Some Scenic Drives

We have spent some hardcore bus time here in Morocco. In three of the last four days, we’ve spent over 29 hours traveling and sightseeing by bus and have covered a few hundred miles of all kinds of terrain: plains, hills, mountains, farmlands and deserts. To be fair, we do stop often to see the sights, but with the exception of our day in the Sahara, it’s been bus, bus and more bus. 

The upshot is that Morocco is a beautiful country and we’ve gotten to see some absolutely amazing, unforgettable sights.  I always envisioned Morocco as being all dirt, rocks and sand, but it is so much more!  Who knew????  Here are some of the highlights from our bus journeys. I’ll do my best to remember what these places were called, but I had to take so much meclizine to avoid getting carsick on the curvy mountain roads, I was practically in a drug-induced coma and it’s nothing short of a miracle that I could point my iPhone in the right direction and tap the button, let alone remember where I was.

Behold the beauty of Morocco!!!!!!!

Somewhere between Fez and Erfoud:

Farmland.  Morocco actually produces many fruits and vegetables including watermelons, apples, citrus fruits of all sorts, dates and wheat to name but a few.

The town of Irfane, a ski resort town

In India, you have cows in the road.  In Morocco, you have sheep.

In both counties you have these little buggers. 

Ziz Valley and Ziz River

Somewhere in the Middle Atlas Mountains

Date palms

Somewhere between Erfoud and Ouarzazate. 

On the way into the Todgha Canyons.  This reminded me so much of Arizona!

And these are the Todgha Canyons.  Absolutely magnificent!

I’m not sure I’d sleep well at night if I lived in any of these houses.  I’d be afraid of waking up with a bolder as a bedfellow.

And last but not least, these are a few photos of the High Atlas Mountains.  This is all I saw so I don’t know if it’s really representative of what it looks like up there.  I spent all five hours in the Atlas Mountains today with my eyes closed because the roads were so curvy that if I tried to look around at all, even with a double dose of meclizine on board, I started to feel instantly queasy.  Mom, too.  I was only able to look around and take photos during our brief rest stops.  Let’s just say that today’s bus ride makes the drive to Sea Ranch look like a cakewalk.

So there you have it.  Surprisingly beautiful, isn’t it?  Now we’ll have a couple of days in the city before heading out again.  Tomorrow we’ll be on the bus for only a few minutes here and there, but mostly we’ll be doing walking tours.  I know I’m going to break into a happy dance just as soon as my meclizine wears off. 😜