There's not really anything we wanted to see in Guelmim, but they have a big Marjane grocery store and we needed to stock up.
As we climbed in elevation, we made our way out of the fog bank.
Mosque at Sidi Ifni.
The coastal town of Sidi Ifni.
Climbing up through the fog.
Donkeys on the road.
And still a haze in the air.
We think we've figured out that the haze has been a combination of fog at the coast and desert dust from the Sahara. Normally, the desert dust haze shows up as kind of brownish, but combined with the fog, it's been more grey.
Either way, we're tired of it, and hoping that it will be better at higher elevations.
Yet another donkey on the road.
Entrance to the city of Guelmim.
Can't for the life of me figure out why anybody lives here. Yet almost 200,000 people do. For tourists, the only attraction is the weekly camel market that takes place on Saturdays. Apparently a lot of motorhomes and campervans hang out at a dusty parking lot outside of the camel market. Originally, I planned on heading there for the night, but then thought we could do better.
There are a couple of campgrounds outside of Guelmim, but they didn't get good reviews, and the reviews said the electricity was no good. The main reason we've been going to campgrounds is for the electricity so that we don't have to use our propane. Secondary is that wild camping is technically illegal in Morocco, however it is obviously done anyhow in some areas where it's not enforced. We figure we are fine up in the mountains and away from the coast.
Some kind of major project, with three cranes.
The suburbs of Guelmim.
We drove right through the main part of the city.
At the big Marjane store, located on the outskirts of the other side, you would think it was a motorhome dealership based on the number of campers in the parking lot. They aren't allowed to stay there overnight... they were all there shopping.
Canadian maple syrup!
I always think it's funny to see Canadian maple syrup for sale in some of these middle of nowhere type places that we visit. In this case, 120 dirhams is $15.65 CAD, or $11.55 USD. For a 250 ml bottle! That's the equivalent of $62.60 CAD per liter. For comparison, we normally pay about $13 a liter in Canada.
Just happened to notice... Walmart Canada has it on sale... for the equivalent of $11.10 a liter!
All stocked up, we decided to head into the mountains for a night of wild camping (boondocking).
Exiting the city of Guelmim.
Camels!
Another camel.
Kids all dressed up.
They kids always stare and wave at us.
Scenery along the way.
Some kind of old ruins.
We stared the day at sea level, and ended it at 1,125 meters (3,700').
Max, at GPS 29.295.69, -9.440308
I climbed the hill behind us to get a better view.
Notice the blue sky and sunshine!
Looking back at the road we came up on.
Looking down on Max.
No cell signal at that location, but we're fine for a night without internet.
Today, we are driving to the town of Tafraoute, where there should be enough hiking and exploring to keep us busy for a few days.
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Record low deal on the Shark Hydro-Vac Cordless 3-in-1.
And in Canada...
The city didn't look very scenic, but glad you were able to stock up on groceries. I am not sure how comfortable I'd be camping that isolated with no cell signal and very visible from the road. We did boondock in some fairly remote national forest campgrounds in the US, but always felt pretty safe since they were actual campgrounds and off the road, back in the trees. Hope you had a good sleep!
ReplyDeleteNo, the city definitely wasn't very scenic at all, although we did see a few parks with lots of green grass which surprised us. We decided that if we were going to stay someone free it was not going to be in the city, we wanted something in the mountains where the air was clear and the scenery prettier than the city.
DeleteWe actually felt totally safe where we were, the road isn't a well traveled road and how we were situated we weren't really well seen from the road, especially at night. Morocco is considered a safe country overall and we weren't worried. I am the first one to feel nervous and won't sleep well but I had no problems going to sleep but the wind picked up throughout the night and that is what caused us to not have a very good night's sleep, it was really howling out there!