After a wonderful and delicious farewell dinner at the Jemma el-Fna last night, this morning we go up early again. The two vehicles had to be fetched from their respective parkings and prepared for departure. Quickly, we brought all our belongings, to be packed up in the vehicle, to the roadside in front of the hotel. After two weeks in the hotel, a lot had accumulated and it was quite a challenge to remember how and where we had stored everything on the way to Marrakech. Eventually we succeeded and mastered the 3D Tetris. On time we left and made our way to the main square of Marrakech, the Jemma el Fna. As with the official arrival, we wanted to officially leave from this iconic place, take some nice pictures for our photo albums and be seen off by our friends and family, who had especially come there. It was an emotional farewell leaving them all behind after such a wonderful time together again. A big thanks goes out to our Royal Photographer Peter for snapping all these nice pictures of us with the Koutoubia mosque behind us.

My parent’s assistant and good friend Brahim joins us for the next two weeks, on our quest through the Atlas Mountains, the Moroccan desert and the vast emptiness of the southern province to reach the border with Mauritania, from where he will then travel back to Marrakech, while stopping along the way to see an old friend.

We drove off with tears in our eyes and fought our way through the morning rush hour. On the way out of town, a quick stop had to be scheduled in for some ice to keep some of our groceries cooled.
The road out of Marrakech eastbound towards Fes is well used. Fortunately, little traffic wanted to leave the city at this early hour, so our progress was good. The road is lined with many olive groves. It is the area that produces good olive oil and many hundred bags of olives were seen lying next to the road, to be taken to the press. The region also produces vegetables and sugar cane.

Then, we turned off the N8 and entered the town of Afourer, which lies literally at the foot of the Atlas Mountains. Behind it you see many high voltage masts with cables and two massive pipes running down the entire slope. The pipes belong to the Afourer Pumped Storage Station, a pumped storage hydroelectric scheme. It consists of two power stations with a combined installed capacity of 465 megawatts (624,000 hp).
At a store in town, Brahim scored some bread for lunch and dinner. We left town driving up via many serpentines hugging the mountain to 1335m. The government has also started giving this road a makeover, widening and completely resurfacing it.

We came into a narrow picturesque valley with a small dam. At the end of this valley awaited us the huge dam of Barrage Bin El Ouidane that dams up the Al Abid river. The dam is designed by Coyne et Bellier and was constructed between 1949 and 1953. The purpose of the dam is hydroelectric power production and irrigation. Its 135 MW power station produces an average of 287 gigawatt-hours annually and water from the reservoir helps irrigate 69,500 hectares (172,000 acres) in the Beni Moussa and Tadla plains.

We tried to get a better view of the dam and turned off the main road down a small path. At the bottom you would have had a awesome view of the dam, if we had not been chased away by an angry soldier who came running out of his hut gesticulating that we should get the hell off his terrain. So we did and left without a nice view.

We crossed the dam to the other side and went through a tunnel before we got to see the majority of what is left of the lake, after the very harsh summer and lack of rain of many many months. The water level is at less than half in my judgement.
The camping was quickly found on the western banks and since we are the only guests tonight, we can take over the entire place, probably good for 20 cars parking. We have a nice view over the (almost empty) lake. Quickly the chairs, tables and plates were gotten out and the bread, butter and the vache qui’rit on the table. Lunchtime!

With a full belly, it was siesta time. Brahim retreated to the hammock for a snooze, I copied the dashcam files over and prepared the route for tomorrow, that will be absolutely spectacular!!! Charlotte and Trevor worked on their phones and tablets a bit.

At the end of the afternoon, we set up camp properly. The tents came out of the cars. Brahim’s tent is easy and set up within a couple of minutes. Charlotte and Trevor took a bit longer but their tent is also much bigger and more complex to set up.
The quartier chef came to welcome us and ask us for our passports to report them to the kaid.

The sun was setting quickly and Trevor and I decided to get some exercise and walked to the water level of the lake. According to GPS the hight difference between our camp at the shoreline and the water level is exactly 50m. The path was rocky and towards the waterline dried up mud. A man-made track certainly helped to descend easily. It looked like it had been there not just yesterday. The lake must be relatively low on a permanent basis and the boats further down the embankment support this story.
With a full lake this area would be a dream location for a holiday or retreat.

As the sun had set, we prepared the lamb chops, we bought yesterday. Ulrich marinated them to be braaied by Trevor a little later. Charlotte prepared a salad to go with it. Within minutes we were surrounded by numerous cats. The two dogs of the camping had been patiently waiting in a respective distance. The cats got too pesky and were chased away a number of times until they understood.
Dinner was fabulously delicious! All plates and bowls got emptied and bellies filled. Then came the unpleasant part, doing the dishes but with eight hands the task was quickly accomplished.