Into the cab after watching the sunrise we began our long (ish) trek to Marrakesh. As mentioned previously, we travelled through Ourzarzate. I visited the city last year when travelling on the motorbike. The city has really changed, much more of modern feel, cleaner streets and roads have kerbs and there are even public fountains and pieces of modern art dotted around. This is a city that clearly has a bit of money floating around, it is situated between the High Atlas and the desert country has fertile farmland, the livestock look healthier as do the people. Ourazarzate is also the place where several big films were made. Those shots of Luke Skywalker zipping around in the desert on his sand pod thingy and the landscapes of the sand people were all made here. Others credits include 'The Man who would be King' 'The Jewel in the Nile', 'Lawrence of Arabia' and the 70's epic 'Jesus of Nazareth'. We only drove through but it was impressive.
From the Southern side the ascent of the mountains is quite steep, lots of switch-backs and even more 'if we go off the cliff here we're stuffed' comments. We stopped at a small shelter/shop and bought some geods? (Rocks with a crystal centre) and further on some good bits of pottery. The 'pot shop' was dirt-cheap and sold the real stuff not just tourist tat. Locals and passing truck drivers seemed to favor it; all along the road people selling 'geods' that had been stained to make them more dramatic- unfortunately to the point of being ludicrous having been stained bright pink and orange. We had already been told by our man at the small shelter what to look for and he showed us some example of 'fake' geods, so we were in the know!
The cruise into Marrakesh seems to take forever, the road winds aimlessly along with less of the extreme drop-offs we encounter on the climb up. The soil changes back to a muddy red brick color, the erosion on the hills is quite spectacular, shaping and reshaping the gorges after every winter snow melt. The soil gets carried away, filling the puddles, drainage trenches and staining the rivers red.
The campsite we had found in 'Kesh was tricky to find, and after a mini tour of the various industrial estates and low spots of 'Kesh, we relented and asked for directions – no problem, after getting lost after the first set of instructions, we were successful after asking the local tyre selling bloke. We eventually found 'Le Relais de Marrakesh' this was a godsend - a top campsite. Swimming pool, bar, showers, bar, friendly staff, Jacuzzi, bar, trees for shade and a bar.
On arrival, we held a small media briefing to answer general questions about the truck. Tony then suggested that questions of a specific engineering nature would be best fielded in the bar. We got talking to a Dutch chap (mid twenties I guess), he was driving an old Land Rover through Africa – and not for the first time, he had been all over the place. Randolph was the genuine article, we went into the market in town 'Place Jemaa el Fna' for some food with him, we were warned about dubious looking rug salesmen. Six minutes after our taxi dropped us off - a rug sales man approached us, what can I say, I had predicted ten minutes.
The market place is a sensory whirlpool, the blur of smoke from the BBQ fires, the colors of the spice/date and orange sellers and the 'bloody racket' from the tone deaf drummers. I honestly think some of these 'musicians' are having a laugh; they seemed to be constantly 'warming up'. One group of drummers were OK, but the rest- sad to say - disappointed. It's easy to wax lyrical about the primitive beat and the natural rhythms of Africa – but these blokes couldn't beat an egg.
There was huge amount of food happening- brochette, cous cous, tagine plus the european pizza and chips thing. We opted for the tagine and very tasty too; a word of warning for those readers planning to visit with small children – don't order the kids menu if your children like baby goats, they may become upset.
We were knackered and returned about eleven o'clock, we are staying another night in 'Kesh, time to recharge the batteries, restock groceries and did I mention there was a bar in the campsite.
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