Morocco (2026)

Overnight stops (in date order): Tangier (x4); Tetouan; near Dchar Amjaf; Fes (x2); Azrou (x2); Zabzat; Achbaro; Merzouga (x3); Tinghir; Agoudal; Boumaine Dades; Ait Benhaddou (x2); Agdz; Zagora; Tazenakht; Taroudant (x2); Taghazout Bay (x5)

From the ferry port, we drove 50km to Tangier city

for a four-night stay – just outside the Medina; with its colourful warren of streets

and lively markets

where absolutely nothing goes to waste (vegetarians look away!).

Because of its location and good harbour, Tangier has a long history – and has been much fought over. The Phoenicians buried their dead in tombs cut into the cliffs just outside their town wall.

Tingis was an important Greek town, linked in mythology to Hercules, and then a Roman provincial capital.

From the 8^th Century, Muslims controlled the city which had close links to Moorish Spain.  For 200 years the Portuguese and Spanish occupied the town,

until it was given to Britain as part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza when she married Charles II.  The Muslims took it back 20 years later and built the Kasbah and other fortifications.

The city’s lively history has continued in more recent times. It has the oldest American diplomatic legation,

was a fashionable place to hang-out in the 20s

and again, and more dissolutely, in the 60s and 70s.

It is also home to a lot of cats.

We took the opportunity to rest

and plan

before continuing south slowly  (spending a couple of nights on the road)

to Fes,

where we rented an apartment for a couple of days.

The ancient, walled Medina is a Unesco World Heritage site and claims to be the largest car-free urban area in the world.  The city has changed little since we were last there 38 Years ago (stripey jumpers were fashionable back then).

There are just a lot more tourists and many fewer donkeys

and mules.

The ancient Chouara tannery smells just as bad,

artisans still ply their traditional trades,

the centuries-old madrasahs,

university,

mosques

and caravanserai

are as beautiful; and it is impossible not to get lost when exploring the Medina.

60 miles south of Fes, Azrou is known for its cedar forests

and barbary macaques (last seen in Gibraltar).

Continuing south,

there was still a little snow on the sheltered slopes of the Middle Atlas range

and more on the distant peaks of the High Atlas.

We camped behind a service station near Zabzat

where Danielle gave Malika, the restaurant owner and a local magistrate,

a tour of the vehicle.

The country became progressively drier as we approached the edge of the Sahara.

However, where we camped at Achbaro,

a sudden flood two years ago had washed away the road, cutting off the village across the river.

Majid, the owner of the gite where we camped guided me on a walk through the nearby villages.

and into the gorge.

We stopped for breakfast at the camp of a nomadic Berber family.

At Merzouga, we were in the desert proper.

.

We accepted Yusuf’s offer of following his 4×4 on a tour of the nearby sites.

On our vehicle’s first off-road experience,

we visited the seasonal lake

with its flamingos,

the now deserted villages of colonial-era French and Portuguese prospectors

and a temporary camp of nomadic Berbers

displaced by the ongoing dispute with Algeria whose border was the distant hills.

The local mechanics helped me to reduce the pressure in the tyres

in preparation for crossing Merzouga’s famous dunes.

At >10 tons, the truck is not really designed to ‘float’ on sand like a Landrover.  However, it was solely to entertain the other ‘dune riders’ that I failed to take the correct line and got ‘bogged’.

There was no shortage of advice (mostly conflicting) on how to extricate ourselves.

Fortunately, our top-of-the range sand ladders proved their worth and we were able to escape.

Despite the excitement, the clear highlight of the day was our encounter with a newly-born camel (the nearby placenta suggested that it was no more than a few hours old).

We next moved north to Tinghir,

The water of the meandering Wadi Todgha supports an oasis in the valley

that is in striking contrast to the arid surrounds.  People have largely abandoned the mud-brick buildings of the historic centre,

for more modern houses.

Tinghir is the gateway to the Todgha Gorge

and the High Atlas Mountains.

We spent a night at Agoudal; one of the highest villages in Morocco (at 2,400 metres).

A local we met adescribed it as ‘the coldest town in Africa’. As if to prove him right, it snowed the following morning.

We took a different road back south through the Dadès gorges; ending at the ‘Monkey Fingers’ rock formations.

Aït Benhaddou, another of Morocco’s UNESCO World Heritage sites, is a fortified village on the ancient caravan route between the Sahara and Marrakesh; famed for its preserved/restored earthern clay buildings.

Far more importantly, it has been the setting for films and TV dramas- including Gladiator and Game of Thrones.  The distant peaks of the High Atlas provide a dramatic backdrop.

Nearby Ouarzazate has been dubbed the ‘Hollywood of Africa’ due to the number of its film studios.  Of more interest to us was the centuries-old synagogue.

It was the centre of a small but thriving Jewish community until the 1950s when most emigrated to Israel.  The current young custodian, whose family owns the building, describes himself as a Jewish Berber.

After a night in the grounds of a women’s cooperative,

we picked up a (second) speeding ticket

on the road to Taroudant – famed for its 7.5 km of city wall.

On a day when the temperature was close to 100°F, these were best viewed from the back of a calesh.