I did not have a plan B

We really would have liked to have stayed one more night in the cherry orchard. Really nice folks running the place. When we left, they were trying to refine our pronunciation of some of the Arabic phrases we've been making an effort to learn... but without much success. At least we all had a good laugh about it.

We've pretty much got one sentence down pat... "Assalamu Alaikum" which directly translated means, "may peace be with you", but it's essentially used as "hello". Of course we could just say "bonjour" because 90% of the locals also speak French.

We headed out with a destination about 100 kms (62 miles) away. Of course that's about a two hour drive on the backroads of Morocco.

Typical rural farmhouse.

Typical rural village.

Rocks at the side of the road.

The piles of rocks at the side of the road are from the fields so that they can actually do some farming. We can't imagine the amount of labor involved. 

Not many vehicles on the road.

More farming rocks.

Rural Moroccan home.

Scenery along the way.

This farm looked well maintained.

The road ahead.

Outskirts of the small city of M'Rirt (pop 45,000).

M'Rirt actually looked like not a bad place.

Wide boulevards, and lots of planted trees, and definitely the cleanest Moroccan town we have driven through. We both mentioned about the lack of trash lying around. 

Wide streets in M'Rirt.

It's tough to grow stuff outside of rainy season.

Olive trees and cactus.

Scenery along the way.

Going through the town of Aguelmouss.

There was a new listing on the park4night app regarding an "agate farm" a few miles outside of 

Aguelmouss. Someone with a motorhome had stayed there for a couple of nights around January 5th, but the listing was still unconfirmed. He said that the German owner also spoke English.

Using only the GPS co-ordinates, we arrived at a small school by the road. I parked there, left Ruth to watch over Max, and walked up a laneway opposite the school to a gated archway. There were no signs, or any indication of a business.

I yelled a couple of times, but didn't get any response. I didn't hear any dogs barking, and the gate was unlocked so I went ahead in. I finally came across a guy leaning over, inspecting some agate rocks that were spread in front of him.

And yep, this was the guy, and yes, he spoke English! He's originally from Germany, but married a Moroccan lady and has been living here for years, cultivating his organic farm and searching for agate rocks. He's in the process of installing a small section for motorhomes, room for maybe five vans. It's not finished yet, but we were welcome to stay. 60 dirhams ($8 CAD, $6 USD) per night, electric included. 

I walked back down to Ruth with the good news. She asked what "plan B' was in case there was nobody around. But this was one of those rare instances where I didn't have a plan B! We're only about 200 kms (125 miles) from Casablanca airport, but we don't need to be there until Friday, and there really isn't much to see between here and there... and no campgrounds.

So, this will be a great spot to wait out the rain. Rainy season actually ended in this area in December, and our German host said it's very rare to get rain now. In fact, he still thought that it wouldn't rain. But we heard it overnight, and it's been coming down on and off all morning so far. 

But, it's supposed to blow over this evening, and back to normal blue sky and sunshine tomorrow.

Here's an updated map of our driving route since we arrived in Morocco...

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