Tizbit Trip 13 November 2011

We were picked up as arranged outside the marina at 0900 hrs Sunday13 November by Hyatt Travel guide  Salim and driver Mohamed in a 4x4 vehicle. We were fortunate that we were the only people on the tour. We headed south out of Agadir direction Tiznit, some 95 kms away.

After an hour or so turned off the main road onto a rough track towards the Anti Atlas mountains in the Sousa Masssa region.

The track took us past this tourist hotel compound built in the style of an old Kasbah

 The impressive entrance to the compound

 Shortly afterwards the track lead us into the flood plain of the river Massa where the desert-like schrub changed to a fertile strip of land with a banana plantion

Fording the river Massa 

The track eventually arrived at a small area of sand dunes where we parked under a large Argan Spinoza tree - a tree which is endemic in Morocco and survives in semi desert conditions

 The fruit of the Argan tree is similar in size and shape to the Olive

Argan fruits

 There just "happened" to be camels under the tree

 and somebody who for 50 Dhrim would allow one to have a ride

 So Margreet & Jeannette had a go

Afterwards we went to a high point in the foothills of the Anti Atlas Mountains

from where we had a good view over the Youssef Ben Tachefine dam and reservoir

 This reservoir is very important for the Souss Massa region as it provides irrigation for the area

 Passed several small villages with there mud and straw covered stone walls

 Eventually arriving at the walled town of Tiznit

 The Camel Gate in the town wall

 The main street of Tiznit

Tiznit is famous throughout Morocco for its Silver Jewelrey. Way back the Jewish community started the tradition, later taken over by the Berbers. We had a look around the Silver Cooperative shop

 Jeannette tried on a silver filigree bracellet

 Afterwards drove over rough tracks to this unlikely spot for lunch - right in the middle of nowhere

 No signs on the entrance gate

Past the prickly pears to a hybiscus garden and through an archway

 into a very colourful tent

 a delightful surprise

 Lunch was salade followed by Tagines, the traditional Moroccan dish served in an earthernware pot with a conical lid

 the dish consisted of vegetables and chicken - very tasty

 After lunch passed through a fertile irrigated area

 which became more arid and sandy

 evenyually arriving at a lookout point on the wild Atlantic coast where we watched the rollers rolling in

 Regained the mainroad back to Agadir and stopped at a cooperative shop selling Argan products

 A very enthousiastic lady explained the process of extracting the oil from the Argan fruits

 which her 3 helpers demonstrated in the background. The Argan oil seems to have many valuable properties and is very expensive to buy - it is sometimes called Moroccan liquid gold

 Arrived back in Agadir around 1700hrs after having had a most enjoyable day's exploration.