Trip to Tan-Tan

Mission: Get past the High Atlas and Anti-Atlas Mountains and see the Sahara Desert. Our final destination as we drove out of Mirleft: Tan-Tan Beach (aka Tan-Tan Plage). Here's a map to help orient you: (If you click on the map it should take you to a website with a larger version of this same map.)

My home base here in the south of Morocco is Mirleft, which is on the coast south of Tiznit and north of Sidi Ifni. The drive to Tan-Tan from Mirleft takes about 6 hours on a  two-lane highway that runs through Guelmime and a lot of mountains and desert.

In and around Mirleft, the only camels you see are those for tourists on the beaches. Ironically, as we drove out of Mirleft, we passed by a guy riding a camel!

[I will insert video of this later, when I have access to faster internet speeds]

Throughout this southern part of Morocco, and specifically the region known as the Sous Valley, pride in their Berber heritage and culture is particularly strong. There is a real sense that the people of Morocco  want to fully claim their Berber roots and protect their indigenous customs. I found some graffiti on a rural building in the Sous Valley that we passed on our way from Mirleft to Guelmime. Ironically, it is written in French (the colonial language of Morocco). The symbol stands for Amazigh (which is Berber word for "Berber", although it literally means "free man") and is intended to represent a man with his fists raised as a sign of defiance and dignity. Here is the picture of the graffiti:

The spectacular High Atlas mountains are remote and living there is tough. They are really in a desert climate (in terms of rainfall), but they appear green because of the brush and argan trees there. Here is a picture that illustrates the countryside between Mirleft and Guelmime. I love the home nestled at the base:

After about an hour and a half on a winding, mountainous, 2-lane "highway" that was sometimes blocked by herds of goats, we arrived in Guelmime. This is the first city where I really felt a Saharawi presence. Morocco is still at war with the Polisario over territorial claims to the Western Sahara. The people of the Western Sahara call themselves Sahrawi. Although Guelmime is still in Morocco proper, there are many people who live there who are Sahrawi. They speak their own dialect of Arabic, different from the Moroccan dialect known as derriga, they dress differently, and they tend to resent northern Moroccans. Nonetheless, we stopped at a café for breakfast and toured the marketplace in Guelmime. Here is a picture of Guelmime from the rooftop of the café, notice the old buildings surrounded by newer ones, and the mountains in the distance:

In this picture (above), the white that you see on the side of the mountain are white rocks that have been placed there in the sign of the royal crest with the Arabic words of the Moroccan national motto "Allah, Wattan, Malik" ("God, Nation, King") under the crest. This type of display can be seen on many hillsides and mountainsides across Morocco.

As we toured the market in Guelmime, my son tried on a local headdress and decided to buy it for our trek into the desert. In the background, you can see the traditional blue and brown gowns that men wear in the Sahara regions:

As we headed out of Guelmime and away from the mountains towards Tan-Tan, the landscape was decidedly more desert-like. I have a comment here about the weather: (silly me) I thought it would be hot, hot, hot. As an Oklahoma girl, it takes a lot to convince me its hot. However, this part of the desert is close enough to the ocean, that the winds were cool and there was fog hanging in the air much of the day. Not really my idea of hot. I needed a light sweater to keep away the chill. However, the landscape was definitely desert-like. Notice how much more sparse the land is:

We finally saw dunes about 60 km north of Tan-Tan:

About 30 km north of Tan-Tan, we came upon this abandoned kasbah or fort at Tafnidilt. A brief internet search has informed me the French were the last to use this site as an outpost overlooking the valley beyond. I wish we had had time to go all the way up to this kasbah on foot --- it would have been interesting to explore:

Finally, we reached Tan-Tan. Really, Tan-Tan is a modern town of commerce and industry. There was no history there to see. Everything was pretty modern and sterile. However, the camels at the entrance to the city were emblematic of all the dromedary camels we would see throughout the day:

The only really interesting thing about Tan-Tan is that is was the gathering point for the Marche Verte in 1975. Looking at this desolate land, the gateway to the Sahara, I cannot imagine millions of poor, hungry, and tired Moroccans marching from this town into the desert. Yikes. (Consult the link if you want to know more.)

So, we quickly left Tan-Tan and headed 30 km west towards the coast to Tan-Tan beach. Here is the view from that road, notice how flat and dry:

And here is a view of the beach at Tan-Tan:

As far as beaches go, I suppose this one is nice enough. But, after the spectacular beaches near Kénitra and around Mirleft, this beach is a bit over-crowded and basic. I am sure that it is wonderful for the local people to come to this beach and have a good time with their families, but for tourists or for adventurers, this beach is a bit disappointing. The best news about this beach? I can say I've been there and it is the farthest south I have been in Morocco.

We did have a moment of humor as we passed this campsite: (Notice the "No Camping" sign...)

Having traveled for hours, we were ready for lunch, so we went into the center of Tan-Tan Beach and did what Moroccans do to make sure their meal is fresh and sanitary: We went to the butcher shop. If you buy your meat direct from a butcher, you can take it to a nearby restaurant and have then cook it for you on a barbecue grill. So, first stop: Butcher Shop. I wanted ground beef, but we saw the dromedary head and legs hanging at the entrance to the butcher shop:

My son Khalil doing his best to look like the dromedary camel.

This was my second sighting of camel at a butcher shop (see my blog posting about Fès). The guys just couldn't resist: They had to taste camel. So, we bought ground beef and a bit of camel and then set off to look for a place to eat. Right near the butcher's shop there was a series of small "restaurants" with indoor and outdoor seating. Honestly, none of them would pass the Health Department inspection back home, but the men running the barbecue pits in front of each establishment were friendly and persuasive. They could tell we weren't Moroccan so they spoke to us in a broad mix of languages: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, and Arabic. Indeed, this region of Morocco once was a colony of Spain and indications of Spanish influence were everywhere. Here is a sign in front of one of the restaurants, the name of the restaurant is in French (Chez Saïda) but the message "sin comande" (meaning you can eat right away, you don't have to order ahead) is in Spanish:

We finally decided on what appeared to be the cleanest place to eat and we chose to eat inside, in an upstairs loft area. I liked the view from the window, with a perspective of Tan-Tan Beach as a town with the ocean in the distance:

As soon as all the meat was grilled, we ate it with fresh salad and soda. Here's the camel meat on a plate, which the guys traveling with me ate and I did not eat (I was happy with my ground beef):

They tell me it was chewy but delicious. I'm taking their word for it. When we met all the dromedary camels later on, I was glad I hadn't eaten one.

So, after eating lunch and stopping to mail a postcard to the Fund for Teachers, we headed back on the road towards Tan-Tan. Along the way, we came across a herd of dromedary camels. I thing there were easily 50 camels in the heard. Of course, we stopped for pictures and got to meat the herder:

The herder was not Berber, unlike so many people I have met in the south of Morocco. He was Arab and he spoke Hassaniya, a dialect of Arabic spoken by Sahrawi people. This dialect is very difficult for other Arabic-speakers to understand, even Moroccans. However, we were able to communicate a bit. We asked the camel herder how many camels were in his herd. He said he didn't know how to count, but we weren't sure if this meant that he literally did not know how to count (not good if you're a herder!) or if he was speaking figuratively and meant that he wouldn't know where to begin counting. No matter. He was friendly and answered our questions. He wouldn't let us ride his camel, though, because he said his camel was mean. It was quite an experience, even though I felt like a very annoying tourist.

As we passed back through Tan-Tan, I was able to capture this picture of a woman in her traditional Sahrawi clothing. What she is wearing is called a malahfa. It is a long, wide length of brightly colored cloth that women drape around themselves. The last yard and a half or so of the cloth serves as both a head scarf and a face covering. I have seen women holding the cloth across their face out of modesty. I have also seen them holding the cloth in their teeth to cover part of their face when their hands are full. Moroccan women do not traditionally wear this type of cloth, but the further south we have gone, the more women I have seen dressed in a malahfa. Moroccan women, like Moroccan men, will traditionally wear a djelleba when they go out in public.

As we headed out of town, we passed back by the dromedary camel statues, but this time the flags were up:

On the road from Tan-Tan back to Guelmime, we passed by this beautiful marabout's shrine. Marabout's are a quirk in North African islamic practice. Islam doesn't have saints, but in North Africa they have saints and they call them marabouts. A marabout's shrine honors a man buried there who was considered a great scholar of Islam or a blessing to his people. There are confraternities that maintain the marabout sites, hold festivals for the marabout, and often perpetuate the marabout's teaching. People travel to visit marabouts' shrines, often to have special prayers answered or to receive some kind of blessing or healing. This is a simple marabout's shrine, some are much more complex:

As we passed through Guelmime, we found the camel market --- the one site for which Guelmime is known. All the guide books mention the camel market in Guelmime. When we had passed through in the morning, the market was closed. But as we came back through later in the day, the camel bartering and sales were in full swing, so we stopped to watch:

[I will post video here once I get where I have better internet service.]

The market was really one big corral:

There were about 60 dromedary camels there for sale. Men wandered among the camels while yelling out  to the auctioneer and young guys would then chase down the camel up for sale (yes, one camel at a time --- not easy at all!): 

Once a camel was sold, a group of young men would chase it down, grab it by the tail, wrestle it to the ground, and then hobble it by tying a rope front a front leg to a back leg. This was completely insane to watch! Here are two hobbled baby camels:

Here is a picture of the three young men traveling with me. From left to right: Rachid (a young Berber man who lives in a village outside Tiznit, is studying Chemistry at the university in Agadir, and who speaks Berber, Arabic, French, and English to varying degrees), my son Khalil, and his cousin/my nephew Aiman (who just graduated high school and speaks Arabic, Berber, and French):

The camel market was interesting. It reminded me of the Stockyards in Oklahoma City without all the pens. However, we decided to leave when we had the sad experience of seeing a young camel get his leg broken when they were trying to run him down to hobble him. It was sad to see. 

As we drove out of town, we rode behind this truck. The camel was about as big as the truck. The picture says it all.:

We made it to Sidi Ifni before sundown. We've visited the beach at Sidi Ifni and driven through this town before, but on our way back to Mirleft, we stopped to have a look around. Sidi Ifni used to be a Spanish town, so a lot of the homes and buildings look like they could be in Spain, probably built between the 1920's and the 1950's. Here is a picture of what appears to be an abandoned hotel, just overlooking one of the beaches in Sidi Ifni. Notice the sign in front. It says "Hotel Restaurant Suerte Loca" and points down the road a bit:

We followed that sign to a terrace overlooking this view of the Atlantic Ocean:

There was also this lighthouse, in a Moorish/Spanish style:

My favorite thing: This great picture I took of a cat lounging outside the lighthouse ---

Moroccan cats live in the streets and are very wary of people. They tend to be very sickly and skinny. This one was very healthy and fit --- surely because of all the fish in the area. He was not an easy subject and refused to look my way for the longest time. I love how he is dominating the fish!