Trip Review Morocco November 2022
My wife & I undertook a three-week trip into Morocco in November 2022. We decided to travel with a private car & driver as our guide. We knew very little detail about Morocco or its people & similarly our knowledge of its history going back in time was just about zero. Morocco had aways had a fascination for us so this was our opportunity to experience as much as we could personally.
Our driver & guide was LHoussaine. We wanted to particularly explore & experience the ancient cultures & historic areas contained within present day Morocco. This included exploring & experiencing the Berber way of life both as it is today & also gain an understanding of how life was in times past.
We asked that we might call LHoussaine just plain Houssain for simplicity. Houssain is a Berber man & his extremely detailed knowledge of his culture, particularly for the past historical times was invaluable as we journeyed around Morocco. Houssain introduced us to every ancient city we visited, by giving us an extremely detailed summary of the ancient historic rhetoric over the centuries detailing many aspects of these often-walled cities & towns. These places evolved out of a culture that included individual families, tribal & larger communities having to protect & defend their lands while they sustained life, often under extremely harsh conditions. Life in Morocco for the Berber people in ancient times was nomadic. It focussed on survival for the animal herds, food, water & housing to protect the people from the very extreme weather. There was a very strong Islamic religion present from around the 9th century AD as is also the case today. Houssain introduced us to the many daily interactions we had with Islam in Morocco. The religion within Morocco is extremely moderate & considers always the value & interaction of life for nature, family & individuals alike with, as we saw it, all people of the land treated as equals.
Most of the land areas in Morocco away from the coastal & any major river valleys were harsh with very low rainfall & extreme weather & temperature variations. Conditions were tough & the local inhabitants had to adapt to the conditions & have excellent survival tools to sustain life. Morocco is a land of extremes & this is reflected in the fantastic panoramic scenery you see every day. It is harsh, beautiful & definitely extreme which does reflect in the lives & way of living for everyone we met. Houssain’s knowledge of life in Morocco was invaluable as he shared local details with us as we travelled every day.
We were able to travel & see these places & experience in many instances what was & still is a Berber nomadic lifestyle. As we travelled across the country, Houssain took us to such things as an old underground water supply conduit system that fed water from mountainous areas well into the desert areas. We were introduced to a Berber family in the desert areas that were still participating in a nomadic lifestyle & share mint tea with the family under their greeting tent. We were able to see & therefore understand their nomadic lifestyle that seemed to entirely be balanced around providing fodder & water for their small Goat Herd. We were able to see some of the ancient underground housing that the Berber clans had dug to provide shelter for their families & small herds in places along the nomadic pathway they travelled.
As a host, driver & of course guide, Houssain was extremely aware of our personal needs that included refreshment & toilet breaks. These stops always had an extremely clean western bathroom available to us, which we felt quite relieved about. Photo opportunities and places of interest were always stops that we would not want to miss out on seeing & hearing the stories that were everywhere along many of the places that we passed in our travels. Village markets were always welcome stops & were areas where we would always meet local people going about their life today. In these situations, we were always welcomed by all manner of people. As a driver, Houssain was always relaxed & drove in a manner that did not cause any alarm for my wife & I. For lunch stops sometimes this was a place that Houssain knew of & probably used regularly. Many times, our lunch stop was in a small town we were travelling through. In these cases, and at our request to eat locally, we would happily eat on the street at small BBQ local restaurants which were plentiful throughout Morocco. In every case these places would always have local people eating at them & we would always have local food prepared for us. Houssain would always oversee this aspect that we were receiving the best cuts of lamb or goat or chicken together with the local salads & specialities on offer. We did enjoy these BBQ lunch stops. Houssain was very flexible when requests were made such as this. We would ask Houssain to share lunch with us & these were opportunities where we would notice local people going about their daily life & he would explain all aspects of what they were doing. Each day our knowledge & understanding of life in Morocco & particularly the Berber nomadic life became further enriched. We always stayed the night in traditional Riads within the walled cities we visited. Houssain would be diligent in our drop off & pick-up locations with a high focus on our safety. He would ensure we were met by the host of our Riad accommodation & always saw we were in good hands for our nightly stopover. He was always at our designated pick-up point on time with a clean vehicle the next morning. It is noteworthy that vehicles were generally not allowed within the walled cities making the need for a drop off & pick-up point important.
Our overall impression of Morocco was fantastic. We loved the people who all made us feel extremely welcome as a guest in their country. We have never felt so safe as we did in Morocco when we consider the many countries we have been privileged to visit. We came home with a wonderful feeling about Morocco, the people, their Berber life that has risen through a culture that spans back more than 20,000 years in North & sub-Saharan Africa. Houssain in his extremely professional manner provided what we would call, the lubrication between the wheels, that made this an extremely memorable trip. In our experience we would certainly have no hesitation to recommend Houssain’s services to friends & family. Thank you Houssain.