After breakfast, Ibrahim the riad porter assisted us by transporting our luggage in his hand-trolley, out through the souk alleyways to where we found Chahine waiting with the van in Jemaa el-Fna, the main square which he was able to access this morning, whereas two nights ago it was restricted entry.
Our direction of travel today is westwards, heading towards the Atlantic Ocean at Essaouira.
Olive grove destined for development as apartments, Marrakech
The terrain we drove through for the first hour was flat, sandy and desiccated to the extent that many of the trees and scrubby bushes seemed to be dying from the obvious drought conditions.
Olive grove with stone fence, en route from Marrakech to Essaouira
After a hundred kilometres of driving westwards, having passed through Chichaoua we made a stop at the busy township of Tafetacht. It was market day and the streets and market square were full of activity with seemingly everyone having either something to sell or needing something to buy. The main vegetable market had an amazing range of produce for sale and the animal market had sheep, goats, chickens and pigeons on offer.
Farmer with sheep, Tafetacht
Truck transporting gas bottles, Tafetacht
Market, Tafetacht
Vegetables for sale at Market, Tafetacht
Pumpkins & zucchinis for sale at Market, Tafetacht
A friendly man selling oranges attracted our attention and insisted he demonstrate his craft and skills in squeezing oranges. The large drink he prepared for us from four oranges was excellent.
Tafetacht
A little further on, the terrain became more undulating and the ground quite rocky. We then entered an area where, rather than there being a domination of olive trees, we now had argan trees.
The argan tree, Argania spinoza is a twisted, spherically shaped tree having dark green foliage and reaching a maximum height of about eight metres.
Argan trees
Fruit on Argan tree
It occurs naturally, only in North Africa and is common, especially in the Souss Plain area and through to this region inland from Essaouira.
There are now estimated to be well over twenty-one million of these trees, whereas at one time in the past, it was regarded as an endangered species. The reason for its amazing propagation increase is the demand for argan oil and its derivatives.
We stopped and visited a specialist ‘argan tourist centre’ near Ounara and were given a guided tour by a friendly and very well informed young woman.
Ladies processing argan at tourist outlet
When the nuts on the argan tree change from green to yellow to brown they are ready for harvesting and drying. The nuts are crushed and the kernels then separated, roasted and ground before being kneaded into a paste form.
Argan beans
At this stage the argan oil can be extracted from the gooey black paste. It takes about 30 kg of argan nuts and half a day of work to produce just one litre of argan oil.
Lady processing argan
Processing argan
Processed argan food products
Argan oil is rich in vitamins and has about eighty percent unsaturated fatty acids with linoleic acid, of the Omega-6 series, having well documented, medically beneficial use in combatting arteriosclerosis, chicken pox, eczema, psoriasis and rheumatism. The oil is used extensively in cosmetic preparations, especially for its anti-ageing properties. When the oil is mixed with powdered almond and walnut, the taste is like “Nutella” and very popular with Moroccans.
Apart from their specialty of argan oil and various cosmetic and medicinal products based on argan, the shop had a range of spices and essential oils for sale. We tested the lavender oil on display and found it to be of high quality.
Lady showing argan products
Next door to the argan shop was a tourist shop selling beautifully polished timber items all made from the roots and burls of rare thuya conifer trees. The wood is difficult to find and comes from dry mountainous areas which makes the wood very expensive. Jewellery boxes seemed a specialty although several of the items on sale had been turned on a wood-lathe. The inlaying of different coloured timbers as well as mother of pearl was amazingly intricate and the overall quality of the marquetry products was exquisite.
Wooden table set out 2 different ways
We finally arrived in Essaouira at around 14:00 and after finding a parking spot we spent the next two hours sight seeing around the old city and harbour areas.
View over Essaouira
Essaouira, formerly Mogador, is a quintessentially Moroccan town and one of the most popular coastal cities in the country. It enjoys a pleasant, mild climate and although it’s a mecca for artists and surfers, it doesn’t suffer the overspill of tourism from Marrakech.
Essaouira was established on a site first occupied by the Phoenicians in the 7th century BC. It then became a Roman city in the 1st century BC when it was the centre for manufacturing purple dye. Tyrion purple, known as ‘royal purple’, is the most expensive and precious dye that has ever existed. It was used by members of the royal family and court in classical Rome and the Byzantine. The Tyrion purple was extracted from several types of murex gastropods (shells) including Stramonita haemastoma and Bolinus brandaris both found in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. This rare and extraordinary dye is produced in the hypobranchial gland of these murex shells.
The Portuguese established a trading and military post here before eventually, sultan Mohammed III in around 1760 set up a naval base and developed the harbour and its fortification.
City gate, Essaouira
We strolled through Essaouira’s Medina, wandering along peaceful shopping alleyways where the pace of life was utterly different from our hustle and bustle experiences in Marrakech. We then ventured into the fish market and found not only lots of different types of fish for sale, but dozens of large gulls hopping and squawking above and around the trade benches, hoping for scraps from the fish being gutted and filleted.
Fish market, Essaouira
Seafood at Fish market, Essaouira,
Sea urchins at Fish market
Gull at Fish market, Essaouira,
A visit to the Maalem Ali, 1908 jewellery centre followed next. Corinne found an attractive triple stoned, onyx and silver pendant that she particularly liked and made her purchase without haggling as this would have been inappropriate in such a refined jewellery centre which was established to support disadvantaged local women!
Our meanderings then took us down to the Atlantic Ocean’s edge, where to the south of the harbour, gauging from the density of people, was a large and obviously popular surf beach despite it being so windy.
Beach, Essaouira
Within the protected confines of the harbour dock were hundreds and hundreds of about five metre long, blue, open wooden fishing boats. They were densely packed in to the dock and not at sea today as, apparently it was much too windy.
Fishing boats, Essaouira
Fisherman resting near fishing boats, Essaouira
The old high stone walls around the harbour and their majestic archways are picture perfect and to add to the visual splendour of an ancient maritime port, we encountered a battery of twenty, equally spaced bronze cannon pointing out to sea as former protectors of this splendid harbour.
Harbour gate, Essaouira
Atlantic Ocean & foreshore, Essaouira
Atlantic Ocean & foreshore, Essaouira
Battery of bronze cannon, Essaouira,
We’ve been delighted with our visit to this beautiful beachside city, albeit a short one. It has so much to offer and not only is it visually a gem, but the friendly locals seem to be less frenetic and more relaxed than many we’ve encountered in the big cities.
In the late afternoon we finally arrived at our Riad Mimouna, where we have a first-floor bedroom right on the water’s edge, with the stormy Atlantic Ocean waves bashing against the hotel’s sea wall and responsible for making our windows salty.
View from our room at Riad Mimouna overlooking Atlantic Ocean, Essaouira
We had our evening meal in the riad and were entertained by local musicians throughout our most enjoyable evening meal.
Band at Riad Mimouna
Corinne & Jak at dinner, Riad Mimouna overlooking Atlantic Ocean, Essaouira
Tomorrow, we head north and return to Casablanca for our final night in Morocco, before flying on to Tunisia.