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Monday, March 6, 2023

Made it to Marrakech

We had such a peaceful night parked in the foothills of the High Atlas Mountains. Total peace and quiet. Such a difference compared to the busy campground we had been in the night before.

We haven't been doing much wild camping because it's difficult to fill European propane tanks here in Morocco. So we've been relying on electricity at campgrounds so that we don't have to worry about our propane supply.

But we're past the halfway mark on our trip now, and we're still on the first of our two tanks. And we know that we're staying at campgrounds the whole time our daughter Lindsey and the grandkids are here, so when they leave, we'll be able to do a lot more wild camping knowing that we'll still have enough propane to do us until we get back to Spain April 14th.

Another beautiful day!

We didn't set off until about 10:30am, because we only had about 80 kms (50 miles) to do to get to Marrakech. But most of the road was under construction, and it was pretty slow going.

Yes, that is our road!

But the scenery was still really pretty.

Ouirgane Reservoir.

Snowy peak in the High Atlas Mountains.

Scenery along the way.

The road to Marrakech.


Looking back at the High Atlas Mountains.

This village had a bunch of tourist restaurants and camel rides.

Hard to get a photo of a camel when you're driving!





Cool mural.

There's always lots of pottery for sale!
Can't figure out how they all stay in business.

This guy doesn't do pottery.

We made it into Marrakech. 

We've been to Marrakech before, in the spring of 2017. So we knew that we really wanted to avoid driving in the central area if at all possible. We also knew that Marrakech Airport is close enough to the central area, but still far enough away to avoid the worst traffic. And, we knew that you can overnight at any airport in Morocco with secure parking and it's reasonable cheap.

The traffic is still a bit nuts though. I mean, I just deal with it because I've driven in so many different countries now that not much fizzes me. You just have to drive the way they do!

Anyhow, we got ourselves parked up at the airport. There was no need for us to be there, other than a place to sleep as we were passing through. It was directly on our route, and we wanted to stop at a big Carrefour superstore to stock up the next day.

And, it was only a short 3 kms walk to the popular Menara Gardens Park. So we walked over there for a couple of hours.

Marrakech is very touristy.
You can get a camel ride almost anywhere!

Menara Gardens Park has a huge olive orchard, and the locals simply pick a tree and have a picnic in the shade of the tree!



There's also a huge man made pond.

It's pretty brown colored, and there are fish in it.
Lots of people feeding the fish with bread crumbs.

It was actually pretty warm. One of our warmest days yet, at about 27C (81F). But you still see the locals all bundled up. I guess when it goes to 40C (104F) on a regular basis in the summer, this is still cool.

The Menara Pavilion.

They wanted 30 dirham ($4 CAD, $2.90 USD) to go inside, but we didn't see the value.

Lots of people out enjoying the day.

And then we walked back to the airport. Probably did about 8 kms (5 miles). 

Marrakech Airport is really nice.

And that was that. There were three or four other vans parked as well. It's actually really convenient for secure parking because you can take the local bus into the center from here and it's only about 5 kms (3 miles) each way. We'll probably do exactly that when we return to Marrakech with Lindsey and the kids later this month.

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And in Canada...

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