Note: Africa Days is a series of posts based on journals and letters from my years living in Kinshasa and traveling across Africa, beginning in 1974. You can read previous and following posts (for free) below.
Getting Miles (and us) onto a train from Mali to Dakar and a boat to Casablanca was a trial. But the delight in our travels surely returned when we hit Morocco.
I wrote my father from Marrakech on October 14, 1976: “Oh how lovely Morocco is! In Casablanca we bought beautiful local roses and grapes and apples at a market and headed for the highlands. Halfway to Marrakech we caught our breath at the majestic swath of mountains etched across the sky — the snowy Atlas range.
“Then Marrakech — Marrakech of the orange groves and olive trees, golden buildings and cool October air under a warm sun — a sun to seek out rather than to hide from. In the medina market we strolled, on the evening of our arrival, appreciating the leatherwork and blankets but buying only some of those luscious olives arrayed around the seller in his wooden stall: heaped vats of green, black, golden and rosy pink olives. And next to him the date-and-nut man, engulfed by mounds of shelled almonds, pecans, peanuts, figs strung like popcorn and dates, dates, dates.
“We slept in a real live campground, waking in the shade of an olive tree and heading back to the market to buy a blanket because — oh! Wonderful to say — we were cold! Then today, the most striking scenery, crossing the Atlas range, the driest I’ve ever seen, with fertile valleys green with mint, and the massive dry bulk of 11,000-foot peaks towering over them. A fine impressive pass (with a snow barrier) and then, sooner than we knew, the desert. At sunset, glowing pink so I could hardly see to drive. We’re camped out in it now, the winds shaking the car as we sip hot chocolate.”
The next day we drove up into the astonishing Todra Gorge. “We woke up in our snug, handsomely blanketed bed in this kingly canyon, then drove along wonderful western-rugged lands, down a particularly lush valley.
“Then we headed toward the oasis town of Erfoud, passing our first dunes, where we set up camp. We showered, cut Mike’s hair and settled in. The red-golden sands were breathtaking in the sunset. And just now we’ve been looking at the splendid skies: the richest view I’ve ever seen of the Milky Way and old familiar constellations, including Orion — just the belt, lying right above the horizon: Orion of our ski trips, Orion of the northern hemisphere wintertime!”
Then 19 October, parked “in a wonderful evergreen forest just out of Azrou. In the space of a week, we have seen more variety in scenery than I can recall ever having seen. From the bustling port city of Casablanca to farm and vineyard country to Marrakesh the magical, across a bleak high-mountain pass into a crusty dirt-gravel desert, into a magnificent canyon, through lovely date-palm-oasis country, back up through massive gorges, across another dry pass, into evergreen trees and a real ski area, a third pass and now this lovely forested mountain resort country.
“Yesterday several times we saw Bedouin tents pitched in the mountain plains. Today, we will pick up our repaired tire, then drive along a Michelin-green road toward Fez.”
Later the same day, I continued the letter: “We are camped again in the shade of olive trees. This morning’s drive was lovely — through Ifrane. a delightful mountain resort, where we stopped at a patisserie to sit outdoors with tea and look at all the townfolk who came for the French baguettes, which they call flutes here, and the round Kesra bread, which we’ve been buying for about a dinar a delicious loaf.
“Then we drove down through another lovely mountain town full of parks and orange-tile roofs and are now in the process of showering and settling in, preparing to see Fez. Oh, the warm sun, the cool air, the green hills, the golden leaves and deep blue, cloud-fluffy sky.”
From my journal on 23 October: “We’d been told that Fez’s old town is incredible, and it’s true: Miles and miles of stone passageways, shops, houses, door after door with little brass hand-shaped knockers. We spent a fun afternoon and evening there. On the whole though, I’ll take Marrakech, where we twice ate shish kebabs in the nighttime square with musicians performing about us, the merchants hold sway amid their multi-colored offerings and the mountains are always in the background. In any case, Morocco is a favorite country now, a land packed absolutely full of good things.
“We came into Algeria yesterday evening. Our traveling today took us through farming country — mainly vineyards, and the vineyards were all fall-colored. We passed through Tlemcen and saw a fine old Moorish tower in ruins. Along the road we bought our sink-full of purple grapes, sweet as can be, for one dinar. When we eat them, our hands turn winey red. The grapes themselves are a kind of frosted blue — like blueberries.
“The border crossing was unobjectionable. On the Algerian side, we changed money and bought 21 days of insurance in addition to the usual formalities. Funny, both sides asked if we had ‘anything special to declare…? Hashish?’
“We’re on the Mediterranean now — a long way from Kinshasa! Tomorrow’s drive is along another road deemed beautiful by Michelin. When I mentioned to a policeman that we planned to take this road because we had heard it was lovely, he said, ‘Oh yes, by all means, there are many refineries there.’ Fortunately the refineries now are behind us.
“We got up at 1:30 last night to hear the final presidential debate. I liked Carter’s comments on the environment, the cities, energy policy and race relations. Neither man is inspiring, but Ford is worse than wooden. He sounds like a robot programmed to inarticulate.
“I enjoyed the drive yesterday. We talked about interesting subjects, among them what would happen if one of the great powers suddenly decided to disarm unilaterally. What are the goals of the space program, and do they justify expenditure levels? And what are our own hopes for America? Among mine were many things which fit under a quality-of-life banner: flexibility of working arrangements — i.e., shorter work week, two-people-on-one job, more imaginative half-time options; increased childcare availability and quality; attention to the arts, their support and development; an increase in the lands set aside in national parks, forests, wilderness areas; more city and state parks; a network of bike paths and creative attention to modern transit methods to cut down on reliance on autos; a real national examination of what we want our educational system to be.”
We seem to have been re-engaging with the world we’d be returning to. But there were Africa days still to come. Algiers was next — and then a glorious trip back down into the Sahara. We’d fulfill a piece of that dream, after all.