On the road again

I was sure I would have used that title for a post at some point in the past.. and a quick search revealed that indeed I had, but not since the shores of Lake Titicaca so I feel it is ok to use it again…

Arriving late into Marrakech I decided to stay a day.. despite multiple visits in the past it is still a good place to hang out, although it has changed a bit since the last time I was here and a lot since the first visit 17 years (yikes..) ago… there are a lot more tourists now and consequently on the face of it the people can seem a bit harder, but take the time to break the ice and they’re still great. Mostly. Unfortunately the Cafe Argana that overlooked the Djeema el Fna and that used to be the perfect spot to unroll a map over coffee in the morning sun is sadly no longer, it was never rebuilt after the bombing in 2011.

Anyway I’m rolling out of town in the morning.. south, the same road to begin with that I used last time, for a couple of days at least. because it is a quiet road and the long climb, it goes generally up for around 70km, of the Tizi’ntest is a very beautiful one with some good dirt track detours to explore but after that, instead of continuing south to the Anti-Atlas I’ll be curving round to the east using the dirt roads to the east of Mt Toubkal and then out towards the oases of the Draa Valley and the Jebel Sahro. well, that is the plan.. ensha’llah and all that.