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This is me walking by the roadside. We stopped to take pictures of the storks on top of the houses on the other side of the road when I spotted some orange colored wild flowers on this side of the road. Up to this point we've only seen the countryside from moving trains and moving cars. So I was antsy and couldn't wait to get into the thick of wild flower season. When we checked into our hotel in Fes the day before we asked the owner about tours to the countryside. Every hotel knows people who for a fee can take you out of the city. In and around town the means of transportation is petit taxis, the sign will be posted on top of the car, they are different colors in different cities but to go further, one uses the old Mercedes Benz cars called grand taxis. So the owner of the hotel arranged for a grand taxi and driver to take us out to visit 'le route touristique', a day trip to moyen (middle) Atlas. I thought I would be taken to authentic Berber villages and meet Berbers but the driver didn't speak English and he stuck to the same route tha everybody gets taken on. I tried to impress upon him that I wanted to see something else but my lack of French failed me, 'je taime le villages ancien' and 'je taime les fleurs savage'. He just nodded, I thought he understood but he didn't but we decided they have selective hearing! I would only reaslise the significance of the trip after we returned home and having watched a documentary on the wild life in Morroco. The places he took us has real significance but we weren't impressed at that time. When we look at a map of Morroco we'll notice that the country runs from north to south in one corner of Africa so it encompasses coastline, mountains and deserts and is really very varied in terrain and fascinating. Each place is different and has their own charm. The middle Atlas is different from the high Atlas. It wasn't long after we left the city of Fes that we begin to see the fields and the lushness of the countryside and as one climb up into the Atlas, the land becomes more arid and rocky. It is here that one sees the last big forest of cedars, the ancient cedar trees (of Lebanon) spoken in the bible where anything of value is built with cedar wood, the prized cedar trees. This is the last of such a huge forest of cedars in the world and is endangered. Every where there is sheep grazing and this grazing is putting pressure on the pristine environment. Spring comes early and the fruit trees are in bloom. Storks are busy in their nests. The cost of this trip was much less than the ones in Marrakech. There are less tourists in Fes but much more in Marrakech. So everything in Marrakech costs much more.
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This is me walking by the roadside. We stopped to take pictures of the storks on top of the houses on the other side of the road when I spotted some orange colored wild flowers on this side of the road. Up to this point we've only seen the countryside from moving trains and moving cars. So I was antsy and couldn't wait to get into the thick of wild flower season. When we checked into our hotel in Fes the day before we asked the owner about tours to the countryside. Every hotel knows people who for a fee can take you out of the city. In and around town the means of transportation is petit taxis, the sign will be posted on top of the car, they are different colors in different cities but to go further, one uses the old Mercedes Benz cars called grand taxis. So the owner of the hotel arranged for a grand taxi and driver to take us out to visit 'le route touristique', a day trip to moyen (middle) Atlas. I thought I would be taken to authentic Berber villages and meet Berbers but the driver didn't speak English and he stuck to the same route tha everybody gets taken on. I tried to impress upon him that I wanted to see something else but my lack of French failed me, 'je taime le villages ancien' and 'je taime les fleurs savage'. He just nodded, I thought he understood but he didn't but we decided they have selective hearing! I would only reaslise the significance of the trip after we returned home and having watched a documentary on the wild life in Morroco. The places he took us has real significance but we weren't impressed at that time. When we look at a map of Morroco we'll notice that the country runs from north to south in one corner of Africa so it encompasses coastline, mountains and deserts and is really very varied in terrain and fascinating. Each place is different and has their own charm. The middle Atlas is different from the high Atlas. It wasn't long after we left the city of Fes that we begin to see the fields and the lushness of the countryside and as one climb up into the Atlas, the land becomes more arid and rocky. It is here that one sees the last big forest of cedars, the ancient cedar trees (of Lebanon) spoken in the bible where anything of value is built with cedar wood, the prized cedar trees. This is the last of such a huge forest of cedars in the world and is endangered. Every where there is sheep grazing and this grazing is putting pressure on the pristine environment. Spring comes early and the fruit trees are in bloom. Storks are busy in their nests. The cost of this trip was much less than the ones in Marrakech. There are less tourists in Fes but much more in Marrakech. So everything in Marrakech costs much more. 
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