Essouira to Taroudant

On the way back from Egypt a few weeks ago I saw an article in the Easyjet magazine singing the praised of a place called Taroudant which is in the southern part of Morocco near the Atlas mountains, and so I started to do a little research on the place. Most of the sites I went to also sang it’s praises as a sort of “Mini Marrakech” and as the place where all the smart people go when they aren’t shopping in Waitrose …. Indeed judging by what I read, I was expecting there to be a branch of Waitrose in the central square.

I did notice 1 lone comment on Tripadvisor from a man who broadly said he couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about and that the town itself had very little, if indeed anything, to offer.

I always tend to take notice these sort of lone comments, especially if they are expressed in a reasonably literate manner, and I have to say it did register with me, but I chose to ignore it and left at 10 in the morning to drive to Taroudant.

En route …. YAY!!! I finally found the cheese factory and was graciously met by the charming lady who ran the place, who immediately thrust a plateful of cheese into my hand. I have to say it was delicious, especially the goats cheese, but the place was absolutely deserted as it is not the tourist season and so there wasn’t really much going on.  I am also not quite sure I got the right place as the tripadvisor articale said there was a sort of restaurant attached which this place certainly didn’t have. However the name was the same so maybe this was just the country outpost of the main event somewhere else!

The nice lady told me the story of starting the place up with some of the local women and that it has become quite successful over the years. They sell their cheeses to the local markets, some of the local restaurants and take some occasionally to places as far away as Marrakech where they have a following too.

I moved on after about 10 minutes, and was slightly amused by the lady chasing after me and telling me, rather breathlessly, that her brother had a piece of land to sell in Essouira and did I want to buy it! I am afraid I declined.

A slight disaster struck soon after as driving quite peacefully down the road I was flagged down by a couple of police officers who told I had been caught speeding and that I would be fined Dirham 500!!

I was a little surprised by this as I was just tooling along looking at the countryside, but they were adamant that I was doing 82 in a 60Kph limit, and was hauled out of the car , told to produce my passport and driving licence and broadly sent to stand in the corner whilst they dealt with someone else who they had stopped for overloading his lorry! This could take time!

My turn soon came however and I produced 400 Dirhams which is all that I had on me and we set about the dance of …. how to retrieve most of it!!

My experience of living in the middle east many years ago had got me well trained in the art of bribing police officers and one thing I learned, and remembered luckily, is that it is bad form to bribe police office by actually doing it verbally if it can be avoided. Sort of makes the whole process once removed and no one need feel guilty or embarrassed etc!

So as the man started filling out the form I shook my head and indicated that I didn’t really need a receipt for his troubles, and slowly ‘took back’ 300 of the 400  Dirhams I had placed in the policemans hand.

He didn’t seem to object, smiled at me and indicated me to wait til the other terrible crook and criminal had driven off, before handing me back my driving licence and passport, thanking me profusely and saying what a good chap I was!

I simply walked back to the car (with a warning there was another radar group abiout 30 kms down the road) and drove off. Bad moment averted!

The drive through the mountains towards Agadir was wonderful and the motorway almost deserted and very well maintained. I enjoyed the drive, stopped for a coffee en route at a very well maintained service station high in the hills,  and in the end it took about 1 ½ hours to the Taroudant turn off.

The road degraded somewhat and once again I bounced my way along, taking in the sight of the Atlas Mountains on one side. I was also delighted to see a group of goats by an Argan tree, two of whom had climbed right up into it, as they are wont to do. I took a photo of them and carried on, rather amused to have seen what I had frankly never quite believed!

I arrive in Taroudant at about 3pm and my first impressions were not good. I asked for directions to the main square and was told I was in it! It seems rather small, rather messy and not terribly picturesque. I was immediately reminded of what the lone voice of dissent had said on Tripadvisor!

I was then pounced on and chased from pillar to post by a tout who was intent on showing me around the town, when all I really wanted to do was to sit down and have an orange juice to relax from the journey.

He gave up, but was soon replaced by another man who seemed a litte more pleasant and subtle in his approach and so I asked him for suggestions on where to stay. He took me on a wild goose chase around the rather small central area of town suggesting this Riad and that, most of which seemed rather out of the way and wildly over priced.

I took matters into my own hands in the end and walked into the Taroudant Hotel right back in the middle of the main square. It looked rather wonderful in a sort of 1950’s way, with a central row of palm trees in a courtyard (A real Palm Court) but the rooms were very basic. I was shown to a room tucked away somewhere at the back of the hotel and immediately asked whether they didn’t have anything overlooking the main square which by now was pretty full and buzzing.

Yes, but it was noisy, they replied and there was no hot water (turned out there was no hot water anywhere in the hotel) but I took it nevertheless as it was the size of a tennis court and had a wonderful evocative feel to it, painted in pink with white tiles and having 3 sets of windown, all looking out onto the main area outside. .

I felt I could be planning a trip up the Limpopo or through the Sahara (more likely as the Limpopo is not even on the same continent is it?) which is just down the road near Ouarzazate, a town I had wanted to visit but which has been badly affected by flooding (which seems strange given where it is!)

Next I was given a tour of the Souk. Well, honestly, people write about it as a sort of “Mini Marrakech” which it certainly isn’t. Marrakech’s souk is alive with activity and people who, as in Luxor, pester the life out of you, which I happen to enjoy … it puts one in touch with the real people, and rarely do you find anyone who really gives you a hard time …. This place wasn’t. No one seemed terribly interested when I looked at a pair of slippers … and so I put them down and carried on!  I was also told it was ‘much cheaper’ than Marrakech but when I saw a similar hat to the ones I had bought in Essouira for Dirhams10 I asked how much it was here and was promptly told 60!

Anyway I wandered round the souk at express speed and returned to the square for another Orange juice and a think. This place really wasn’t doing it for me!

I had heard of a road which went over the Atlas Mountains back to Marrakech which was meant to be rather beautiful and very windy. It climbed up to 2200 meters and has wonderful views over the surrounding mountains. I asked a few people about it, and they all told me that whilst it might have some snow on the far side, it was definitely open now and that it was well worth doing. I was intrigued … and really wante to get out of Taroudant as soon as possible!

I decided I would leave Taroudant the next morning and that I would return to Marrakech via the tizi n’Test pass, just for the experience. I read up about it on the web a little and was decidedly looking forward to it.

I had a last look around Taroudant which only served to confirm my impression that it really was something of a dump. It seems there is a very active gay community here  consisting of expatriate artists and decorators who seems to go around decorating each others Riads incessantly, what with I don’t know. Anyway, as I wasn’t likely to be included in anything remotely interesting on that front I returned to my hotel room, put as many blankets as I could find on the bed, as it was absolutely freezing, and slept like a log!