Morocco - where less planning is better

I used to take pride in the way I organised my trips, with Excel spreadsheets detailing where to go on which day, how much to spend, and where I would be staying. Basically, everything was always under control. Turned out Morocco is just not the country you want to visit if you expect things to go smoothly..

I had planned a week for Morocco (18-25 October 2008), with a 3 day trip to the Sahara desert, and subsequently to Fez, Meknes etc. The plan was not detailed as my other trips, but I'd enough faith in the public transport system to get me from one city to the next on time.

A Sahara desert tour package was booked from Marakkesh, and the plan was to finish the tour in Marakkesh and make my way to Fez immediately. I booked a boutique hotel room (EUR65 a night) in Fez, in anticipation that I would need it after a camel ride and a night under the stars in the Western Sahara desert.

Here is where things went wrong:

We were supposed to arrive at the Erg Chebbi desert dunes on the second night of the tour, after a 200km bus ride from the Dades Gorges. We arrived at Erfous, 40km away from the dunes, and our tour bus came to an abrupt halt. Apparently all traffic had stopped as the road to the desert was flooded!




Checking with the driver, there was no alternative route, and all he could do was to drive back 200km to the Dades Gorges to spend the night, and return to Marakkesh the next day.

That was not an option for me, as I had to get to the desert that night, and then make my way to Fez immediately for the following night in the boutique hotel (which I could not cancel!).

So I made my own Plan B - I dropped off at the nearest town of Er Rachidia, where I would spend my most horrible night of travelling ever, and reflect whether to make my way to the desert the next morning, or to make my way to Fez for the boutique hotel.

What happened in Er Rachidia will be documented in another post, but the eventual conclusion was that I would make my way to Fez, and leave my Saharan adventure for another trip (which I did make in June 2009). I found out later from the tourists on the desert tour that they made it to the desert the following night and had an excellent time.

To summarise - Flood destroyed my dream of making it to the Sahara desert, and I spent a night in an amazing boutique hotel to comfort myself for missing it.

I was alot more well prepared in my return to Morocco in June 2009. I did not make any plan at all... and it was a good thing I did not...details to be documented in a later post.