Moroccan memories

As a tourist, any Moroccan you meet will tell you that Morocco has everything you could want from a country. After spending almost three months there we found that to be broadly true. Here is a condensed collection of our thoughts from our time there.

Note: we started this blog post whilst in Morocco but travelling across the Sahara resulted in us having little energy or mental space to finish it. Due to it being written on a piecemeal basis there may be some rogue memories, errors or inconsistencies.

Friendly people

The most vivid and heart-warming memories are of the people. They really made our journey through Morocco - every day we experienced immense kindness and hospitality. In addition to the countless ‘hellos’, waves and smiles, people have invited us into their homes to eat and stay the night, and stopped us on the road to give us food, water and offer us lifts. We just cannot name all of them nor say thank you enough to the people who have taken us in as strangers.

Quiet roads

There were endless opportunities for us to explore small roads and villages. At the start of this trip we were on a mission to head southwards as soon as possible which mostly involved cycling on larger roads. As soon as we slowed down we started meandering through small villages and along mountain tracks that gave us a much more in-depth view of the country.

Diverse landscapes

We’ve often heard people say that Morocco has everything: desert, mountains, beaches, forests, sunshine and snow. Having explored it fairly extensively, it’s hard to disagree. We’ve seen a good dose of each!

Climbing up through the forest to reach the high plateau, a rocky landscape unlike anything we have experienced before. The striking views distracted us from the sticky mud that clogged our mudguards and slowed our progress.

The endless desert through the Sahara was quite an experience.

Food and atay

Food and drink is so central to Moroccan culture. Cafés line the streets and you can find them in really remote places too, often filled with customers - mostly male as women tend to meet and socialise at home. Stalls sell bread, a spicy soup called harira and there are delicious donuts called sfinj too. Tagines are a go-to and you know you’ll get a good helping!

In some of our accommodation we were offered (amazing) homemade food too as well as being invited into homes to share food. The food opportunities changed during our stay as Ramadan took place while we were in Morocco.

Oh and we ate many, many msemen (a sort of square pancake), which literally translates to The Fattener. Beck even tried her hand at making some.

Tea (atay) is so central to the culture of Morocco and from the very first sip of minty, super sweet tea in Nador to the bitter wormwood herb infusion we have loved relaxing over a hot drink and sharing it with others.

Markets, or Souks, are a highlight of the week and are bustling with stalls selling bread, meat, eggs, herbs and vegetables. People travel from all over to buy and sell their wares. The sights, smells and noises are intense.

There are hundreds of independent shops lining the streets, butchers, grocers, cafes, stationary and printing shops, bakers, pharmacies and convenience stores.

One sound etched on to our organs or corti is that from the chicken shops. No, not a fried chicken place but a place where you go to pick a live chicken from a cage. This is then killed, tossed in a plucking machine and butchered in plain sight. It’s a visceral experience. This connection to the animal on your plate is the norm in Morocco. It feels as if this has to led to a healthier relationship and understanding of where meat comes from than picking up a packet of protein that bears no relation to an animal, as is the norm in the UK. It can be quite difficult viewing (and listening) at times. We chose not to post the photo of the goat head and legs left on a wall outside a roadside Saharan café. If you were eating goat there, you could be in no doubt where that meat had come from.

Resourcefulness

As well as the independent shops, many makers and menders occupy spaces in towns. Whatever job there is to be done, people are doing it. People repair clothes and shoes, shape wood, weld metals, fix vehicles, white goods, furniture, and just about anything else you can imagine. It was inspiring to see how many extra lives stuff gets in Morocco, way beyond what would end up at the civic amenity sites in the UK.

Architecture

Typical buildings in the larger towns and cities are made of concrete blocks and then rendered and painted. Due to financial constraints, improvements and expansions were often made in small stages, rather than all in one go. This led to a lot of buildings appearing part finished, but our reading suggests that this is standard practice so that future expansions can be easily tied in to the existing building when funds allow.

Often inside the buildings, they were very plain and with little furniture. Rooms could be transformed into whatever the family needed, either by bringing in chairs and tables for mealtimes or by laying down blankets for sleeping.

Schools and mosques were very visible in every community. They were often far better looked after than other buildings. Mosques stood tall with their minarets and the schools were always painted bright colours or decorated with art or cartoons.

Amazing tiling, metalwork and woodwork were also a regular feature.

Outside of the towns there was a real variety of buildings made from local materials.

Vehicles

Mercedes rule the roost! Vehicles have left Europe and arrive on the African continent to continue their lives. Few of them would pass an MOT but seem to do the job nicely. Taxis are common and come in many forms as most people don’t own a private car. Men often have mopeds which are good for both the paved and unpaved roads of Morocco, and are very efficient for short journeys.

Vehicles drawn by animals are commonplace in Morocco.

As are people just wheeling barrows or food sale carts down the road.

The challenge is to squeeze as much stuff into a vehicle as you possibly can. It may be goods, livestock or people. The overloading applies to all types of vehicle, bicycles too. Quaxing is alive and well in Morocco!

Driving standards (and infrastructure)

This was an interesting aspect for us as long term cycling advocates in the UK. With a few exceptions (like the often excellent stretches in parts of Agadir) Morocco lacked anything much in the way of cycling infrastructure where we went. While Morocco doesn’t publish directly comparable statistics (or any using the more helpful, per kilometre, measure) it is clear that we were significantly more at risk of serious injury or death on Moroccan roads than in the UK. The approach also took a bit of getting used to. On intercity or rural roads this would generally involve us keeping eyes and ears open for a possible overlap of passing vehicles - or one vehicle overtaking another as the first one overtook us? Often the vehicle behind would beep to make us aware of its presence. This felt sketchy, at best, and felt even less safe during inclement weather or on the rare occasions we ended up cycling in the dark.

Towns and cities were a different beast. They had a sort of chaotic charm but you had to have your wits about you. Especially on our less than nimble loaded touring bikes. Everyone was thrown together. Whether self-powering, being drawn by an animal, or by an internal combustion engine. As a result, people weren’t generally going anywhere very fast and—anecdotally—people seemed to be paying more attention, with far fewer lorry drivers looking at their phones than on the bigger highways. Junctions were often a free-for-all. Everyone just feeling their way through. Though less chaotic than we’ve seen on our travels since - even traffic lights seem to bear little consequence in Mauritania.

What was interesting to us was that despite the objectively greater threat the perceived risk often felt less than on roads in our former patch in Worcestershire. We experienced one person in three months who seemed to have an issue with our simply being on a bike, whereas this was pretty commonplace back home. Close passes were few, aside from those when vehicles coincided and we weren’t paying attention (note: this is not victim blaming…those passes shouldn’t be a thing!) but what seemed wholly lacking was any sort of culture war, or wilfully dangerous, aggressive or punishment driving.

Accessibility

Walking and wheeling in Worcestershire has opened our eyes to accessibility issues. We are no experts but whilst wheeling our bikes around the towns and cities, it has been very obvious that the infrastructure is not up to scratch for those with disabilities. Kerbs can be as high as my knee and there are no dropped kerbs for miles (that’s even if there’s a pavement in the first place).

We did see some accessible infrastructure outside of Nador, but I’m not certain how those using a wheelchair are expected to get over that ditch…

Poverty

I hadn’t been prepared for the level of poverty here. In the Middle Atlas, the Berber people were living in extremely remote areas in shelters made from tarpaulins and white plastic. Rugs formed roofs and anything that could waterproof a dwelling was used. Having nothing, we rode past families sat along the verges of tourist routes begging for money. With snow and wind in the forecast, it looked like a tough life.

As we experienced more cities and larger towns, the inequality within Morocco was plain to see. Beside towns and large buildings, people were living in tents without any facilities.

We don’t profess to have an in-depth understanding of these issues in the countries—many and varied—we pass through, but we certainly consider this sets out a strong case for why striving for greater equality is good for everybody.

Litter

As soon as we disembarked the ferry we noticed how much litter was around. Along the sides of roads, plastic litter made up of bags, bottles and used nappies are dumped, scattered and blown. Even in protected areas, there are fly-tips and piles of rubbish.

Waterways are swamped with plastic too. Whilst I was waiting outside a shop for Sam to get some groceries, I watched a man with a wheelbarrow trundle up to the bridge and throw two large plastic sacks into the river below. In plain sight. We also spoke to a shopkeeper in a town who laughed when we said we didn’t need a bag because we had our rucksack. He exclaimed “Europeans always say ‘no’ to these plastic bags but the locals are always clamouring for them!”

Plastic made up the bulk of the waste, with clothes and broken glass also common. Other items seem to be widely repurposed. Tyres are used to make steps, containers and posts, metal work is incorporated into buildings or shaped and welded for other uses, scraps of wood and tiles are used to make patchwork surfaces.

It is plastic that litters the landscape. Reading up on this we learnt that although the use of plastic has boomed, there is no real residential waste system and no way to recycle or safely dispose of it. Even though people keep their own homes very clean, there seems to be a lack of personal responsibility felt for keeping the public realm tidy, so litter is left in the streets.

Another feature—despite Morocco being a mostly alcohol free space—was the hundreds of smashed Heineken bottles along the roadside. It’s something that we have to watch out for when leaving the road to avoid oncoming traffic. Again, even the more remote spots and viewpoints are glistening with broken glass.

Health and safety (or lack thereof)

It’s fair to say that health and safety was not up to European standards. We saw children, people and goods stuffed into vans and onto lorries in ever more experimental ways.

Roads continue to be open even when the entire road surface is being replaced and there are no cones in sight when the edge of the road disappears. Some painted white rocks are often found to mark the edge of roadworks, or maybe a makeshift flag or a person trying to guide you through.

Although seeing teetering hay lorries, makeshift scaffolding or a poorly marked hazards may be a cause for some amusement in the moment, we are big fans of health and safety. Yearly workplace deaths are about 16x higher in Morocco than the UK, with a fatal accident rate 125x higher. This should be viewed as a form of exploitation. What exactly are people calling for when they use the phrase “health and safety gone mad?”

Surveillance…?

The Moroccan government does, however, appear to take the safety of tourists very seriously. Following the murder of two Scandinavian tourists in the Atlas Mountains in 2018 the police (national and local) as well as local ’neighbourhood scouts’ keep a close eye on travellers through the country. We first experienced this in northern Morocco when we were followed by an unmarked vehicle for around 30km, from the small town of Saka. After passing through a police checkpoint just outside the town, we noticed a car driving really slowly behind us. Thinking that it was just having difficulty overtaking us on a fast road we pulled over to let it by but it just stopped behind us and waited for us to set off again. We tried to talk to the guy to work out what was going on but they weren’t up for a chat so we just continued in this manner. It only came to a conclusion when we arrived at a roundabout near Guercif and passed another police checkpoint that the driver continued all the way round the roundabout and returned from where we had come, letting us continue our ride in peace. Just imagine how slowly he was having to drive to stay behind us :)

We were also more obviously ‘tracked’ whilst cycling south through the desert. To protect fisheries and stop the landing of boats smuggling people and contraband, there are small military huts equally spaced along the coast. We could see the personnel come out to see us, enter the hut to make a call that we’d passed, and then come back out to continue their surveillance. Throughout the night the military walked up and down the coast with torches, communicating with each other and looking out for any activity.

We were also checked on by police when we stayed at petrol stations. They didn’t disturb us but drove by and spoke to the owners, all of whom we had spoken to and asked permission from.

We have mixed feelings about this situation. We certainly felt that if there was a problem and we needed assistance, it would be there for us. The flip-side is that you’re quite aware that you’re constantly being monitored.

Dogs and cats

There are so many dogs around, both guard dogs and strays. We’ve had a couple of closer-than-we’d-like encounters with dogs protecting property and livestock. Barking, snarling and chasing us down! We were always able to diffuse or distract but it was still sometimes pretty scary. Actually, Sam fell off once when charged at. Luckily the commotion scared the dog off, rather than offering some easy floored prey.

Stray dogs are far more timid and run away from you. They are sorry creatures and wander the streets looking for food alongside the stray cats and kittens that hover around your feet in a restaurant.

Not forgetting the two puppies that were born during our last night in Morocco at the border town of Guergerat.

Despite official claims to the contrary, animal welfare groups have highlighted a significant increase in the culling of stray dogs since Morocco was announced as co-hosts for the 2030 Football World Cup. It is suggested that they plan to cull around three million dogs ahead of the games.

To finish

Morocco is definitely somewhere we look forward to returning to in the future. It was both exciting and initially a bit hard to get a handle on, from our perspective as Brits that haven’t experienced many other cultures firsthand (though we are working on it!). When we were in Spain it felt as though many of our yardsticks still applied but things immediately shifted into more unknown territory as we arrived in Nador. Whether it was the driving (and vehicle) standards, the food, or the call to prayer, many things were immediately unfamiliar. It took us a few days to settle into this but our apprehension all seems quite amusing now, reflecting on our onward travel.

Either way, we had a fantastic time. The riding was great, the varied landscapes, food, sounds and architecture too. But, as is often the case, the kindness of the people really made it for us. Here are some more photos of the people we met along the way.