Crazy mountain road!

The road through the Tizi n' Test mountain pass was built by French engineers between 1928 and 1932. It was the first modern access from Marrakech to Taroudant, although now there is a highway through the plains from Marrakech to Agadir that most people take. So the mountain pass road isn't well maintained.

Rockslides and avalanches are common. No way I would attempt this road during bad weather, or even on a rainy day. 

Now that's a chicken lunch!

Friday morning we walked into the small city of Taroudant (pop 80,000). The center of town is located about 4 kms (2.5 miles) from the campground, so it was a decent walk.

First on the agenda was to find an ATM. Our Canadian bank has an agreement with BCMI bank here in Morocco for no ATM fees, and there is a BCMI location here, so that's where we headed.

That was an interesting drive!

Max likes driving mountain roads just as much as our North American motorhome Sherman did. So when I saw a route heading to our next destination that was more direct than the main road, I did some more research. And yes, it was a twisty, curvy mountain road, with reviews that warned of narrow sections with no guard rails.

But, it was also paved and in overall good condition. And a couple of other motorhomers said that they had done it without issue, but that it was "interesting".

It's been a great week, but it's time to move on

We really like this part of Morocco. Tons of hiking opportunities, and it helps that the weather has been absolutely perfect for that activity.

So we took advantage of our last day here and did a hike up into the mountains behind where we are staying.

What did it cost for our long weekend in Canary Islands?

After a record breaking high expense month like January was, it's refreshing to see our February expenses back to what we consider normal.

There were no surprises... well, except for a last minute long weekend to Canary Islands! We'll break down exactly how much that long weekend cost in the details below.

Traditional Berber house in rural Morocco

Monday morning, we walked about 3.5 kms (2.2 miles) over to the village of Oumesnat where there is a traditional Berber house that is now a tourist museum. 

Really interesting visit, and if you are in the area it's not to be missed!

If we ever settle down anywhere, it's going to be in a place that has palm trees!

We woke up at about 5:30am to an odd sound. At first, it sounded like a water drip, but upon closer inspection it was actually a clicking noise coming from our electrical converter under the seat.

As in Mexico, many of the campgrounds in Morocco don't have enough supply of electricity. So normally, the problem is low voltage. And I'm aware of the problem enough that I bought an electrical meter before coming here and I test the voltage when we arrive at a campground, and regularly throughout our stay.

We finally saw goats in trees!

We set out just after 10:00am and ended up doing 13 kms (8 miles) under beautiful sunny skies. Back just before 2:00pm, so we were gone about three and a half hours.

It's a really interesting landscape in this area. Lots of big boulders and odd shaped rocks. 

Max is quite happy here!

And so are we. 

We really enjoyed our time in Canary Islands, and ever since we came back from there, we kind of felt like we weren't enjoying Morocco so much. The southern coastline just felt so drab. 

But we had a beautiful day yesterday despite the fact that the morning was quite cloudy. It was just normal clouds though, not that depressing kind of haze that we had been experiencing last week.

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Now this scenery is more our style!

We were fine at our wild camping spot except that it got quite windy overnight so we didn't sleep the best.

So we got up at first light and drove for a little while until we got a cell signal, then pulled over to have breakfast.

Finally, a night of wild camping!

We set off in the fog at just after 10:00am, headed inland towards the city of Guelmim (pop 187,000).

There's not really anything we wanted to see in Guelmim, but they have a big Marjane grocery store and we needed to stock up. 

Next winter, we are going somewhere guaranteed to be warm!

It was just a short drive yesterday as we made our way to the rock arch at Legzira Beach. Then another short drive to a "campground" near the town of Sidi Ifni.

There are still a few rock arches on this stretch of rough Atlantic coast, but one of them collapsed in 2016.

Change of plans... again!

Western Sahara is one of the world's disputed territories. Not really a country, but often counted as such along with the 15 or so other unrecognized countries of the world. Long time readers will remember when we got pulled over by the police in Transnistria during a visit to that unrecognized country.

Our original intention was to drive all the way into Western Sahara. 

Wandering around Mirleft, Morocco

In need of some exercise, we decided to hike up to the old fortress overlooking the town of Mirleft. A nice enough day, with a high of around 22C (72F), but still with that odd haze in the sky.

There's not a lot of information available online, but it turns out that the old fortress really isn't that old. 

Another ATM problem

On Saturday, we drove further south along the coast, from Tifnit to Mirleft, with a stop in the larger town of Tiznit along the way.

The sky was still really hazy. The sun was shining, but the sky wasn't blue... it was kind of a hazy grey. Very strange.

The rundown fishing village of Tifnit

The rain stopped by noon, so after lunch we finally got out for a decent walk. 

While the campground itself is nice, there's not much to see or do in the area. The only real option is to walk down to the beach and fishing village of Tifnit. It's about 14 kms (9 miles) round trip, so it's a bit of a hike.

Well, it's a good thing that Max is waterproof!

They were calling for heavy rain, and sure enough, that's what we got. A couple of times overnight, it rained so hard I thought we might float away. The locals had said they haven't had enough rain lately, but this might be a little too much all at one time.

Funny story. Last weekend when we were with Bob and Denise in the Canary Islands, I asked them if they knew of a magazine called "Zoomer". It's a popular Canadian magazine produced for the baby boom generation.

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Looking forward to Ireland!

We've always wanted to go to Ireland. Especially in a motorhome. Our friends Glen and Steve did it a couple of years ago and they said it would be right up our alley. Especially the west coast section called the Wild Atlantic Way... a 2,600 km (1,600 mile) coastal route with fantastic hiking scenery, and loads of free wild camping (boondocking) overnight spots.

And so with that in mind, we have booked our ferry to Ireland!

Found ourselves a nice Moroccan campground

 First order of business on Tuesday was to get some groceries! We had left Max at the secure parking at Agadir Airport while we were gone to Tenerife for four days. Ruth had been so organized that we were able to turn off the fridge while we were gone so as to preserve our propane supply. But that meant the fridge was pretty much empty so we needed to restock.

On our way to the airport last Thursday we had driven by a big Carrefour superstore so we backtracked a bit into the city to go there.

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Nice hike to end our long weekend on Tenerife

Bob and Denise came down and met us at our hotel around 9:00am and we set off on the 13 km (8 mile) hike up the Lunar Landscape trail. It's listed as an "intermediate" hike that gains about 600 meters (2,000') in altitude. 

We sat down for a break after one of the steeper sections, and I was eating some peanuts. We noticed two really pretty birds that were getting close to us. I tossed over half a peanut, and it was quickly scooped up.

Another good day exploring scenic Tenerife, Canary Islands

Bob and Denise came over in their rental car and picked us up around 9:00am and we set off on a scenic tour heading south through the center of the island of Tenerife.

The island itself is only about 80 x 50 kms (50 x 30 miles), but it's so diverse. And, the highest point in Spain is located on Tenerife... the Teide Volcano, at 3,715 meters (12,188')

Really enjoying Tenerife

We had no idea what to expect, and of course Tenerife is only one of the eight main islands that make up the Canary Islands. But so far, we would definitely come back! 

You hear about British people coming here for package holidays, so we were afraid of it being a little too much like the south coast of Spain and Portugal with "full British breakfast" being available everywhere, but this is not at all the case based on what we've seen so far.

Fun first day in Canary Islands

I've always wanted to come to Canary Islands. I remember that my grandmother took a vacation here sometime back in the 1970's or 1980's and I remember that it seemed so exotic to me back then. Unfortunately, we're only here for three nights, and only the island of Tenerife, but so far we like it!

Our super cheap Ryanair flight went fine. It departed exactly on time, and arrived 20 minutes early.

Scenic drive to Agadir Airport

Google maps was correct, it did take four hours to do the 216 km (134 mile) drive to Agadir Airport yesterday. But we broke it up and did two hours in the morning, then stopped for lunch for an hour, then another two hours in the afternoon.

And, it was a fairly scenic drive!

Day trip into Essaouira

We got out onto the main road here in the village of Ounagha to wait for the local bus to take us into Essaouira. There were quite a few locals waiting as well, so we figured it must be coming soon. And sure enough, after ten minutes or so, it showed up.

It was pretty busy though. Ruth managed to get a seat, but I stood the whole way. The guy came by to collect fares and give us a ticket. Cost was 7 dirhams ($0.92 CAD, $0.68 USD) for the twenty minute bus ride.

Our upcoming weekend away

We didn't do anything yesterday! Not often that we have such a lazy day, but I guess it's okay to do that every now and again.

We had planned on going into Essaouira, but decided to put it off until today. There aren't a lot of campgrounds between here and Agadir that get half decent reviews, so we'll go straight from here to Agadir Airport on Thursday.

If you don't show up early you may not get a site.

On Sunday, we drove a few more miles south, to the village of Ounagha where we found the pleasant Olive Tree Campground.

We are actually trying to visit nearby Essaouira, but Essaouira is not motorhome friendly. In fact, there are no campgrounds at all within walking distance to Essaouira.

Reflecting on our Mauritania trip

Now that our Mauritania trip has come and gone, I wanted to give you some more information about it and our thoughts about doing these types of trips.

We don't often do "group" tours, preferring to organize and research and plan things on our own. But there are some countries that we want to visit that are better done with a group, being led by someone who has done it many times before.

Nice day exploring Safi, Morocco

Saturday morning we did the walk into the town of Safi. 

Safi isn't much on the tourist radar, although there are a couple of things worth seeing. The old walled medina dates back to the 11th century, and there is a Portuguese cathedral which was built when the Portuguese occupied the town between 1488 to 1541. And, it's the Moroccan capital for the ceramics and pottery industry, as well as having the largest sardine fishing port.

Headed further south

Now that we are on a schedule to be at Agadir airport by next Thursday, we figured we had better move on. 

We didn't get going until 11:00am, but it was only an hour and a half drive to our next destination.

January Expenses

January 2023 was our most expensive month ever!

We spent a total of $8,990 CAD ($6,715 USD) for the month. Far more than we have ever spent before. In fact, the previously most expensive month ever was February 2021 when we did Kilimanjaro. 

Change of plans!

Actually, it's not really a change of a plans, but that we were able to solidify plans that we didn't think were going to happen.

Last September when we got together with friends Bob and Denise they had mentioned they were planning a trip to the Canary Islands in February. We thought we might be in the area, and we had even played around with the idea of taking Max on the ferry to the Canary Islands.

A nice view of the sea at Oualidia, Morocco

We actually slept quite well in the parking lot at Casablanca airport. I think we were pretty tired though, so that helped.

First on the agenda was to get some food. We had left the fridge totally empty and turned off, so we needed to do a decent grocery shop. 

Back in Morocco!

Tuesday evening, we flew back to Morocco. We are now back in Max, and thankfully he was sitting in the Casablanca airport parking, just as we had left him ten days ago.

But I need to catch you up on some stories from the last couple of days.

Dirty. Uncomfortable. Amazing!

When we left you yesterday, we had just boarded the iron ore train in Mauritania, Africa headed west from Choum to the Atlantic coast at Nouadhibou.

The train travels at between 35 to 40 km/h (22 to 25 mph). With a distance of 400 kms (248 miles), and several short stops along the way, it should take around 12 hours to get to our destination. But certainly none of that is written in stone.

The main event... the iron ore train!

Friday evening was the main event! The reason we came to Mauritania was to ride the iron ore freight train through the Sahara Desert. We were all pretty excited about it.

We had most of the morning off to do our own thing. Internet access was actually pretty good while we were in Chinguetti. But only because I had bought a SIM card when we had arrived in Mauritania, and there was a 4G high speed tower nearby. So we took advantage of that and got caught up on some internet stuff.

A beautiful desert oasis in Mauritania

I tried googling the most beautiful oases in the world. A few lists of them came up, but nowhere did I see mentioned the one we went to on Thursday. Truly stunning. And it's not mentioned anywhere because hardly anybody knows that it exists.

The day started when we hopped into the 4x4's again and headed back into the desert.

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Four wheel drive adventure in the Sahara Desert

On the road Wednesday morning at 9:00am with five Toyota Hilux 4x4's for our group. 

We did five full hours of crazy desert four wheel driving! It was totally fun and I really enjoyed it. Some of the group rode in the back of the trucks if they chose to. 

Our first Sahara Desert oasis

We were told that we would be on the road at 7:30am Tuesday morning with a full day of driving ahead of us to get to the Terjit Oasis. So in preparation for that, we were up at 5:45am and had a quick breakfast with the group between 6:30 and 7:00. 

For our group, we were 18 people... plus our leader Johnny, so we had a minivan and two Toyota Hilux four wheel drives. And three drivers.

Not exactly the nicest capital city in the world

Among travelers who go to out of the way places, Nouakchott, the capital city of Mauritania, is well known to be the worst capital city in the world. 

Sandy, dusty, dirty, trashy. With very few attractions. And no alcohol.