Valley the lower car park was full of this  type of van inhabited by people with dreadlocks and small children and there was an orange stall. Various other odd vans and tents were set up on various flat bits of land, so hippiedom is not yet dead, although it must go north for the summer. The top car park though which is a bit more exposed was empty.
Carrying on to Immouzzer it is a prettyroad with several cafes and hotels. At this time of year the almond trees are in flower and the valley is green and verdant.
Immouzzer itself is famous for its waterfalls. We've never yet managed to find them although I expect we have seen them from across the valley as the rock bears the typical calcification you would expect. The fact that we have seen no water falling is not a surprise. They only really ever flowed February to June and the flow these days is much reduced at the best of times, partly because a dam has been built upstream and partly because an earthquake a few years ago altered the route of the stream. Nevertheless the falls are advertised  as a trip in Agadir complete with picture of falling water. The Hotel Cascades looked very attractive although we did not stop and the tourists from Agadir are deposited outside the Argan Cooperative shop. These are proliferating with smart shops in old buildings and a range of products in modern slick packaging. It looks as though there has benn a grant to develop the trade.
From Immouzzer you can continue over the edge of the Atlas which are not as high approaching the sea and return to the motoerway at either Azroud (the short route we took) or Argana. This road is imposing and beautiful but not pretty. There are no almond trees ,it is too high for them, and few building or settlement. It is a contrast to Paradise Valley. The road is called the honey road because the area is famous for honey and Argan is the honey capitol of the south holding a honey festival each May. Howeve it must be too cold for bees up there at this time of year because the only hives and honey stalls we saw were in the top end of Paradise Valley.