We checked out after a good night sleep at the Marriott Hotel and headed for the first race destination in Morocco, Midelt. During the previous day, Bjørn has been getting a cold and has gotten fever and we are still having some issues with the car. The plan was to arrive early in Midelt to fix this. After a little while we started the climb through the Middle Atlas range, and was this a surprise?
During the last evening when we experienced rain in Fes, the mountains had been transformed into winter wonderlands. Imagine then all the local cars that are only having summer tires.
This meant that the roads were closed, and we tried different routes. This picture is taken by a road block in Ifrane. Rumours say that The modern town of Ifrane was established by the French administration in 1928 during the protectorate era for their administration due to its Alpine climate. Ifrane was conceived as a “hill station” or colonial type of settlement. It is a resort town set high up in the mountains so that Europeans can find relief from the summer heat of tropical colonies.
Anyhow we couldn’t get through and headed in another direction to see if this road was open. Here we had to stay for 40 minutes while the road was being prepared.
Finally we got through.
This road took us through the famous cedar forest of the Barbary macaques monkeys.
We drove on, and climbed even higher to above 2000m. This started to look more an more like home, and the Hardanger mountain passes of Norway.
At three o’clock the car was parked outside the Hotel, with snow and rain. Even if this should have been a short trip, truly we are getting surprises all the time.
The next camps are going to be purely camping, so no updates from us then.
NB: I forgot to start the tracker in Fes. That is why there is a gap in the map.
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