Morocco- Sidi Rbat, Tiznit and Mirhleft

We stayed at the small coastal fishing village of Tifnit for 2 nights mainly relaxing.  We had a short walk along the beach to town, but didn't venture in as it didn't look inviting.  We were approached by a man who invited us to his restaurant and were also offered camel rides back to the van (a distance of about 200m) for 10 dirhams each.

We drove south to Sidi Rbat hoping to visit the National park there.  It is by guide only (according to the guides) so we declined and continued to the other side of the rivermouth.  We got to the campsite there and reassesed.  Being our first rainy day we didn't feel up to a walk, so continued on to a dammed lake called Youssef Ben.    The most interesting thing of note that day was our drive to the lake.  In hindsight we should have returned to the main road the way we had come in, but we turned right (as directed to by the sat nav) and passed through several villages.  Then came the problem of turning left to get back to the main road.  The sat navs suggestion didn't match the roads and our map wasn't detailed enough so after trying three different roads, we continued on one that turned into a rocky off road track.  We bumped and jolted along for what felt like about 10 kms and eventually made it to the N1 again.  We were bumped around again when getting on the N1 as there was a big lip to get over due to the height of the N1 road compared to the dirt track.  The lake was nice and somewhat a rarity in this part of Morocco (it's very dry).

On the way to the National park

A kingfisher

Off roading- not by choice!

Youssef Ben lake

We made it to Tiznit that night and checked into the municipal campsite which is located just outside the city walls and is a short walk to town.  This was the busiest campsite we have been in so far and there was probably about 150 motorhomes there.  Unfortunately we stuck out as we were a good 20-30 years younger than the other campers.  One afternoon we were sitting in the wifi room and a man who worked at the campsite spoke to us in French.  Luckily our neighbour was sitting next to us and translated that the man was asking if we were staying at the campsite!  Conveniently our neighbour was able to explain that he was camping next to us.

The campsite entrance

We also met an English couple Diane and Colin who are spending a few weeks on the site.  We had a pleasant afternoon exchanging stories over a cup of tea and beer.  I think they were happy to talk to some native English speakers as the site had predominantly French registered vans.

As for Tiznit itself, it is a bit of a mixed bag.  I think the souks (markets) are great.  There is everything from shoes, clothing, jewellery, meat, fruit, vegetables and the like for sale.  We tried our hand at some vegetable and fruit buying, which was a success and we looked at the butchers displaying camel hooves, goat heads and even a boy plucking turkey feathers (who we exchanged big smiles with).  We were also 'invited' by a man to his jewellery shop.  At this stage I was interested in looking in the jewellery souk, but I definitely was going to find my own way there.  We did and about half way through, guess who appears!  our friend from before and oh surprise his shop is nearby, and did we want to have a look?  Considering I wasn't wanting to buy anything I thought going inside might delay us a good while, so declined.

 Tiznit is enclosed by 19th century walls, which are a distance of 5kms in total and there are 8 gates into the town.  The Grand Mosque is somewhat disappointing as it is under refurbishment which means that it is very hard to see anything behind the 8 foot high walls.  From reading another online blog we have realised this has been going on for over 4 years now, not sure when it will be completed.  There is  a very nice Mosque just outside the walls, and is worth a visit more than the other one.  There is also a water feature dedicated to the towns patroness Lalla Tiznit, which is underwhelming due to its unkempt state.  So far in Morocco we have not been wowed by the 'tourist attractions' we have seen, but have found the daily life, scenery and people the most interesting aspect of our visit.

The disappointing Source Bleue water feature to Lalla Tiznit

Town walls on the right, houses on the left

The Bab Oulad Jarrar gate into Tiznit

So we had been getting on pretty well in Morocco, so we were probably due for some bad luck.  I had read that you can strike back electric connections in Morocco and one morning at the campsite two workers came past our van to look at the box.  Next thing our working connection starts to make a bit of a noise and then a loud pop noise.  We didn't realise until late afternoon when we went to charge the computer that it had fried the charger.  One of the camp staff walked us to a computer and gadgets type shop and we were able to get a replacement for 200 dirhams (18 euros).  By this stage this is our 4th charger (2 have been stolen and 1 broken).  We return to the van and the charger works that night.  In the morning, you guessed it, it won't work.  Dale came to the conclusion that it had probably sat there awhile at the shop unused and had just given up.  Back to the store we go again, and eventually we came away with another charger (5th for the trip), which a few days later still works (touch wood).

The campsite is on a busy road and on our last night in Tiznit we heard cheers growing in volume about 9pm.  We realised it was the football and we looked up on the internet to see that Raja Casablanca had won and made it through to Saturday nights final.  We quickly grabbed the flag and made our way to the nearby roundabout where lots of fans had congregated and were celebrating the win.  We again had lots of photos taken and held up our flag for passing motorists to toot.  Again it was fantastic to meet some friendly young Moroccans and have some fun with them.

After three nights in Tiznit I was ready to have a look at somewhere new and we headed out to the coast to the town of Mirhleft.  It has a couple of nice beaches (though the current looks a bit dangerous) with massive rocks by the shore.  Above the town is an abandoned Spanish fort ruin dating from 1935.  The views from the top are spectatular and I enjoyed taking panorama shots on the camera and having a good wander through the ruins.  From the site we could see a nice beach carpark and we set off in the van to find it.  That accomplished we paid the attendant 20 dirhams (1.90 euros) to stay the night and spent the afternoon sitting in the sun and walking along the beach.  In the morning we went south along the coast to Sidi Ifni.

The beach at Mirhleft

The fort ruins, Mirhleft