Another early start and we board the bus. It’s a road day today and we’ll spend the full day on the bus bound for Erfoud. We wind our way up the Middle Atlas, and pass by the small mountain village of Azrou, which translates from Berber as ‘the rock’. We stop for a break and take a picture of a stone Atlas lion ‘rock’. We reboard the bus and after 40 minutes or so stop to observe a troupe of Barbary macques that have taken up residence affording the local salesman an opportunity to proffer us with bags of peanuts and bananas with which to feed them. There are also horses available to ride. Deep unbridled joy!! We choose to do neither and just stand back and observe the antics of the quite daunting and frankly quite large macaques. Barbary macaques are unique primates that were once widespread in Europe and North Africa but are now only found in small pockets of the northern mountains, including the Middle Atlas and the Rif. Approximately 80% of the global population are found in Morocco. The hardy macaques can tolerate the freezing winters and scorching summers, and live in large matriarchal groups of around 12 to 60. Their biggest challenges come from humans with their natural habitat increasingly under threat from logging and climate change. Many young macaques are still trafficked as illegal pets every year, particularly to Europe and sadly used for the amusement of tourists in cities like Marrakech and Meknes.
We stop for lunch in the small market town of Zaida that has a reputation for great meat skewers. However, we decide to opt for a picnic lunch of bread, tuna and salad. It’s noticeable just how friendly and hospitable it is in Morocco and the man we buy our bread and tuna from offers to make our sandwich for us. Brilliant just what we needed. Zaida is a market town and there’s plenty of sights including a skinned goat and a stork next atop a bundle of straw atop a truck. I could go on but it really is a great place just to sit back and people watch.
Up here in their mountain stronghold, the fiercely independent Berbers – the Lords of the Atlas – live by their own traditions. The Berber way of life is unique and lost to most of North Africa. Music, dance, language, and religion are far removed from the rest of the Arab world. We continue into Berber sheep raising country and head towards Timadite and over the Col du Zad, before crossing the Tizi Talghemt Camel Pass and continuing via the Gorge du Ziz to Er Rachidia. We stop for a panoramic view of Ouled Chaker Oasis and to stretch our legs at the gorge.
Finally, we traverse a broad plateau past Meski Oasis, the so called ‘Blue Spring’ that borders the arid desert plains. Our last stop for today and our base for the night is the oasis town of Erfoud and gateway to the Sahara where we’re headed tomorrow.
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