Two reeds drink from the same stream. One is hollow, the other is sugarcane.
– Moroccan proverb
I’ve been thinking a lot about this proverb since we arrived in Morocco. I’m not sure what the author intended exactly, but I’ve sorted out my own meaning as: life is what you make of it.
Once we had our fill of getting lost in Marrakech we rented a car and soon found ourselves swerving through oncoming traffic, traversing roundabouts and speeding toward the Atlas Mountains. Adventure was the first word that came to my mind when we reached the open road. It was just the two of us, and a crappy rental car, which has a bit of a knocking sound on the right front tire. Don’t be surprised when our next blog entry is a know-how to hiring a Moroccan mechanic.
Adventure was exactly what Morocco beckoned us here to find. We were on our way to becoming sugarcane instead of hollow reeds, which is what travel is all about. Embrace the world with love and enough healthy fear to drive in a 3rd world country.
Rule of thumb: always swerve and always honk–no matter what.
Our first stop was a roadside stand leading up to the Tizi n‘Tichka pass of the Atlas Mountains. Not a soul was in sight, yet the stands were brimming over with geods found in the nearby mountains. The rocks weren’t why we stopped though. The view was our first “whoa” of the drive. The vista of the mountains, valley, gorges, canyons filled us up with a sense of adventure. These hills are old. They feel biblical.
Telouet was our next stop, a good 20km jaunt down a potholed one-laner off the main highway. Geod sellers tried to stop us, yelling “piste, piste!” – dirt roads aren’t meant for low clearance rental cars they tried to tell us. We didn’t listen, the stream was beckoning us to become sugarcane. We spent the afternoon pretending to be kings in an ancient Kasbah that we had all to ourselves. The abandoned mud brick palace put the Marrakesh palaces to shame. The tile work deep within, called zelij, made your head spin with its dizzying patterns.
On the road again we puttered through a sizeable town called Ourzazate (war-zazat). Rising out of the desert are Egyptian sphinxes and roman chariots. They are all props for Hollywood. Gladiator, Prince of Persia, and Lawrence of Arabia were all filmed here. We pondered for a minute about what Russell Crowe thought when he came to this funny city. Then we forgot about him. Travel is not about celebrities.
We finished the day going 2 mph down ancient streambeds that double as a rocky road to a beautiful oasis bed and breakfast amid one of the last remaining palmeraies. Many oases have lost their palms to disease, or worse – the palms have been illegally sold to high-end city resorts when local farmers’ crops haven’t performed. Part of staying here is giving back to the community. Our B&B grows it’s own organic produce, makes its own soaps, and supports the local artisans in many ways.
Two reeds drink from the same stream. One is hollow, the other lounges by the pool while eating delicious fish tagine after a long day exploring.
For more photos of Morocco, visit Married to Adventure’s Facebook Page
Read what we’re reading: The Caliph’s House by Tahir Shah. It’s a funny and entertaining account of an English family’s adventure of moving to Morocco.