Morocco 3

19 Thursday Mar 2020

Posted by Musiewild in Countryside views, Photography, Plants, Travel, Wildlife

Tags

Agadir, Atlas Kasbah, Cap Rhir, Common Bulbul, dung beetle, Euphorbia, grey heron, Little egret, Marsh Harrier, Moorish Gecko, Moroccan Lizard-toed Gecko, Moroccan tea, Morocco, Northern Bald Ibis, Oued Tamri, Raven, Tamri, Thekla Lark, Yellow Scorpion

On the Monday (9th March), we took our first trip out in the minibus, with several stops along the Atlantic coast, to the north of Agadir. The first stop was at Cap Rhir, mainly to look at vegetation, though we saw fauna of interest too…

Yellow Scorpion. It’s only 2 inches, excluding tail, but it has a nasty venom.

Two Moorish Geckos taking advantage of the pipe’s warmth

Margarita’s Fringe-toed lizard, about six inches long, including tail

I got the giggles at this. Philip, Don and Alison take photos of the lizard, a young shepherd boy on his donkey looks on in puzzlement, and his sheep follow.

And the ovines catch us up.

Believe it or not, these two plants are both from the euphorbia family. The cactusy-looking one is not a cactus!

This is a Moroccan Lizard-toed Gecko, or three-quarters of one. Philip had picked it up, but it escaped, leaving its tail behind to wriggle and distract the predator.

Philip was mortified, saying that this had never happened to him before.

We moved further north to Oued (River) Tamri, in search of the endangered Northern Bald Ibis. The total world population (in the wild) is only about 800, and near here was a known breeding site. When we stopped in the car park, alongside the vehicles of some surfers, we knew we would see some of the birds, as one of our number had spotted some high on a cliff to our right.

They flew around a bit.

A Marsh Harrier came to join the party. Well, not really, but it was good to see it.

After eating a very copious packed lunch provided by the lodge, we walked further along the dunes to the mouth of the oued.

Very far away, a raven and – not one of those beehives.

Even further away, a Grey Heron and a Little Egret, plus one of the seven feral dogs who had tried to share our lunches with us

Excellent surfing waves, Audouins’ Gulls, and picture irretrievably distorted by me – it wasn’t that dark!

We enjoyed walking along the sand, with its fresh breeze and wonderful surfing waves, and were reluctant to leave, but our next stop was explicitly for us to enjoy even more some sea action.

Someone took a photo of me in rapt contemplation

Our route back to the hotel took us into Agadir, and we climbed and climbed, to our puzzlement. It turned out we were being taken to the Kasbah (fort), which was very severely damaged in the 1960 earthquake, especially inside.

The camels and ponies were for tourist rides

The views explained the setting.

Before our evening meal, we were invited into the salon of the Atlas Kasbah, which in a Moroccan home is a room near the entrance used only for entertaining guests. According to Moroccan tradition these can (and do) turn up completely unannounced, have the right to stay for up to three days, and it would be the height of bad manners to ask how long they were intending to stay. They sleep in the salon.

We stayed for about an hour, to be introduced by Hassan to the very elaborate traditional tea making ceremony. Ibrahim – or Hussein, I never did manage to tell them apart, as both were so charmingly smiley – assisted.

Hassan dressed up for us. Normally he was in western dress.

Morocco 1

17 Tuesday Mar 2020

Posted by Musiewild in Countryside views, Geology, Photography, Travel, Wildlife

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

Agadir, Amata Mogadorensis, Argan oil, Atlas Kasbah, BBC Wildlife, Berber, James Lowen, Morocco, Philip Precey, Thekla Lark, Volutaria Lippi, Western Sahara, Wildlife Travel, Woodchat Shrike

Until a few weeks ago, ‘Agadir’ meant to me ‘just’ that awful 1960 earthquake which killed some 12,000 to 15,000 people. Other than that it was on the coast somewhere in North Africa, I couldn’t have told you its location. Now I know it is to the southern end of the UN-recognised part of Morocco, which itself is on the left-hand – as you’re looking at it – ‘shoulder’ of the continent. (I mention the UN because Morocco itself lays claim to the next country south, known to the rest of the world as Western Sahara.)

The improvement in my geography has come about because three days ago I returned from a very enjoyable week’s holiday in that Maghreb country, organised by Wildlife Travel for BBC Wildlife readers, and we stayed in a beautiful ecolodge half an hour’s drive from Agadir airport. We got back just in time. Last night, Monday 16th March, at midnight, the Moroccan government banned travel to and from the UK, having done the same to 25 other countries the day before we left.

It was a nearly four-hour afternoon flight from Gatwick to Agadir. With a window seat I had splendid views of:

polytunnels (growing our tomatoes?) as we were descending,

and general landscape as we came in to land. Almost certainly these are argan trees, (more of those later)

It was late by the time we arrived at our ecolodge, but a welcoming meal awaited us.

Breakfast was always at 8.00, and we were out at 9.00. Here we are on the Sunday morning, 8th March, at our introductory briefing from Philip Precey, from Wildlife Travel, as big James Lowen, BBC Wildlife contributor, looks on reflectfully. Apart from these two leaders, there were ten of us, plus Mohamed, our excellent driver and sometimes guide.

(To help my future memory, the others here are Jill, Nick, Prue, David and Helen. Alison, Don, Pat and Keith not visible.)

Outside, Philip introduced us to the Argan tree, a staple of Moroccan life, and providing employment for women in co-operatives, as they make argan oil, and products for cooking and beauty from it.