MOROCCO: Marrakesh to Oukaimeden

December 1 –  Our journey to the edge of the sahara began yesterday with a late-afternoon flight from JFK Airport in NYC, arriving in Casablanca today, December 1, around 6 am local time. After several hours layover in a near-empty terminal, we completed the 40-minute domestic flight to Marrakesh, where we moved quickly through customs, collected our bags, and met our driver, Mustapha.

At the edge of the airport car park, we saw a pair of White Wagtails amidst the manicured landscape of grass and rose bushes. Soon we were driving out of the city, taking in culture and landscape, as well as common, urban birds. Children walked home from half-day school on Saturday, clustered in separate groups of girls and boys, respectively. Elderly men in long, blue jalabas (robes) tended grazing flocks of sheep along the roadside. Spotless Starlings perched on many building tops and poles, and several large White Storks circled overhead. We saw a Maghreb Magpie pecking on the ground beside us, a Common Bulbul jumping from one shrub to another, and a Desert Grey Shrike perched characteristically on a wire over a scrubby field. Maghreb Blackbirds flew across the road.

Mechoui

We were traveling through the Haouz Plain, an arid area spattered with ziziphus (Jujube) trees amongst patches of bare space nibbled to the ground by goats and sheep. Orchards of olive trees separated stretches of retail shops, hotels and ochre-walled residences, which thinned out as we got farther from the city. We stopped in a bustling village to buy water and flavorful mechoui – lamb kebabs cooked in front of us on a small, smoky firepit. We welcomed the fire’s warmth on this chilly, drizzling afternoon, as we waited for our sizzling lunch.

Soon we began the ascent up to Oukaimeden, a ski resort within the High Atlas mountain range. The Ourika Valley spread out below us, anchored by the fast-running namesake river that served as an important water resource and focal point around which our road was carved. Amidst apple and cherry trees, local people planted subsistence crops terrace-style, in steep steps up the mountain side. Village dwellings and walls were made of red clay bricks, forming neat, square buildings. Homes appeared to be cut right into the mountainside, perched precariously among rocky outcroppings. We passed red slate slabs stacked against buildings, pulled laboriously out of the riverbed to sell. Roadside retail also included pottery, tin lanterns, carvings and plenty of cafes offering coke and tajine dishes! Tajines are named after the clay pot in which cooks a delicious slow stew!

Men huddled in building corners smoking, while children offered berries for sale on roadside pullouts, attractively presented in small, cone-shaped baskets made of bamboo. The berries are called “argouse” in french, and look a bit like over-sized round strawberries, but taste not as sweet. Small kids also waved bunches of rosemary herbs for sale to passing cars.

Eurasian Crag Martins swooped at eye level as we climbed the sharp curves and hairpin switchbacks in low gear. What looked to be a light dusting of snow at low elevation became deeper as we ascended. Snow flurries and fog whirled around us, reducing visibility to only the nearby conifers, silent and still.

We reached our destination shortly after 2 pm, pushing through 30 cms of fresh snow, which had fallen the night before. This attracted a good crowd of day-trippers who were all too eager to take advantage of the unusually early snowfall with skis, snowboards and family fun. Oukaimeden is the oldest ski resort in the country, and one of only two in operation! Situated at approximately 2,600 meters, it is a short distance away from Morocco’s highest peak, Jbel Toubkal, at 4,167 meters.

After checking into our room at Chez Juju, we added a few more layers and headed out on foot to see what birds we could find. Mixed flocks of Red-billed and Alpine Choughs called noisily from their building-top perches, with small groups congregating on the ground, to forage on rubbish poking out of the snow. We walked down the road to scan the snow-rimmed reservoir, and were delighted to find a White-throated Dipper swimming and feeding along its edges. A Green Sandpiper was bobbing it’s way along the incoming creek, along with another Dipper. White and Grey Wagtails flew into the area, sporting their long, namesake tails.

Tall conifers lined the roadside, covered in picturesque white snow crystals. We spotted an Atlas Chaffinch darting out of one to land atop a leafless tree. It began to snow, so we headed back to our cozy room to relax a bit. Dinner was a delicious treat, served by super-friendly staff. We enjoyed hearty vegetable soup, freshly baked bread, beef and chicken tajines, and hot mint tea before retiring for the night.

text © debbie beer;   all photos © adrian binns