At an altitude of 1250 meters sits a cute little
town in the Mid Atlas Mountains. It’s called Azrou and I almost gave it a pass
because there aren’t any hostels or cheap accommodation. At the last minute I
heard from a host on Couchsurfing. So I stressed on how to get there and ended
up getting there at 1 in the morning but Zak came and picked me up from the bus
stop.
I had a moment there after the bus pulled away and
I was waiting on my own in the square across from the mosque when this guy in a
van creeps along the curb and starts talking to me and I ignore him. He pulls
away and then comes back creeps past turns around and creeps really slow then
parks off to the side. I was looking around and evaluating my options for
beating the shit out of him or running because I was convinced shit was going
south. Then I see someone crossing the road toward me. It was Zak! He was all
smiles and was like hey, sorry I hope you weren’t waiting long. I didn’t
mention the creep that I was actually ready for a fight with.
We went back to his flat. I had my own room which
was really nice. I was tired but he and his roommate were still up watching tv
so I stayed up and had tea with them. I was a hardcore tea addict while in
Morocco. We chatted a bit and they were both impressed that I was a solo female
traveling in Morocco.
Anyhow we went to bed not long after that. When we
woke up the next day we went for breakfast at one of Zak’s favourite places before
we headed toward the souk. It’s a once a week thing so we headed over there and
it was full of people…
and animals…
and veggies on the ground…
and it was very, very muddy. But it was
interesting.
I really enjoyed walking around Azrou with Zak
because I asked tons of questions and he answered them all. Like I wanted to
know about how school worked there. Turns out they have a weird schedule, like
some days they go for a normal day 8-3. Other days they have just morning
classes other days just afternoon classes and some times evening classes where
kids won’t get home till 8 or 9 at night. And some days they don’t have school
at all, and not for holidays or anything. That was crazy interesting.
We also talked about marriage age and that shit.
Because he was curious how I was finding Morocco and the way men treated me
because of my blue hair. I told him about Nait asking what was wrong with me.
Zak told that that mind set was really typical of men who were from traditional
families. He also wasn’t surprised that Nait lived in Mrrakech because he said
Marrakech is an old school city where there are a lot more traditional
families. I asked about what it was like in Azrou and Zak explained that it was
less of a shocker for women to wait till they were older. But apparently
arranged marriages are still a thing… well when I say arranged I mean the
families strongly suggest marriage. I found it all really fascinating!
After bumming around Azrou Zak was like hey do you
want to go on a hike tomorrow? I was like fuck yeah! I want to see monkeys and
the cedar forests! After all the forests were the only reason I picked Azrou
over Meknes.
Plans were made! And we grabbed a taxi to Ain Leuh.
Guess who else was going to Ain Leuh… these chickens!
Zak had a friend who owns a hostel there so we
stayed there. We also met with one of his friends who works in Casablanca. The
three of us were going to make the hike. That night though we cooked! I learned
how to make a tajine! I didn’t do much work I peeled a few potatoes and shelled
some peas. But I was paying attention.
We prepared it and set it to cook for an hourish.
Look at how good that looks! Just seeing it makes
me want to eat… it was so good. And the owner of the hostel cooked a tajine as
well. His was a beef one with cauliflower and other veggies, it was bangin.
After dinner Zak and his friend played the Guembri. It’s probably the funniest
looking instrument I’ve ever seen. It’s the love child of a guitar and a drum…
least that’s the easiest way to describe it. It’s a rectangle covered in camel
hide with strings and it sounds so freaking cool!
After the jam session and cleaning up dinner it was bedtime. After all we needed an early start for out hike!
That's the view from the hostel
And a cute kitty that watched us eat breakfast
I don’t quite know what I was expecting but the
hike was above and beyond what I was expecting. We hiked 20 kilometers through
the cedar forests in the mid atlas mountains! The altitude killed me the first
few hours of the hike. But again I was thankful for my time at the gym because
I kept up. We only stopped 3 times for smoke breaks.
We started just walking up the road, there was a
spring so we filled out water bottles. In case I didn’t mention I’d been
drinking tap waster the whole time. It started in Marrakech with Nait and his
family… since I had been in the country for a week and I was still going strong
I was like fuck it, I’ll drink water everywhere. Then we walked on. Apparently
Zak makes this hike often and there’s a part he likes to hitch hike through
because it sucks… we had no such luck hitching. So we just walked…
We walked through a dump as a short cut.
Got to the top! And it started raining!
But we had to walk on!
It was seriously breathtaking up there.
We were headed toward those trees
And we got closer
And closer
Then BAM!
We
made it into the cedar forest!
Like holy shit! And I saw an APE!! LIKE A FOR REAL
WILD ONE!!!!
I legitimately freaked out. The guys just sort of
rolled their eyes at me as I was freaking out all like I’ve only ever seen
monkeys and apes in the zoo! We end up seeing quite a few. We even saw some
wild dogs trying to pick a fight with them.
And the terrain was crazy weird at some point it
was weirdly rock where you weren’t walking on the ground or the rocks but an
odd limbo. I was doing my best not to trip, I didn’t trip once! go me!
But fuck did my boots get muddy. We had stop to
clean our shoes a few times because I swear I had a few extra kilos of weight from the mud.
Then we on our way down the mountain. The end was
in sight… sort of. The town we were going to is at the base of that plateau.
It was too muddy to take a short cut so we kept to
the trail.
We ended up finding this fruit…
I have no clue what the name is but we ate them and
damn were they good!
Then we hiked on till we got into town!
I only had
one mishap… trying to cross this river
I slipped and almost tipped right in but I caught
myself and really only got my had wet. I was sure that I was going to crack my
head open on a rock but I didn’t! lucky for me!
We went to one of Zak’s friend’s places and had a
small tasty meal.
It was perfect after the hike. Then we chilled and had tea
before starting the trek home.
Now the town we ended up in is super tiny and what’s
called a dead end town to taxi’s are tough.
We started on the right and hiked through the middle to the left... and I was talking to my mum when I took this screen cap
So it was more of a friend of a
friend was going our way. We hopped in then got out at a bigger town, the
driver was going to have a drink with a friend so he let us out there. then we
spent ages waiting for another taxi heading to Azrou. We grabbed a coffee and
still had time to kill before we found a taxi. And I’ll be honest it was a
scary ride for the first part. There were four people in the front seat, two in
the passenger seat and two in the driver seat! Not to mention 5 of us in the
back seat! It was fucking crazy but we made it back safe and sound to Azrou.
I turned in early that night because I wanted to
message my friends and my mum. You know let them know I hiked all day and that
it was crazy and amazing and much fun! The next day I would be off to Fez! And from
there I would figure out my last 6 days in Morrocco because my host in Chefchaouen
cancelled on me because of a family emergency… so I figured I’d save that for
another trip.
When I got up the next morning Zak wasn’t feeling
well. He’d been throwing up all morning. So I decided to head to the bus in the
early afternoon. He was nice enough to walk me there and help me get the right
ticket. It cost me about $4 on the local bus to get to Fez. And oh man were my
last 6 days in Morocco a mess! But a fun mess I suppose.
Cheers,
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