{"id":26221,"date":"2017-02-20T14:24:35","date_gmt":"2017-02-20T14:24:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/?p=26221"},"modified":"2019-04-11T17:09:41","modified_gmt":"2019-04-11T16:09:41","slug":"cool-valley-abaynou-north-guelmim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/cool-valley-abaynou-north-guelmim\/","title":{"rendered":"Cool in the Valley, Abaynou, North of Guelmim"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zagan the motorhome’s under a green canopy, an island in an arid landscape in a valley an hour north of Guelmim in Morocco. We’re in Camping de la Vall\u00e9e, which is about 2km of piste<\/em> (packed mud and rock road) away from the small village of Abaynou (N29.11414, W10.019896<\/a>). The fun fund is being depleted at a rate of 70Dh a night for our pitch including\u00a0electricity and hot showers, about \u20ac7. The site is, bien s\u00fbr<\/em>, well populated with French motorhomes in for the winter, and we now, finally, know why so many French villages feel devoid of life from November onwards… Everyone’s down here – and who can blame ’em?<\/p>\n

\"Camping

Road to Camping de la Vall\u00e9e, Abaynou, Morocco<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Camping

Camping de la Vall\u00e9e, Abaynou, Morocco<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Even

Even these low-level lights get turned off at night, making the site beautifully dark and star-struck<\/p><\/div>\n

Inertia took over in Sidi Ifni, and we could have easily spent more than five nights overlooking the surfers on the pounding Atlantic, sat under a blazing sky. At all of 3mph I’d ride my bike up the hill into town, or huff and puff my way up the steps with Ju, buying fruit from the endless market or tucking into chicken and chips at a small cafe by the road. After the frenetic calls of m’shur!, m’shur!<\/em> across Morocco’s cities and towns to date, Ifni refreshed me. In the end the vague disappointment of the Sunday market dislodged us. The enormous space behind the main road in town remained mainly space, and the souk was at best a fifth the size of the one in Azrou. Clutching a gas burner to go on the small stubby butane bottles here (40Dh), a demi-kilo<\/em> of salt-encrusted nuts (35Dh) and another half kilo of sticky dates (10Dh), we made our minds up to move.<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\" \"\" \"\"<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Decamping we inspected the amount of diesel left in the tank, and I concluded there was enough to not bother filling up in Ifni, which there was, but it meant something of a detour as the only station we saw before Guelmim, was a mirage under a hot sun, it was unfinished!<\/p>\n

\"Passing

Passing the chicken delivery man on the rolling hill route out of Ifni<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Hooray,

Hooray, a petrol station. Ah. It’s brand new. Too new! Ah well, onwards to Guelmim!<\/p><\/div>\n

There’s a Marjane supermarket in Guelmim, and although we can easily buy everything (almost) in there from the souk, Team Zagan are lazy so and so’s from time to time, and opted to nip in there and stock up on goodies before the long trek through the dry bits of Morocco. Guelmim itself is known for a weekly camel market, which we’d missed but after the animal market in Douz<\/a> (Tunisia) some while back, we weren’t too gutted. We made our way through the Sunday-quiet streets, and a good kilometre or two out the other side of the town into a stony desert before laughing our way out of the van in the Marjane car park. The supermarket is in the desert, nothing but a fuel station alongside it, it just looked peculiar!<\/p>\n

\"Welcome

Welcome to Guelmim! You pass this grand entrance gate, after which there is no sign of the actual town for a good while!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Guelmim,

Guelmim, a bit quiet on a Sunday, not that I was complaining as it made the drive easy<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Marjane

Marjane Guelmim – the Supermarket in the Desert!!!<\/p><\/div>\n