Berber Hospitality in Bouizakarne, Camping Tinnougba
Zagan the motorhome’s occupants have been elevated to the status of roi et reine! This is how the owner of Camping Tinnougba in Bouizakarne described us just now – all of his guests on the small, family-run site are treated as kings and queens. He seems a gentle man, but strong with it, and reminds me of my father. He’s utterly authentic, touchingly so in his welcome, and I’m quite a cynic in these things.
Lahcen, Owner of Camping Tinnoubga
We’re parked up here in the middle of an orange stony and windswept desert plain, with hills rising on two sides. It’s quite an unreal place to be (N29.186373, W9.727855). The site is about 500m of easy piste from the N1, maybe a mile from the centre of town, and we’re really pleased we opted to stay here rather than drive straight back up to Tiznit. There is no mains hook-up, but there is a very clean, hot shower and motorhome services, and it costs only 50Dh (£4) a night to stay – email ouskoubane@gmail.com for more information.
Camping Tinnougba, Bouizakarne, Morocco
The Berber tent where green tea’s served to welcome guests
There seems to be a cross-over point for me in these tours of North African countries, when I find myself finally letting my shields down a little. Today’s that day in this trip. Morocco’s an easy country to travel through in a motorhome, logistics-wise. The roads are good (with the odd exception – see below), there are tons of campsites, petrol stations are everywhere and thousands upon thousands of motorhomes are wandering the country to prove it. But it’s not such an easy country to travel in other ways.
Things we take entirely for granted back home, or indeed in most of Europe, cannot be taken for granted here. Freedom of speech, for example, is limited here and I legally can’t write certain things without risking jail. Public criticism of the royal family or government institutions (including allegations of corruption) are, for example, like asking for serious trouble. Don’t bother asking folks here if they like the king – although he seems well-liked, no-one’s going to tell you if they feel differently. Homosexual acts are illegal. Sex outside of marriage is also illegal. Cross over from Algeciras to Tanger Med, and you cross into another world. A third of Moroccans don’t have the benefit of literacy. Looking at various websites, income seems to average (very) roughly £10 a day. State welfare is very limited indeed.
Tourists like us are carriers of serious wealth, and we’re effectively thrust into the realm of the rich when we arrive, and are faced with the same ‘who to trust’ issues the rich must have back in the West. Coming to Morocco my initial reaction is to raise the drawbridge, and to trust no-one. It works, but it’s uncomfortable, and the distance it creates between me and the people who live here hugely lessens the value of travel. I don’t really adopt this arms-length approach to save us money – the biggest rip-off I’ve been near was for all of £30 – I do it to avoid the emotional pain associated with finding a new-found friend is only interested in me for the money, seemingly nothing else.
Backing up to Camping de la Vallee, Paul the French owner got the road opened in record time. Withing 24 hours of the flood waters subsiding he’d paid a JCB (which came in at £20 an hour apparently) to repair the main road and the road to the site. My daft idea that it would need a a few lorry loads of aggregate was exposed when the JCB driver simply shoved the river bed back into place. The whole campsite turned out to watch the road being re-opened, walking up and down on the new piste and imagining driving over the bumpy bits.
A JCB shoving the river bed back into place to recreate the piste road to Camping de la Vallee
Entertainment for all! Woo hoo!
Boom, the piste is back, and easily passable in the biggest of motorhomes
And there were some pretty big motorhomes on the site! These guys left before us
So after another night on the pop with Elaine and Peter from Heidi Hymer, putting the world even more to rights, we both headed off this morning. We’ve opted to head north, and they’re off further south, so we waved goodbye, for now. Once we’d tottered along the piste, we tango’d past Martin and Ann in the village who’d enjoyed an evening in the 40 degrees hot springs at Abaynou (entry for Europeans is after 7pm, and couples can go into the same pool together). They’re off back to Sidi Ifni to see friends, which will be a lot quicker to get back to than the 200km detour they had to make on the way here due to a flooded road on the way to Guelmim! If any of you are reading this, bonne route guys, bonne courage!
A Moroccan lady and her animals. Life, I imagine, is infinitely tougher for her than for me.
On my call, we opted to try a shortcut road north back to the N1, on a sealed road, passing small batches of waving nippers who were just out of school, trying to get us slow down. We waved, honked the horn, and as usual, refused to stop. Another few miles later we found the river had made mincemeat of the concrete bridge. A driver on a adjacent piste road confirmed we couldn’t get to the N1 even if we went off-roadin’, so we turned round. This time we drew breath and stopped for the nippers, being rewarded with smiles, many handshakes and good wishes in French. Not a single one asked for anything. I wonder continually what the Moroccans, young and old, think of us.
Desert road near Abaynou
We ain’t the Dukes of Hazzard, turn-around time. How Morocco can afford to fix flood damage like this is beyond me
With no other choice we headed back to Guelmim, the detour being made worth it by the sight of blokes practising the traditional lab el baroud horse charge on the way into the city. The streets were much busier than the last time we drove through, but nothing compared with many of the towns further north.
Drive faster, they’ve spotted us!
After that not much happened. We stopped in a village for some vegetables, then cruised up to Bouizakarne on the N1, shadowing a lorry from which sheep heads would pop up on occasion for a look back at us. After an hour or so we spotted the sign for the campsite just after a police road block.
Camping this-a-way
Here in the small site we were welcomed by the owner, and his eldest son Brahimi, a 19 year old amiable speaker of four languages, including English. He told us his ambition is to join the French Foreign Legion, in order to earn money for his family. The site here only attracts motorhomes for 3 or 4 winter months, and presumably doesn’t create enough money to support them year-round. Attempts to build a restaurant on the site, which might attract local tourists in the summer, are frustrated by lack of funds. I asked him if he was willing to fight, as a soldier, and he shrugged, smiling. He’s most certainly never seen the realism portrayed in films like Platoon or Saving Private Ryan (and I hope he never does). He says he likes the army, and it looks like a path from poverty. What choice does he have I wonder?
We had a ride through the hamada to Bouizakarne. Folks there smiled at us, waved, greeted us, and not a single one asked for anything. We left on top of the world.
Houses(?) in Bouizakarne
When we arrived, the Bouizakarne souk was all-but over
We bought a tagine heat mat in the Bouizakarne souk from a closing stall, for a whole 4Dh (35p)
Over green tea in the Berber tent with some of the friendly French guests, they wound Brahimi up with a photo of a semi-naked lady, tales of same-sex marriage (he looked incredulous at this idea) and getting him to try fruit preserved in wine (which he spat out, making a face like a prune). The guy’s innocent, a lot of fun and always smiling and keen to please. Seeing the face of the Muslim wannabee immigrant this close up, shaking his hand, smiling with him, wider events in the world seem plain madness, driven by ignorance, politics and unfounded fear.
Right, I best be off. A poulet tagine is being cooked for us as I type for delivery to the van. As ever we’re living the lives of roi et reine.
Cheers, Jay
Glad to see the road out of camp is clear and the pictures now load properly on portrait view on my smartphone! Thanks for sharing your blog
Thanks Bob, took us an age to fix those photos, great to hear they’re working! Cheers, Jay
Hi both, I am enjoying your Morocco writings and the reflections on life it seems to generate. I can’t decide from one post to the next whether I would love or hate Morocco, but (considering it solely from a gastronomic point of view!) I know I would love the tagines. I’ve never cooked in one and am not quite sure how they work. Any chance of a recipe? I have newly discovered one-pot keema curry I can write up in exchange if you are interested. Best, Robina
Hi Robina
You don’t need a tagine pot to cook it in, but there are so many around here so cheap, we figured we’d get one. As for a recipe, we make them up as we go along. Some garlic and onions in the bottom, a bit of oil. Sit some sort of meat on top – chicken, lamb, goat. If using chicken try adding some lemon, or preserved lemons they have here, if a darker meat we’ve been adding dates. Surround with thickly cut veggies – potatoes, carrots, courgettes etc. Add a bit of spice (ras el hanout is the local stuff), and leave to cook for ages. We did our date and goat one for around 5 hours on low and it was perfect. Pretty much the same as a slow cooker! Ju x
Thanks! I take it the tagine goes directly on the heat. I always worry about ceramic on a hot plate – daren’t even put pyrex on it! Here is the Keema curry recipe:
Fry about a pound of beef or lamb mince in a little oil. Once browned take it out and put onions and garlic in the pan to fry for a bit. Add a good dessert spoon of generic curry powder, a good teaspoon or two of cummin, some chilli powder or flakes and fry for a bit adding a bit more oil if needed. Return the mince to the pan and stir in. Add a little stock and a good squirt of tomato puree. Stir. Add pre-cooked potatoes (tinned or vacuum packed) and frozen peas. Cook for a bit. Serve with yogurt.
We opted for a metal tagine, so no concerns about putting it on the hotplate, and a lot lighter in the van too! Normally the ceramic ones are cooked over charcoal, but have seen them on gas BBQ’s – not a hot plate though, yet!
Thanks for the Keema Curry recipe – we’ll have to give it a try as apart from frozen peas, I think we might actually have everything in stock in the van!
Enjoying your stories as always guys. We do love Maroc, and following your trip has us itching to go back. Just wanted to give you an extra big “Thanks for all the info!” shout. It’s taken a year but we pick up our 2002 B544 “Yggdrasil” aka “Iggy” in just over a week’s time. Found you guys early on in the research stage and it was a massive help. Cheers and have fun out there. x
Always appreciate messages like this one! Thanks guys, bonne route, Jay
Hi Guys, always fun to read your blog, glad its working for you both. I am about to buy a Gasit system for our van, and wondered if the happy people at the Gasit company were helping in any way to “ease” your trip. If so I would be delighted to buy thro you.
Best Wishes
Gordon
Thanks Gordon, it’s a good system, we’re happy with ours. Hmmm, we never tried to form a relationship with GasIt, maybe we should! Cheers, Jay